1993 Infiniti J30 VG30 - V6 3.0L
Summary:
One of the (if not the) best ever owned
Faults:
1. The water pump broke 3 times in a year, with the previous owner. When I got the car, I replaced the water pump, but did not installed the fan clutch, instead, I installed an electrical fan. Has worked extremely well.
2. The ABS light comes on intermittently. I read somewhere that the relays were to fault. Probably true, because it has no DTC stored in the memory. When the light goes on, all I have to do is shut down the engine, then start it again an off goes the light. Have not found the replacement relays yet. Hard to find them here in Guatemala, since they appear to be kind of special.
3. The most annoying (and gas consuming!) is that at times (and very frequently a couple of moths ago) the revs would go high when in idle. Since I have the (bad?) habit of switching the transmission to neutral on red lights, I noticed that the rpms were almost 1700!! I suspected about the water temperature sensor, cleaned and for a while the car behaved normally. Started again about 2 weeks ago, but now when the car is revved up, I just depress the accelerator pedal a couple of times and the revs go down... no DTC either.
General Comments:
Aside from the previous comments, the car is a dream, specially considering that I got it at about $1,800.00, a real bargain here in Guatemala.
It accelerates hard, and gives you that special "sports car" performance with a very elegant and luxury look.
People here often confuses it with a Jaguar. I usually remarks that the Jaguar is nothing more than a rip off of a J30.
Seriously, the car has a great engine, but the tranny could be a bit smoother.
Interiors are luxury and well thought. The leather feels really nice despite the age. The instrument panel is intuitive and useful, the a/c works great.
The ride is communicative, and I personally feels it handles great both in dry or wet conditions, with no under or over steer during normal and "light hard" driving conditions. Obviously, if you push the car beyond its specifications, it would not behave too good, but even then, this car responds very favorably.
The rear seats agre incredible comfortable, but the head room is no low back there. However the seats are a dream!
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 14th November, 2005
28th Dec 2005, 19:36
Actually, the car was that cheap because the previous (and first) owner of the car have had it with the water pump problem. I am pretty sure it was not "hot" because the previous owner bought it at the former NISSAN dealership (CIDEA) where it was imported. Full service record there. In fact, I still have trouble believing the price I paid for it. It needed a couple of repairs (mostly cosmetic) but it was worth it. The final price (including the car itself, maintenance service, new tires and the water pump and electrical fans) was less than $2500.
9th Feb 2008, 16:16
Better keep it locked behind a fence every night.
15th Nov 2005, 15:56
I too, live in Guatemala. There is an expression here, "Lo barato sale caro" or "what's cheap ends up expensive." If you paid only $1800 in Guatemala for your J30, you should suspect that it was "hot" or start seriously looking for prior flood damage.