First Impressions

[shane344]

Just thought I would start up a thread to roll through my first impresssions of Stagea ownership.

So I sold my cressida on a whim with a vague idea of needing a wagon but wanted performance also.

VE sportswagon with 6L and 6 speed wouldve been awesome but I couldnt stretch the budget.

Stageas were about the only other car I considered.

Being in WA I couldnt find a manual one so I bought this site unseen from a dealer in NSW.

So far I am stoked, a few surprises but nothing major.

I am astounded at how little space for passengers it has.

Being 6'2" (mostly legs) I cant get the seat far enough back and then no one wants to sit behind my seat.

But on the plus side with RS4S seats I wont ever have to buy Brides.

It came with Cusco coilovers, the V35?? rims and a cat back.

No sunrooves

I guess the bodykit is a RS260 look, the skirts are huge but the back looks good and the whole lot must've been a late addition.

I haven't seen the R33ish two round foglight indicator cluster things on any others.

Pearl white was a bad choice, its like a panelled quilt in some light angles..

Drives awesome, gearbox is noisier than my independent inspector mentioned but apparently it'll be fine.

Why must every WC34 I have seen have wheel spacers..

Glad i have a fuel card.

Edited August 28, 2011 by shane344

[KiwiRS4T]

Yep looks like an RS260 front. Does it handle OK? I guess if someone took the trouble to put Cusco coilovers hopefuly they put a cusco sway bar on the back as well. I have spacers at the front as well because the front track is smaller than the rear and 20mm spacers on the front seems to be about right and I can't afford to order new wheels with different offsets. Plenty of ideas on here about how to spend your money to make it go faster!

[Dingus]

Looks good, another one in Perth

Surprised you find the space lacking, I'm 6'3" and have no problems with that, plenty of room for someone to fit behind me.

KiwiRS4T, looks like a RS4S, which is manual and doesn't have the different front/rear track.

[dirtyRS4]

Being in WA I couldnt find a manual one so I bought this site unseen from a dealer in NSW.

welcome! i did the same and bought mine from nsw, it arrives in a few weeks.

[lilcrash]

Just be glad you didn't get the commodore, I looked at trading my rs4s on one and after the test drive I took my car home. 19/20 litres per 100km, under powered ( have to drop to 3rd to over take, the stag happily pulls in 5th ) the big selling point the dealer had was it had a pull out cover for the boot, I laughed in his face and said yer mines got that too. But I will admit a 6.7 with an exhaust does sound nice.

Back on subject, I'm 6"1 and I have plenty of room, I can even put the seat forward and still drive with adults in the back seat. Honestly the only downside I have found with the stagea is the spare tyre isn't useable. Also since you bought a rs4s just buy some pre au falcon wheels or something in a rwd offset and you won't need spacers.

[Raysboostin]

Looks good, another one in Perth

Surprised you find the space lacking, I'm 6'3" and have no problems with that, plenty of room for someone to fit behind me.

KiwiRS4T, looks like a RS4S, which is manual and doesn't have the different front/rear track.

same here. im 6'2" and ive got the seat about 2-3 inches forward from right back. its a bit tight on headroom though.

[AAA34T]

so a mate with more money than brains brought the 6.2 clubsport wagon we put my rs4 beside his clubsport he can only fit one pram and 2 small bags in the back and the stagea could hold 4 prams easy and the best he got was 19L per100 i get 12 to 15L we swapped cars for a week i could net even fit my tools in his wagon i had to borrow my partners crv to go to work good burnouts but thats it when we swapped back he went strait to my car importer and done a strait swap on a m35 and have been loving it ever since and said why would u ever buy an holden wagon worth $68000 when he got the stagea for 25000 with heaps of mods and all the same options as the holden and more a more unique

[Daleo]

so a mate with more money than brains brought the 6.2 clubsport wagon we put my rs4 beside his clubsport he can only fit one pram and 2 small bags in the back and the stagea could hold 4 prams easy and the best he got was 19L per100 i get 12 to 15L we swapped cars for a week i could net even fit my tools in his wagon i had to borrow my partners crv to go to work good burnouts but thats it when we swapped back he went strait to my car importer and done a strait swap on a m35 and have been loving it ever since and said why would u ever buy an holden wagon worth $68000 when he got the stagea for 25000 with heaps of mods and all the same options as the holden and more a more unique

Woah; so he literally got no money back on a Clubsport wagon?

Should've sent him my way...

One of the guys I work with was arguing that his Sportwagon's boot was larger than the Stagea; It wasn't...

Then he was boasting about the hinge being back from the edge of the hatch to reduce opening space; Yep, got that too...

And the Stagea doesn't look like a Commodore.

[GoldZilla]

I guess the bodykit is a RS260 look, the skirts are huge but the back looks good and the whole lot must've been a late addition.

I haven't seen the R33ish two round foglight indicator cluster things on any others.

Pearl white was a bad choice, its like a panelled quilt in some light angles..

Yep, as confirmed by Kiwi, that is a 260RS front bar, and all the series 2 260RS's came with that style of small round foglight/indicator similar to the R33's.

Oh, and welcome to the Stagea community!

[AAA34T]

Woah; so he literally got no money back on a Clubsport wagon?

Should've sent him my way...

One of the guys I work with was arguing that his Sportwagon's boot was larger than the Stagea; It wasn't...

Then he was boasting about the hinge being back from the edge of the hatch to reduce opening space; Yep, got that too...

And the Stagea doesn't look like a Commodore.

yep he did a strait swap could have got at least 50 for the commo but he didn't care uses the stagea only on weekends and brought a new landcruiser for everyday. i put parking sensors on mine and can stop 60cm from a wall and still open the tailgate easy i love it.

[shane344]

OP here.

RE: Seat space, my legs feel all bent up, still comfy though.

Maybe I'm used to AU Falcon legroom, where I'd straighten my legs out then adjust the wheel backwards until my arms bent.

My car has 27mm spacers all round and is about perfect for flushness, its needs to be 40mm lower to be hellaflush but at the moment it is hellafunctional...

Current susp setup has zero bodyroll, I need to find out if I can adjust the damping though, rebound needs to be slowed down up front, kind of skips a little on bigger mid corner bumps up front if I'm being picky.

Just checked swaybar size is around 25mm at the back.

Debadged last night so now only have one Nissan badge in the centre of the boot.

Still super stoked with the decision.