1999 Maxima

[schaery]

I've been looking for a used Maxima for my daughter for several weeks now. Found a great looking 99 GLE today, and just got back from a test drive. Cosmetically, it is perfect, and runs great. However, I did ask the owner if he'd mind if I ran a Carfax on it. He said no, and gave me the number, but also told me that the previous owner had wrecked the car, and it would be listed as a rebuilt title. I just ran the Carfax, and it did show that there was a front end crash in 2006 with extensive damage, and the car was totalled. Now I'm not sure what to do. Should I look at it as now everything under the hood is likely to be somewhat new at least? My husband isn't a mechanic but he said from what he could see, everything looked okay, and as I said, it drove fine. Odometer says it has 130K miles but Carfax says it's exempt from odometer reading so don't know if mileage is accurate. Owner is asking $4K for the car. He also has just replace the serpentine belt and power steering pump. (I think that's what he called it). Any opinions will be greatly appreciated. TIA

[tigersharkdude]

Rebuilt title=walk away

[maxhopper]

Pass it by for $4k. There are plenty of 4th gen maximas out there with clean titles for less or equal money. As long as the maintenance has been kept up, I would expect about 200k miles out of the VQ.

I would also contact your insurance company about insuring a "totaled" vehicle.

And as a fellow father of a teenage daughter, would you really want to put your daughter in a car that has previously been totaled? I wouldn't feel comfortable doing so unless I was personally knowledgeable about the vehicle, and the repair facility.

[loystock]

The car may be cosmetically good but probably has 'cancer' in the gut as a result of the collision. Repair/replacement of the the transmission, which can fail anytime now, will be very expensive. You can find a better deal, with lower mileage, for the same price. Go to Yahoo-Autos or Cars.com and you will find Infiniti I30/4th Gen Maxima with clean title in that price range. These cars are very reliable provided the previous owner did not abuse them.

And with your limited knowledge about cars, it would be better to have any car you are interested in buying be inspected by a qualified mechanic. Here at Beshoff Infiniti-San Jose, car inspection only runs for $120. Some shops may charge lower.

[schaery]

Thanks for all the advice. I had several friends tell me that they had bought rebuilt cars and had no problems at all but I just really didn't know. I had mixed feelings which is why I asked here at the Maxima forum. Years ago, I was in a wreck, (not in my Maxima), and the insurance came within $700 of totalling it (I was NOT happy) so I had to have it repaired, and I truly never had any problems with it. However, I knew exactly what happened to it, and stayed on top of the body shop. Not knowing exactly what damage was done to this Maxima, and because of your advice, I've decided not to buy this car. Plus, after I thought more about it, the owner didn't volunteer to me that it had a rebuilt title until I told him I was going to run a Carfax on it. Ah well, there will be another Maxi out there somewhere. Thanks, again.