These topics may have been posted before, but I'm new to the 5th Gen and did a few searches and came up with nothing, so I will post it anyhow.

I've been patiently searching for a 02 or 03 SE with the 6spd for about the last 6 months. I found an 02 SE with a 6spd and only 28k miles for about $15k.
The car is not loaded, it is cloth (which is fine with me, I would like the heated steering wheel that commonly goes with the leather meridian pckg, but that is not a huge factor in my purchase). It has a moonroof and the standard non-Bose stereo (Moonroof was a must, non-Bose is fine with me since I will install my own system anyways).
The car is black on the outside with gray interior and looks to be in very good shape. The seller is the 2nd owner and has only had the car for 6 months. Do you think the price is decent for the car? (KBB lists it for about $1K less)

I always told myself the car would need to have the HLSD. But now that I've found a Max that I can afford and it is in good shape with low miles, I'm wondering if I should ****** it up even w/o the HLSD.
Do you guys feel that the HLSD makes a difference in anything? Is it something that should make or break the purchase of a Max? Is there problems that are more common to HLSD or non-HLSD?
I live in Ohio where we get a decent amount of snow in the winter, so I definitely thought the HLSD would be a benefit, but it may not really even be noticeable.
(I currently own a 94 SE 5spd with the VLSD and can't really say I notice much difference, but I've rarely drove a non-VLSD.)

Also I'm sure this has been asked numerous times. But what are things to watch for or inspect when looking to buy a 02 or 03 SE with a 6spd? Are there things that commonly have problems or develop problems? (I'm use to what I consider good quality and reliability from Maximas, but I've heard that has slowly started to slip in the past few years)

Any input or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

 

I have that exact car, except with the HLSD. You're correct in that there is no real benefit to HSLD in the winter. It will reduce wheel spin when accelerating quickly out of a corner. I don't think it's necessary, though.

I'd say go for it. Very low mileage for a 2k2. Try to talk them down a bit. Why is he selling it?

 

if you don't buy it I will....good price very low mileage..ask a few question and run a carfax.....also check for accidents

 

i would buy it

 

Good SNOW tires, not all season, would be a better buy than a HLSD for winter weather.

 

I paid 13,500 for my 02 6spd. I found it on Ebay. It is loaded with everything but a Nav. The car also had tint, new rims, 40 tires, ECU chip upgrade, Greddy exhaust, leather, Meridia package, memory seats, etc. The exhaust pipe was rusted and that cost me 100.00 to fix. The car is in mint condition and was a great buy. I had to travel for the car. Look on Ebay it's worth spending a few hundred dollars in travel costs to save thousands and to get the car you want. Leather is a must in my book. In your case the mileage is very attractive. Why is this guy selling his car after 6 months. Also, 6spds are rare because most people don't want them. He may have a hard time selling his car so I would offer 12,000. You're going to have the car a long time and you should get the car you want. And if you save up the car will go down in price at the same time. The opposite of saving for a house.

 

I forgot to mention that the car has new tires but they may be cheap ones, I believe they are "Continental contitouring".

The seller is a female college student. She claims she is selling the car because she has gotten 3 speeding tickets in a 4 month period. I don't know if that is the real reason or not. I kinda think she can't afford it. She said she has a new Scion XB on order. She said the dealer offered her $12.5K and she turned it down. She said $15k is what she owes on the car and sounds pretty firm on the price.

I plan on running a Carfax on the car within the next day or so. I will be making the 7 hour drive to go see the car in person on Tuesday and make my decision then.
If I decide to pass on the car I will let it be known where the car is available.

Anything that I should really look for in terms of potential problems????

 

The only actual recall in the 2k2 was for the crank position sensor. Check to see if that was done. If it fails, it won't start again. Other than that, check the stickies for the TSB's. The mileage is less than 36K and if it was titled less than 3 years ago, you ought to be able to get those done at no charge.

If it checks out ok, I'd say buy it.

 

The other recall is for the transverse link.

 

My bad...and there's a third. The accelerator stopper.

Here's a link to all three...


2002 recalls

 

What the dealer offered her is irrelevant since they will say anything to get a deal and then come back and say that the manager can't do it. Or they will charge her full MSRP on the car but give her several more thousand for her trade-in. In fact there is a 02 Pearl SE on Ebay right now with a Buy it Now of 10,500 and 45k on the speedo but it's auto. No way is the dealer offering 12.5k for that car. Try more like 9-10k. On the autotrader there are several 02's for 11,900 but the mileage is a little high. I would rather see you get the car you want with higher mileage then get a low mileage car that is overpriced and doesn't have the features you want.

Things to cheack:

Exhaust leaks
Hesitation in acceleration
Oil leaks
How does the car go into gear and shift
Clutch travel
Any strange noises from engine
All electrical items: Radio, windows, roof, etc.
A/c
Brakes
Rust on the under carriage
Collision: Look at the car in good light. Look for body damage. You can usually see orange peeling, a slight difference in the color of a fender, or the paint will look wavy, etc. Look inside the doors, hood, etc. You might see paint lines if the car was hit.
Tires (look for bubbles and how they are wearing)
Rims, road rash
Does the car pull when you drive it?
Shocks
Interior

That is all I can think of. If you really want the car you can pay for a mechanic to look it over. Setup an appointment with Firestone or another facility that will give you a full run down on the car. Let her bring the car in and then you can call the mechanic to discuss the car. Good luck.

 

I'd get it... I just bought a similar '02 w/ higher mileage (63K) for $12.7K about 3 weeks ago. I know that you can possibly find them for less, but I searched for about 3 months and finally had enough. I found a couple on ebay where I won the auction for much less than KBB prices, but never met the reserve so no car... I watched about 30 vehicles and honestly, 25 of them never hit the reserve. Ebay seems a bit tapped out (or at least, it was last month when I was looking every day). You find more used car dealers than anything else, and they sell at much higher prices than private parties.

$1K over Kelley blue book private party value is about the best deal I saw in my 3 month search, and unfortunately for me, I was always a day late on those cars. The prices might be different in your area (seems Max's are a little cheaper up North), but if you ask me, it's a good deal. Definitely try to negotiate, but anything around $15K is a decent price... (I'd offer $14, and expect and take a counter offer of $14.5 to $14.7)

FYI, the $10.5K Max on ebay has a salvage history; was in an accident. You'd take your chances... The other 02's "Buy It Now" prices are all about $16K.

Good luck! Let us know what you do...

 

I bought the car on Sunday. I originally saw the car on eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMEWA%3AIT) , but had to see the car in person before I would make a decision. I bought the car outside of eBay because the auction had ended by the time I made the trip to see the car. I ended up paying the asking price of $15,300 because the seller was very firm. They showed me the receipt when they had bought it at the dealer in Feb. (6 months earlier) and they paid $19K.

I still feel like I got a pretty good deal. I've only seen a few 02's or 03's with comparable miles (28k) on them and they were more expensive then $15k. The only things I didn't get was the HLSD (which was my biggest concern, but I'll live without it) and the heated steering wheel (which 99% of the time only comes with leather, which I could take or leave). The mileage and the price along with overall condition of the car made it very hard to pass up.

The car is very clean inside and out. The small ding on the rear bumper is hardly noticeable and is almost more of a deep scratch. The hood has some rock chips. But I can live with all those things. I've already took off the "vent-shades" that border the rear door windows and plan on removing them from the front door windows also.

I haven't decided how much I want to mod this car yet. I might keep my 94SE 5-spd and continue to mod that and leave this stock or I may end up selling my 94. My first priority is getting the windows tinted and after that a stereo system.

A few things I've noticed already is the clutch is stiffer to push in on the 02 then on my 94. Also I don't think the shifter/stick feels near as tight and precise when shifting then on my 94 (The 3rd Gen Max is the nicest feeling manual I've ever shifted). Isn't there some sort of aftermarket bushing that can be installed to help that? (I thought I remember reading something like that before on the ORG)

 

Looks like you bought yourself a nice car at a fair price. Enjoy and good luck.

 

Congrats on the car...

You can get the ES poly bushings from here, it'll tighten things up considerably:

http://www.suspension.com/nissancars.htm

 

There is also the HP Autoworks STS that shortens the throw by about 1 1/2 inches.

 

I got a 03 6 speed in june. Loaded polished titanuim, w/leather, merdian package and Hlsd. The car is mint but it did have 40,000 miles on it. Not a ding or dent on the car. Dealer put new Nitto 450 extreme tires on it for me also. I am totally in love with this car. I got it for around 17,000. I had totalled my 02 and it was already paid for so i took the 15,000 the gave me and add some more money to it and got my 03. So i think your deal was pretty fair because of the low miles. I can feel that the HLSD cuts down on the tq steer because my 02 auto had tons of tq steer. Heres a pics of my 02 and the new 03 http://www.cardomain.com/ride/691702