Purchasing used Z, unsure to pull trigger

MaoMeow305

Many people do maintenance themselves, so you will not see official records for many years on some cars.

If you took the car for an inspection and it cleared, I don't see the problem? What is your concern? If the title is clean, the inspection passed, and if you check and make sure that the frame is 100%, I don't see any problems.

JNickson

I guess what my biggest concern is that there hasn't been any major components swapped from an older model (say his 2009 that may have been beaten on) to this one. It doesn't really make much sense to me that anyone would buy a second car, then swap a good engine from that car to an older modded car rather than the other way around, or hell, just buy a used low mileage engine/trans (would end up cheaper either way).

Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Last time I bought a used car it was from a guy who did his own maintenance, a mechanic at a ford dealer. Sold me a car that had a junkyard swapped engine and a blown head gasket in said engine. Didn't tell me any of this pre-purchase of course and was untrustworthy to start. Guess I'm just having flashbacks. Why did I buy it? The only tell was that the car would overheat after an hour of driving in the summer and overfill the reservoir. It was impossible to tell after a half-hour test drive. I also took it to two different dealers to diagnose this problem and they told me there was no issue (after leakdown, pressure, and chemical tests). After doing a bunch of digging and autopsy did I figure out the whole story (I am no slouch when it comes to doing maintenance and modifications to cars, just new to the Z).

JLarson

One thing you can do to check is ask him to pop the hood, and check the heat shields on the headers (passengers side will be easier). If they are 4 bolt, it's a newer engine. If they have 3 bolts, it's an older engine. Header design was revised somewhere around the 2014 year model, and the heatshields changed with the headers. If I had concerns, that's where I'd look first.

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2014 370z Touring Sport Magma Red MT // BP Single Turbo 6467 // 63mm TB's // Z1 Ported Upper Mani // RJM Pedal // Zspeed Stage 3 Clutch // 526 WHP, 451 WTQ
2006 350z (Sold) // 1990 300zx (Sold) // 1985 300zx 2+2 (Sold)

JNickson

Thanks all for your responses and weigh ins, after careful consideration and inspecting using JLarson's tips, I can happily say that I am a proud owner of a new Z! No regrets on my end, definitely very happy with the purchase