Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

after a few years of searching and convincing my wife, she has let me invest in a new toy.

After initially budgeting for a good, clean V35 coupe, I have decided to spend a little bit extra and go for a 2007 V36 350gt sedan. I have decided to go for the practicality of a sedan, and not listen to the selfish part of me that wanted a 2 door.

The car is the 5 speed auto, Type S.

After the initial test drive, I was quite impressed by how it drove. The boys at Fabcar in Perth have offered me a good trade-in price on my old wheels, and I am seriously considering the purchase.

See below for a few pics of the vehicle in question.

I have scoured the forums, and spent a lot of time on Google looking for the ins and outs of owning one, but good info seems hard to come by.

Just looking for some feedback on people that have owned them-

Are there any warning signs I need to look out for?

Is the servicing straight forward?

How do they fare as a daily?

Any feedback would be appreciated!

3672_a5cfc2fcc4_low_res.JPG

3681_6a9d692ecf_low_res.JPG

3678_a1faeeae46_low_res.JPG

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/448650-v36-sedan-thoughts/
Share on other sites

Thoughts?

Check the mileage is genuine through one of the jap odometer checking services. Wear on the steering wheel suggests it's not minty fresh even though they are claiming 95,000kms.

And the beige interior is a massive turn off. About as exciting as a nanas bloomers. Bad for resale, and dates horridly.

I would be very carefully checking out the history of the car before considering buying an import from a dealer.. make sure the KM are correct and it wasn't imported as a grade R and repaired. There are way to many dodgy imports sold by dealers. If you have the time to wait.. have a reputable importer find and import one for you!

Yeah I have to agree - the cream/willow interior combination is completely pukeworthy. Go sit in a black interior one and it is like night and day.

And yes, that steering wheel wear is very concerning - my V35 has 150,000km on it and the steering wheel has nowhere near that sort of wear. Japanese are famous for wearing rings that do screw up steering wheels, so it may be that.

But DEFINITELY do an odo check - there are guys around who can change a car's odo with a laptop in 5 minutes. Be careful.

Ask the dealer for the auction/dereg papers. If they won't show you or provide them they are liars and cannot be trusted. EVERY car that leaves Japan has to have dereg papers with km listed, regardless of what the dealer tells you.

Yeah I have to agree - the cream/willow interior combination is completely pukeworthy. Go sit in a black interior one and it is like night and day.

And yes, that steering wheel wear is very concerning - my V35 has 150,000km on it and the steering wheel has nowhere near that sort of wear. Japanese are famous for wearing rings that do screw up steering wheels, so it may be that.

But DEFINITELY get an odo check done - there are guys around who can change a car's odo with a laptop in 5 minutes. Be careful.

Ask the dealer for the auction/dereg papers. If they won't show you or provide them they are liars and cannot be trusted. EVERY car that leaves Japan has to have dereg papers with km listed, regardless of what the dealer tells you.

I would import the car through Iron Chef or Prestige Motorsports (I personally used Prestige). I am sure that Fabcar is charging a premium and you are better off importing it from Japan. You funds will go a longer way or even get you a type SP or 370GT. Patience is a virtue. PM me if you want to see a SP in Perth =)

Thanks for the responses guys.

To be fair though, I don't mind the cream interior!

Like I said though, I had to stretch the budget to afford this one, otherwise I would have gone for a V35.

The interior is tidy, and there are no major signs of wear inside, other than the steering wheel. There are a few scuff marks around the drivers door handle, and a bit of curb rash on the wheels (though I plan to change the rims anyway). The price is several thousand cheaper than any other they had in stock, though admittedly, they have approx 1/2 the Kms.

The guy I spoke to said they have the import papers, so I will be sure to have a look. I have a few mates that deal with fabcar quite regularly, and they are quite reputable in perth. I am also being given an extended warranty as part of the sale.

It drove straight, and shifted smoothly. The engine bay and interior give the impression that it has been a well maintained car, though I have learned that looks can be deceiving.

Examine the extended warranty.

It's a good selling point for people who think it's a factory style warranty, but often it won't go 10% to the actual cost of the fix.

I told my dealer to exclude it, and remove the price of it off the car.

  • Like 1

Hey Camr33 I suggest you steer clear of this one...

Whilst there are not many V36 Sedans for sale in Australia (compared to V35 Coupes or Sedans) there are better examples available for sale.

Also, I do recommend using online Japanese Odometer Checking services such as:

Japanese History Check

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Japanese-History-Check/557835010998928

or

Japanese Odomoter Check

https://www.facebook.com/Japanese.Odometercheck

PS: If you're even remotely interested in the idea of importing a car for yourself from Japan to Australia, feel free to check out my blog at www.v35skyline.com

It should help you out :)

And the beige interior is a massive turn off. About as exciting as a nanas bloomers. Bad for resale, and dates horridly.

I would disagree here, I spent extra time on auctions to get a good car with the beige interior. As far as resale goes, I'm selling my car atm and have already seen quite a few blokes who are looking for the beige interior specifically and all them saying it's quite rare. So it depends.

I would disagree here, I spent extra time on auctions to get a good car with the beige interior. As far as resale goes, I'm selling my car atm and have already seen quite a few blokes who are looking for the beige interior specifically and all them saying it's quite rare. So it depends.

If you want a rare interior, try looking for the tan leather seats with the fake wood trim... Spent a year looking for that in a good car, so gave up and went with my nice black trimmed 370GT...

And for the beige... after 5 years of staring at the beige interior of my M35 Stagea AR-X (only comes in beige sorry about that sir!) not a day passes when I miss that view... :action-smiley-069:

How back to the point, buy the best V36 you can. If you want a good car in beige maybe look at a Type P as well, seems to be quite a few of them in beige, and many have the 18's of the S and SP already fitted, also less likely to have been flogged.. You are only really going to miss the flappy paddles, and they can be reto fitted if you reall want.

After doing a bit of thinking, I have decided to opt for a freshly imported V35 coupe from another provider. While I think the V36 was competitively priced, it isn't perfect. I want a car that I can be proud of, and gets looks for the right reasons.

Thanks for the input guys :)

If you want a rare interior, try looking for the tan leather seats with the fake wood trim... Spent a year looking for that in a good car, so gave up and went with my nice black trimmed 370GT...

And for the beige... after 5 years of staring at the beige interior of my M35 Stagea AR-X (only comes in beige sorry about that sir!) not a day passes when I miss that view... :action-smiley-069:

How back to the point, buy the best V36 you can. If you want a good car in beige maybe look at a Type P as well, seems to be quite a few of them in beige, and many have the 18's of the S and SP already fitted, also less likely to have been flogged.. You are only really going to miss the flappy paddles, and they can be reto fitted if you reall want.

Best and rarest V36 interior, by far is the 50th and 55th anniversary cars

post-194-0-95952300-1411087962_thumb.jpg

After doing a bit of thinking, I have decided to opt for a freshly imported V35 coupe from another provider. While I think the V36 was competitively priced, it isn't perfect. I want a car that I can be proud of, and gets looks for the right reasons.

Thanks for the input guys :)

Whats wrong with the V36? I am proud of my car and get looks for the right reasons :P

  • 2 weeks later...

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

    • Stock ECU (or more accurately stock tune) absolutely refuses to go over 10psi and behaves like you have seen. The Nistune is the same if it is the stock tune. If the Nistune chip has been tuned, the resulting tune could be literally anything for any combination of parts. The Nistune just makes the stock ECU Tunable.
    • So stock ECU does not like anything above 10 psi?  That Nistune one is just for "try" if it will be any different, I know it need to be tune for that. I know but YOU may know about these problem but i/we dont. They few little Skylines here let alone people who know anything about tham so that is why iam asking here  
    • So now we have a radiator with no attachments whatsoever. It lifts up with a particularly tight spot between the drivers side air box mount and the lower radiator outlet, but if you've got this far you will sort that too. This is the lower mounts with the rad out so you can see where the rubber bushes go, it is a straight shot upwards Done! Assembly is the reverse of disassembly, with blood less likely to be shed.
    • Right, onto the second last trick. The Air Con condenser is mounted to the front of the radiator and stays in the car when the radiator is removed. There are 2x 10mm headed self tappers holding the top of the condenser to the radiator, remove those The bottom of the condenser is attached to the radiator with clips. You need to lift the condenser out of those clips and clear (up, then forward). f**ked if  could work out how to do that last bit with the front bumper on. I hope you can, and you share the trick.  Bumper removal probably deserves its own thread one day once I've recovered the will to live, but basically you need to remove the wheels, front inner guard liners (clips and 10mm headed bolts), the self tapper between the guard and the bumper at the rearmost point of the bumper (same as an R32 that bit), any remaining clips at the top/front of the grill, an absolute bastard design with a plate that holds the top of the bumper above the headlight each side (only 1 bolt which is tricky to get to, but the plate catches 2 places on the bumper and must be removed....carefully!) and push clips between the bumper and guard under the headlight. If you've done all that you will be faced with wiring for the fog lights on both sides and in ADM Q50 RS at least, 4 nasty tight plugs on the driver's side for the ADAS stuff. So, the clips at the bottom look like this on drivers side (looking from the front) And on the passenger side (also from the front), you can see this one is already out Clearance on both of these are super tight; the condenser needs to move up but the upper rad support mount prevents that, and the radiator can't move down far because it is (rubber) mounted. Once you achieve the impossible and drop the condenser off those mounts so it does not stop the rad moving, you are good to go
    • OK, next the shroud needs to come off and there are a couple of tricks. Firstly, there is a loom from near the passenger side headlight to the fans, coolant temp sensor etc and there is no plug to undo.  In my case I was OK to leave the shroud on top of the engine so I just undid the passenger side fan plug and about 10 of the clips which gave enough free wire to put it aside. The fan plugs were super tight, the trick I used was a small falt screwdriver to push down on the release tab, then a larger flat screwdriver to lever the plug out of the fan unit....be careful with how much force you apply! If you need to remove the shroud altogether for some reason you will have to deal with all the plugs (tight) and clips (brittle)....good luck. I removed all of the clips and replaced them with cable ties that I will just cut next time. Also, in the Red Sport / 400R at least, the intake heat exchanger reservoir hose is bolted to the shroud in 2 places with 10mm headed bolts; so remove them (the hose stays in the car; no need to undo it at the t fittings down at the radiator lower mount. Once you've dealt with the HX hose and the wiring loom, there are 3x 10mm headed self tappers holding the top of the shroud to the radiator; remove those.   The shroud then lifts out of the bottom mounts where it sits on the radiator, up and onto the engine out of the way. Simples
×
×
  • Create New...