[Sa] 2001 M35 Stagea Ar-X $15,400

[Grungle]

Genuine AR-X (All Road Cross-over).

Why buy an AR-X over an RX or RS?

The AR-X has:

• Leather heated + power seats
  
• Limited Slip Differential (excellent for snow and getting all of the power down)
  
• 10mm wider track
  
• 18 inch wheels as standard
  
• HICAS (4 wheel steering) - HICAS makes the car feel much more nimble than it’s non-HICAS equivalent.
  
• Slightly lifted suspension - So you don't need to creep over speed bumps or spoon drains, and the front bar clears kerbs in the parking lot.
  

Why buy this one?

The M35 Stagea is the perfect high-powered family wagon. With a 206kW 2.5L turbo V6 it’s got plenty of power, and it’s extremely smooth with it’s 5-speed tiptronic auto. This particular car has the Nissan “Cold pack” option, which includes (among other things) heated front/rear windscreens, mirrors and a rear fog lamp.

I’ve owned this one for 4 years, and I was the first owner in Australia. I got it with ~75,000km, and have done a number of things to it over the years.

First was the coilpacks. This doesn’t seem to be a common failure, but mine had a high-rpm miss under load. I swapped out all 6 with new ones (at a cost of about $1100) and it’s been perfect ever since. Spark plugs were done while trying to diagnose the fault.

I’ve put a 3-inch stainless steel cat-back exhaust on, fabricated by AAA Exhausts in Adelaide. Significant power gains can be made from this, and it helps reduce the heat getting into the turbo. Mindful that my wife would be driving this car most of the time this exhaust has 2 big mufflers, so there’s no drone - just a nice rumble at idle and lots of flow when it gets going. I’ve never scraped the exhaust, and when it was installed I put a big catalytic converter on it - if you ever want to remove the front pipe/dump pipe you won’t need to fit a cat in there again.

I’ve fitted a set of adjustable whiteline sway bars, as well as upgraded mounting brackets. This gets the car sitting much flatter in the corners, but doesn’t affect the comfort - we often use this car for long trips and stiff coil-overs just aren’t suitable.

I have changed the power steer pump after it failed last summer. $1000 through Nissan Australia. The brake disks were also recently machined and new QFM HP-X pads were put in late last year.

This car comes with a Pioneer “carrozzeria” Japanese head unit, including GPS, DVD, CD, Aux in, Hard Disk and TV. I never bothered getting the TV or DVD to work, and Pioneer tell me the GPS cannot be converted to Australian maps, but it plays and records CDs and the iPhone plugs straight in. Excellent sound.

Of course, this car has all the other features of every other M35 stagea:

• Factory tinted windows
  
• 3 x child restraints
  
• Split-fold rear seats (that can be flipped down from the back of the car)
  
• Split-lift rear hatch (the glass opens separately to the tailgate)
  
• Climate control
  
• Airbags
  
• ABS
  

$15,400

Located in SA. I'm selling because I've just imported a new Delica.

PM me here, or email mark.leane "at" gmail.com. I'll be happy to supply my phone number when requested.

Pics!

Engine cover removed so you can see what's really going on - I've still got it.

[Grungle]

Car has now moved to Young, NSW. It's about 2 hours from Canberra and 3 from Sydney.

Dropped price to $14,500.

It got driven across from adelaide and didn't miss a beat. In fact, with the new (correct profile) tyres it got way better fuel economy than it ever has.

[Grungle]

Long-term bump.

Have used as a daily for the last 12 months, but now time to move it on.

Now located in Orange, NSW, and recently (last week) passed a blue slip inspection. Comes with 12 months NSW rego.

Still looks the same, just different tyres. Now with 132,000km.

$9,200

Edited October 16, 2014 by Grungle

[Grungle]

SOLD