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Alright?... New To Skylines

Geordie1

By Geordie1,
in New South Wales

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Geordie1 Newbie

Geordie1

Posted
Posted

... as above, i'm new to this forum, new to Skylines and soon to be new to Oz.

I'm emigrating over from Newcastle upon Tyne UK to Newcastle NSW in January to be with my lass... so seeing as i'm not going to have any mates i thought i'd treat myself to a Skyline, always have wanted one so why not, eh?

I've been looking at prices, specs etc and THINK i'm going to go for an R33 GTS-T, now i know a little bit about a little bit to be honest as i've always had Vauxhall's (Holden's to you guys) over here and have never had anything Japanese.

I've looked on a web site www.carsales.com.au ... no idea if thats where i should be looking, any other ideas would be appreciated?? Of what i've seen am looking between $15-20'000, is this correct?

Any advice on basic things to look for on the R33's when buying (good and bad) would be much appreciated also.

Cheers, Mark

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funkymonkey Grand Master

funkymonkey

Posted
Posted

there's already a pretty active community in the UK for skylines (you get all the models there that we do), jump on gtr.co.uk and skylineowners.com to find some locals who have one so you can go for a spin in their car with them to see if you really like em.

Series 1 R33's these days are about 12,000 max, series 2's will cost you 20,000 max, and it better be real good for that price tag, as you can get R33 GTR's for about 24,000 these days. R34's are also just starting to creep under the 20,000 mark, so why not go for something newer. Car Sales is a pretty good place to start, i'd also be checking out ebay.com.au and tradingpost.com.au

Geordie1 Newbie

Geordie1

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Cheers lads...

... on cars in the UK you can have a HPI check done on the car to check if its ever been written off or accident damaged, costs about £40 or something.

Is there anything similar in Oz for imported cars?

Wink Grand Master

Wink

Posted
Posted
Cheers lads...

... on cars in the UK you can have a HPI check done on the car to check if its ever been written off or accident damaged, costs about £40 or something.

Is there anything similar in Oz for imported cars?

Yes you can check if its been a write-off or still on loan but not accident damaged.

I would take funkymonkey's advice and go for something newer like the R34 GT-T.

Geordie1 Newbie

Geordie1

Posted
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Posted

Aye, i've just been looking at the R34 GT-T's and they're actually looking around $16-20k so reckon i will go for one of them.

So where can i get the Oz version of an HPI check done then?

Also, what are running costs like over there? Petrol, insurance etc.

Over here its about £1 per litre for petrol (which would be about $2.50 over your way), and obviously insurance varies greatly... but can anyone give an approx figure for a 24yr old, living in Newcastle or Maitland, driving for 5 and abit yrs with 1 yrs no claims and no accidents/convictions... if tried on the web to get a few quotes but they all say i've got to ring them... they obviously dont appreciate i'm on the other side of the world, never mind.

funkymonkey Grand Master

funkymonkey

Posted
Posted

well you're in luck, we're actually pretty good with the petrol thing... its about $1.50 per litre here for the 98 octane stuff that skylines take.

Insurance should be a grand a year for someone that age in that city. After a brief stint in london I can tell you that the taxes and overheads of owning a car etc are MUCH less over here.

There's no real equivalent check here. There's an RACV 100 point check, but they're a bunch of muppets with no specific knowledge of high performance cars, just day to day cars. As for accident history, there's no way to check that other than taking it to an experienced panel beater, we don't have a registry for accidents. However you can do a check for about $25 on the car's registration history, finance status, and if it requires special inspections for registration (sold as a damaged car etc).

Geordie1 Newbie

Geordie1

Posted
  • Author
Posted

60p a litre?! Unbelievable! Shell Optimax (or anything with higher RON than unleaded) you're looking abit a quid over here!

... now I'm just hoping a pint of lagers just as cheap :blink:

Whey, its 5.30pm on a friday over here so works done, and am off out on the drink.

Cheers for the replies lads, am sure i'm guna need alot more advice etc so i'm sure we'll speak again.

Thank, Mark

scathing Grand Master

scathing

Posted
Posted (edited)

There's no check like that, but in NSW the NRMA (like the Automotive Association in the UK, and funkymonkey's RACV in Victoria) do provide car inspections for a fee.

They won't be able to pull data off any official database to tell you its full history, but they'll be able to sight the car with a visual inspection and tell you what's wrong with it (they go on-site), what could be wrong with it, and what else stands out mechanically.

Aside from that, I know some buyers who will take prospective cars to a performance-oriented garage for a more accurate check by people used to dealing with such vehicles. Inspection up on a hoist, a few full throttle runs on a rolling road dyno, etc. In my opinion, a far better option.

Edited by scathing
Wink Grand Master

Wink

Posted
Posted
So where can i get the Oz version of an HPI check done then?

We can do what's called a REVS check:

http://www.revs.nsw.gov.au/

Plug in VIN, engine and registration (license plate) number and it'll tell you if the car is under loan (the bank owns it) or if has been written off before.

evil_weevil Grand Master

evil_weevil

Posted
Posted

unfort coming here 95% of pubs have schooners and they are bloody small compared to a pint!

oh, and welcome!!

with the exchange rate - if you got a fair wack of quid saved up you can afford a decent car - Id also go for an r34

Scathing - actually, NRMA has scraped the vehicle inspections.

V.I.P. do it for our cars now.

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