Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

... 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

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/185059-alright-new-to-skylines/
Share on other sites

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

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?

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.

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.

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).

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

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
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.

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.

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

    • Actually, that's not entirely true. It's also the same motor in the 1st gen Nissan Cube but they're rare as hen's teeth.  
    • Yeah it is always worth testing and balancing actuators out of the box, just set the pressure regulator on a compressor very low (eg 5 psi) and increase it slowly to see when they both move.....unfortunately while you may be able to adjust the length of the actuator rod to minimise any difference, the actual pressure they move from is not adjustable so you need a well matched pair. And yes, the VCAM is probably contributing; the earlier in the rev range they come on boost and the slower the revs build (I think your demo was in 5th), the more you notice it.  Driving at WOT through 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc you will probably never hear it as any shuffling starts and is over super quickly
    • oh they were with that motor, you need to remove the engine to change the spark plugs (don't have to, but it does make it easier)
    • I certainly fall into the annoyed camp, but glad to hear that if it's happening at low boost then I'm not likely going to blow a turbo and end up with metal shards in my oil. Just feels like it prevents me from really driving it without hesitation and "peak" performance. Wonder if it's the VCAM, it did an impressive job of shifting the torque curve and faster spool, but maybe now it's "too fast" and there's too much air for how open the throttle is.  Based on some other threads, will also do some reading on synchronizing the actuators. They are the default actuators that come on the Garrett's and I would think they would be set the same coming from the factory, but if the turbos don't actually work exactly the same way at the same time as previously mentioned, it would be worth making sure the actuators are actuating together properly
    • I went down this rabbit hole before, ended up sourcing a motor from the UK (I'm in Japan) which also didn't function correctly. With the original motor, I disassembled it and reassembled it and it works somewhat, sometimes. What I could deduce from all my screwing around is that there is calibration of the gears on the inside of the motor and two ramps on the main gear which activate switches that operate the motor and move the sunroof either to retract into the roof or tilt. Where I got stuck was that, it seemed in my case that one or both of the switches that are activated by the ramp on the gear did not always activate and thus the motor did not move, causing it to sometimes not retract or tilt (apologies, I've forgotten which way it didn't work.).  Of course this part is discontinued at Nissan now, it's the same part in the S15 but no other models. I also contacted the manufacturer of the component for schematics - forgot the name, they're based in Gifu - but they declined to share the information due to being bound by an NDA, sadly. Looking through my pictures now, it seems I last had a crack at this in 2022. See, I so kindly wrote "open" and "close" next to the switches. If you figure it out, please do tell me. Those little switches, with the red buttons may need to be replaced.
×
×
  • Create New...