Think It's Okay to Buy a Used 370z That Had Transmission Replaced?

allinav

I'm in the process of buying a used 2009 370z base, with sport package upgrade.

To make sure I got a good deal, I've not only been extremely patient, but expanded the radius I'm willing to travel to buy it to about 500 miles.

I have found one that is in pristine condition, 33k miles on the odometer, two owners, no accidents and it will be taken to a third party mechanic here shortly to have it looked over from top to bottom.

I've put down a $1k (refundable) deposit in the meantime. My question though is this...is it a bad idea to buy this car when the transmission has been replaced previously? The carfax report shows that the first owner had the transmission replaced at 24k miles in July of 2012 at the Nissan dealership. It's got 33k miles on it now, so the new transmission is at about 9k to 10k miles.

The current owner has reported to me that everything about the car feels & runs essentially like new, and he even suggested that I take it anywhere I'd like for a complete inspection of the mechanicals and the car in general (which I'll be doing Friday).

What do you guys think about this...okay, good, bad? While the car itself is no longer under warranty, will the replacement transmission be covered should there be another problem? Is that common with an '09 370z, repeated transmission problems (I'm not saying it has had repeated transmission problems, but rather am asking if that is a common thing that I should be worried about since it's already been replaced once)?

mishuko

Did he say why it was replaced? was it from this owner or the one before? What is the reason for this guy for selling? Do you know any shops you can trust to do a proper inspection of things that you wouldn't be able to yourself?

allinav

Yes, he did say it was replaced. It was not replaced during his ownership though, it was replaced during the original owners ownership (it's a 2 owner car).

He is selling it because he says he typically keeps cars for a few years and gets into something new. I don't know any shops where he is at personally, no, however I've already called a few of them and found a nationwide chain that is willing to dedicate up to two hours to looking the vehicle over and actually put together a report for me.

mishuko

so i'm also sorta illiterate at times... see how you mentioned first owner.

did you test drive it?

allinav

Haha, I do that all the time, no problem (thanks for the replies actually).

I haven't test driven the vehicle yet, no. I'll be test driving it and taking it to the shop I've selected on Friday afternoon. I've never owned an automatic vehicle and have been driving since I was 15 and am now 29, so I know how to drive a manual no problem obviously.

With that said however, given this car has the SynchroRev Match feature, is there anything in particular outside of what I know to look for that I should be looking for when test driving it?

mishuko

if it was an automatic I could see him dumping it from neutral to D which would burn out the tranny... but for a manual car it makes me very skeptical at the condition of the car.

as for the price, is it within the range or is it priced dramatically lower?

allinav

From what I've read on these forums (a lot) it is not unusual in any sense for the '09 Z's to have transmission problems/have them replaced. My concern is what happens afterwards, lol.

It is not priced dramatically lower at all actually...more or less perfectly in line with the others I've looked at. The guy that owns it is an older gentleman, 55-60. Put 3k miles a year on it, give or take.

He came down to what I think is a very fair price after haggling and coming to a deal regarding the aftermarket rims (he is going to take them off the car and keep them and put the original 19" Rays back on).

He also had an Ark exhaust put on it when he first purchased it and is also including the original exhaust. It's clear he's taken very good care of the vehicle, at least at the moment. I'm sure I'll have more info post mechanic inspection of course.

mishuko

good to know you did previous research. drive it, get it checked, report back...

kenchan

y does the 2nd owner want to sell? (ofcourse ull get all sorts of bs answers..)

kenchan

ohhh... i need rear seats. im pregnant and i am a man

SouthArk370Z

It all depends on why the tranny was replaced.

All manufacturers turn out a bad component every now and then. If this is why the trans was replaced, I wouldn't worry about. Going by what I've been reading, the 6MT is a pretty good transmission - a least in a DD. A lot of problems with the CSC but that's not a replace-the-whole-transmission type of problem.

On the other hand, if the tranny failed due to abuse, that would lead me to believe that the rest of the car was mistreated.

YMMV

__________________
Steering Lock Links - Search The370Z Bookmarklet - FSM @ NICOclub
Mankind has progressed past the need for war but we haven't evolved that far. - NachoMahma