Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hi Fellas,

I'm toying with the idea of going all in and putting my funds for the next few years into a skyline. I'm currently full time at uni with 3 years to go, so money is a pretty significant issue.

My first choice would be to pick up a manual r34 GT-T for around $25k (which should be possible with some hunting, according to my research). However, that would take up pretty much all my cash (plus insurance of $2k quoted by Just Car). So I'm wondering how the running costs for an r34 GT-T, as compared to my current "car" (2000 CE Lancer 1.8 manual), ignoring the obvious fact of fuel consumption? Services would be more expensive, of course (substantially?), but am I liable to be hit with many other costs? I'd intend buy it stock and keep it that way (for the time being), and use it as a daily driver with no track work etc.

Alternately, how would that compare to say a '96 or '97 r33 GTS-25T which I'd be aiming to put around $18k into? Would the running costs be significantly more for the r33 (older car, more liable to breakdown etc), or similar? In the long term would it still be a cheaper option?

I should probably point out that I have little to no mechanical expertise, though I'm willing to learn to keep everything running smoothly.

Thanks for the input!

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/106217-running-costs-v-purchase-price/
Share on other sites

I wouldn't say that running costs between a GTT and late model GTST would differ that much, provided both are in decent condition. I even find that servicing my Skyline only costs marginally more than a non-imported car (mainly because I use premium fluids).

If it's a near-stock daily driver, shouldn't have any major problems.

Both cost about the same to run, generally you wouldnt be breaking things as much in the R34, but you never know.

You'll get almost the same fuel economy, and roughly similar costs for insurance.

But going from a lancer to this, you are going to be so so broke on petrol costs. $20 used to get me a weeks worth of driving in my old car, now its like $70, and for a struggling student, tough!

Not to mention if things start breaking, your in for it! parts are pretty expensive and hard to come by. Then you have things like tyres, brake pads the usual maintenence stuff.

And I said I was gonna keep the car stock after i got it, that doesnt really last for long. You'll be itching to spend even more money on it! hahah

Nonetheless i say go for it, itll make you happy, but broke! I dont regret getting mine.

I've had my GTT for a year next month. kept it stock all this while, the only costs I have outlayed is in replacing an O2 sensor plus ur normal 5000k services which is oil, filter. I've driven more than 30,000ks over the past year in it and had no problems at all whatsoever *touch wood* I guess all it comes down to is age and condition. newer car less things break if maintained regularly. older car would have more wear and tear, replacing parts can be a pain and that is where most of the costs would be incurred. I don't see any difference in maintainece costs compared to a lancer except with turbo cars u will need to do oil changes more regularly.

Jesus thats alot of millage! i will of had my GT-t a year as of march 6th. And the only thing i've spent money on has been one service, but i changed all the gearbox and diff oil to redline. and it hasn't cost me that much to run really.

Where do they sell these cheap R34s. I would love to get one that cheap. Insurance wise, I found the cheapest to be Suncorp but I suppose it depends on your age. I just got spark plugs for my car and they were $25 each X 6.

R34's have dropped in place dramatically in the past 6 months or so. I payed about 32,000 for mine this time last year and now would be lucky to get 27,000 or so. I'd take 25,000 if i was selling it (but thats never gonna happen in my lifetime)

Thanks for the input guys - I feel more and more tempted! Looking at R34s though, it seems that the autos are a lot easier to get at the lower price - I'm more of a manual guy, though, as I like the extra control it affords. I realise that the autos are tiptronic, but how agressively can they be driven? I remember driving a tiptronic Liberty GT, and while the power was certainly all there, it felt like I was being "babied" thru the gears, particularly at the lower RPMs, and the gear changes seemed to take forever - am I likely to have similar experience in the R34?

(Yeah, I know, I should just test drive one, but I won't have an opportunity til next week so I figure I may as well as ask you guys :lol: )

There won't be much difference, till you stack the R34.. then you're f**ked.. as panels, headlights, etc are near impossible to come by, and will cost you a pretty penny.

I just got spark plugs for my car and they were $25 each X 6.

sorry.. but you got ripped off.. You can get a full set of coppers for $25 the set, and they would have done exactly the same thing.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Update 3: Hi all It's been a while. Quite a lot of things happened in the meantime, among other things the car is (almost) back together and ready to be started again. Things that I fixed or changed: Full turbo removal, fitting back the OEM turbo oil hardlines. Had to do quite a bit of research and parts shopping to get every last piece that I need and make it work with the GT2860 turbos, but it does work and is not hard to do. Proves that the previous owner(s) just did not want to. While I was there I set the preload for the wastegates to 0,9bar to hopefully make it easier for the tuner to hit the 370hp I need for the legal inspections that will follow later on. Boost can always go up if necessary. Fitted a AN10 line from the catch can to the intake hose to make the catchcan and hopefully the cam covers a slight vacuum to have less restrictive oil returns from the head and not have mud build up as harshly in the lines and catch can. Removed the entire front interior just shy of the dashboard itself to clean up some of the absolutely horrendous wiring, (hopefully) fix the bumpy tacho and put in LED bulbs while I was there. Also put in bulbs where there was none before, like the airbag one. I also used that chance to remove the LED rpm gauge on the steering column, which was also wired in absolute horror show fashion. Moved the 4in1 Prosport gauge from sitting in front of the OEM oil pressure gauge to the center console vents, I used a 3D printed vent piece to hold that gauge there. The HKB steering wheel boss was likely on incorrectly as I sometimes noticed the indicator reset being uneven for left vs. right. In the meantime also installed an airbag delete resistor, as one should. Installed Cube Speed premium short shifter. Feels pretty nice, hope it'll work great too when I actually get to drive. Also put on a fancy Dragon Ball shift knob, cause why not. My buddy was kind enough to weld the rust hole in the back, it was basically rusted through in the lowermost corner of the passenger side trunk area where the wheel arch, trunk panel and rear quarter all meet. Obviously there is still a lot of crustiness in various areas but as long as it's not rusted out I'll just treat and isolate the corrosion and pretend it's not there. Also had to put down a new ground wire for the rear subframe as the original one was BARELY there. Probably a bit controversial depending on who you ask about this... but I ended up just covering the crack in the side of the engine block, the one above the oil feed, with JB Weld. I used a generous amount and roughed up the whole area with a Dremel before, so I hope this will hold the coolant where it should be for the foreseeable future. Did a cam cover gasket job as the half moons were a bit leaky, and there too one could see the people who worked on this car before me were absolute tools. The same half moons were probably used like 3 times without even cleaning the old RTV off. Dremeled out the inside of the flange where the turbine housing mates onto the exhaust manifolds so the diameter matches, as the OEM exhaust manifolds are even narrower than the turbine housings as we all know. Even if this doesn't do much, I had them out anyways, so can't harm. Ideally one would port-match both the turbo and the manifold to the gasket size but I really didn't feel up to disassembling the turbine housings. Wrapped turbo outlet dumps in heat wrap band. Will do the frontpipe again as well as now the oil leak which promted me to tear apart half the engine in the first place is hopefully fixed. Fitted an ATI super damper to get rid of the worn old harmonic balancer. Surely one of the easiest and most worth to do mods. But torquing that ARP bolt to spec was a bitch without being able to lock the flywheel. Did some minor adjustments in the ECU tables to change some things I didn't like, like the launch control that was ALWAYS active. Treated rusty spots and surface corrosion on places I could get to and on many spots under the car, not pretty or ideal but good enough for now. Removed the N1 rear spats and the carbon surrounding for the tailpipe to put them back on with new adhesive as the old one was lifting in many spots, not pretty. Took out the passenger rear lamp housing... what do you know. Amateur work screwed me again here as they were glued in hard and removing it took a lot of force, so I broke one of the housing bolts off. And when removing the adhesive from the chassis the paint came right off too. Thankfully all the damaged area won't be visible later, but whoever did the very limited bodywork on this car needs to have their limbs chopped off piece by piece.   Quite a list if I do say so myself, but a lot of time was spent just discovering new shit that is wrong with the car and finding a solution or parts to fix it. My last problem that I now have the headache of dealing with is that the exhaust studs on the turbo outlets are M10x1.25 threaded, but the previous owner already put on regular M10 nuts so the threads are... weird. I only found this out the hard way. So now I will just try if I can in any way fit the front pipe regardless, if not I'll have to redo the studs with the turbos installed. Lesson learned for the future: Redo ALL studs you put your hands on, especially if they are old and the previous owners were inept maniacs. Thanks for reading if you did, will update when the engine runs again. Hope nothing breaks or leaks and I can do a test drive.
    • No those pads are DBA too  but they have colors too. I look at the and imo the green "street" are the best.
    • I’m not sure what happened I told them about sonic tunes free OTS tune and the next the I know .. I was booted..   To funny 
    • Yea - I mean I've seen my fuel pump which is decades old and uh, while I'm not saying this with real knowledge... but I sure get the ick at using anything in the fuel system that produced the state of that pump. Many years ago I went through multiple pumps (and strainers) before I dropped the tank to clean it out with extreme violence. I'm talking the car would do maybe 50km before coming to a halt, which resulted in me cleaning out the filter with some brake cleaner and going on my way. None of my stuff ever looked like what came out of your fuel tank. I don't think I'd be happy with it unless every single component was replaced (or at least checked/cleaned/confirmed to be clean here).
    • I'm not going to recommend an EBC pad. I don't like them. Just about anything else would suit me better. I've been using Intima pads for a while now.
×
×
  • Create New...