I've bought a Nissan Cefiro/Maxima/QX/Infiniti I30/Boat

[Conan]

Hello!  Don't expect me to update this thread very often. Although I still would like to share it with you guys as it is pretty shite alright? Not a collection thread though. I've got this thing since Wednesday.

For the last few years I've been way too busy to contribute to this forum, but I still lurk around a couple of times a week.

Around new year time, I sold my yellow Volvo. As a replacement for the Volvo I bought a Nissan Pulsar DIG-T which is a boring modern thing for commuting so there will be no thread for it. I still got my Corona as well but I only drive it maybe once or twice a month, which is still more than in 2024 to be fair.

What have I actually bought this time?

As you can see, it's the 1997 Nissan Boat.

As so many have said before me. I didn't need another car in my life. I certainly didn't have much time to drive my Corona as is. But in an effort to stay sane in this chaotic world, I look at marketplace very often especially at things like Toyota Crown, Cressida or any old Nissans. I've spotted this thing for sale for about 3 weeks for a quite steep price, it looked very original and appeared to be in a posh house, all the good signs of a shite that have had a good life.

Then, the price was reduced quite a bit, so I inquired about it and the owner sent me about a billion detail pictures and 10 minutes long videos. It looked really good. So I asked if the guy was free last Saturday morning.

I mean, It was £950. It's worth having a look, right?

Yeah...

'

Let's be real, it's not the Nissan Boat, those are out of my price range.

It's the 1997 Nissan Cefiro 20G. The model code is A32. You in the UK know these as the Nissan QX, Europe as the Maxima QX, Australia as the Maxima, America as the Infiniti I30, and it's very similar to the Maxima there as well.

2nd owner from new, both very well off like I said, these aren't rare but you don't find it in good shape anymore just like any obsolete premium car.

The 20G, as the name suggests, comes equipped with VQ20DE 2.0 V6 and paired with 4-Speed Automatic gearbox. It makes some sort of horsepower and definitely goes some sort of speed. It's one of the smoothest and quietest engine I've ever experience. Seriously. For the first few starts I haven't even notice it is running if I don't look at the rev-counter. It's something only a small displacement, high cylinder count engine could achieve.

This one is on its 3rd engine, because of course it is. You may wonder why.

It's done 542,000 klicks, which is approximately 337,000 miles. And it'd be cliché and inaccurate for me to say it drives like a brand new car, which it does not. It feels like it's done 337,000 miles, but them are gentle miles. It feels worn and tired, but not because of neglect and indifference. It's an old car that's been used properly and maintained to a high standard.

I've already done some trivial stuff to it.

Changing the indicators.

Replaced the cracked windscreen and removed the tint. I don't like tints.

Replacement steering wheel, as the old one was visibly worn. The seller on marketplace didn't remove the cover so I was very pleasantly surprise when it turned up to be minty fresh. These are fucking rare and I got it for £11.

Then a (5 year old) tire let go on the motorway going 70. I only heard the loud pop and didn't even notice any change in drivability as this bastard is so stable. I put some new tires on it pretty sharpish.

Oil and filter change, obviously. It's  extremely easy to do as I didn't even have to lift it up. The ride height is so high I can do it through the wheel well. Very nice.

There are more stuff to do, of course. I have to replace a steering rack boot, at which point I'll just do the outer tie rods anyway as they're only £15. I also suspect the fuel EVAP hose is leaking, at least I hope it's not the filler neck. It smell of petrol but only when it's filled to the brim and there's no active leak but it leaves a weird gooey residue on the tank and the floor. Weird. It's coming from the area where the EVAP/filler neck/return line is. Oh well. I'll do it next weekend. I'll polish it up as well as the paint actually looks pretty recoverable. I'm looking forward to that.

So what's the plan?

There is no plan. It was an impulse buy, and I definitely didn't need another car. But my commute is 60 miles round trip and it does it so brilliantly that I'll probably be keeping it for a while.  Again, don't expect there to be a lot of updates on this. It is an car. Something I can drive to work so the mileage on my Pulsar isn't astronomical. This one already has that so it's perfect.

Have a nice week.

[Schaefft]

A friend of mine had one with the 2.0l V6 and a manual, not fast as you say but he still managed to wrap it around a tree somehow. I don't think I ever sat in one, I'm wondering how close it would be to my cloth-seat Infiniti Q45. I know the Leopard/J30 was still in between the two.

[Conan]

10 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

A friend of mine had one with the 2.0l V6 and a manual, not fast as you say but he still managed to wrap it around a tree somehow. I don't think I ever sat in one, I'm wondering how close it would be to my cloth-seat Infiniti Q45. I know the Leopard/J30 was still in between the two.

I guess they'd feel surprisingly similar. All Nissan from this era are incredibly well built.

 There's a Nissan President being worked on at work but only the person in charge is allowed to touch it. 😅

[RayMK]

I had a 1996 2litre QX, solely because I'd had one as a hire car in the 'States and had been very impressed with the incredibly refined V6.  I returned to the UK and by shear coincidence a QX came up for sale in the Midlands.  Before my USA experience of the model I was completely unaware of their existence and thus very surprised to see one in the UK.  They did not sell many here.  Initially, my 2000 purchase with just 56K miles recorded was troublesome.  It is the only car I've ever owned that needed breakdown recovery three times for the same reason (would not start, flooded, then flooded some more).  A Japanese car specialist confidently diagnosed a sensor failure, replaced it and I was mobile for a week before the same happened again. This time it got carted back to a main Nissan dealer to sort out.  Same routine. Dud sensor (a different one) diagnosed, replaced, another £94 bill, mobile for 2 weeks then the same again.  It went back to them again, they replaced another sensor and wanted another £90 ..... I objected at the busy service desk as I recounted the history of the car's recent breakdowns in front of other customers, including the fact that none of these plug-in diagnostic whizz kids had investigated the starter which I had told them wasn't turning the engine over quickly enough despite me replacing the battery.  They waived the £90.   When it happened again I was getting fluent with expletives.  I bit the bullet, bought a new starter (expensive), spent 4 hours digging down to it because access from below was not possible, replaced the offending item, reassembled the components removed for access and had no further trouble.  Although this was far from typical for a Japanese car, it soured the experience and I sold it 3 years later on completion of the HP term.  However, it remains as the most refined engine I've ever driven and was a superb cruiser on decent roads.  Colleagues that I occasionally gave lifts to also commented that it was the quietest car they'd ever been in.  An interesting choice! Good luck with yours.     

[brownnova]

I love the anonymity of these… except that yellow Polka Dot one from the Top Gear calendar in about 1997… which I can’t find any evidence of so I may have made it up. 

[mk2_craig]

3 hours ago, brownnova said:

yellow Polka Dot one

This was one of their long term test cars, on which they tried various ways of making it less anonymous. Including putting it on top of a building! 

[hairnet]

VERY NICE AN BOAT CAR

you are @STUNO and i claim my 5 nzd

also tell us about pulsar (or we might cry)

[High Jetter]

I'll have a random...

[Conan]

Have had it for around a week now and done 300 odd miles. It's so competent that I feel it shouldn't really be a "hobby" car. It's just an car. To be fair most 90's car are like that to me.

Did the steering rack boots today, and I have a few fix/upgrades coming for the suspension. It wouldn't become a real handler (especially as I want to maintain standard ride quality) but it should be pretty decent.

Have had a better look at fuel leak and it appears to be coming from the top so either fuel pump o-ring or the hose, so the tank probably needs to be drop which is a pain in the arse. I will do it next week.

It's surprisingly affordable to fix and it's excellent to drive. Can't complain too much.

[hairnet]

excellent taxicab

 

[Conan]

Gave it a clean. With how good the paint is, it's just calling for a polish and some good coating but haven't had the time to yet. Sometime this month I think.

I intentionally let the fuel run low because I wanted the tank drop. Miscalculated (and misled by all information saying these have 70-litre tank) and ran out of fuel on the motorway about 10 kilometer from destination. The fuel leak turns out to be the fuel sender unit cracked. Dropped the tank, replaced that, and it doesn't leak anymore.

One issue it had which I already knew about at the start was memory steer. (The steering would be wonky in the same direction the previous turn was). From experience it's pretty much always the steering rack bushings causing that. I found a company in the USA making polyurethane steering rack bushings for these and it cost around the same as NLA genuine ones. Given the choice between commonly available horrible quality aftermarket and the wait for back ordered genuine item, it was worth a try.

The one that came off the car was perished and cracked and as suspected was a shitty aftermarket item. It didn't really transform the car into a Bavarian B-road Barnstormer or anything but it was a massive improvement to the steering behaviour. Highly recommended for anyone with shitty old rack and pinion car. Also did the front shocks at the same time (it was 50 quid, so why not).

Next would be the rear end. On the ramp it was found that the Scott-Russell-linkage™ bushing was also heavily perished. I will also do the rear shocks at the same time so the suspension is perfect. I kind of ran out of funds at the moment with some other expensive things coming up, so that'll have to wait slightly.

Somehow this thing has become my preferred daily driver right now because of how competent it is... I have to remind you again I did not intentionally went and look for one of these.

[hairnet]

beast

[Macscrooge]

Great stuff. I remember these being new - while I’m sure Nissan UK sold more than half a dozen it didn’t seem so as they were always a rare sight. I can’t think when I last saw one in the wild.