1st gen Altima for sale in local paper..

I happened to be reading the classifieds and I spotted an ad for a 93 Altima. I went over to have a look at it yesterday. It's light brown in color and it's an automatic. Only 137000 miles too. I got the keys from the older woman who owns it and fired it up. It runs nice but there's some timing chain noise that goes away when it's revved up. I took it for a little drive around the block (no insurance on it ATM) and it goes pretty good, the suspension seems to work decently. It does need some brake work as the pedal is soft. The owner tells me it was in an accident at one time (eep!) but it was repaired professionally. The radio doesn't work and the AC doesn't work. Didn't think to ask about the cruise control. She's asking $800 OBO. I could probably get it for $700. I'd love to have it, but apparently the automatic transmission models didn't get all that great fuel economy. 21city/29highway as rated by the EPA. Are those numbers a realistic expectation of the fuel economy that the car would get? Is it worth 700 bucks? What do you think?

well ill tell you what went down with my 94 altima ($1850)

115000 miles
cracked radiator
no tint
busted ac
busted radio
left rear window regulator busted
cruise control busted

the repair costs:
tint - 120
A/c (entire ac system) - 900
radiator - 50
radio (head unit and all four speakers) - roughly 250

i didnt bother to fix the window or cruise control... looks like u found a good car to buy cheap and invest into to fixing up - KA24DE engines are tough and last a long time, many into 200.000 mile range when taken care of. so if you're looking for something to fix up yourself, i think its definitely worth it for 700 bux.

oh yea! one more thing -- definitely expect to make repairs to this car (if your gonna repair it completely) which will amount to over 700, especially that a/c system. if your a handyman, you can do many repairs by yourself, including those brake pads and lines -- im not engineer (yet) but i do most all of the repairs myself.

I think the AC system on this Altima is still working, the woman said it was still working up until last year. Perhaps it's just out of refrigerant, in which case I'd just hit up Walmart for one of those DIY recharge kits. Oh, BTW, that price was in Canadian dollars, so 800 Cdn would be 712 US. If I could get her down to 700 Cdn (623 US) that would be all the better for me.