Hi everyone. I'm looking at purchasing a 2007 coupe and wanted to get feedback from owners. First off, what are things I should look for as far as buying used goes? I know the general things, so I am asking about problems specific to the G. I heard about the oil consumption with the Rev-up engines. Any way to check for this issue? What other common problems should I be on the lookout for?

Secondly, the car has a salvage title. I'm thinking of taking it to a shop for inspection, but before doing that I'm going to look at it myself to make sure I even want to pay someone else to look deeper. Does anyone have suggestions on what to look at to determine quality of the repair job? Body panel fitment is pretty obvious. Also tire wear indicating alignment or frame issues. What else? The current owner said he bought the car after it was salvaged and he's not aware of the nature of the accident so he's useless.

And lastly, it looks like the 2007 has some features that I want to make sure I understand.

1. The intelligent key: It looks like you don't have to insert the key into the ignition, but you have still turn the ignition ****? Correct? Can you still leave the key in your pocket or work bag?
2. Does the navigation screen display information besides maps? i.e gas mileage, tire pressure, cabin settings?

Thanks so much for your help. I really appreciate it.

 

I'd be weary of purchasing a salvage vehicle without photos/documentation of damage. And you should take it to a professional regardless of what your initial thoughts are.

 

I wouldn't purchase a salvage-title vehicle unless you were using it for a track-only car. I've owned a salvage-title vehicle before back when I was in my early 20's and I had very bad luck with it... tons of major problems. With the amount of money I ended up sinking into it, I could have overall bought a much newer and nicer clean-title vehicle. The good thing that came from it was that I did so much work on the car (including a full motor swap that I did myself only a few months into owning it) that I increased my hands-on experience with doing major repairs quite a bit over the duration of my ownership of the vehicle and it was good motivation to buy a whole bunch of automobile-specific tools that I didn't already own and have since used a bunch of times on other vehicles.

Salvage title vehicles will always have horrible resale value... so keep that in mind if you buy a car and plan on selling it someday rather than running it into the ground. It's a huge gamble... are you feeling lucky?

Fortunately... with mechanical "gambles", you can sorta mitigate much of the risk by having a very good mechanic thoroughly look it over and do things like a compression test, etc on the car... but chances are that you won't be doing that extensive of an evaluation before buying it.

My personal recommendation is to steer clear of Salvage Title vehicles for sure.

 

Not worth it, if you can't afford a clean title 07 coupe, look at an earlier year clean title one or just save your money. You can never know all the problems that can come with a car that has a salvage title.

 

Cars with salvage titles are usually worth 50-75% of the value of the same car with a clear title. Check with the DMV in your state. In New York you can't register the car if it still just has the salvage title, it has to have a rebuilt title, if it just says salvage on it then you're going to have to go through a special inspection at the DMV where you have to prove that the car was fixed with original parts and show them receipts for those parts, so they know that you didn't fix it using stolen parts. I had a Altima SE-R with a rebuilt title and that was no problem to register.

 

If the price is right go for it. Buy the carfax prior to purchase and you'll know exactly what happened to it. Could've been major could've been minor. My G has a salvage title but its had absolutely no problems since I've had it (other then the starter going out) just buy the carfax then you'll know where to damage occurred if it was in fact wrecked and you should be able to spot subtle signs of repair. If it was repaired very well the only indication may be a different texture to the clear coat in areas it's been repainted you'll be able to see an orange peel effect when you look at it from just the right angle

 

Thanks for all of the input regarding the salvage title.

Does the carfax report actually provide accident details? I purchased one many years ago and it just showed states where the vehicle was registered, but no other information.

 

Both of mine have. My xterra was wrecked in the front drivers side and airbags deployed before I purchased it and then I purchased it wrecked a second time in the front drivers side so it's been wrecked twice (the second one won't show up on carfax because insurance wasn't involved and I fixed it myself with no issues so far although the heat doesn't work but that's probably unrelated) my coupe was flooded plus it was turboed blew the engine and replaced it all before I owned it. No issues at all related to wrecks or flooding

 

AZ_G, the carfax should show registration and service for the car, if there's no information it wasn't reported because it wasn't done or was done by someone who doesn't report. The car you're looking at is black on black auto with 67K right, guy want $12,800.00? Seems like a decent deal, get the carfax and ask him to take it to a dealer for an inspection on his dime, if it all checks out I'd buy it. A lot of cars were totaled here in 08 or 09 when we had that massive hail storm, this could be the case with this car, it should be on the carfax.

 

My exact thoughts. When I was looking for my G35 I stayed away from salvage title like the black plague

 

Yes, that is the car I'm looking at. Based on my research a salvage title should be 30 - 50% below market value, so he's on the high side of that. Do the Infiniti dealers perform inspections for salvage vehicles? I figured they would tell you not to buy it and then guide you over to their pre-owned lot instead. I'll probably give them a call in the morning. Thanks.