Looking at buying an '05 Pathfinder

[Hijacker]

The wife and I are looking to upsize a bit with the addition of a new kid. The 240 sure as heck can't haul the family, and her Caliber can, but it's a cramped ride for everyone in the back.

One of our locals is being stationed overseas and is trying to offload his '05 Pathfinder for around $4,000. The catch is that it has the obligatory transmission issues. I have a feeling he never had the radiator/trans cooler fixed and has led to the inevitable destruction of the transmission. Pricing out a new transmission from Aamco is around $2500-$3100. So for essentially $7 grand, I can pick up an '05 Pathy.

NICOnauts, does this sound like a good deal?

[Chris.m]

How many miles?

[Hijacker]

135,000

[miamiheat3332]

How is it in other catagories?

Was it kept clean? Maintenance done regularly? You get my drift, but if it was kept up with fairly well, just because its an 05 so its a newer one and all, but for 4k you cant go wrong.

Also id try sourcing a junkyard trans, no point in going new, you'll have the car even cheaper.

[Hijacker]

Already priced out a junkyard trans. I'm looking at about the same cost from a yard. Around $2300 was the average cost.

As for the rest of it, I haven't had a chance to go look at it yet. The Clist ad is pretty sparse on details too. My only worry is that I don't like buying problem vehicles. Sometimes you can get a good deal, but sometimes you'll get bit in the butt. I"m 99% sure this guy didn't have the radiator fixed early and trashed his transmission as a result. A quick google search for the '05 model year brought up the transmission issue as the primary problem. With that mileage, I expect little things to need replacement.

I'm hoping the primary issue is that transmission. He says it rattles at speed, which was the symptom I kept reading for people who's transmissions were on the way out.

[Towncivilian]

Other than watching for transmission issues due to a potentially faulty radiator that ends up mixing coolant and ATF, I really don't know what else that's model specific to suggest. I really don't know much about R51s.

[miamiheat3332]

If you want a meticulously maintained R50, I'll let mine go for 8k, without the aftermarket wheels. Stockers are 16" with pirelli ice&snow tires, 75% tread.