A Few Questions about buying a Stagea

[Russ114]

Hey Guys,

First time poster, but i've been lingering reading for some time. I am currently looking at MY97 RS Four Stageas, and have a few questions.

1) Anyone know any good places for the RB25 and Stagea's around brisbane (workshops, mechanics etc), i would like to get a car checked out before i buy it, are there any telltale signs for these things?

2) i'm a bit worried about kms, everything i've looked at is around the 40k kms mark, which seems a bit low for a 97 model car, is there anything that i can check to make sure kms are legit?

3) how expensive are nissan 4wd systems when they go bad? coming from owning a mid 60's mercedes coupe so parts pricing doesn't scare me, but do they go wrong often?

4) how available are parts? do i need to get someone in japan onside to send me stuff, or is most stuff available through nissan? and where do i find workshop manuals in english?

5) anything i shoud be particuarly careful of buying? preferable models? from what i can tell theres a few engine options, but most i've seen are RB25 RS Four's how do i tell the difference between a Neo and non Neo?.

Thanks in advance for the answers, i hope i don't appear like too much of a noob! hopefully soon i'll have a stagea to post pics of!.

Russ

[Guest]

http://carpoint.ninemsn.com.au/DesktopDefa...lias=carpointau

[Russ114]

yeah, that's where i found the cars i was mentioning with low kms.

[Jay95R33]

G'day Russ,

I'll see how I go at your questions.

2. KM's can be a bit sus sometimes. But there are cars out there that have done very low KM's. Check the usual interior items for signs of high wear.. Carpets, mats; seats, steering wheel etc.. They will give you a good indication.

3. I've never actually heard of a ATTESSA system stuff up. I have heard of the very rear case that someone burns out the clutch pack in the centre diff, but it's usually cause they were doing something wrong eg. not disabbling the 4wd correctly, or running different sized wheels/tyres front to back.

4. Parts are available through most Nissan dealers. Prices are pretty reasonable considering. Theres also a heap of parts importers nowadays too.

5. Do a heap of looking around and try and get the best for your money.

I'm actually considering selling mine to downgrade to something cheap so I can use the mony to study part time. Time for a career change...

J

[sven laptop]

As for NEO & non-NEO, the NEO engined cars were the series 2, which you can tell from the front because they have the headlights with 2 seperate lenses, rather than all in one rectangular block.

Someone with more knowledge than me might be able to tell you in more detail, but that's an obvious difference.

Try http://www.geocities.com/mcnamg/ for more details of models, features, etc.

[burkey22]

And it says Neo on the engine.

[Russ114]

cheers for the info guys..

Jay95R33: good to see another pf'er!

i was sitting at the bus stop this morning, thinking how i never see a stagea where i live, and round the corner comes one! in the same colour i want, and they guy lives locally

[nemz]

as fas as ive heard the reason why japan cars have low k's is becaused the traffic is so bad they dont move much, but the idle time would be about the same as aus cars, correct me if im wrong

[Abo Bob]

It's cos they wind em back. Simple as that.

[burkey22]

How do they do that?

[Sydneykid]

Mine came with service manuals so I could check the K's and the dates. I also checked the cam belt change date and K's and calculated if the K's were realistic from that. The steering wheel and drivers seat wear rates were also consistent. Most of all I used someone I could trust to source it in Japan.