Disclaimer: Forgive my lack of car-related vocabulary, I don’t know much on the subject.
Am I getting myself into trouble?
My dad paid around $8500, around the same price he paid for my older brother’s used Honda years ago. He even paid to have a backup camera installed, so naive little me thought I’d be all set and safe. But now I’m worried. I’ve heard that Nissan CVTs, especially on ones nearly a decade old, are extremely unreliable.
I know next to nothing about cars. I’m learning everything I can online and via my car’s manual, but there’s only so much I can learn every day, and I have to drive the car to work (etc.) on a regular basis. I feel nervous every time I get in, and I’m not usually a nervous driver. How the hell am I supposed to know if there’s a problem before it’s too late and my engine fails? I don’t smell or hear anything weird, but apparently lots of Nissan CVTs fail without warning.
I do have one specific concern, and I can’t tell if it’s normal or not because I’ve only driven two other cars in my life. The car vibrates quite a bit when idle and at slow speeds (under 30mph). I feel it in the steering wheel and the accelerator, the latter of which can be quite annoying. I can actually feel it everywhere I put my hand, but it’s more noticeable on the wheel and gas pedal. My mom thought it was strange, though, like me, she doesn’t know much about cars. My father is a very dismissive person in general so asking him isn’t helpful. (I think he’d rather die than admit the car he bought might have a problem, hypothetically speaking.) I googled possible causes but, dear god, the list is endless. And I can’t constantly go to a repair shop to spend money I don’t have, especially if there isn’t actually a problem and this is just how 2012 Maximas are. I read that it could be a sign of an exhaust leak, but the car has shown no other signs of this being the case. But I don’t want to risk my health.
The guy who sold us the car is a mechanic. But I can’t help but wonder: Does him being a mechanic mean the car is well taken care of, and I can worry less, or does him being a mechanic mean he knew the car was problematic and he needed to get rid of it?
When I get the chance, I’m going to ask my dad what exact repairs/replacements his friend did on the car before he sold it, since he mentioned that he fixed up some stuff for me. That might clue me in on what I need to worry less (or more) about.
Just wondering what sort of mess I might be in.
