I'm current looking at a 04 g35 sedan with 203000 miles. I know the guy selling it and he'd give it to me for 3900. Clean title and in really good condition. Anybody have any advice or input? The mileage is pretty high but it's a good price

 

Right price
Wrong car

 

Don't waste your money unless you think you can sell the parts for more.

The vehicle is at end of life

No matter how much money you spend on it an insurance company is not going to put much value on it.

Telcoman

 

I bought a 06X last year for $3k with 170k on it to be my commuter car instead of my sequoia. The previous owner always had it dealer serviced so it was in good shape but needed two repairs that the dealership wanted a lot of money for that I did myself for almost nothing. It's been a lot of fun to have a project car to fiddle with without a lot of risk and it was great in all the snowstorms we had in the northeast last year. Had to fix a couple of oil leaks and exhaust leaks and rattles, a CV boot and front brakes and wheel bearings but nothing really bad. But I had a backup car to drive while I worked on the G so keep that in mind if this is going to be your only vehicle.

I don't know the 04 sedan well enough to know if they have more/different problems than the 06X but this kind of car (short money + relatively reliable + nice styling) has a place in my garage and it might be fine for you too.

 

04 problems are usually the brakes..small rotors and aggressive pads equals warped and fast wear.

My 05 has 209xxx miles and have had few problems. There is a guy on here with over 300k. If it has had regular basic maintenance, it should be good. I would have your mechanic look at it first though.

 

06x here with 160K miles

I totally disagree comment about the car is at the end of its life. If properly taken care of, the car is just now beginning to break in. No joke...

These cars if well maintained will go well past 300k, and it's been proven.

Only thing I've had go wrong with this car is the front driverside wheel bearing, cooling fans, cam sensor, and passenger side CV boot tearing. Pretty damn reliable for 160k miles. Check engine light has only come on once during the cars life and that was for the cam sensor as previously mentioned.

Everything else I have done to this car has been for maintenance and fun like suspension, exhaust, wheels etc.

 

I think the biggest thing you will have to keep an eye on is oil consumption. the piston rings like to go bad over 100k miles. You'll notice blue smoke, and your exhaust pipe will be filthy. Mine is pretty dirty, but no smoke yet. I'm at 116K miles, so I imagine 1 of the rings will go within the next 10k miles. But again, I'm not afraid to take an engine apart, and we actually have a decent amount of room in the engine bay to work with. An oil catch can would be a good investment too. I just cleaned my TB and it was disgusting. So clogged the car would want to die (it has on a few occasions) when starting it up cold. Of course, I did have to teach it to idle properly afterwards, but I also noticed some oil in my intake tube. Probably cause by slight blow-by, which is from worn out piston rings. I'm really eager to tear the intake mani apart and clean it now.

But in my opinion, if you have a decent job and can pay it off quick, or blow your taxes on it, I'd get it. These are neat cars, coupes and sedans. If I had the money for another I'd buy a sedan and go full VIP on it.

 

My 2003 is at 250,000 miles right now. I can tell you that it is a very reliable car. Still runs strong without any issues other than minor suspension things.

The only thing is that at this mileage (200,000) the suspension will not be working a well as it should/could.

It is not cheap to replace/fix the suspension if you are not doing most of the work yourself.

Other than that if the car was maintained I would buy it.

 

168K here on my '06X. Still reliable.


If I were to sell it though, I was thinking $2-3K tops. $4K seems like a stretch to me even if it's clean and in good shape.

I just don't see much value in 200K mile cars. At that point, they are not worth that much no matter how good shape they are in. I wouldn't say they are near end of life. Amazingly enough, I work with people who have cars with 200-300-400K miles on them that still run great. Higher mileage here at my office is 375K miles on a 2002 Acura TL.

 

Bought my 2003 G35 brand new, now it has 130k, the car never been to the dealer shop, over the years I had replaced compression rod, radio, radiator, 2 cam sensors and spark plugs, brakes and regular fluids changed...now I see little oil leak around the pan, I'll have to drop the pan when the weather warmer. overall it's great car, I probably keep for another 2 years ..

 

Shocking with that junk Auto trans, unless its like on its 3rd trans.


These cars needs very little to run. Oil changes being key since a lot of oil guys would agree the VQ35 is hard on oils. I'm not a high mileage owner myself being 100k but its pretty easy driving. Just MPG SUCKS!

I haven't seen too many rusted ones. My doors however were replaced for small rust spots.

 

MPG is all in ones perspective. My Armada makes the G35 look like a Civic.

 

Second trans....but the original went at nearly 300K miles. Since they had a recall on the transmission for that year and model, he got the replacement free of charge.


He's not once for maintenance however. Around 250K miles he had a VERY bad misfire on all 6 cylinders. Come to find out...original spark plugs.