5,000 miles in a high-mileage luxury car in 2 1/2 months

"WesBarton89 - The Way to Santa Fe" (wesbarton89) 06/03/2015 at 10:47 • Filed to: None

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So, let’s take a look back.

I purchased my 2000 Infiniti I30 in February with 249,686 miles on the clock for $800. I replaced the battery, put the better tires on that came with the car, got new brakes all around, replaced the master cylinder, muffler, CV joint boot, lower control arm bushing, and tie rod ends. I’ve also replaced the output speed sensor, bad spark plugs, as well as the driver’s side low beam headlight. Oil change was done about 4,000 miles ago, so it’s due for one again. Alignment has been done as well.

As of right now, there’s 254,7xx miles on it. The car had the parts replaced and tested, and it passed inspection in mid-March. From late February to early March, only a couple hundred miles were put on. So, most of those miles have been put on since.

I have run into some issues here and there. Namely an engine miss, which I think is due to coils. The transmission sometimes wouldn’t shift out of first or second, so that’s why I replaced the sensor. I believe there’s a vacuum leak somewhere in the car causing it to idle high (1500-1800 RPM) until it warms up a bit. It’s not a huge issue, but it’s a little bit of an annoyance. Also, if I don’t let it warm up a bit, it does like to die on me once or twice when I first start to drive. Cosmetically, there’s not much wrong besides tiny spots of surface rust at various points of the body, mainly due to rock chips or what have you. Somebody did dent and scrape the passenger side rear door. Shows up pretty bad on white paint. The backlight for the clock and radio buttons is out as well, and the A/C doesn’t blow very cold.

I’m luckily not out much though as far as total operating costs are concerned. I’d say including the purchase price of the car, I’ve spent $1,600 or $1,700 total, not including gas. Premium can be pricey.

I still love driving the car. It runs great, sounds great, and there’s very little in the way of interior wear, squeaks, and rattles, which is quite amazing. The engine and transmission are still original. Nissan really hit it out of the park with not only the reliability, but the durability of these cars. You don’t have a lot of newer cars, with a million computers, hitting these mileage figures with almost all original components, and all working electronics. For a car driven its whole life in the mountains of MD, fighting salt from winter every year, to have such minimal amounts of rust, it’s really something to behold.

This car is certainly not as complicated a car to work on as say, a Mercedes or a BMW, but the C-class and 3-series were direct competitors to these Infinitis, and therefore, are relatively pretty tech-y. The Infiniti has not spent much time in the shop under my ownership. I avoid it if all possible, and it’s never really left me stranded.

Buying a used luxury car is a gamble, but I’m happy with my purchase. You can’t put a lot of miles on a cheap car fast, and not have lots of problems. Cars that have broken down on me have generally had 75,000-125,000 less miles on them than this. I’m still pleased with the car.

We’ll see where it stands after one year of ownership.