For about the last 50K, very approximate, the car has taken time to 'warm up' before shifting into 'overdrive'. Essentially after leaving my house, as long as I stayed below 50Mph, it would run at higher RPMs for a little while before dropping into the appropriate RPM range for the speed. As I type this, I'm thinking that what appears to me to be overdrive at lower speeds may just be 3rd gear, but I'll let someone else fill me in.

Just before this happened the reverse gear was jumpy, very mechanical and breaking feeling, but it did reverse and drive did engage when selected. The drive gear itself at this time was taking a moment to fully engage. When drive was selected after backing out of a parking space, the car would move forward slowly, as if the gear wasn't fully engaged, and then it would appear to shift into first gear and take off as usual.

Right now the car is parked and I dare not try to move it a third time; the second time was just to repeat the problem and get it into a better parking area, which succeeded, but it's obviously going to have to be towed to a shop to get fixed.

I'm hoping that someone here can present a range of diagnoses, and possibly a range of costs; I'm currently in training at a military base that's 9 hours away from my home, and the car will have to be towed off of the military base to a shop, and I'd rather not get taken to the cleaners. Any help would be appreciated!

When they told me it was bad, however, they gave me a quote on one that had 50,000 miles on it, and the installed price was half what a new one would cost. While I'd really like a new transmission, dropping $3k on a 7 year old car that I owe about a year and 3 months on just isn't worth it to me, but on the flip side I do owe money on it and it is still otherwise a nice car, so it is worth fixing.

I went ahead with the transmission, will get it back this Friday or Monday (depending on pay cycles), and they say that I have a 30 day warranty on the used one. I will certainly be testing that out.

The dealer is also taking care of a headlight issue that's under recall, my left light had shorted out, and some other issue with the ECU that was under recall. They're also replacing a CV joint that went out.

While I know dealers are expensive, I'm hoping that the money is both well spent in making sure that the car is fixed right, the first time, and that while I'm two states away from my home now, I will still have a warranty on the work after I drive it home.

Classic example. We ordered a transmission for a Sentra that was struck by lightning. I checked the part number and they had plenty at our closest distribution center. The next morning the part came back cancelled. I called Nissan and that day they had changed the part number to an RE version. It came in with the RE label over the previous label, which is the part that I had originally tried to order.

Nissan does not even offer a new distributor, they are all labeled as RE. The only part they use is the actual base plate, aka "body" of the distributor. Everything else in it is brand new. Aftermarket companies put new seals and a cap and rotor in it, whereas Nissan replaces everything.