<- Has an R34 25Gt.
Loves it.
Agrees that it costs $.
Is one of the ones who had an accident and is paying for it :-(
Personally I picked it up because of weird reasons. I originally wanted something real basic, about $5-6k, perhaps $9k at the most, I was actually looking at a 1990 Mercedes 190e. I was then hammered by the rents to 'spend more money and get a safer and newer car'.
Basically they wanted my to spend at least $15k. I looked at falcadores and shit and wasn't too excited. Looked at the non turbo R34s, and said 'f**k it' if I'm spending that much money I'm getting a skyline.
After looking for about 6 months I actually gave up, everything I drove was disgusting. I live in Bundoora and drove all the way to a yard in Dandenong take a test drive and driving them was shitful. There was more power and better breaks in my mum's Mitsubishi Outlander than some of these 25GTs I was driving, and they were asking $16-17k for them.
I actually started looking for a BF XR6 with a ZF 6sp auto (stuck on auto P's for annoying reasons). One day my mates sends me a link to a piece of shit skyline on the net and I shrugged and went meh, but the next car down was a gem, mine...
65,000Km, 2001 S2 25GT coupe. $13,500.
Got it checked out by state roads, they were rather impressed by its condition.
Bought it 3 days later.
Now, mind you, it wasn't all perfect.
The back tyres are cured (hardened or whatever you want to call them, basically old), no one told me that or perhaps even realised (have plenty of tread on them).
4 weeks after buying it I did a 360 in the wet and went over a gutter, did alot of damage, and I'm still repairing some of the smaller stuff now, 9 months on. (Didn't get full comp cause as mentioned, it's just too bloody expensive, got 3rd fire and theft.)
I also found out during the initial major repairs that it has a GTR front rack and pinnion which has always made me suspicious.
Luckily second hand parts really aren't as expensive as you expect for an import with people like the brilliant Osaka Imports in Knox (insert advertisement money here) quite literally importing full skylines, pulling them apart and selling the parts for rather reasonable prices.
Anyway, I'm back on the road obviously, a few lil nicks here and there that are apart of learning really as mentioned above but otherwise, I still love the car... Even if I am a broke full time student...
SO
Moral of the story... Sure, fun car, enjoyable car, but you gotta realize it's not an easy car to find in good nick (my experience) and if shit hits the fan, it hits hard.
-Teir