oh but where to start?

Maybe the fact that nobody is posting here is an indication of the good quality of this vehicle, most people post or read existing threads when they're having problems or need more info about their vehicle, silence probably means everybody is having a good experience and there are no mysteries to solve....

My family owns a preowned 2001 Quest with the VG33 170 hp engine (can you tell I'm a car enthusiast yet?). We've had it since about 2006 when my dad got it from a repo sale for $5000 (bluebook value was about $7000). with about 130000 miles or so. Came with a built in LCD tv/VCR with video input. We mostly got it because we needed something cheap to haul around inventory for our small business. It was in good exterior shape, and the interior was mostly clean and good condition.

Now onto the fun stuff...at least what I can remember...

When we got it, it had an exhaust leak (and just today I found out through another forum, it seems like the Nissan VG33 3.3 liter V6 engine is prone to this leak around the exhaust manifold). $300 fix.

Another few thousand miles later the transmission is acting up (can't remember now) and also the hoses were leaking coolant. Got the hoses taken care of for about $70

New tires, timing belt, other belts (?) $800

A/C stopped working. Needed freon/alternative gas. Seemed like a leak.

Transmission issue was with some gear not shifting I think 3rd would hesitate..temporary fix for $120.

Took van back a few months later and spent $1200 and got the transmission taken care of so it runs smooth now. That was about 2 years ago.

Battery wire is corroded, incorrect size, have to jiggle the cable in order to start the van.

O2 sensor error, misfire/ knock error codes. CEL is on for a while, still is I think.

Dash instruments lose power randomly while driving, scaring the driver into thinking power is lost, then the lights/instruments come back on right away...loose battery wire apparently. Got that taken care of last year.

Driver's side power window regulator went bad (famous Nissan issue).. got that taken care of for free later during oil change visit at dealership (somehow I convinced the Nissan service adviser that it was the tech's fault for rolling it down despite the little piece of tape covering the button)...I pulled the "We own 3 different Nissans!" and he didn't look happy but did it anyway.

Belts (whichever ones seemed to have been missed) replaced. $120.

Of course, the passenger side front window regulator now took a crap and the window will not roll up so it's not used...till today we haven't bothered to spend the $70-100 to fix it.

Sure enough, the freon leaked away and we lost A/C. Drove this past entire summer with NO A/C... my poor dad (good thing we only used it in the morning and at night...oh and only rolling the driver side window down.)

Engine started with its misfire/rough idle whatever -- I replaced 5 of the 6 spark plugs over about 2 years ago. Seemed to help. Dad got all 6 spark plugs replaced again just past month and that seems to fix it somewhat. Still behaves odd at low revs sometimes.

I can hear another sound which seems like a leak... yet again, but this time I only notice it most when outside with someone driving it away.

Got A/C fixed last month for a few hundred bucks ($200-300?) because we HAD to, with guests from out of town visiting and the Quest being the"drive them around car."

Mileage right now 170000 I think.

Total cost in repairs is well over $3000 by now + the $5000 we bought it for. Went from a good deal at first to a PITA almost. But it's otherwise in good shape...except the lcd TV got knocked out a few times with random furniture we were carrying...

You like?

Modified by CoupeVQ35CVT at 3:43 PM 8/5/2009

In other news, a driver was seen taking a bad picture of his car:

Quote, originally posted by RB4Life »

Very nice man. I have had mine on there for about a year now and i love you.

For a relatively new van I'm surprised at the problems with the transmission, could you elaborate on exactly what the temporary fix involved, and how long do you think it'll last before major work needs to be done? At least it's not a CVT, I shudder to think about tranny problems in my CVT Rogue since the part isn't serviceable at the moment and it costs qutie a bit more than a conventional to replace.....

I think the temp fix was putting some kinda fluid in with the tranny fluid. I believe one of the bearings was messed up which was causing metal shavings to clog parts of the internal workings, causing bad shifting from 2nd to 3rd something of that sort. It sort of worked most of the time, but that is why we had to dish out the $1200 something to get the parts replaced and done right later.

And no, $3k in repairs for a $5k car that was at the BEGINNING worth $7k is a cost of $8 over 3 years, so no not worth the pain and money. Haha. That's my opinion on it though. As for getting the problems fixed and lasting a while, well the rough engine idle issue is still there, not sure what that is about, and also the slight engine exhaust leak I think I'm hearing is also another pain.

http://www.nissanassist.com/Pr...enu=2