The original "Q".....?

Yet another car that has "popped up" on CL and caught my eye.

This car looks quite good for a 17 year old sedan, no visible body damage. And while $5000 is a bit steep sounding for a '93 Infiniti Q45....what are the things to look for on these cars?

5 G?

No way.

Can't tell you anything about the car other than it's overpriced, at least for the DFW area.

Holy moly.......it's already been 17 years since they came out!! Time sure does fly.

^^^^^
The first Q's arrived in 1989 as 1990 models and therefore it has been 21 years.

super clean retail is around 3 grand on NADA

if its a private seller the car is at least 3k overpriced.

I realize $5K is a high asking price, I'm still kicking myself for passing up a 2nd gen with under 100K miles for $7K....but this car is so different looking, compared to what's out there now.

I was hoping for advice on what to look for/find, to get the price rolling downwards. A transmission that dies after 100K miles? A power steering pump that "moos" but still functions perfectly with high miles? Heck, window seals that don't? Nissan/Infiniti "gurus", help me out here. What fails (prematurely?) on these beauties?

Early Q timing chains ate themselves iirc, but I've never owned one myself.

This is what the Q45 is for:

http://vimeo.com/5282678

it's really not an absurd price. Any really nice car seems to be worth that much around here. I've always wanted a nice Q, can never find one when I need one. Wound up with my P71 last time I was tryin.

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Early Q timing chains ate themselves iirc, but I've never owned one myself.

I too have never owned one but always found them interesting. I believe that the chain issue had to do with 90-93 models wearing out chain guides which were plastic; later changed to metal.
Taken from Wiki:

Metal-backed camshaft timing chain guides were added in 1994 to replace the earlier model's less reliable plastic guides.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infiniti_Q45

More info about the car would help in establishing value, specifically, how many miles and how much documented repair work had been performed? (ie: tires are all new, shocks are all new, etc)

I haven't actually gone to see this car in person, yet, so I can't provide much more info than what is in the CL ad....which, as usual, is almost nothing.

It's a '93 Q45, painted that pale yellow color Infiniti used for Qs for the first couple of years. The front and passenger side pix show a fairly straight car (yeah, I know, pix on the internet are very deceptive), no mention of miles.

If I remember correctly, there were almost no options on these cars, they were all sold "loaded" so I'm guessing tan leather seats and a sunroof.

BTW, I only thought of this car because of it's looks and it's fairly rare to find one now. That, AND, I figured if I was even considering P71s...this was worth considering. Am I foolish to think it would be more reliable than a similar year/priced BMW 5 or 7 series with a V8?

I once owned a 280Z and later a G20...Nissan dealers (I don't know about Infiniti dealers) do a very good job of keeping parts on hand or at least 2 days away by FedEx.

The only options I remember were the Q45a Active suspension cars and the Q45t Touring cars. Active suspension is probably not that cool now and Touring is a rear spoiler coupled with mesh wheels.

This car isn't a Q45t....sure hope it doesn't have the Active Suspension, either.

"t" infiniti models got VLSD, suspension tweaks too.
Q45s also got VTCs which can have their own sets of issues if not properly maintained.
5k for a 93 is way overpriced IMO.

Well, I went on CL this morning and searched "Q45" in my area. I found about 6 or 7 local ads including one for a '94 in which they were asking $4K. I also (finally) went on Edmunds.com to do a bit of (overdue?) research on the Q. Of the 6 comments left (none newer than 2006) 2 or 3 mentioned the transmission as being on the weak side (but, apparently, it's shared with the Pathfinder....so a newer one is plentiful, when needed) along with the power accessories (windows/door locks). All Infinitis were fairly well regarded, with my fav, the G20 getting top honors.

Way overpriced. More reliable than a M-B or a BMW but not as reliable as a similar-era Lexus LS400 which is the car you should be looking for IMO.

I didn't even realize that the Q had been dropped from the lineup. I guess that shows how many they sold of the last generation.

Oh, that's why.

Wow... that thing is all sorts of ugly... I don't recall ever seeing one...

I did recently see a 1st gen over the w/e... and it did strike me that they aren't all that common. Old LS400's, however.... I see those every day...

I think LS400s look "so common" because they A.) look so much like an older "S" class M-B and B.) they sold a lot of them and made almost no detectable styling changes for a long time.

And I have thought of the LS as an alternative to the Q. But I wanted something different, and until I REALLY started looking, I just assumed the LS was out of my budget.

Well I did own a Q, a '94 model and it was an awesome car. I had it for a couple of years and never replaced anything. It was one of the best cars I've ever owned. I bought it at around 80k miles I think, and drove it until about 120k. Fast (150mph), quiet, decent handling (light years better than the LS400), and the absolute best cruise control I've ever experienced. It comes with a complete set of maintenance manuals with excellent wiring diagrams from the factory, and even things like the window switches can store codes to help diagnose them should you need to. I never did though. It's a big step up in quality from the average Maxima.

The problem now is finding a good one. They've been cheap for quite a while and poor maintenance and parking practices have taken their toll. 5k for a nice one wouldn't be out of line. Mine had a window sticker of $51,000 in '94 (sticker was still in the car), so $5k is a steal for a nice one.

My 97 Supercharged HSE Range rover stickered at around $100K, I paid $3K, all cars go down in value and known problems accelerate that rate.

Yeah but Range Rovers come from the factory with smoke coming out of the tailgate! Ask me how I know! Just kidding, but I understand about depreciation. My point was that it is a lot of car now for the money, and $5k is not out of line if you can find a nice one. A worn out car at $3k is poor poor substitute for a nice one at $5k.

^ Do you use diesel in the outboard on your canoe?