I have been looking for a used car for the past few weeks. I test drove Corollas, Civics, Sentras, and Altimas. Now, I am considering a 2000 Nissan Altima SE. I did some negotiating today and got down to $12,800 out the door. The car has 41,000 miles and is in good clean condition. It has all the options including a sunroof. It does not have leather. I have done some research on this and feel that it is a good price. One of the windows seems to be off track in the back and the front driver side window makes an intermittent knock/rattle noise when the window is half way down. Hopefully, these issues could be resolved.
I would like anyones opinion, recommendation or personal story with this vehicle. I was planning on a Toyota, so I am a little nervous about reliability. Also, I am terrible at making these kinds of decisions!!
I’d need to call my friend and confirm this, but I believe she had a 2000 Altima… she’s had a few problems with it, but I’m not sure if it’s the car or the dealership. The wiring harness under the driver seat was chewed through by mice or disintegrated or something, and the dealer didn’t want to cover it under warranty and then took months and months to fix it. She was quite irate. If I talk to her and get the details I’ll repost, but maybe someone else can chime in and tell me if this sounds like a likely problem?
We bought a 2000 GXE, used, a couple of years ago. It was practically new then and had only been driven a few thousand miles by a Nissan executive. We’re basically happy with it. It still runs like a clock, though we’ve put another 35K miles on it. When the dealer handed it over to me, the keys were in the ignition and the engine was running, but I didn’t know that because it was running so quiet. And it still runs like that.
The only minor whinge I have is that the plastic interior fittings tend to break easily. The latch on storage compartment between the front seats was already broken when we got it, and the interior trunk release never worked.
No direct experience with the Altima, but my parents and I have had good experiences with Nissans generally and would consider a Nissan for a new car purchase. My father’s Maxima is now fourteen years old and still drives pretty well, and my Sentra will be nine years old in July. Now, granted, we don’t have huge numbers of miles on it relative to those times, but we still like the cars. The Altima was a candidate when I bought my Sentra, but was out of my price range as a Starving Student.
Well, the dealership called me this morning and knocked off another $300, so I am going to pick it up this afternoon. I let them know about the windows and they are supposed to take care of it. I will be sure to check that out.
It has a 100K mile/72 month warranty on the powertrain, so that makes me feel better.
I just finished checking it at Carfax and it came back clean. It was registered as commericial vehicle at first, but I don’t think that is a problem. Is it? I have been all over edmunds, epinions, cars.com, and anything else I could find. Ha ha.
I was also looking at a 2001 Corolla from a private individual. I ran the VIN on it and it has a salvaged title! Now, I know why it was such a good price. Of course, I would have taken this car to a mechanic first.
When I bought my 2000 Bravada back in March its carfax came back as being registered as a commercial vehicle. It was a fleet vehicle for a company in the area. I’m sure they took better care of it than I ever will. Looks brand new still.