Well, that's on you. Buying used is always a bit of a gamble. Whenever buying used I suggest getting it inspected. A proper inspection can set you back $100 + dollars, but you'll know a lot more of what's going on with it. Plus, I use that as a guage. If I look at a car and don't think it's worth the money for an inspection than I don't get it
BTW there's no sound in the video

 

Yeah video has no sound, engine bay rust like that is definitely not normal. That thing looks severely corroded and if the engine is that bad I shudder to think what the underside of the car looks like. Maybe that's normal where you live but I would never buy a car that rough. I suspect the vehicle was stored with the hood open for a significant amount of time so I would expect a LOT of electronic problems in the future. It's also possible someone used some kind of caustic with a pressure washer sometime in the past that caused all that corrosion. Hard to say, either way that's a huge red flag for me, I mean it looks like someone drove it through the ocean or it was a flood damaged vehicle, there's rust between the unibody welds. It's probably just going to fall apart in the coming years.

I would definitely do a carfax report to look for flood damage and other history.

 

Yeah that's what I figured... like it was flooded or something. All electronics worked fine currently though so I wasn't entirely sure. the 350z I test drove as well didn't show any signs of that type of corrosion though so I figured id pass on the G then because like you said it was a red flag to me. figured id double check with a forum on it though just in case it was normal or something.

 

This is what we've seen for years when our cars were left outside all their lives, rain and snow while driving really rusts out our rides! Even G35's here in SoCal can look that bad because they were left out in the elements from day one! Sad, people use their garages as storage units rather than a place to keep their cars...you're looking at the results!
Gary

 

From what I HEAR, the engine sounds healthy. From what I SEE, you should run away from that deal. I don't even see engine bays at the junk yard that look like that with the hoods off exposed for months... in FL

 

Well it sounds like its not a good thing according to other commenters lol

Definitely. G's aren't THAT are. And you could hear the video? Odd bc I couldn't hear sound but it wouldn't upload with the built in attachments so other than uploading to youtube I didn't know where else to host it lol. I am specific to 2006+ with 90-130k miles though, $7k or less and automatic. But even then I still see some here and there and will travel if I find a good one that isn't local. Coming from an 2002 IS300 that ive had for 3 years and 50k miles now at 175k almost.


edit: ACTUALLY!!! Look at this one in Chicago. Its super clean but also has similar corrosion on the engine.... should I avoid this one too? Or what the hell lol
https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwi/c...803259847.html

 

I only said the engine sounded good because I couldn't hear anything. Just a bit of humor. I've really only seen G's from florida so I don't know what to expect from snow states

 

Oh yeah gotcha, sounded serious haha. Yeah I live in St Louis, so im all midwest. Really hope someone can chime in... it's seeming normal for our parts.

 

I live in the pacific northwest, lots of moisture and I rarely see cars that bad. Look at how there are little white colored speckles all over the aluminum, that normally means SALT has formed and is usually caused by either driving your cars in the ocean or major flooding with sea water. Salt deposits in the engine compartment are not normal (on the G35) even in areas where the heavily salt the roads in winter. My vehicle has been outdoors from day 1 (according to the previous owner) and there is zero rust, zero corrosion.

Definitely abby-normal.

 

Gotcha. Just weird the first two G's I really look at have the same exact engine corrosion

 

It's possible someone removed the gigantic undercarriage protector and drove it during the winter with a lot of salt on the road.

 

Interesting. Well if anyone else has any experience with this please feel free to chime in.

 

From my New England perspective, it doesn't look too out of the ordinary for a car that was driven on salt covered roads for ~13 winters. I think Cleric might be right about it not having the underbody engine cover though. Have you looked underneath the car? If it's the stock exhaust but sounds louder, then it could be the flanges between the mid-pipe and muffler disintegrating, or possibly a worn out flex pipe. I've had both. I also had to cut the heat shields off the cats because they were coming apart and rattling. Good luck if you ever need to remove any exhaust nuts, they're probably very corroded as well. Also check the lower oil pan for corrosion.

 

I have my undercarriage protector off and I daily drive my G regardless of road conditions in the Maine winter, sometimes I go out in the snow just to play. The aluminum parts of the front of my engine look just like that, but no harm done. If the oil pan is okay, I don't think any problems can be caused by a little salty water getting onto the engine unless all the grease in the electrical connectors is missing.

My oil pan was rusty but when I bought it I sanded and repainted it and now it's all good with yearly touchups. However it's a nightmare to work on anything in the undercarriage because of the rust, every bolt is corroded, and stripped threads are the norm. If you have access to non-rusty cars don't put yourself thru that.

What I'm most concerned about is all the rust around the front strut mounting points and on the struts itself. That's not going to happen unless someone left the car outside in the rain/snow for a long time with the hood open (mine are perfectly clean and my car's a rust bucket). What other abuse has that poor car suffered?

Hard pass!