Bought a low-mileage Q50 Red Sport, started losing coolant almost immediately, now the engine is seized. What would you do at this point?
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I could really use some outside opinions on what you guys would do in my situation because I've been dealing with this for months and I'm at the point where I need to decide whether to repair the car, sell it as-is, or cut my losses completely.
I bought a 2017 Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400 AWD in November 2025 from a used car dealer for about $22,500 OTD. It only had around 56k miles. I also had a pre-purchase inspection done before buying it and nothing major was found.
Shortly after buying it, I took it to an Infiniti dealer and spent a decent amount getting maintenance caught up, including fluids, oil, filters, etc.
Not long after that, I noticed the heater would blow cold unless I gave the car some gas. The temperature gauge stayed normal and there were no warning lights.
Infiniti diagnosed a leaking radiator and replaced it for around $2,000. Unfortunately, the coolant loss continued.
I brought it back and eventually Infiniti did more diagnosis/borescope work and found small amounts of coolant/moisture in a cylinder. Their conclusion was internal coolant intrusion/head sealing issues and they recommended replacing the long block. They also had concerns about the turbos.
The crazy part is that throughout this, the car still drove normally for the most part. It never overheated, there was no milky oil, and I wasn't driving around with warning lights on.
I tried going through Infiniti for goodwill assistance because this is a Red Sport with only around 60k miles. Infiniti ultimately denied goodwill assistance. I also had an aftermarket Endurance service contract by this point, but they denied the engine claim after reviewing prior service records and doing an oil analysis. The oil analysis apparently showed potassium, sodium, water and significant coolant contamination.
Fast forward to now:
The car eventually became a no-start. The shop initially thought it might be the starter. Endurance actually authorized the starter replacement, but replacing it didn't fix the problem. The mechanic then found that the engine can only be rotated slightly by hand before locking up.
So now I have a ~60k-mile Q50 Red Sport with what appears to be a seized engine.
I've also filed complaints regarding the situation and have not heard anything meaningful back from the Attorney General yet.
At this point I'm trying to decide what makes the most financial sense.
My options seem to be:
Sell the Q50 as-is. I've been trying Facebook Marketplace, but dealing with people who don't read the description, extremely low offers, and unserious buyers has been exhausting.
Install a used VR30DDTT. I'm seeing used engines around $4k-$6k, but a lot have 60k-100k+ miles and then I'm worried I'm just buying another early VR30 with the same potential problems. Some also come with questionable used turbos.
Buy a brand-new OEM Infiniti long block. I've found genuine new AWD VR30 long blocks around $9k. I have a shop willing to do the engine replacement for roughly $2k labor, so theoretically I could have a brand-new engine installed for somewhere around $12k-$14k after fluids, parts, shipping, etc. The problem is then deciding whether to trust/reuse the existing turbos or replace those too.
Forget the Infiniti entirely and buy a cheap $4k-$5k Toyota/Honda cash car, drive it for a year or so, save money, and buy something nicer later.
I'm having a hard time justifying putting another $12k+ into a car I already paid $22.5k for, especially after everything that's happened. At the same time, selling a clean Red Sport with only around 60k chassis miles and a seized engine for pennies on the dollar feels awful.
If this were your car and your money, what would you do?
Would you:
- sell it broken and take the loss,
- put in a used engine,
- spend more for a brand-new OEM long block,
- or buy a cheap reliable car for now and move on?
I'm especially interested in hearing from people who have dealt with VR30 engine/coolant intrusion failures, engine replacements, or selling non-running Red Sports.
I'm not really looking for advice on how I should have handled things differently before buying it. I'm trying to figure out the smartest financial move from where I am today.