These cars will go forever if you keep them maintained. I know several people with 300,000+ miles on them.
things to look for:
transmission bearings. input shaft bearings are known to go out. shop rebuild: $850. home rebuild: $110 for two bearings and a couple of seals.
listen for a growling/grinding noise in lower gears, especially under heavy throttle.
exhaust studs. the engine mounts in these cars are pretty soft and let the engine flop around. the exhaust studs are also weak. this means when you romp on the car, the exhaust basically rips the manifolds off the engine, snapping the studs one at a time. listen for ticking that's loudest the first couple minutes of engine running. once the manifolds warm up, they kinda warp back into place and seal the gasket shut again. after a while, they will tick all the time as the manifold permanently warps.
shop repair: approx $300 per head. home repair: appros $50 per head
fuel injectors... as with any old car, the injectors are prone to failure if they are not kept clean. usually I run Chevron w/ Techron injector cleaner through the car about once a year and have never had an injector failure in 350,000 miles between two Maximas (125k on one, 225k on the second).
those are the main things to look for. the rest of the common stuff (C/V joints, timing belt, brakes, etc) are already taken care of. only other thing to note is the timing belt should be done every 60k miles, so it's about a year away from needing another one.
Edit... I'm going to stick this thread. it comes up about once a month, so there's no point in repeating it every time.
