New Owner Of M35 Stagea Autech Axis

[KiwiD]

Hi all,

About 10 years ago in NZ as a young fella I had owned a couple of Skyline's. An R32 and R33. Since I moved to Australia I found imports here were a lot more expensive than NZ and opted for a cheap to run Mitsubishi Lancer.

Its served its purpose well for the last 7 years but now the time has come for something new.

As a fan of Japanese imported cars (In particular Mazda's and Nissans) I have found most Australian delivered models to be somewhat boring. I needed something thats different with a bit of power, yet being practical at the same time. To me the obvious answer was a Stagea.

I have been searching around doing my homework for the last month looking for the perfect car and I have finally found it. A 2002 M35 Stagea Autech Axis. Yea i know they are only auto's but need my girl to be able drive me home if I get too drunk hehe. (she is also Japanese too)

I live in Brisbane and the car is in Melbourne fresh off the boat from Japan. So this Friday night I fly down to pick it up Saturday morning. Drive to Sydney, have a few beers with a mate and drive the rest of the way home on Sunday. (Don't worry, I wont get too carried away with the beers)

I've been on here the last few days sifting around for as much information about M35 Stagea's and have found there is some great stuff on here. Its good to know what other people have gone through with the same vehicle so I know what to keep an eye out for. I'm known amongst my friends that I like to keep my cars in good nick. (Hence why I sold my Lancer within an hour of posting it up on Facebook) So I will definitely find this forum quite useful.

I look forward to learning more on here, meeting new people, and possibly contributing with some of my own experiences.

Cheers

Dave

PS a few pics below.

[PN-Mad]

welcome!

Nice looking M35.

see you in the stagea section

[luke gtr]

welcome.

very nice.

hope it brings you years of fun motoring.

[KiwiD]

Cheers fellas,

Looking forward to the weekend roadie. Great way to get a good feel for the car. Will let ya's know how it goes.

[KiwiD]

Just got her home, What a drive, what a car!

[Gunza]

Hey Dave,

congrats on the axis!!! I just got one myself after months of looking.

may i ask did you get this inspected?

It looks very similar to the one i got inspected in Adelaide with aftermarket rims.... - I have a copy of the report if you want it.. it showed a lot of rust, etc.

who did you purchase thru?

[Gunza]

How many kms does it have ? 75k ish?

Engine No VQ25-168943A?

[Plattsy]

you need to see scotty while your in melbourne for some mods to take back up with you....

[Gunza]

this was a pic from the adelaide dealer...

[Gunza]

[KiwiD]

Well ends up that this car was the car i had purchased. I called the dealer and he seemed surprised about the condition of the car and offered straight away to replace it. He imported a replacement car for me which i have just received this week. No rust and runs a shit load better also. Japanese owners manual shows the car used to live in Hiroshima which is good news as it does not snow there. He also let me keep the wheels which are 18" Impul NS-GT11's. As researched worth a bit on their own. Not gunna bag this guy as he was remorseful and bent over backwards to get me a new car that fit the bill.