NX2000 low miles - too good to be true?

Fri Apr 20 00:16:11 CDT 2012

Hi all,

I sure enjoyed the small flurry of activity on the list last month… just like the good old days! I think there was one day with TWO DIGESTS J
Some of the replies came about after I posted a question about how much a low mileage NX2K might be worth, so I thought I’d update you on how it went.

As you might remember, the owner and I had agreed on a price of $3200 for his 1991 NX2K with 68,000 miles. This was a car that he had bought recently from its original owner, who only used it occasionally in the 20 years she owned it, otherwise keeping it in her garage.  However, I hadn’t seen the car in person, so I was nervous. And… the seller was out of the country for a spell, taking care of his mom overseas.  My antennas were up – this sounded like a real scam. I was half expecting him to tell me that he was in Nigeria and wanted to wire ME the money, and send him a small processing fee J

But unlike most internet scams, I had talked by phone to this guy quite a bit, and I had run a CARFAX and his story checked out, so I arranged to see the car. It was being stored at the business of his friend, down in Vista, CA. I was traveling back to my home in the northwest corner of WA state, en route from Waco, TX, where my company has a manufacturing plant, so I thought I’d make an extra stop to see the car, and if it all worked out, to do the deal and drive it home.

I had to take a shuttle from the San Diego airport, and as we got closer to the address, I got more and more skeptical – we were not going to a great part of town. I asked the shuttle driver if he’d mind to hang out for 10 minutes while I checked the car out – I was pretty sure I’d be able to spot a shoddy odometer rollback or accident repair fairly quickly.

There she was – a burgundy 91 NX2000, all stock, with original wheels, exhaust, and no cheesy spoilers or hood scoops to be found. What was amazing to me was the condition of the front chin spoiler and fog lights – in almost every NX I’ve seen, these are always pretty beat up. Hmmm, this looked good at first glance! The owner’s friend (Fred) got the key for me: it fired right up, and I did a quick walk around. What was really cool was how all the rubber in the T-tops was in great shape – a couple tiny cracks, but nothing like the typical condition of a 21 year old car. I told the shuttle driver he could take off, and I continued my investigating. The tires had good tread, but were old – one of them was low on air. The engine compartment looked clean, and all fluids were reasonably clean and the oil looked good. Typical rust spots in the rear hatch areas were clean; the paint looked a bit faded but consistent with what you’d expect.

The interior is real important to me too – so many 20 year old cars have been hacked apart, or used and abused (think of your nephew’s last amp installation)… The driver’s seat had a bit of wear on the left bolster, but the rest was nearly immaculate! Stock stereo, working armrest cover, T-top covers in place… the gas struts for the hatch were shot, and the dash had a few small cracks but wow – overall great!

I backed her up, and took the NX for a short test drive. I’ve owned a total of 4 other NX’s over the years, but I’m always surprised again at how fun they are to drive stock – this one pulled nicely, and everything felt good. No cruise, no power windows – but the a/c worked, and the car right away put a grin on my face! The exhaust note told the tale of a hole in the muffler, and that turned out to be true. Amazingly, it looks to me like the original exhaust and chrome finisher tip.

I took care of the paperwork with Fred, who had the title from the owner – a simple cash transaction as agreed – and I was on the road. My home town is about 1200 miles from Vista, so this was the start of pretty significant trip!

One quick disappointment – the stock stereo lit up, but not a lick of sound could be reproduced (Fred had warned me about this, but I had been hopeful…) Oh well, who needs music when you’ve got an SR20DE singing a sweet song as you hit the red line! After gassing up, I took out the T-tops and hit the road!

What a fun day of driving – I wish I’d had more time to take some of the back roads, or to take route 1 or 101 up the coast… but alas a lot of this was interstate 5 heading straight north… There are enough hills, valleys and curves north of LA to make the drive interesting, so that was really cool. It soon got too hot with the T-tops out, so I put them back in with the sunshades in place, cranked up the iPod and a/c and charged north… The hills and dips around Yreka and Redding in northern California were another highlight… I had hoped to make the roughly 24-hour drive straight through, but by midnight, I was starting to blink a bit (I had left my hotel around 7:30 a.m…) So at 2 a.m., I pulled over at a rest stop, and crashed till about 4 a.m.

I woke up from the cold, and decided to just get going. It had started to drizzle, and the windshield wipers were nearly unusable, so my drive became a little less fun in the rainy darkness. After about an hour of driving, I heard a “whump”, and thought – oh crap… I pulled off the interstate, and sure enough, one of the old tires had given up the ghost. Oh well, to be expected… so I took out the spare – double crap – the donut looked to be in pretty poor shape also. I decided to try to limp back to town, and managed to find a tire store – but of course, it was 5 a.m. – so there was not a soul to be found. While waiting I looked more closely at the blown tire – it had a huge gash in the side wall, and didn’t look repairable to me. And, it looked like all the tires were of the same vintage – good tread, but very old.

The shop opened at 8, and I soon had bought a complete set of all-seasons (we get a dumping of snow up in the Bellingham area each year, and I hate getting caught with summer tires) – by 9:30 I was back on the road. It was neat to see the car up on the hoist – almost no rust underneath, and the tire guys all expressed enthusiastic agreement that this was a pretty cool deal! The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful, although I was happy to average 33 mpg! I pulled into my driveway around 7:30 p.m., tired but real happy with the trip. This NX will be my daily driver for now, and joins my younger son’s 95 Max SE, and older son’s 2002 G20 Sport for a pretty cool looking Nissan driveway. If you made it this far, thanks for reading guys!

Cheers,

Marty
Lynden WA
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