1998 maxima good car ???

[jamesmetairie]

i,m looking at a 1998 maxima to buy. don,t know model type. automatic tranny.it has 188,000 miles,mostly highway driven.can get it for around $4200. on the average are they good cars even with so many miles ? .

[Nahkapohjola]

Generally Reliable. All A/Tranny's needs oil change every 30kmiles, how is it? I would seek lower mileage vehicle - be it whatever. (Most costly is to hurry -or- fall in love.)

Parts wear out by the mile; have starter, alt, shocks, waterpump, axleboots, exhaustpipe already been changed? Check wheel wells for rust from trunk; bright light and peek behind upholstery.

Take it somewhwre for evaluation, or pay u greasyhand carenthusiast to take a look.

[Mrbizness1]

Originally Posted by jamesmetairie

i,m looking at a 1998 maxima to buy. don,t know model type. automatic tranny.it has 188,000 miles,mostly highway driven.can get it for around $4200. on the average are they good cars even with so many miles ? .

My daughter has a 96 Maxima. She bought it when it was 4 years old with
60k miles. It now has 140k. Aside from usual wear and tear items like struts and brakes it has gone through 2 alternators and and numerous check engine light problems. In the past couple of years she has spend over 2k on map sensors, egr valves and several other emission items. The check engine codes on Nissan systems seem to be set up so one code could be several items which can make it difficult to isolate the one item causing the problem. I had a similar problem with my Altima where the knock sensor code cleared when I replaced the purge valve which cleared that code.
How can you tell that the 188,000 miles are mostly highway? That's a famous line in the car business like driven by " a little old lady, selling car for a friend, my mothers car before she retired etc"
for a few dollars you can get a car fax history report. It isn't fool proof but can give you useful info like how many owners and the odometer miles at state inspections. Buying a used vehicle can be difficult because many sellers lie thought their teeth. I use to buy cars off private owners and just when you think you've heard it all you hear some BS you have never heard before.
Good luck