Iron Chef

hahaha - rule number one in business, "know thine enemy"

Incorrect. Autech made an R33 GT-R sedan (manual only) and the R32 Skyline26, which is a sedan with NA RB26 and auto trans. The only GT-R with an "auto" is the R35, even that is technically a manual. If you want auto, buy an Evo 7 GT-A

Lots of good stuff planned for AJD next year. Andy get some photos of your car up!!!

Dean, in the end, my job is to import the car, not to sell it. In the case of this car, because it was from a company I'd never dealt with before, I actually made a point of going to visit the exporter's yard when I was in Japan, and didn't have any luck finding it, wasting a couple of hours in Japan in the process. In the end, I had to meet with their buyer at auction, who in broken English, told me about their company and about the car, and seemed quite genuine about it (it's very difficult to get auction access in Japan, and his ID was in the company name). I actually went to a fair deal of effort to make sure the car and the company existed because this specific car was the one that the Jenkk really wanted to buy, and even though I probably could've bought something similar at auction (and am now regretting I didn't, to be honest), I was keen to make sure he got the car he desired. Given the amount of effort (and money) I spent trying to check the bona fides of the company, I hope you can understand why I'm also pretty pissed off about the situation. If I have made a mistake whilst importing a car that has cost the customer money (scary to believe I make mistakes, but yes it does happen...lol) then I'm very quick to chip in to cover any extra costs I have incurred, even if those costs amount to more than my broker's fee. I don't think it's fair on me to have to pay for this mistakes of others too though. In this situation, the blame lies fairly and squarely with the agent in Japan - where I use my normal agents to buy a car, I can use the threat of pulling my business from them to leverage a bit of cash for the customer, but like I've already said, I'm not very confident that I can do the same with this agent. It hasn't stopped me having a crack at it though. I'm still in discussions with Jenkk about all this, so I'll see how he feels about the situation before posting any more on here.

You want me to order that R35 through Nissan Japan for you now or later? lol I actually think we're pretty lucky in Adelaide with the general standards of cars in import dealerships. Sinergy have a lot of very nice cars in their yard (yes I do check every now and again!), so do Redline. Common sense suggests that if businesses have been around for a while, they're obviously getting the right cars in. Adelaide's a small place!

^^lol Obelisk has copied his email into a post on here, never realised he'd done it. Just to update, not sure if Obelisk will be back on here to post pics up, but keep an eye out for a white R34 with CF bonnet and 18" AVS model 5s terrorising the streets of Adelaide, with an Iron Chef sticker on the back haha. It's not the one in the original pics with the GT-R front bar, by the way, that's actually the same dealer who did the switcheroo on Jenkk's car, so they won't ever be getting my business again.

In this particular situation, the customer, unfortunately. With the agents I normally use, if something like this happened (and in the many hundreds of cars I've imported, I can count on one hand the number of times it has) they would usually give me credit in Japan and I would then reimburse the customer. Because this particular company hasn't dealt with me before, they may decide it's cheaper just to burn us off, rather than help out. I've already sent them an email so I'll wait for their response.

Thankfully fairly minor, but it needs to be done for compliance to be squared away and Regency to be happy. I haven't been down there to see the car in the metal yet, but the workshop seemed to think it wasn't actually a bad car, just needs more of a tidy up than we were expecting, which of course means money and time.

Yes it does suck arse. What it basically boils down to was that we were stooged by the agent in Japan (this car was the first I'd bought from them), who for obvious reasons, will never get business from me again. We checked and double checked chassis numbers and were told yes this chassis number matches this car, we asked them to send photos through of the exact car Jenkk was actually buying and were again sent photos of the original car in the ad, not the one we actually ended up receiving. Of course, once the car's here, there's sweet FA that can be done because it's easier to remove your own spleen than it is to take someone to court in Japan. Sometimes I wish I had friends in low places in Japan - maybe they could start removing the agent's spleen for me... I'll be sticking to just purchasing cars from the one or two agents I've known and trusted for years from here on in, the rest of them can get stuffed.

Tune in next week for your next instalment of GRUMPY OLD MEN lol Totally agree with you, though

No the workshop organises the import approval, the car itself is imported by the owner.

^^ Actually Muz, (sorry to go OT here), I did get word just yesterday that someone in NSW is having a genuine crack at late model emissions for M35s at the moment. I'm not sure if it's related to your car or not, but either way there may be a light at the end of that very long dark tunnel of yours.

Unfortunately it's a one-time deal with compliance - if the car has been rejected (and the paperwork has been sent to Canberra), then the car can never be complied and registered. Ever. Neil, give me a ring 0402 904 069, or text me the name of the workshop doing the compliance. If they haven't sent the paperwork off to compliance, there's an outside chance they may let you transfer the compliance to another workshop, but it's a very slim chance. A few suggestions guys - never ever buy an uncomplied car off a random person, for this exact reason, or at the very least until the compliance workshop has done its initial inspection. I know it's not possible in this case, but wherever you can, try and organise compliance in your own state - it may cost more, but at least you (and they) know you can hypothetically wander in with a baseball bat if things start getting ridiculous. And I hate to say it, but a good import broker, in this situation, would probably have had the problem solved 12 months ago... It's probably of little consolation, Neil, but you can have a free broker's fee from me if you want to get something else from Japan. I'm a car enthusiast, but more importantly, I'm a Dad to three young kids, and I know what pressures these sorts of dramas can place on relationships when you're getting no sleep whatsover.

because....

As most of you know, I'm one of the organisers of AJD - just letting those who didn't know know so there's no confusion. One of the reasons AJD was even started was because of the concern that SCS was trying too hard to be another Auto Salon - wasting money bringing "high profile" cars from interstate and a heap of other smaller gripes that were coming up year after year that weren't being fixed. Maybe it was as a result of our event, maybe they've even used some of the ideas from our event, who knows, but it looks like SCS has made some fairly significant changes for this year, and from what I can see, they're all for the better. It's a shame that they can't keep the cruise and the hillclimb going, but I know how much extra effort goes into such things and if the numbers aren't there, then it's a waste of time holding them. My only real suggestion to SCS organisers would be to embrace the car club culture and promote club displays. AJD chose not to have them, and it would be a shame if SCS decided to do the same, given the support a number of clubs have shown the event over the years. Given that SCS falls at the opposite end of the year to AJD, I don't see any reason why it needs to be made into a competition. People will obviously compare, that's human nature, but AJD isn't going to go out of its way to penalise entrants who also choose to do SCS. Our motive has always been about improving the car show scene in SA, so it'd be silly to try and stop people from attending SCS, particularly when organisers have made positive steps to improving their event.

Black R32 with R33 stockies and a front mount near Heights High School - if you're on here, get yourself a thermo-fan, stat. The thing sounds like a VK Commodore.

Adam I think you've read it wrong. Nigel is saying that human nature is the same no matter where you are - for a car dealer in Japan, if sales start plummeting, then you're gonna get desperate to offload stock, and when you know a car has a chance of going overseas with the buyer having next to no chance of getting their money back off you once it arrives, it's tempting to be a little "economical with the truth" for the sake of making a sale. Of course, it's the buyer (and often the broker, if they're involved) who bears the brunt of these sorts of things, and faced with prospect of telling a private customer that their car is worthless, some workshops (with the best of intentions, I might add) have tried their hardest to bring "borderline" cars up to a registerable standard. The ones in the pics Nigel has shown are presumably the ones that John West rejects... DoTaRS has recently said that things have to be tightened up a little more, because it's the thin end of the wedge in some respects, and one of the suggestions made was that importers make sure the cars are physically inspected by an independent party in Japan so that they don't end up losing more money bringing a worthless car into the country. You'll find that most import brokers, for example, will already have such procedures in place. Oh and back in the days when you only had to own your car for 3 months before you could bring it in as a personal import, you still had to wait 12 months before you could do the next one, same as now

Damn that rust is nasty. The other issue with tradecarview is that many of the cars on there are dummy stock, designed to generate enquiries, which makes for a lot of frustration.

Any opportunity to post this pic lol

lol I thought I might've snuck a post in between the one you were replying to...

Was that directed at me? Because I have no idea what you're talking about...

A claim isn't a guarantee A mate had his engine crap itself on stale fuel, and luckily for him, he was a studying a Science degree at uni, specialising in fuels. He took a sample from the car and tested what was supposed to be 95 (back in the days when it was the only premium around...) in the lab - it had an octane rating somewhere in the low 80s... He took his data to the fuel company, who, despite protesting that they don't have to legally guarantee the octane rating of any fuel that comes out any pump, still paid for his engine rebuild rather than risk taking it to court.

I've got N1 turbos lol

Well, I'm not impressed easily, and given that kid is 23, I remain impressed. Sorry I didn't realise I wasn't allowed to be enthusiastic on here Regardless of the style of event, or how well he knows the roads, to win at his age, and against the likes of Jim Richards is an awesome effort. If Jim Richards had won in his Porsche on road tyres, I would've been equally impressed. lol @ the ad - condition is "like new"...

^^^ That's awesome, didn't even know they existed! Put some pics up!