pixel8r

oh i see the usual haters have turned up again...each to their own I say. The front is too square, but the rest isn't too bad IMO. If you stuck the factory bodykit on the front (the one with the lip at the bottom) it may look ok.

Anyone know of a way to make the glass door stay open? Several times it has come crashing down on my head...its quite painful!! Really affects the usefulness - particularly if its windy of if you're parked on a slope. My rear door struts seem ok at the moment, but the ones that lift up the boot floor are shot.

Just thought I'd follow up for anyone who finds themselves needing a new windscreen for their M35. My earlier prices were a tad optimistic (misinformation given over phone - the sales person got the wrong car among other things - was quickly corrected when we called the local branch to give the go-ahead). Instant Windscreens: $395 without the blue tint strip at the top of the windscreen or $450 with the tint strip. I wanted mine to look factory so I went with the tint strip. Parts were ordered Tuesday from interstate, and the guy came out and fitted it on Wednesday afternoon. Very happy with everything except that it happened in the first place...

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Stagea "Nissan ceased production of the Stagea in early June 2007" so no, a 2008 Stagea does not exist.

Well at least I have some positive news now. It should be fixed this wednesday or thursday. $295. That doesn't sound too bad I've also been told it does have the tint strip across the top so we'll wait and see... really sucks not having a car but I'm living with my in-laws while my house gets built (only 3 weeks to go!) so at least I'm able to borrow a car. Another thing I'm thankful for (looking on the bright side), the windscreen is probably the CHEAPEST part on the entire car for the brick to hit. The brick wasn't just thrown at the car, it was tossed out the window of a car that was driving past (probably at 60+km/h). The impact was enough to shatter the entire windscreen (although its still mostly in place), including 2 dents where the brick hit (one has a tiny hole all the way through). The brick split in two and the 2 halves of the brick landed about 10 metres away from the car and also about 10 metres away from each other...down near the house. I know its bad luck to get hit in the first place but in a sense we're lucky it wasn't any worse than it is. It was a random attack (unless someone really hates imports)...so hopefully it wont happen again. I wont be parking on the street again to find out.

UPDATE: I have since moved to Adelaide, SA (as of August 2009). Rego has been transferred to SA rego. The car has been advertised on carsales.com.au as of today (April 24, 2010). The car is still running very reliably and is in the same condition as the above photos show. Major 100,000km service has been carried out by a professional workshop. All regular servicing is up to date and only full synthetic oils have been used. The odometer reading is currently 120,000km. The price remains at $18000 (this is lower than the price advertised on carsales and is therefore not negotiable). inspections welcome - please PM me on here.

You are correct. they are the more expensive of the 2 quotes, with instant windscreens being the cheaper one. interestingly obrien mentioned it wont need the mould replaced whereas instant said it may need it.

I'm guessing more common than M35 ones... So far I've been quoted $717 from one place and $395 from another (plus the mould which they said more than likely needed replacing). Unfortunately my insurance doesn't offer a free one.

Hey guys, So yes I woke up this morning to the lovely news that my windscreen was bricked last night. There's tiny fragments of glass all over the front passenger seat but not much else...and the windscreen itself looks like a spider's web. The brick itself split in two, which shows the kind of force the screen can handle... freaking morons!! anyway, does anyone know if the M35 windscreen is the same as a V35 skyline screen?

heh, mine is completely stock and used to average ~13.5-13.8L/100km in the summer (A/C on over 50% of the time). If I went very lightly on the throttle everywhere I was able to get it down to just 13L/100km in the same conditions. Now that the weather has cooled down here its averaging 12.5 L/100km which isn't too bad at all for a big heavy wagon, and with no conscious effort to drive economically. Took it down to Robe over Easter and averaged 10.2L/100km. Thats with 2 adults, 1 baby, and a boot FULL (and I mean FULL) of gear, ranging from suitcases, pram, porta-cot, and enough food for 6 adults for the whole of easter! I think I filled every little compartment in the whole car...although everything was level with the top of the seats so I could still see out the rear (dont have a cargo barrier so had to make sure there were no loose items on top). I was impressed with how much went in. The 2 rear seats next to the baby seat were full of stuff as well (I try to put most of the weight as far forward as possible). As for the M35 looks, I receive more (positive) comments from people about this car than I did when I owned the C34 (s2). I guess it just looks more modern.

Hmm admittedly my knowledge is limited on legnums and I've only owned a s2 and M35 (but have driven in a s1). However I'd probably side with the legnum on this one. Mainly because, as a direct comparison, the legnum is probably overall the better car "as is" (ie. both in standard trim). The stagea offers more potential though...so it comes down to how much money you're prepared to spend. Of all the people on this forum who have owned legnums and driven stageas, most rate the legnum somewhere in-between a C34 and M35 stagea. mainly this is about performance, where the legnum could leave most stageas behind and their fuel economy is reported to be slightly better too...depending on mods of course. You'll need to do a fair amount to the stagea to get it up to the same power level as the legnum (boost, possibly turbo, FMIC, tuning?) but with a manual stagea you have a LOT of options. The stagea does have more boot space though... Note the factory manuals are RWD (I think) so bear that in mind...basically if you want manual+AWD you're looking at a converted stagea anyway. provided the conversion was done well there shouldn't be any issue. On the C34 you'll probably be up for a turbo upgrade at some point anyway, particularly if you increase the boost etc. The ceramic turbos in all stageas aren't known for longevity. Pretty sure the legnum turbos have steel wheels meaning they can handle more boost. Looks are in the eye of the beholder...I probably prefer the legnum for looks, although sometimes they look a bit odd from certain angles (yeah, I know, pot & kettle etc).

Some of you may remember a few weeks ago I spotted a 4door R33 with "NON TURBO NEO 6" written on the back window. Well it gets better, I saw it again this morning and it has a GTS25t badge. I'm not sure what this car really is but if everything is to be believed it is a 4-door R33 turbo which has had the engine+turbo replaced with a n/a R34 engine...?! Its for sale...wonder why it hasn't sold yet...?

I agree with everyone else - only you can decide. I got a bargain with my M35, came up at auction in japan only $3000 AUD equiv more than the average C34's, so I jumped at the chance to own a newer car (2003 model). Originally I disliked the looks until I saw one "in the flesh" up close - from then on I was completely hooked. Read the 1st post in the "M35 Info" sticky for all the details on the M35. I'm assuming the M35's looks dont bother you if you are considering it...so really its just down to the ride quality. I say its better, in the sense that it hides bumps better, but it may be a touch softer than the C34 and gives the car less of a sporty feel and more of a luxury feel. So really its up to you to drive both, and work out if you like what Nissan have done with the M35. I'll admit I took a while to warm to some things about the M35, having owned a modified s2 for 2 years, but now I wouldn't swap it for anything.

Actually, you'll notice kidafa's stagea has the same front lip as in the original pic...

If you believe the youtube clips, the stagea is 5 star by JNCAP ratings (which is out of 6). This is for both C34 and M35. In particular, it did mention that the passenger safety rating was 5 star while the driver rating was only 4 star. not sure why this is as no reason was given. Pretty sure I found it on youtube but I cant access that from work so I cant look it up right now. The youtube clips I'm referring to are actual crash test videos showing the stagea crashing 3 ways (front, side & front corner). In any case they rate VERY well compared to other cars (especially wagons) of equivalent year. I believe the only thing to let them down ratings-wise is the lack of VDC/ASC, which wasn't around/common at the time these cars were first built anyway.

The power and torque delivery of the VQ25DET is incredibly smooth there. Some things I noted: Boost starts becoming noticeable somewhere just before 2000rpm (as suspected) The VQ35DE has more torque until 2000rpm where the VQ25DET smashes it (well, until the very top end). Actually, all the others have more torque than the VQ25DET initially. The VQ25DET has overall the most power and torque where it really counts (say 1500-3500rpm) VQ25DET = awesomest!

Are you kidding? Iain has access to it!

PIT = pit stop? better radio through and get your pit crew ready I guess...

I did look it up but admittedly most of my "research" was on wikipedia... But I've yet to read anywhere about any R33 receiving the NEO motor. It'd be very easy for the discerning buyer to spot the difference. However if someone were to somehow get the NEO cover onto the older RB25 it could fool people.

twice i've seen a white R33 on Park Tce (near clipsal building) around 8:20 in the morning. Its for sale and has writing on the back window saying "Non Turbo Neo 6". Either he's misinformed (Neo engine only came out with the R34) or that's one fairly pointless engine swap... I'm guessing the first one.

Weird - when I did almost the same thing recently (major upgrade - m/b, cpu, ram, v/card), my existing Win7 RC failed to boot, couldn't repair itself and I spent way too long trying to fix it. In the end I gave up and did a fresh reinstall. From past experience its usually HD controller drivers that mess this up - but its been so long since I was into that stuff. Interestingly, in my case Linux (opensuse) booted back up on the new hardware without a hassle - just had to switch to the ATI driver for my new video card (previously nvidia) and all was well.

I dont understand why mine felt faster when I put the little panel back on. I cant explain it. But it definitely does seem faster or at least more responsive off the line now. It doesn't make sense... There must be a reason why Nissan included the powerduct with all n/a versions of these engines and not with the turbo version.

usually the side effect of the SAFC was that it advanced the timing. But it was still good enough to get the AFR graph to flatten out once it hit 12:1 and stay at 12:1 all the way to redline. This was on a 99 model with full 3" exhaust and GT30 turbo, and with the base timing advanced a little also, the fuel economy dropped by 2L/100km. It was a huge improvement, mainly in the mid-range. I guess the problem is that the ecu has so many inputs it uses, and with the SAFC you're only changing one of those...

I think mine are fairly neat. 2 of them have been used a fair bit so I can definitely confirm the M35 makes a great family wagon.

This is interesting. I have no powerduct, but I did run for a few months with the little panel on the airbox removed. Not sure how much difference the powerduct would make vs not having anything there. The airbox sits so close to the front that I figured the only difference would be that it might suck in hot air when I wasn't moving, but in theory that should be better for fuel economy, not worse. Recently I put the little plastic panel back on and realised the difference it made. With the panel back on again, I now have much better low-end response, smoother power delivery and the car feels noticeably faster. Fuel economy also seems to have improved a little, but not by enough to make any great claims about it. The main difference was in the ability to build boost at low revs...it seems having the airbox closed is good for building boost pressure early. Top end performance was definitely improved with the panel removed, so I may have had a heavier right foot more often...