Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

This is kind of a newbie post, STF didnt yield anything :)

I m about to buy an R33 skyline and have a budget of 22,000. So far from what i have seen locally i can realistically afford a Series 1.5. I would really like a Series 2 though.

The qustion is, what can i get if importing myself with a 22,000 budget? Or ppl are more than welcome to share opinions on how much, if any, impoting is cheaper than buying locally.

Igor.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/51884-importing-or-buying/
Share on other sites

definetly, if i was currently looking for an R33, the second example i showed you is an excellent example. Good condition and good price considering the mods. Most cars from japan have some sort of minor damage but you need to remember that some of these cars are over 10 years old

If u import with mods you'll have to factor in the costs of the compliancers removing and refitting mods post registration. Could be thousands for a car with lotsa mods.

Keep in mind also that prestige and jspec don't factor in rego, ctp, stamp duty, sometimes tyres into their costs. Basically, adding $2k to the cost + tyres maybe $600 for decent 16 inch.

Prices are coming down for local 33GTS25t's also, quite a few on carsales atm about 150 Australia wide in fact + those at dealers and on other car selling sites. Advantage is u can get compression tests and pre purchase inspections done on local cars, and importing takes 3-4 months.

... Advantage is u can get compression tests and pre purchase inspections done on local cars, and importing takes 3-4 months.

Yeah, that is exactly what i am thinking. The market is pretty rich and there is plenty to choose from. Plus there isnt that much risk.

You are saying that one can request compression tests. Is that a normal practice? Did you find that people are willing to go for that. I guess as willing as going through the NRMA car inspection. Don't worry, i answered my own question.

I had a few funny run-ins with the car dealers this weekend. They crack me up, cant stand too much of them at a time though ;)

Episode 1: A black skyline had a not for sale on the windscreen. I asked whats wrong with it? The bloke said that it got stolen from the wharf. They found it in Minto with broken steering arm. Apparently the people who stole it were doing burnouts and doughnuts in the car park. The dealer said they were lucky in the way that they actually found the car. hehe...

Episode 2: Two white skylines for sale. One is Series II, the other is Series 1. Both have big exhausts, rims and gauges. I asked whether they had been registered in Aus before. The dealer said, no, comes from the wharf stright into their joint. I raised my eyebrows and he continued: "Well, you pay a bita deposit and we will compliance it for you. That's how we do business." I laughed in his face and said I would never buy it from him. He turned around and walked off saying i should then get the TT Supra he had, which is road registered.

Yeah...

I have my doubts about dealers who import to a yard then sell to public. Bottom line dealers want to maximise profit. This means they would get the cheapest cars from Japan, give them a detail and dodgy roadworthy then sell at a premium.

Theres lots of good cars for sale on this forum and other private sales. $22k is enough for a series 2, just be patient and have the car checked before u buy.

It is against the law to "sell or advertise for sale" an unplated vehicle.

I would stay away from guys like that.

Wouldn't need to convince me twice in that.

if your gonna get locally your better off with private sales like rich said. Members here know what their cars are and really take care of em. Some dealers dont even know what they got in their own yard. This also works both ways

Thanx, i m going to start looking at private cars soon.

  • 1 month 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

    • Had a go at the stuck crush tube this afternoon. Tried things like grips and a chain wrench first but wouldn't just twist straight off. So got to work with a drill. Started small and kept a depth stop on to make sure I didn't drill into the bolt. Made a line of drill holes all the way up and enlarged them. Then a combination of chisel and Dremel to split it all the way up. Levered the split to get oil in there and eventually it gave a bit while levering. Worked it back and forth with loads more oil till it was spinning freely, then with grips I could work it downwards and off. And no significant damage to the bolt (not by me anyway - just the 27 years of rust)
    • Well, I'm tired. I'm tired because about 4PM yesterday, before today's appointment someone immediately bought my bumper. They couldn't get it any other day as they're on the way back to NSW. So I had to do that big GTR conversion I had been planning. Unfortunately, the information on SAU about what you need and how this is done is incomplete. So what should be a simple bolt on affair, yeah, it's not. Did you know if you use all GTR items the bonnet won't close? This little manuever sent me into about 1am the night before trying to dodge a way to get it closed. I will have to revisit this in the next few days  - or maybe not, I may let a body shop figure it out. It all needs to come up and my motivation to pull the bumper off is low. It also seems to hit things in the bay where the GTT bonnet didn't. Yes I used 100% new OEM GTR items. Today, I had the joy of driving to the dyno looking like this: Given I had roughed in the fuel and given sensible but pretty conservative timing, I didn't really bet on having the car drive out any real difference than when it drove in. Sadly due to a miscommunication and laptop fun and games (and almost bricking the dongle, prayers and firmware updates indeed), I ended up using HP Tuner credits to licence the car that was already licenced. So in the end my laptop was used. It turns out my butt dyno is still well calibrated after all this time. The 325kw was on 74% Ethanol, the 313kw line was on 98. The other line is the 'before' line which was 281kw. While the numbers are pretty low, they're pretty in line with what you'd expect. Even if US dynos bump the whole result up about 50KW, gaining 10-15% is similar gains.  The curve of the cam is pretty much spot on with what was discussed as well. All this said, it still feels bad to not see the number you secretly want to see. Even if the car drove great beforehand, and I knew pretty confidently the car would drive out much the same way it drove in due to the nature of a wellish dialled in LS1 not gaining much if anything at all from being tuned from where it was. As expected, the car isn't particularly sensitive to running it at anywhere between 12.0 and 13.0 - And the initial timing at 20deg and 12.0 made 308KW. So 3 degrees of timing, and leaning it out to 12.7 for 5kw, anything above stopped giving any benefit until E85 (which has an additional 2 deg as before). Car itself behaved entirely fine. I found out that 100C = 1.15V! IAT at about 7pm was 19C. I might mess with the bonnet mounting.. but given the REO NEEDS TO BE CHOPPED TO FIT A GTR BAR this is possibly something I may leave gathering (more) dust until it returns to paint jail.
    • It sounds farrrrrrr too cold at your place Duncan... Here I was thinking our 10 degrees overnight is getting cold...
    • oh yeah, reminded this morning....bin lids frozen shut too
    • In my case not, because of total reno. But yeah.
×
×
  • Create New...