Prestige Motorsport -- Another Question.

[P1E]

I'm looking for an R33 GTS-T and I'm very, very close to signing up with Geoff at Prestige Motorsport to privately import a vehicle like so many of you already have. However, I was looking through Geoff's list of past/sold vehicles tonight, when I came across this. It's a 1994 Nissan Skyline GTS-T.

http://www.prestigemotorsport.com.au/au/st...asp?StockID=120

Condition notes: Excellent condition throughout. No stereo. $16,800.

The car looks nice. The report is positive. I very well could have purchased this vehicle. However, I have also been looking at cars locally (in South Australia) and this car reminded me of a 1993 R33 GTS-T I looked at and test drove a few weeks ago. In fact, it's the very same car.

The problem being that the condition of this 1993 (not 1994 as stated) GTS-T was not even close to 'excellent throughout'. In fact, the car was absolutely farked. It stalled for no reason (several times) and attached are a few pictures of the car's actual condition.

http://endept.com/fckedr33

So, what happened? Did somebody buy this vehicle, absolutely thrash it for three months (without clocking any KMs) and then try to sell it at a profit? Or was the vehicle description provided by Prestige Motorsport a little off?

Has anybody had an experience similar to this? I have once again been put off importing. Somebody reassure me.

Oh, and there was a silver sticker under the hood with Japanese writing all over it and the number 100,000. Does this mean the car has had a 100,000KM service, or does it mean the car is due for a service at 100,000KMs, or does it mean something else entirely?

[33Spec2]

id say that the car was probably bought by someone then thrashed or maybe the car yard thrashed it or something like that

what geoff says about the cars is usually correct i know heaps of people who have imported and not one has complained about the cars condition - goeff can pick from thousands of cars so really he is gonna tell you the truth about each one he's not running some dodgy caryard, Prestige have no reason to make the descriptions a little off

just my opinion

[Lepperfish]

Id say a bit off both... Thrashed and description probably a bit off.

[KamikazeR33]

could it be a different car all together? geoff doesnt usually get anything wrong... like yrs etc

also ive seen a few cars like this over the last 2 yrs

[P1E]

It's definitely the same car. Perhaps it was accident damaged in Australia in its first few KMs? Hmm.

[akeenan]

dude...

no one will never be sure unless you ask geoff himself. everyones answers are purely guesses. the thing you have to look at is most people are 100% satisfied with prestiges services and if this was a re occuring problem im sure it would be well known by now.

[OBaYBe]

IMO the damage looks as though it was scraped really good when the car was rolled onto and off the boat.

Notice in the original pic, the car was part of stock at some kind of japanese dealership? IMO dealerships world wide are scum bags. I think they also had something to do with the bullshit 'faultless' comment. How Geoffs contacts in japan didnt notice it is beyond me.

IMO it is best to buy off auctions and skip cars Geoff has in stock. In auctions you get a detailed inspection report and anaylis of the car. As well as a vareity of photos.. (interior, exterior..)

I would say it was damamged while being put on and taken off the boat. Plus a little thrashing.

[gtrken]

If you think that a few nicks and scratches makes it Absolutely farked as you say , then I would strongly suggest that you don't import one.

Your stds are going to be way too high and I would buy local so you can see and try before buying.

Cheers

Ken

[P1E]

gtrken: I could understand a few scratches, but I have never seen an R33 GTS-T in worse condition than this.

I will contact the seller tomorrow. Hopefully the car is sold so they can be honest and fill me in...

[33Spec2]

good point - your gonna find it hard if you want something with no scratches at all also that body kit is extremely close to the ground in the photo, id say it would have scraped heaps of things on/off the boat, on the way to the dealer, test drives etc. but if you do import through prestige they are always more than willing to get more photos of the car you wish to import as they did with mine:D

[P1E]

Yes, you raise a valid point. The car looks alright in the Prestige pictures. However, it wasn't only damage to the kit. The entire car badly, badly needed respraying. There were countless scratches on every panel, none of which were mentioned on the Prestige web-site. Is this type of damage common in transit? If it is, I think gtrken is right in saying importing isn't for me.

Edit: I have e-mailed Geoff too asking why the car was listed as being a 1994 model.

Lastly, what would cause the car to stall for no reason? Major engine problem? Minor engine problem? I wouldn't have a clue.

[skipppy]

just wondering how much this car is now and wot car yard it was in???

[Shell]

Originally posted by P1E

Oh, and there was a silver sticker under the hood with Japanese writing all over it and the number 100,000. Does this mean the car has had a 100,000KM service, or does it mean the car is due for a service at 100,000KMs, or does it mean something else entirely?

If it was down the front, I think this means to change the timing belt at 100,000kms.

anyway...as akeenan said, you can really only get the answers from Prestige. It all sounds a bit weird but who really knows what the proper story is? He has nothing to gain from giving false descriptions...and everything to lose...so I doubt there would have been any deliberate deception.

The scratches could have been caused to the car after it got here, from whoever bought it. Who knows how it's been treated in those 3 months? As for the stalling problem... this is very common...see the performance section.

All I can say, P1E...is don't be put off importing!! If you decide it's not for you, then fair enough...but find out the full story before you decide anything

[P1E]

I won't be put off easily. I have called Geoff and will contact the seller.

skipppy: It was a private sale. $19,500.

[d0p3y]

Geoff has done the same to someone I know with their R34. According to him the condition was "Excellent Throughout" however he failed to mention that a) the car had a crappy respray, was chipping off in places and was scratched to the shithouse

B) also failed to mention minor accident history.

however Geoff refunded his broker fee after argument.....

[unwritten law]

I had a dealer here in bris offering me a 32. I found out thru the photos that he was going thru HB Tokyo. The dealer told me the car was in VGC, no accident history. I then emailed HB Toyko to see what they had to offer and they sent out photos of the car, and i asked what sort of condition it was in. HB Tokyo replied with a few scratches, accident repair history to the front quarter.

I then didnt go thru with the dealer...

[MrZac]

Cant fault Geoff in regards to my current car, it is quite clean. He can generally provide the auction report of the car as well. He has nothing to hide and as his ad in HPI states 30% of business is from previous customers.

He has so many cars to choose from that he wouldnt bother with a car that would see problems. Thats just my experiences with him anyway, he is alot better than most people in the import market.

[JimX]

A lot of Skylines stall for no apparent reason, usually because of an aftermarket bov (but not always). Check this thread in the forced induction forum.

Stalling is usually no way to tell if a Skyline engine is shagged, you have to use the normal methods like loss of compression or burning oil or strange noises.

[P1E]

For all those who are interested, below is Geoff's reply.

In response to your post, we did not sell that vehicle to any customers so there is no way that we can confirm that it is the same vehicle for a start.  Also, there is no way of knowing what happened in transit or what happened to the car once it arrived.  For all we know, it's been stolen and recovered since it's been in Australia, or had parts and panels swapped with another car.  Only the owner can answer your questions, however I doubt they will.  The car was not bought through a car yard, it was sourced by a reliable supplier from auction who would not have bought a car in the condition you have described.  Pictures were taken in a car yard as this is where the stock vehicles are stored by this supplier.

 

Re: the R34 comment, that is like many posts incorrect in terms of a number of details.  We did supply one R34 GT-T that turned out to have poor paintwork.  I inspected it myself at auction when I was in Japan.  There was rain all over the car and the auction sheet listed the car as a respray -- both facts were told to the customer.  However, the paint looked fine and covered in rain there was no way of getting a better opinion.  The price achieved at auction was about $2,000 to $3,000 less than the average prices at that time.  The car was put in a container for transport, but there were a lot of scratches that occurred in transit -- the only conclusion we could come to was that something else was packed in the container which shouldn't have been.  The insurance covered some of the repainting.  As a result we do not recommend containers any more.  We did not refund our service fee as the issues were beyond our control.

 

The process is not perfect, so if you have any doubts about importing, don't.

 

Geoff

[paulr33]

My 97 Spec II in mint condition from a private importer in AUS had a massive stall problem after a month of owning it. I had nissan in melbourne have a look at it and they couldnt find what was wrong but were able to replicate the stalling. I said well its ****ed, fix it. They then reset everything they could changed all disposable parts (spark plugs n shit) and then it was sweet. They said they found nothing wrong and it seems to run fine. Since then its been awesome.

The stalling problem was terrrible. COuld sit at the lights without it stlaling. It had no mods either btw. fully stock. Even stock air box