I'm in the market for a 08 Nissan Altima 2.5s. I currently have a 95 Honda Accord 2.7 V6 with 150k miles recently broke down. The mechanic "says" the camshaft and crankshaft sensors went bad and the job would cost about $750 to fix. Besides this issue, the car had a strong engine (great acceleration) and was in fair to good condition aside from having only one working power window (electrical problem), broken odometer, broken fuel gauge and small oil leaks which one could consider cosmetic. KBB value for Private Party is $2,985 in fair condition and $1,515 Trade-In value. My question, should I spend the money to fix the car and use it as a trade in for the Altima or scrap the car and cut my losses. I'm worried that a private seller wouldn't buy the car because of those forementioned issues.

 

I'd look into getting it fixed. But I'd probably get a second opinion on the sensors issue too. Even with the $750 bill it would probably be more profitable to fix it and sell it as running rather than scrapping it. You probably wouldn't get more than $1000 if you sold as a non-running vehicle (less if you sold to a junk yard) while you could probably get $2000 - $2500 if you sold it with the flaws you mentioned but still running. I've sold two cars, a '93 Accord with 190K miles and a '94 Altima with 160K miles, both with significant flaws and a lot of miles, both for over $2K.

Fix it, polish it up and post it up on autotrader and you'll probably sell within a month. There's always been a large clientel for cars in that price range.

 

You'll get $1000 MAX for your trade and that's if the dealer is nice.

 

:werd:

Definitely sell it yourself. Trading in a car, any car, will almost always result in a lower price than selling it yourself.

 

there's no way that shit would cost 750. check around w/ more mechanics, or others w/ small shops.
u can get it done for a lot cheap and sell it right away.

new altimas are very nice, specially the 2 dr.

 

Great Advice! I too am a bit leary of the findings. I did get the mechanic to give me the following engine codes....

P0335
P0336
P1361
P1362
P1381

He also offered to fix one of my leaks...rear main seal, but its still up to me. Would leaks like the rear main seal, oil pan gasket or valve cover gasket be "show stoppers" for a private seller? None of these leaks drop oil on the pavement, they just build up on the engine.

Also, My mechanic from back home feels because those 2 sensors don't go bad at the same time and the engine codes that came back the car only needs a distributor. Does this sound about right?