HMC- Mr Chowdhury’s Mercedes

[brownnova]

I have a memory of having a top gear calendar in about 1998 which had a yellow polka dot Nissan QX in it.

Google image is not helping me at all here, I simply can’t find it.

Maybe I imagined it.

Anyway: top purchase, much want. 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

6 minutes ago, brownnova said:

I have a memory of having a top gear calendar in about 1998 which had a yellow polka dot Nissan QX in it.

Google image is not helping me at all here, I simply can’t find it.

Maybe I imagined it.

Anyway: top purchase, much want. 

Don’t remember the calendar, but I do remember TopGear mag stickering  up a QX , possibly a long termer , in a gag about it being the most anonymous/ forgettable  car on sale.

[brownnova]

Some more searching whilst I should have been working... but... I found it!!

October down at the bottom... 

Tempted to buy it for a tenner off ebay just for that picture!

[quicksilver]

That's a fantastically bland An Car I have no recollection of ever existing. It just looks like a slightly bigger Primera. Top shite, well bought!

[Pat Earrings]

My old geography/maths/d&t teacher had one of these Maximas and absolutely waxed lyrical about them. Gorgeous things.

[RobT]

Devon was achieved.  240 miles at 36mpg so not too bad.  It won't be rushed is probably the polite way of describing the performance.  But it's perfectly adequate.  Another good blind purchase by @HMC

[Hertz]

I take it you are picking up the Murano (said like Vic Reeves in Shooting Stars)

 

[Ghosty]

UVAVU

[AnthonyG]

21 hours ago, Schaefft said:

This gen Maxima was actually sold as the Infiniti i30 in the states, so kinda a premium car. For the last 20 years US Maximas were mostly sold to those who cannot get finance on anything else though, especially after Mitsubishi died, like almost anything Nissan and Infiniti put out over the last few years...

Interesting. I did get the feeling that Nissan is on a bit of a death spiral in the States from the odd US website article I read, I guess their cars are not that different to a Hyundai/Kia and their SUVs are similarly very generic and ‘meh’. And the only non-US brand to really get anywhere with pick-up trucks is Toyota. 

[RobT]

42 minutes ago, Hertz said:

I take it you are picking up the Murano (said like Vic Reeves in Shooting Stars)

 

Nah, on the train home m8.  This was an HMC funded collection and delivery caper.  Quite timely actually as I was due a day off!

[Marm Toastsmith]

1 hour ago, RobT said:

Devon was achieved.  240 miles at 36mpg so not too bad.  It won't be rushed is probably the polite way of describing the performance.  But it's perfectly adequate.  Another good blind purchase by @HMC

The Micra only managed 36.2 on the same run last night, although an almost constant 80mph on the M4/M5 with a roof rack howling in the wind probably isn't the most efficient way to run it. The Maxima looks an infinitely more pleasant vehicle to do the run in. Very nice.

[RayMK]

@HMCGood luck with your purchase.  My experience with a '96 model was less than perfect - quoting from my earlier post a few years ago:-

When I had my Nissan QX back in 2005 (1996 model: 2 litre V6), bought to bring some refinement and Japanese reliability in to my life, I was profoundly disappointed.  Refined, yes, the engine was the smoothest and quietest I've ever owned, but the suspension was poor except on motorways.  Reliable?  Was it hell!  Three FTPs and recoveries to garages in the first three months.  A Japanese car specialist diagnosed various sensor failures and replaced them.  Great, I thought.  Forgiven.  A few weeks later it failed to start - symptoms were identical to the first time (basically, irrecoverable flooding on a cold start and a leisurely starter motor) .  I got it recovered to a Nissan main dealer, described its recent past and showed them the receipts and they diagnosed another sensor as u/s and replaced it.  I drove away somewhat disgruntled at yet another £100+ bill.  A week later....you get the picture.  I had it recovered back to the same main dealer who said they'd fixed it.  They fixed it again and wanted me to pay again.  I kicked up a fuss and they let me  have it for free as a gesture of goodwill.  A week or two later the bugger failed to start at home time.  This time, I whipped the plugs out at work and roasted them in an oven, then rushed out, refitted them as quickly as possible and it started after a short struggle.  I thought bollocks to bloody electronics and their equally idiotic diagnostic machines.  It was (fairly) obvious to me that the starter was not spinning the engine fast enough despite the new battery fitted by the selling dealer.  I bought a new starter and spent about three hours excavating a route down to the starter through a myriad of pipes and wires, fitted it, refilled the hole with all  the bits I'd removed and it started as good as gold.  Despite the fact that it did not FTP again in the next 30K miles, my trust in it and my faith in over-complicated electronically controlled vehicles was destroyed.  

One poor experience with a car can have a lasting effect. I have not even considered another Nissan since.  I'm sure you will be more fortunate.

[HMC]

46 minutes ago, RayMK said:

@HMCGood luck with your purchase.  My experience with a '96 model was less than perfect - quoting from my earlier post a few years ago:-

When I had my Nissan QX back in 2005 (1996 model: 2 litre V6), bought to bring some refinement and Japanese reliability in to my life, I was profoundly disappointed.  Refined, yes, the engine was the smoothest and quietest I've ever owned, but the suspension was poor except on motorways.  Reliable?  Was it hell!  Three FTPs and recoveries to garages in the first three months.  A Japanese car specialist diagnosed various sensor failures and replaced them.  Great, I thought.  Forgiven.  A few weeks later it failed to start - symptoms were identical to the first time (basically, irrecoverable flooding on a cold start and a leisurely starter motor) .  I got it recovered to a Nissan main dealer, described its recent past and showed them the receipts and they diagnosed another sensor as u/s and replaced it.  I drove away somewhat disgruntled at yet another £100+ bill.  A week later....you get the picture.  I had it recovered back to the same main dealer who said they'd fixed it.  They fixed it again and wanted me to pay again.  I kicked up a fuss and they let me  have it for free as a gesture of goodwill.  A week or two later the bugger failed to start at home time.  This time, I whipped the plugs out at work and roasted them in an oven, then rushed out, refitted them as quickly as possible and it started after a short struggle.  I thought bollocks to bloody electronics and their equally idiotic diagnostic machines.  It was (fairly) obvious to me that the starter was not spinning the engine fast enough despite the new battery fitted by the selling dealer.  I bought a new starter and spent about three hours excavating a route down to the starter through miriads of pipes and wires, fitted it, refilled the hole with all  the bits I'd removed and it started as good as gold.  Despite the fact that it did not FTP again in the next 30K miles, my trust in it and my faith in over-complicated electronically controlled vehicles was destroyed.  

One poor experience with a car can have a lasting effect. I have not even considered another Nissan since.  I'm sure you will be more fortunate.

Ouch! So for this one seems fine. I’ve mainly had k11 micras, p11 primeras and obv the Cedric and this lumbering beast. So far they’ve all worked faultlessly. I was especially impressed with the k11s as I used to cane those to death, but they never went wrong. Clearly having written this something mechanical will now implode 😂

[HMC]

Also - life lesson time. Don’t get wasted and go on eBay.

I did at the weekend and did a drunk e bay purchase. It’s from what looks like a bombsite, the car has previously been written off and a dog has attacked the interior. So clearly irresistible. Most/ almost all it’s value was the cat, which it comes with.

Still it was so so cheap and mot’d till June and my man included delivery. It’s being dropped on Thursday. I’m unsure if the dog eating the interior or the parking damage to both rear quarters was what wrote it off. Scotch whisky has a lot to answer for.

[HMC]

It’s the sort of car that nobody wants to park next to in a supermarket car park, and in a forum that’s potentially guilty of mission creep, this is 100% shite…. Or should that be shit?

[wuvvum]

Pah.  Some of my best* eBay purchases have been made whilst drunk.  Inter alia:

[hairnet]

its a long way from duvvun to chester

[Marm Toastsmith]

But what is it? Not another Nissan?

[gadgetgricey]

1 hour ago, HMC said:

It’s the sort of car that nobody wants to park next to in a supermarket car park, and in a forum that’s potentially guilty of mission creep, this is 100% shite…. Or should that be shit?

Not going to spoil the surprise, but Jesus you must have been slaughtered  Good Deal though.

[HMC]

This latest millstone is en route.

Clue- the vendor (a scrap dealer) says that at this price point most of these are exported to Nigeria to be used as taxis in Lagos.

[HMC]

Disclaimer: It’s not a 504

[grogee]

30 minutes ago, HMC said:

This latest millstone is en route.

Clue- the vendor (a scrap dealer) says that at this price point most of these are exported to Nigeria to be used as taxis in Lagos.

Toyota Carina

Honda Accord

I would say Nissan Primera but I reckon you're fully Nissaned up right now.

Today's the day! Excited.

[HMC]

[HMC]

[HMC]

[Tickman]

WOW.

 

[Joey spud]

These are brilliant little things,fold the seat down and its an excellent cheap to run,never go wrong,everyday runaround.

Sadly Fox's Toyota Badgers mount (just off the M25 j4) is now expensive houses.

[HMC]

Still has its original cat (£300) in which is the vast majority of its value. Apparently the cats on these are up by the fannymold so are harder to steal than those on Honda jazzes, which are off to one side under the floor pan

[Rust Collector]

That wasn't what I was expecting! I can see the appeal as a cheap taxi, I bet they take a lot of abuse with very little maintenance needed. Small but making the maximum use of the space they occupy, ideal for crashing into weaving through traffic in Lagos presumably.

[Jenson Velcro]

Wow, I wasn’t expecting that! You’ll have to let us know what you were drinking. I think I’ll be giving it a swerve!,