I Drove An $800 Luxury Car With 1/4 Million Miles 10,000 Miles in 5 Months

"WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe" (wesbarton89)
08/29/2015 at 13:26 • Filed to: None

Technically, it’s been 6 months if you want to get technical, since I bought the car, a 2000 Infiniti I30 Base in February. But it wasn’t tagged, inspected, registered, or insured until mid-March. Regardless, let’s continue. This is intended to be a re-review post-honeymoon period with the car.

First, a timeline of getting the car on the road.

In the beginning, the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the pasta and the sauce... wait, wrong story. Let’s try again. In the beginning, I bought the car in late February, for the princely sum of $800. I originally saw the car driving around a couple years before, and it caught my eye. I found out it was for sale last fall. The owner lived down the street from me in fact, and his neighbor was actually a family of close friends of my family. I actually found out he was asking $1,000 to start with, but would be willing to take $800, and that it needed a little bit of work, but was generally mechanically sound. I wasn’t going to say anything to the owner just yet. I just played the risk of the waiting game, biding my time, and hoping somebody didn’t snatch the car out from under me. Luckily, nobody else bought it. So, in February, I got my tax return money, took out $800 cash, and got ahold of the owner.

I found out it had a pretty high number of miles, but they were mostly highway. The car had been parked for quite some time, but was still sporting valid registration and active tags. The owner claimed it needed a new battery, struts, brakes, and tires, but he would throw in four almost brand new matching tires for free.

So, I spend the extra chunk of change for a battery, no big deal. My stepdad and I go to look over the car. Official mileage at the time of purchase was 249,686. Physically, it’s in excellent shape. There’s very little rust overall, some minor cracking in the leather, as well as a small tear, and some busted up trim pieces, but nothing that affects functionality. We figure it’s worth the asking price, so I pony up the cash, put some air in the old tires that are in it, and drive it the two blocks home.

After more inspection, the struts themselves are fine. There are some suspension and steering components that need attention though. Essentially, what I needed were: LCA bushing, right inner tie rod end, and a CV boot. I also needed a muffler. So, I order the necessary parts from RockAuto, and it costs me about $100 for all that. So far, I’m at around $1,000 including the cost of the car.

So, we get temp tags from the MVA so my stepdad can get the car to and from his shop to put the parts on, and get the proper tires put on. It takes a couple days to get everything put on. He informs us that we may need brakes. We’ll find out for sure from the inspection station.

So, we take it to the inspection station, pay to get the inspection done, and find out what we need. We do indeed need new brakes, as well as headlights replaced or cleaned, an alignment and that’s pretty much it. So, I pay a couple hundred more for new pads and rotors, get an alignment ($60? for front and rear), an oil change ($30), and I grab a tube of toothpaste and a cloth for the headlights, and they clear right up. Even with new brakes on, it still doesn’t feel right, but the inspection station passes it fine. A couple days later, we find out it’s a bad master cylinder, that the shop failed to check. So, we raise a stink. That stuff’s dangerous. I could’ve sued them for inspecting a non-roadworthy car if something were to happen. Anyways, they replace the master cylinder with a new one, completely for free, and fire the idiot that missed it on the inspection. It’s finally good. We get our permanent tags, and we’re ready to go.

As we continue to drive, a few other mild issues pop up. There’s an engine misfire in a couple cylinders, so we get some spark plugs to cure the issue. (Not quite $16 for 6 spark plugs). That seems to take care of that, but the car does have a chronic CEL.

So, we drive, and drive, and drive some more. After some time, the transmission doesn’t shift out of first gear on occasion. Turning it off, and back on seems to cure the issue. I replace the speed sensor on the transaxle ($50). I have to replace it again because the part was defective. (Covered under part’s warranty). Issue still crops up, but is much less frequent. Beyond that, driving the car is a thrill. It piles on the highway miles, and city miles, in complete comfort. This car is a base model, but for a base model from 2000, is relatively well loaded.

Features include:

Auto-sliding seat when you open/close the door
Two person memory
Leather seats
One touch open/close sliding and tilting sunroof
Front and side airbags
8-way power (up, down, back, forth, tilt, recline) driver’s seat with manual lumbar
4-way power (back, forth, recline) passenger’s seat
Manual tilt steering wheel
Automatic climate control with outside temp display
BOSE stereo with CD and cassette
Rear power sunshade
One touch up/down power front windows, regular power rear windows
Power locks
Front and rear 12V power outlets
Cruise control

The options available for this car, but not equipped with, included factory Navigation, (this would have been amazing 15 years ago!) headed seats, TCS, 6 disc CD changer, and I think that pretty well covers it.

This car has the VQ30DE-K engine. It’s a 3.0L NA V6 putting out 227hp and 217lb-ft of torque. 0-60 is around 7.3 seconds I think?

The car is pleasingly quick, and 90mph on the freeway is quite smooth, and the car glides with confidence over most road surfaces. Most of the time, the 4-speed auto shifts well and without fuss, and the car is mostly quiet until you pound on the accelerator. The Nissan VQ engines produce some of the nicest natural sounds you can get out of a V6. This is a family of engines that have been on Ward’s 10 best engine list every single year since Nissan started building them. I can see why.

Anyways, just yesterday, the car crested 260,000 miles. That’s 10,314 miles since I bought the car. It’s been basically trouble-free, as I’ve said before. I still love driving it. It’s been taken out of town a handful of times now, and it does a lot of city driving as well.

Do I love the car now as much as I did when I bought it? Let’s be honest. No, I really don’t. In fact, I actually love it more. This car is an extension of who I am, and it fits me like a glove. I can climb in after a long day at work, open up the sunroof, adjust the seats, turn on my favorite music, and just drive. 10,000+ miles have been generally problem free, as well as pretty inexpensive. Including the cost of the car, I still have less than $2,000 invested. There’s not too many used, high-mileage luxury cars you can just jump into and drive 2,000 miles a month with, and not have much maintenance. If you want to do that, your best bet is a Japanese luxury cruiser.

This car is no million-mile Lexus, but I think it’s enough to prove that a million-mile Lexus isn’t a fluke. My goal is just to get this baby to 300,000 before she bites the dust. Anything after that, well, that’s just a bonus.

And finally, picture proof of the mileage. Taken this morning at 260,014 miles.

I’ll always love this thing. Some day, I’m going to do cosmetic upgrades. Probably just the I35 grille to begin with, as well as the HIDs available from the I30T. Just something to spruce it up a little bit. But for now, the only cosmetic change is a bumper sticker of Y Ddraig Goch. Cymru am byth!

DISCUSSION (5)

dogisbadob > WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe
08/29/2015 at 13:48

Cool car!

WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe > dogisbadob
08/29/2015 at 13:54

Yup! You have the other high mileage I30 here right?

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe
08/29/2015 at 13:54

We replaced the driver seat in a Maxima of the same year (GLE, auto) with 397k on it and it was still tight as a drum. Properly maintained they will go forever.

WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection
08/29/2015 at 13:57

Wow. I can only hope to get those numbers with mine. It’d be another 6 1/2 years at the rate I’m driving though. They really are durable and reliable though.

dogisbadob > WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe
08/29/2015 at 15:07

Yeah, a 96 I30 :)