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Hi, my name is Carl. I’ve been a Nissan head for as long as I’ve been born. I can remember being 3 years old sitting on my dads lap watching him browse through Datsun Z forums. I’d always try to help him in his S30s when I could in the garage. Since I was a kid I couldn’t wait for the day for me to have my first car to work on in the garage. This isn’t my first car however. I’ve had a few...
when i turned 15 my dad gave me a 1991 Nissan Maxima that I loved. It was the ugliest piece of **** and I made it even uglier but there was nothing stopping me from driving it. I got my license a year and a half later and It made it a couple months.
Here it is is when I first got it.
Then i I thought it would be a good idea to plasti dip it teal....
I thought it was the coolest car in the parking lot at school 😂. At the time I didn’t know **** about cars (and that they needed oil changes) and I ran the engine out of oil. When I told my dad he asked if the low oil light came on. I said “Yes” and I can’t even explain to you the look he gave me. So, my first car lasted me from Dec 2013-March 2014 😂😂 pretty much Christmas to spring break.
After that my parents tried to teach me a lesson and had me drive the minivan to school while I saved up enough to put up half for a decent car. I picked up so many weekend shifts just to make sure I didn’t have to go to prom in a Chrysler Town & Country. So, I scrapped the Maxima, and saved up $800 and my parents matched me and I bought the first car I actually wanted. A 1995 Nissan Maxima SE 5 speed.
Here it is when I first brought it home and washed it. I didn’t know how to drive stick, and my dad didn’t have the patience to teach me.. so it sat until the last week of school. I wanted to drive it on the last day of classes!
I tinted the tailkights, plasti dipped the wheels, and washed and waxed it every weekend. I eventually installed some **** coilovers on it and the car rode like absolute ***. I drove it like this until I graduated high school. Here’s what it looked like waiting for its new owner in July 2015.
I sold it for $800 and went straight to the bank to pull out more money. Called up one of my friends and we were on our way to South Bend, IN to pick up my NEW CAR.. A 1995 Nissan Maxima SE 5 speed from California and working AC lmao.
i lowered it on better coilovers, got some wheels for it, and had plans for it after finals week to get a lip kit.
I loved the way it looked and wish I knew how it would’ve sat with the kit. Unfortunately I wrecked it right after finals week.
I was a freshman in college and reallly didn’t need a car on campus so I junked it and just drove my parents spare cars throughout the summers and breaks. That accident was in DEC 2015 and ever since I just focused on school and less on cars. Almost FOUR years has passed since I’ve driven something cool (to me) or manual transmission.
I recently got my first post college job at a media agency making videos for a living (funny how that worked out). Now, an adult, I wanted to fulfill my dream of getting a 350z. My dad bought one in 02, and a 370 in 2011. I wanted my own so bad and finally could afford to. Unfortunately with my career choice and personal endeavors, I am often lugging around a massive amount of camera gear. The 350z hatch just isn’t enough space.. so that dream died. I started looking at g35 couples but they just don’t look that good to me. Then, I narrowed it down and decided I wanted a V36 Sedan 6MT. I started looking everyday on CarGurus for a 07-08 G35 sedan. The vq35 is one of the best sounding engines in my opinion and was stuck on that. I searched and searched and searched and found some, but were always stupid far away, sketchy people, or dealerships who didn’t want to bother with a first time buyer.
Things started looking pretty slim and I stopped looking all together. I ended up having an eye disease take over my life for a short period of time and ended up going blind in my right eye. After numerous doctors visits, scares, ridiculously expensive medication, I left the surgery room with a new cornea transplant a couple days ago. I now had to stay in complete darkness for 72 hours as I was very light sensitive. I decided to look one more time on the Facebook marketplace after being so bored of sitting all day listening to audiobooks. I stumbled across a G37 sport sedan 6MT black on black, fully loaded, and had a spoiler. It had EVERY single option I wanted, the exact color I wanted, and it had the 3.7 and is newer than anything else I was looking at. I called the dealer an hour after they posted it. Had my parents work some of their magic and ONE day later we were on our way to pick up the car from 3 hours away. I was excited. I couldn’t drive because of my surgery but my dad came along with my mom and I to drive the G home.
I washed it today and took some pictures.
I absolutely love this car and haven’t even driven it yet. Funny thing is, we were maybe fifteen minutes into the drive home and my dad throws his phone over to me and tells me to get online and find one for him.
The thread probably hadn’t updated yet. I posted a ton of pics. I’ve got a 2009 G37S 6MT!
Ah, yes looks like my post went through before the update. Hey Carl! I remember you from maxima.org. Looks like you scored a nice G! Congrats on your graduation, new job and of course the new car. Best of luck with it.
I drove the 3rd and 4rth Gen Maximas. Great cars. Felt Nissan took the wrong path on interiors and moved on to BMW/Acura. Now back with a G37 sedan myself. Love it. Welcome and the car looks sharp. Invest in some good paint care products as black cars tend to need a bit more TLC on that side of thing.
Hi Carl, what an intro! Sad to hear about your eye condition, sounds like you're dealing with it the best you can. Great history of Nissans in your family and glad you scored a great looking G w/ the nice S pkg. Best of luck w/ your condition and hope everything goes well for you and your great new ride!
That's quite a back story, Carl, pictures and all. Well done.
Lots and lots of modding opportunities for that 2009 6MT you've got there. Probably the three most significant (and inexpensive) mods in the category of Bang-4-your-Buck are sway bars, the RJM pedal and a STS. All are light on the wallet, and probably an easy DIY for a young man.
I certainly relate to the Maxima history. A lot of older members here came from the Maxima.
Congrats on the purchase and glad you made it through it all fine. Your back story is looooong lol
I bought the same car couple months ago. Been enjoying it since.
I went ahead and did a ton of maintenance for the car.
The clutch started slipping and I bought the car without working AC. Still, I can’t complain about the price I paid. I had a video shoot in NYC and had found a guy from an Infiniti Facebook group offer to install all the ac components and clutch for a CRAZY price of $500. I drove the car up to nyc, went to my shoot and headed to his shop where it took him maybe 7 hours to get everything done himself. So I put $1500 into the car (including labor) for it to drive and work EXACTLY how it should. The drive home to Indiana was so much ****ing fun lol. So we Flushed the fluids, installed a new AC compressor and drier, clutch, clutch master cylinder, flywheel, and csc. The car pulls how it should now and I don’t sweat my ***** off. I drove all 700 miles smiling ear to ear.
I bought the car on 6/08/2019 with 142752..today it’s 07/08/2019.. and I’m at 147856! I drove 5000 miles in thirty days and it’s given me no troubles at all.. I love this thing.
Sounds like happy days there Carl, nice to have all that done for a great price and now you can truly enjoy the car you've been wanting for so long.
Enjoy every minute of it!
That looks like a nice G. Glad to see you brought it back to life. The car I learned to drive stick on and took my driver's test in was my mom's '89 Nissan Maxima. It was a white SE with the Bose stereo and a roof. The first time I tried to drive stick with my dad teaching I killed it with not enough gas. My dad told me to give it a bit more gas and I peeled out. He just gave me "that look" after that and I got it down on the 3rd try. I've been driving stick ever since that day in the mid 90's.
06-09-2019, 09:39 PM
