Any fears in a 2008 Maxima?

My mother in law picked up a 2008 Maxi five years ago when it came off someone's lease. She has since put on about 4,000 miles on it. You know, once a week to the grocery store, once a week to the hair parlor, once a week to church, it has 48,000 miles on it now.

She's 87 or so years old and still gets around OK but Mrs. 914 is worried about her interacting with the driving public. We drove the car to Connecticut for Christmas just to air it out, warm up the cat and get the flat spots out of the tires. Nice car, bigger than anything I've driven lately and got about 24 miles per gallon on a 300 mile trip.

The only thing I noticed that may make me nuts is where the trunk hinges meet the body there is an indent that holds water, tree swarf and mung unless you wash it out often and rear visibility is not what I'm used to in a Jetta. Trish asked if I thought I could live with this, it seems Meme' is coming around to the idea that she probably shouldn't be driving.

It's a 3.5 liter with a bunch of bells & whistles I don't know how to work yet.

What says the Borg?

I think that these are supposed to be fairly solid. I would definitely give it a thorough look through because of the light driving. I imagine the exhaust is probably getting rusty. Do the 60k and probably the 100k maintenance. Throw a set of tires at it and you should be good for 100k.

Assuming that you'd be getting it for free, or at least at an extremely fair price, I'd be all over it. My cousin had one living in downtown Chicago for quite a few years. He'd still have it if it wasn't totaled. Beat to hell due to 100k Chicago miles, but it still felt solid enough.

I'm guessing it doesn't have the CVT or you would have complained abut it. Maxima's are pretty solid as a whole. Maxima.org will have everything you need to know. They can be a bit prickish though.

i recently drove the cvt in a rental 2014 maxima. I actually loved the cvt. Drove exactly like a 6-7 speed auto for normal driving, paddle shifts were quick and it held the gears for you, and finally, on-ramps were rocketships with the revs going straight to near redline (I assume max hp point) and then just staying there as the car pulls HARD.

Wasn't super impressed with the gas mileage, but its a big car with a huge engine.

That VQ engine is known to age quite well just keep an eye on the cats.

Thanks guys. The car would be free to cheap, the drawback is the MIL still has to get to the store, church etc., but that would happen whether we wanted the car or not.

Dan