Nissan Pathfinder - Did I get Scammed!!

Yall,

I just sold my 2001 Pathfinder to some guy on Craigslist. He said he was a mechanic. We went for a test drive and he started complaining about the transmission, asking if it had been serviced, then it started to jump a bit and then the car, for the first time, broke down. He looked under the hood, there was some smoke and the trans was leaking a black fluid.

He said the transmission was blown but, because he could fix it, would buy it anyway at half price ($1,600). I agreed.

Now im worried that he was some kind of confidence man and was able to make the car break down. Is that even possible? He didnt get under the hood until after it had broke down.

Oh dear me! Did I get scammed!!!??

No. I don't think you got scammed. Sounds like it was just one of those unfortunate things. I haven't seen a guy yet that could "make" a trans go bad and start leaking on a simple test drive.

Unfortunate is rigtht, Golly!

Just bad luck. Black transmission fluid indicates a lack of maintenance and probably some slipping clutch packs. If he hadn't been under the hood before that, there is no way he could have made it fail.

Here's my take on it.

Lets have some insight into the inventive criminal mind. I dont want to upset Andy since little can be done now, but this scenario smells a bit......... (and its not the burning ATF)..........

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=1076139

Here's my take on it.

Lets have some insight into the inventive criminal mind. I dont want to upset Andy since little can be done now, but this scenario smells a bit......... (and its not the burning ATF)..........

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=1076139

Did he drive it away, or did he have it flatbed towed away? If he drove it away, he probably was not too concerned about doing further damage and therefore a sabotage scenario seems unlikely. If he had it towed, then he may have know there was minimal damage and he didn't want to further damage it by continuing to drive it. Of course if it was undriveable in the current condition, then it's still speculation as to if you got scammed or just have unfortunate luck.

I think it's something with Pathfinders. I had a 1995 Pathfinder that I loaned to a co-worker while he was without a car. I never had any issues with it, but the second day he had it the reverse stopped working. I took it to my transmission shop and they found it was a fairly common issue but unfortunately the part was no longer available on the new market and only used in the 1995 (or some small number of years). It took them about 3 days to find a good used one. It cost me $1500 to get it fixed and the shop confirmed the failure was not from abuse but rather only a matter of time.

-Rod

Yall,

I just sold my 2001 Pathfinder to some guy on Craigslist. He said he was a mechanic. We went for a test drive and he started complaining about the transmission, asking if it had been serviced, then it started to jump a bit and then the car, for the first time, broke down. He looked under the hood, there was some smoke and the trans was leaking a black fluid.

He said the transmission was blown but, because he could fix it, would buy it anyway at half price ($1,600). I agreed.

Now im worried that he was some kind of confidence man and was able to make the car break down. Is that even possible? He didnt get under the hood until after it had broke down.

Oh dear me! Did I get scammed!!!??


I can´t really confirm, because if he went under the vehicle he could have damaged it although I find it unlikely.

But, what I can say is that these Pathfinders with RE5R05E transmission do have a design issue with the Valve Body and usually it does cost a bit to swap them.

Now if that´s the case, he could´ve noticed the issue and because he was forcing the transmission it just gave out. So he wasn´t really dishonest per say but he probably took advantage of an existing problem.