# ??2000 Nissan Altima-Good Buy??



## wrennels (Dec 19, 2006)

Hey, I'm about to purchase a 2000 Nissan Altima GXE for $5700.00. It has power throughout, the 4 cylinder engine and only 54000 miles. I have a carfax report and it said it was in a minor frontal collision when it had under 2000 miles on it and it was repaired. No frame, water, fire, engine or body damage. The cars body is really clean, no rust, dents, scratches or other defects. I was just wonderind how these altima's drive? If they handle decent. How the gas mileage is. If they have good engine life and if they are decently quick for highway driving? Also if they are prone to any certain mechanical issues such as transmission , power steering, uv joint or any other similar part. Any info on this car would help. Thanx. :newbie:


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## LONDONDERRY (May 19, 2004)

Find another Altima. I'd never buy a car thats been in an accident.
Altimas are known for two things that fail over time and are expensive to fix unless you are a DIY person.

Electrical distributor fails, causing the engine to cut out at any time. $500-600 to fix
Intake manifold gasket leaks $600 to fix.


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## wrennels (Dec 19, 2006)

It's just that every other altima with same mileage and year is around $8000-$9000.


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## HurricaneJ213 (Nov 9, 2006)

^Well I think you've answered your own question

My 2000 Altima was $9400 and it had 54,000 miles and had one previous owner, no accidents, etc. A price that significantly lower than bb value just seems to indicate something fishy.


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## Vandy-1 (Apr 14, 2006)

If you can be sure that car has not had any damage other than cosmetic I would say it's
a good deal. At some point you will run into the intake manifold gasket issue.
My 2000 GXE has plenty of power,handles well and the brake design is very good in 
relation to the size of the car. No real problems in the last 6 yrs/63,000 miles.
Of course you've got to stay on top of maintenance.
Your biggest issue is was the damage more than cosmetic and if so what else it affected.
Not easy to find out I'm sure.


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## wrennels (Dec 19, 2006)

Well, I bought the car for $5700. I drove it home and noticed some shaking at speeds around 40-70mph when I would accelerate while changing lanes or while going up/down hills. I took it to my mechanic when I got home and he checked over the car. He said it is going to need new UV-joints and a new power-steering pump. Other than that he said the engine and transmission looked in good shape as well as the rest of the car. New axle's with UV-joints are gonna cost me $300.00 installed. The car came with a 3 month/3000mile 50/50 warrenty. So thats gonna run around $150.00 to fix the UV-joints and then whatever the new powersteering pump costs. I'm gonna have my guy really look over the car when I take it in to see if there is anything else that needs replaced while I have this 50/50 warrenty. Even if I have to dump $1000.00(while getting $500 back) into it to fix a few things I will have still made out really good since my price for the car will only be at $6200.00.


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## Kraut-n-Rice (Jan 10, 2007)

If I were you I'd look for a service manual on CD form eBay. I'm fairly positive you may need it . I would have test driven it and taken it to your mechanic friend first. I'm just amazed it needs CV-joints already and is the pump noisey or actually going bad? I just got a 2000 at 38K miles for $7950 and it only needs tires and rh door cylinder is detached from rod in door. Good luck. Also other than regular maintanance items ,the intake gasket and the distributor issues ,it seems that some of all the Nissans have evaporative emissions problems at times with one component or another. It isn't as frequent a problem but one of the few things that can turn up.


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## KA24Tech (Feb 2, 2004)

I think even if it had a minor collision you should have a good car. The CV shafts might have been bent but I have seen that on cheap remans so it happens. Still they are good reliable cars.

Troy


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## tremer88 (Aug 18, 2006)

"Electrical distributor fails, causing the engine to cut out at any time. $500-600 to fix
Intake manifold gasket leaks $600 to fix."

thats not DIY right?!?!


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## Kraut-n-Rice (Jan 10, 2007)

*Actually these are easily DIY items*

The distributor can be purchased as a remanufactured item for $180 to $300 and is a easy bolt on for anybody with some basic mechanical ability and the intake gasket is under $20 in parts ,its just shop labor that puts that repair at $380 . If you take your time and educate yourself the intake can be done at home in about 4 to 5 hours from what friends that work at a dealer have told me. I work in a GM shop and have 20+ years in the business , I purchased my Altima for my daughter because it is a fairly reliable car and has low maintenance , plus is very easy to DIY maintain . There are far more technical cars such as my other ride ,an A4 ,which is a challenge at times even for an experienced car guy to DIY repair.


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