I’m thinking about buying a 2012 Nissan Maxima with 71,000 miles on it. It’s listed for $12,700, but I’d like to get them down on it. Is this a good car? And if so, what would you spend for it? Thank you!
They are very fun cars to drive and 2012 fixed some kinks of the earlier problems but there is still a major flaw that is the sole reason you should avoid it: the transmission.
The Nissan CVT automatic is one of the worst and tends to fail around 100-120k miles. The fix would cost 4 5 6 thousand dollars, on a 10-12 k car. Is that worth it to you? That is the big question.
Nissan transmission issues are well known on this site, but for data from owners, I look at carcomplaints.com. Here, I can find the issues owners experience. The 2012 had a lot less transmission issues than other years, but it is still very weak, so I would avoid it entirely at least with that kind of miles. Most people who ask about Nissans on this forum are thinking about buying one with supposedly a "low mileage" of 70-90k miles, which is nearing the end of the vehicles life. The average mileage according to owners who experienced "premature transmission failure" was 100,650 miles.
The Maxima is an awesome car don't get me wrong but they just don't hold up because of the CVT, which is the only avaliable transmission.
If you do want to take the risk and buy it though, make sure to have a mechanic inspect the transmission BEFORE purchase. Odds are, the previous owner is getting rid of it BECAUSE of the transmission.
If I were to buy it, I would not give more than 6 7 grand. Whatever price you get, it would always be better to get one with lower miles. Considering a life span of an average 100k miles, the difference between a 40k and 80k miles vehicle has a significant difference in life left. I remember someone on the forum considering a 2014 w/30k miles for $14,000, so I would not pay $12,000 for one 2 years older and has three times the mileage.
Hope this info was helpful!
I would definitely check the service history to see if it’s ever had the transmission serviced and that the car has been maintained. The life on those cvt’s if you take care of them is grossly more than 120k they can last hundreds of thousands of miles they are some of the better ones. Problem with car complaints. Com is you get all the horror stories and every manufacturer has them. You don’t hear about the millions of them on the road without problem and the happy people with them. The maximas are awesome cars and that’s not to high of miles and depending on trim level that could be close to fair but I would always try and talk them down. But if the cvt is the concern just take care of it and it should last just fine
