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I live in San Diego, so I figured it'd be super easy to pick up a clean sedan 6MT here, maybe having to drive to the greater LA area, at worst. Uh, not so much. There's hardly anything out there, and the whopping 5-10 cars for sale in the past two weeks either have 10K miles and are asking 1.5-2x trade in prices, or they've got 80-100K miles on a 2012 and are still ballsy enough to ask for $18K+.
Where are all the 6MT sedans? Were they that rare? Are they disappearing into auctions after 3 and 4 year leases expire?
How am I supposed to find one? Do you guys know some secret club I'm supposed to be a member of to have G37s magically pop up on Craigslist?
I thought my 2005 Maxima 6MT was rare, but there hardly seem to be more manual G35/37 sedans, percentage wise, than there are late-model Maximas. (Final year of manual transmission Maximas was 2006, the 6th, and final, generation of Maxima to offer a row-your-own option)
PS: The cardboard timing cover gasket thing really sucks on the VQ37, but Nissan pulled a similar stunt in the 2004-200X FWD VQ35s and used plastic timing chain guides on the tensioners that fail around 120K miles. Not a cheap repair, since the FWD motor is a real blast to work on in the car. Most people's writeups on it start with "Step 1: Drop the engine"
You just have to be lucky. It was extremely difficult for me to find a 6mt coupe let alone a sedan. As soon as I saw my sedan listed, I called the dealership right away. Definitely worth the wait though. I love my sedan.
^ someone did some internet math on the build percentage on the forum a year or so ago. the general consensus is the 6MT sedan accounted for <5%, in fact closer to 2% i believe. doing a filtered search on Cars.com will give you an idea of %, but be careful since many "6MT"-advertised units actually turn out to be 7AT's. salespeople are notorious for screwing up their listings.
it is a waiting game for sure. something will pop up eventually, but yes you may have to travel a bit for the right one.
most 6MT sedan owners are enthusiasts, like myself. so we would have been selective when choosing the G37 model as it is (was) one of the few options available for 4 doors in the class with a 6MT. as such, we'll likely hang on to our cars longer than the average Joe so you won't see that automatic ex-lease turnover after 3/4 years.
Wow. Probably 2%? So it is about as rare as the last FWD VQ35 6MTs. That translates to something like anywhere from ~3,000 to ~12,000 6MTs, per Good Car Bad Car's sales figures for the G (not broken down by body type, of course).
I hadn't considered that someone who opted for the 6MT sedan, an oddball choice in a sea of autotragics, might be more likely to buy and keep vs lease and move on. That would certainly explain part of their rarity on Autotrader and company.
I was extremely lucky to have my 6MT. Right now I still have my permit (Ik, I'm young), so I had time to pick a car. In all honesty I really wanted an S4 but they were always too expensive. But I had been looking on basically all of the websites for a 6MT sedan. Then one day I found a G37S sedan for 15,500 with about 66K through a private seller. I waited about a week before writing an email. A few days after that the owner said someone from Massachusetts was coming down (I'm in central Jersey) to buy it. But a few days after that the owner said that guy couldn't get a loan or something. So I paid 15,200 and it was a 15 min drive. I've only found one since... and certainly don't see them on the road
Drove 6 hours to buy my previous '06 6MT Sedan. Then it took about a year of on and off searching to find my current '11 6MT Sedan which was about 2 hours away. Search everything and everywhere. Extend your search distance. Takes a bit of luck, patience, and persistence.
Took an 8 hour train to buy my '11 6MT Sedan back in Jan 2012. Spent the day at the dealership processing the deal, and then drove home with the car.... same day. Five years later with only 34k on the car, paid in full, modified and all kinds of awesome.
I'm very content with how this all worked out.
Should be a *LOT* easier to find a '12-'13 6MT Sedan today, what with being 4-5 years old.
