fungoolie

I use NAB. Their lease has no hidden fees, ie the interest rate is the actual interest rate and also if you choose to extend the lease after a year or two the details are written into the Ts and Cs that it is simply an extension and not a new lease therefore you don't cop the risk of having to pay the GST again on the "above luxury car tax limit" component of the financed amount that you had to pay when you first took the initial lease up. I had to jump through those hoops when I used a finance company that I didn't have other borrowings with but if you stick with who you have all your personal and investment finance with you generally don't get asked for financials again. And they had no issue with it being a GT-R.

Yes it is worth the hassle! What you've described is really just a cop out because you simply cant be stuffed. When it comes to high value purchase and financing decisions people spend less time sorting out this stuff than they do determining which big screen TV to buy or what wheels or exhaust to get for their car. It's because this stuff isn't "interesting". But I'd rather invest a day or so researching this than worrying about whether or not I got the best deal on a laptop..... As an example buying a GTR privately with cash would have the car cost you roughly $40,000 in the first year of ownership. Same car with a 65% residual novated lease with you on a >$100K salary will drop the after tax cost to around $22K. Using a less effective lease, say a chattel lease with you depreciating the car only say 20% per annum in your name would increase the cost to $32K. Now I don't know about you but there's not too many businessmen around who I believe would blow $10K or $20K in a day simply because they're too slack to spend a day enquiring about this stuff. And this is after tax! How much do you have to earn to compensate for this pre tax? Every buck saved is two bucks you have to earn. How many earn $1-2K an hour? And honestly, the super rich ones who won't spend the time doing this would have trusted people they use to do it for them..... I like to think of these things this way...that $20K saved will buy me 5 sets of rims, or 6 sets of tyres or maybe a nice 200KW power upgrade or even an extra R35 for the missus ....A YEAR. In my observations in the banking world I've witnessed how some high net worth clients who don't do their homework simply because it's "too hard" or "uninteresting" end up paying tens of thousands, even a hundred thousand extra in purchasing a house. And I believe there is no better way to "deflate" the purchase of a new toy than when you get that nagging feeling or someone tells you afterwards that you've just been rogered by the finance deal or in the small print....Not because you had to nut out a few issues....Of course you could just put your fingers in your ears and go naa naa naa when you hear those voices but I don't work that way...I actually get a feeling of satisfaction when that craps all sorted in my favour... Take cash, buy car, enjoy car? You will become poor.... That's why these people taking the effort are buying GT-Rs and not VN Commodores.Because it's how they deal with everything of a financial nature.Look after the cents and the dollars will look after themselves.

The prob with "No Interest" loans is that they just factor the interest into the purchase price. Guaranteed if you negotiated and then settled on the basis of cash then hit them with the can I have the No Interest Finance they would pull out of the contract.....

When you lease you borrow the ex GST amount only (except for luxury car limits which also apply for outright purchase), and only pay GST on the residual when you pay that out. If you kept a car till it was paid down to zero then you would have avoided all GST. So you end up claiming part of the GST anyway. On top of that you can claim the GST on the lease payments. And the whole lease payment is deductible even though part of it is principal and part of it is interest. (Novated Lease) You would generally never take on an interest only lease. In fact the lower the residual the bigger the component of the lease payments that is principal becomes. We all love being able to deduct principal repayments! You dont get to claim any depreciation on the vehicle when its this kind of lease, (novated not chattel), but you can actually claim MORE than the depreciation if the principal payments exceed what the vehicle depreciates. Then when you get to sell the vehicle any "profit" made which is what the vehicle sells for over and above what's still owing, (the residual), is tax free. Theoretically if the government allowed 0% residual leases you could basically pay the vehicle fully off using tax deductible funds and then sell the car shortly after for slightly less than what you paid for it effectively turning most of the cash you used to pay for it into tax free income. That's why the residual limits are what they are. The government has made them equal to what they imagine the worst depreciating vehicle could be. As i understand it a chattel lease is essentially just claiming the interest component on the lease payments but also depreciating the vehicle in your name. If you can depreciate it to the limits of 65% for a one year lease or 55% for a two year and 45% for a three year lease as per a novated lease then it's exactly the same as the novated lease as long as you dont get taxed on any amount you sell it for over what you depreciated it to. This is effectively exactly the same as buying the vehicle outright, claiming the GST on $60K (luxury car limit), interest on money used to purchase it and claiming depreciation. I've done the modelling and novated leasing still comes out tops for the reasons I've explained above.

Ive done many a motorkhana with the baby seat still in the back....

Where did you fit the slicks???

Simple. I do like new stuff. Un-tracked, unmodded, uncrashed and kms won't tell me any of that. There's always a premium to be paid for a perfect history. And by your reckoning my car had 25 kms on it so its 200 times less worn out than your 5000 km one. Maybe I should have paid a couple of mill for it? Seriously though if Adm 2nd hand ones were available in April 09 I would have bought one. Hence why id be looking at an 11 in two years time

You'd pay $25000 extra for 45000 kms less? Guy's with low km GT-Rs here's your man! God you'd think these cars are ready for the scrap heap at 100,000 kms the way you talk... What's with this "10 times less" thing? Thats like saying one thats done 100 kms is somehow "10 times" more desirable than one that's done 1000 kms. Big picture? It will need a new engine a month later than the one thats done the higher kms..... 20 YEARS OUT! Using that logic a a car thats done 400,000 kms compared with a car thats done 200,000 kms is still a better buy than a car that's done 10,000 over one thats done 1,000 because its only twice as many kms, not 10 times!! You need to think in absolutes here. Even if you'd need an engine reco at 200,000 kms if you only do say 10,000 kms per year you would have paid an extra $25K in 2011 for the privelege of having to reco your engine in 2030 instead of 2026. I think if you put that money away wisely instead of into a depreciating asset until you need a new engine and trans you'd probably be able to buy around 10 new sets when that time comes. And honestly, how many R34s out there were puffing smoke at 250,000 kms before their owners hauled out the engines to bolt on bigger turbos etc etc..... Most get modded well before the motor has breathed it's last breath. Wouldn't you feel a bit silly in 2020 hauling out your perfectly good 100,000 km motor for new forged internals which you paid a $25,000 premium for 10 years earlier when you could be hauling out your 145,000 km also perfectly good motor for the same treatment which you didn't spend $25,000 extra for.... And considering how well these muthus are built, (seriously take a good look at one that's stripped out or speak to anyone who's put a cage in one or a panelbeater who's had to work on one) I think these cars will have a lifetime up to twice that of an average car. Mines done 40K and it feels and drives like the day it was bought. In fact after the drive day my most fundamental feeling when i got back in mine was just how similar it felt to the new ones I'd driven that day. Ultimately it's how, where and with what mods these cars get driven as well as total kms that will determine how good a secondhand and how much "value for money" it is. And ultimately you will probably never know any of these except for the latter. Hence why the only way to guarantee you get a "good one" is to buy new.... And if anyone has a 2011 for sale in a couple years with 50,000 on the clock for $100K please call me....I'd gladly take it off your hands...Seriously!

Brekky was nice but the lunch was just sandwiches and wraps.... Thanks god it was all hygenically prepared...You wouldnt want to use the PI bogs.....

I found the article funnier than the comments. Nissan don't "publish" the weight???? Ummm I think someone should tell this journalist that Misuno's presentation was not the only data released by Nissan for a car. And spinning flappy paddles? Purely a matter of taste but I like to know where to find them when I'm madly twirling a steering wheel...

Got to drive the new GT-R yesterday at Phillip Island and here are my impressions. I'd love to hear what others thought. Misuno said he wants to bring the club spec edition to Australia. In Japan it's not much more than a base model at around 10 million yen but they also charge 3 million to prep it and ship it to 5 fixed events a year ready for you to step into and drive..... It's just a normal GT-R with a half cage, slicks, tow hook and 4 point safety harness. The "up-spec" option to convert your pre 11s to 11s spec is Japan only at this stage. Interior is very similar and I like the dark satin look of the console and the feel of the new gear shift surround plastic but i prefer the old colour of the steering wheel spokes and honestly overall it's just change for the sake of change to distinguish the different models and not necessarily better. I'm a bit annoyed they've discontinued the standard model because I'm not one to go and blow $4K on an upgraded stereo and now they've reverted the seats back to plain black sans red inserts ala my standard 09 and made the dunlops standard tyres basically all Nissan have done is come up with an excuse to raise the price by not offering the "budget" model. Wheels are lighter but harder to clean now... Blue colour is also a disapointment as I feel it's too dark and a lighter brighter blue would have been better. If I could be bothered cleaning it the new metallic The new metallic Black looks spectacular in the sun but why did they go for the rainbow blue tinged fleck! Take a look at the 03 WRX black with it's gold fleck for an amazing metallic black colour... Extra power is just noticeable but I really believe most of the improvement in the 0-100 time comes from the launch. I witnessed (and videod) four drag races between 09 and 11 and all the advantage to the 11 came in the lag off the line and the first 20 metres. Once moving the 09 kept up maintaining the gap commendably. (as an aside out of the 4 drags the 09 actually won 2 due to stuff ups by the drivers hence why they reran each of the 2 runs again!) It would be good for Cobb to grab Nissan's settings and see how they go in an 09 transmission. Couldn't really assess the ride on Phillip Islands amazingly smooth surface.... Steering was meant to be lighter in the new model and maybe it was me comparing well scrubbed and sticky new tyres on the 11s with my Hankook Ventus V12s but when I jumped in my car back at the airport I actually thought my steering was actually lighter.... Understeer is still there in droves especially around Siberia where you were constantly battling to get the nose into the apex and forever waiting for the front to grip. Power out of corners felt exactly the same as the 09. Front brakes are now 10mm bigger and from the looks of it an upgrade is just a matter of bolting on the bigger rotor, changing the pads (if they are different), and spacing the caliper out by 5 mm. Its definitely the same caliper. I'm not sure if they've gone for a greater swept area width or just increased the rotor diameter to increase it's heat capacity and cooling. Watch this space for the upgrade kits to be coming out of the states very soon. I thought it funny how the guys put out a new and old rotor to compare with a new one and to the naked eye you could not discern any different whatsoever! I was trying to see if the rotor hat was bigger as well as the rotor etc but without any rulers etc it was a waste of time. Not the most effective before/after display! Overall it wouldn't be enough for me to want to upgrade based on the improvements in the car. If I do it will be a purely financial decision based on my lease and whether it's more economical to trade up or stay with what I have for a bit longer. In other words I could potentially trade up even if the model hadn't been improved but the changes made don't play a significant role in my decision. As far as the performance goes if you were choosing to buy between old or new you could easily gain the performance and braking improvements for a lot less than the increase in price for the new one. In fact if you could snap up an MY10 at a significant discount over the 11 and didn't care about warranty and were prepared to mod immediately I'd personally go down that path if I was buying today.... Of course I have no idea what mods will unleash on the new model... I didn't come away totally overwhelmed by the new car thinking "wow I have to get me one of those!" Looks wise I think its a tad worse looking personally. Rear is nicer but front not so especially with the LEDs and I do appreciate how those extra lumps on the front bumper corners are there to assist brake cooling etc (up 25% apparently) but couldn't that have been achieved by alternate"styling" means? I took a few photos of the presentation and will try and upload them when I get the chance....

Was at the drive day today and the MY11 goes up to 4000 rpm and then holds. launch was nice. Slight wheelspin and no bog..

Parts alone add up to $12K-$13K. When the first aftermarket intercoolers were released they were barely any better than stock. Has that changed in recent times? What do you gain for the $2500 outlay on an intercooler? Also running E85 tends to negate the need for better intercooling as the ethanol does a fine job of cooling down the intake charge.

Spot on. Makes no difference in launch RPM whether VDC is on or off in the LC2 cars. (All ADMs). Only diff is that you have no warranty if you do it with VDC off. Go figure. In regards to the 3.3 second time that would be 0-60MPH not 100 kph and I've only ever seen that number in Nissan's own videos. As far as an ADM doing 0-100 in 3.3 tell your dealer he's dreaming!

lt's all in the grille opening for me.... Wheres that smiley face gone?

Forget powerchip (If they've even bothered to make one for the R35). I think in the best order of bang for buck mods. 1. Cobb Accessport. ~$1500 ~+30KW 2. Midpipe ~$900 3. E85 Conversion. $~1500 + Tuning ~+60KW(If you do the work yourself using HKS drop in pumps and Deutchworks Injectors) By then you should be making around 380+AWKW on the Series one. Who knows how much on the Series 3. Then perhaps start looking at Dump Pipes, Turbo upgrades etc but the prices starts to rise significantly after this point. I wouldn't bother with a full exhaust unless you are just after the sound and weight saving. I don't believe there's much to be had power wise after the midpipe for a lot of extra outlay. No mods will be kind to your warranty.....

Not sure what your point is though. You'd still expect "$150K treatment". I'm sure C63 and M3 owners expect better after sales service than what you'd get if you purchased a Tiida.

No it won't be as bad as you think it may be domino. I have to give Nissan Australia full credit here. Based on last year's program I think they did a great job at balancing the talk with the driving. Admittedly last year involved Mizuno and Toshio but this year it appears that the talking will only be for just over an hour and that will also include a demonstration of the new Launch Control IV if that's what "R Mode Demonstration" means. This will be followed by two and a half hours of driving, (morning session at least). The first hour will be tedious familiarisation exercises revolving pretty much around the art of knocking over witches hats, (based on what I witnessed last year), followed by 90 mins of fast laps with instructors sitting next to you... I enjoyed it enough to fly over again this year so you local guys will definitely be getting full value out of it. But then again I've seen people not bother to show up to corporate facilities when they have a free ticket for events such as the Clipsal 500 and my brother didn't seem to be terribly interested when I suggested to him that because hes considering trading his 997TT 911 over to the new GT-R to put his name down for this event. His reponse was a jaded.... "meh"... so perhaps I'm just too easily excitable.....

Wed through to Fri are not BYO car days. You just get to drive the new model around the track. No helmets required either which I find a bit strange considering we were allowed to go as fast as the instructors were comfortable with.

Ill be there Thursday morning. Those that are there please come up and say hello. With my luck it'll be pissing down again like last year. Oh for just one dry lap of PI!

I was under the impression that the two day "BYO car" event started next Monday followed by the six half day sessions starting wednesday next week. What's been happening this week? Are you sure you haven't got your weeks mixed up?

Where did you get them and how much? I'd like to hear how they perform.

Is this just a variable gain amplifier intercepting the lateral G sensor output allowing the driver to vary the amount of lateral G signal being fed into the torque split controller? Is so then this was done back in the days of the R32 for probably less than $10 bucks as all it consisted of was an operational amplifier, a couple of resistors and potentiometer available from any electronics store. I can't really see what else it could be given that it must still rely on the existing sensors. It definitely is a neat way of controlling torque split to optimise for wet or dry roads or to tune the car more to your particular driving style.

Clarkson tested the M3 with the competition pack and satin/matt paint and made it sound like the matt paint is a nightmare maintenance wise....