Might buy 2005 Nissan Sentra ?

[bamx2]

I am looking around at under $5K used cars and found a well maintained S model 100K mile Nissan Sentra. I searched on the interweb ( www.carcomplaints.com , www.truedelta.com and some of the Nissan owner's forums and found some posts on blown head gaskets of the 2005 Nissan Sentra 1.8 implying that this is a common problem . The current owner 2nd owner who purchased it with 40K mi) has not been through the blown head gasket situation with the car. The repair job would not be that difficult for me but the car is not that cheap. Is there any way to see externally if the head gasket was ever replaced ? It sounds like I walk away from this one. Comments ?

 

[pauldun170]

Having known a few folks with that gen\year sentra (meaning RECENT owners, their experience with them as older used cars) I'm going to say pass.

If the head gasket won't get you, everything else will.

 

[Herr Kutz]

I'll sell you my 08 versa with 126k for 4.5k =P

 

[bamx2]

OK. I will pass on that Nissan Sentra. I am having a difficult time find any decent low mileage cars in my area (metro sprawl) with any maintenance history and good Carfax reports. I need a car pretty quickly to replace a totaled car. Maybe,I may have to bite the bullet on depreciation and purchase a new one (probably a Corolla LE, maybe a Camry LE). I plan on keeping it for many years. Paying cash.

-Thanks

 

[blipblop]

Have you considered a Ford Focus, or would you prefer and Asian make?

 

[tweakmonkey]

Also agree these are awful cars. I have two friends with them and both needed head gaskets within 100k. Not to mention many other failures including catalyic converter on one. In this price range the Hondas and Toyotas are much better cars.