[CA] Trying to buy a 370z : Bad experience with VIN JN1AZ44E59M402001
 

Hi,

I'll present myself later in this forum because I still dont have a 370z, but I wanted to tell you the really bad experience I had today. Sorry if it's a little too long to read, but I think it worth it.

I am from San Jose, NorCal, Bay area, and I am looking to buy a 370z. I though I found THE good one, but it was in SoCal. Black one, sport package, navigation, less than 10k miles, 1 owner, clean carfax, sold by a dealership, everything seemed perfect.
So today I went to SoCal to see it and buy it... because the car was sold by a dealership who told me that the car has been inspected was ok, I was really hapy and confident.

When I arrived, I saw it... really beautiful with his magnetic black color and 19' sport wheels. The front lip is a little damaged, but the dealer told that already by email, and because of the car is low, it was not a major issue. My first surprise was when I asked for the navigation documentation and EVERYTHING that should come with the car (spare key, all the book set, owner manual, etc...). The seller answered me that everything was here (!!) and only 1 key + the ipod cable was given when they traded in the car... this was the FIRST bad surprise, for a 2009 car with less than 10k miles and 1 owner, this is really odd ! After a quick look-around, I noticed immediately that the exhaust was not the factory one, I asked him again (because I dit it already by email) and he does know if the exhaust was stock or not... on the tip was written "Fast Intentions", no doubt about that, this is not from factory ;)

Then I went for the test drive, and I heard immediately some noise from the gearbox, but nothing important, and because I read that the 370z is a noisy one, I did not pay too much attention...everything was ok, the car was speed and responsive, and when I tried to engage the 6th gear, it was grinding. After stopping the car, I tried again, engine on, and the 6th was grinding 3 times over 4, definitely this is not normal.

Finally we entered inside the shop, and he called Nissan to get information on the gearbox. He answered me after few minutes that the gearbox grinding is normal and many customers have already complain about that, there is nothing to be afraid... :eek: I am not an expert in sport car, but I had enough car in the past to know when a gear is hard to engage and when a synchro is starting to fail. I decided to go to the closest Nissan dealership (the one I was in was not a Nissan professional) and ask for a pre-purchase inspection.

After 1 hour, the result was there : :mad:
- gearbox has to be replaced (problem found on 2nd and 6th gear), covered by the warranty, but not the labor to remove the aftermarket exhaust
- aftermarket exhaust is dented on the bottom and a hole is present on the left muffler
- all the 4 rotors are glazed / cracked and need to be replaced

I decided to cancel the deal and not buy this car... even if the gearbox replacement would have been covered by the manufacturer warranty, that's is definitely not the car I want to buy and gamble on the future of car that has been hardly driven / abused in the beginning of its life.

So I flew back to San Jose, without any car, and really upset about this experience...

Sorry for my english and if it was too long, but I think I had to warn you about this car, and if you need more details on dealership / location of this one, dont hesitate to send me a PM.

My advise is buy new. Yes you pay a bit more but worth not having to deal with this kind of bs. There are some problems an inspection won't find that's why I always buy new. Just keep saving your money.

wait, "gearbox has to be replaced (problem found on 2nd and 6th gear), covered by the warranty"...

Is there a TSB or something that I'm not aware of? My 2nd/6th don't "grind", but it's astounding to me that you'd take the car to a dealership for a "pre-sale inspection" and find that they want to do this sort of repairs under warranty.

How much were they asking for that car?

$27,994
If you go to Kelly Blue Book's web site and do a search for a 2009 nissan 370z in the 90210 zip code, you'll find it. The price listed on KBB is $34,485, but the dealer's web site is as above.

Thanks JapanLio for posting this VIN. I was seriously looking at this car. A few phone calls and emails to the dealer, but when I asked for some more info on the car, they stopped communicating, hmmmmm, wonder why? ;)

Just received an email this evening from them stating this car is in the process of being sold. Too bad we can't warn the buyer!


Cheech.


+1 for informing everyone!

nice catch! Those sad bastards trying to jip you, ha. Well im sorry for all that for nothing but hopefully you'll find your Z soulmate! I recommend to just buy a new one. That way you feel 100% satisfied.

It's simple... The Z was on sale by another dealership than Nissan, as a pre-owned one. After all the suspicious and shades around this car, I decided to call the Nissan dealership, which was in the same auto mall, and bring them the Z for a PPI. And they gave me the report without any possible confusion : this Z was a piece of junk (it's my interpretation).

It's one of the purpose of this type of community forum : inform others of those type of bad experience. I'm happy that my tough day will help some of you :tiphat:

You're right, the ideal is to buy new, but it's a question of budget... I really want a Z 6MT with sport package, the navigation would be a +, but I cant find a brand new one in my price range around the Bay Area :shakes head:

Perhaps it was an honest car dealer he had it checked out at?

Decided to update this thread incase further down the road when I decide to sell it a future new owner stumbles upon this...

I purchased the 370Z in question late February 2015 from Carmax in Fairfield California with just under 25K miles (24,8???)... The front lip was gone, The left headlight was oxidized, the front bumper I think was replaced due to fresh paint, no vin sticker (still has vin on fenders and hood), it was missing a bracket and it doesn't have the little vent block offs on the sides of the fangs.

I knew of this thread when I purchased the car, I tested the car out thoroughly in the 2 days of test driving and the transmission shifted smooth, i guess to the standards of these cars (no grinds)... The exhaust is OEM and definitely new as it's still so shiny...

It came with 2 keys but no books either, I will eventually replace the books but lazy... As of this writing I had carmax replace the oxidized headlight, Replaced the front lip (that I accidentally scraped up getting in and out of my driveway), replace the missing bracket and assorted clips, it just went under the 30K mile service and at 31K miles the CSC was replaced...

Aside from the CSC failure it's a pretty good car with now about 33K miles on it.



EDIT: 11/2016 Didn't wan't to bump this thread but in the event the new owner starts browsing, I can give a little more detail as what is going on with it now.

After 9 months of ownership I ran a carfax, Originally bought the car from Carmax who gave me a clean bill of health and a clean autocheck. However the carfax did say otherwise... I had the car inspected by a body shop and found that MOST of the car had been repainted and in some areas had already began to flake off, they found signs of a right front impact (non OEM parts), Missing parts, taped together bumper foam and a cracked impact bar... Carmax looked at it, saw everything and said I was sh*t out of luck... So I sued them, A week ago it finally settled and they bought back the car... Paid it off ($14K) and wrote my lawyer a $17K check. It had 54.5K miles when I gave it back to them, The transmission had begun to make a banging noise when shifting hard the last few weeks... So, Unless you already bought this car... Stay far far away. If you already bought it... Yeah, I kinda ghetto rigged some ambient lights (meant to clean it up as that's a mock job to see if doable but got lazy and my lawsuit started), the short shifter is by TWM and that's about all thats been left on it.

Man, that's a hell of an update like 5 years later.

You need to drive more

Seeing how I put 8K miles on it in 5 months shared between this and a same year BMW 328I, I think I drive plenty.

But before I bought the Z I read this thread because I made it a habit of googling the vin's of cars to see if they were ever in a salvage auction or incase something like this came up. Just figured to update the thread for future reference when I decide to sell it.

I think its a joke since it took you 5 years to bump a thread

Ohhh lol, But I bought it last february :(

hard to update PRIOR to buying car, Yes??

Thats exactly why I buy new. I had a Acura RSX Type S last decade. I flipped it and the whole car was rebuilt. Probably 8k in damage and weeks in repair. Before I ditched it all carfax.com said was I had 300 dollars in damage. I went with it when I sold it to the dealer. So right now someone is riding around in a RSX that literally had every metal part removed including the roof and every reporting service tells them its a legit car.