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Just having a quick look through the stageas in the trading post, and one thing that struck me pretty quickly - it must be very easy to wind back the speedo on a stagea! Most (!) of the cars are claiming lower km's than just about anything you see in Japan of the same year....

So if you're buying one, ignore the km's and have a good look at the car!

Ian

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yeah an jap cars it must be easy...ive seen r32 gtr with under 30k and owners say original kms...yeah right...same thing when you see a import and they say custom colour, that means they car has been in a million prags and some leb has repaired and resprayed it

Just having a quick look through the stageas in the trading post, and one thing that struck me pretty quickly - it must be very easy to wind back the speedo on a stagea! Most (!) of the cars are claiming lower km's than just about anything you see in Japan of the same year....

So if you're buying one, ignore the km's and have a good look at the car!

Ian

All imports into NZ, apart from private ones, have their odometers checked. Mine was checked by the AA, and verified as not being tampered with. Then again, a 1998 car with 110,000 should be accurate.

All imports into NZ, apart from private ones, have their odometers checked. Mine was checked by the AA, and verified as not being tampered with. Then again, a 1998 car with 110,000 should be accurate.

Yep, that sounds in the right ball park. I reckon a reasonable guess is 15K to 20K a year - and anything below 10K a year is 99% likely to be a wind back.

So, for a 1998 car I'd expect 7*15K = 105K for the lower range, and 140K the upper range for a car that has had low to moderate use. Indeed, my 1998 car has a genuine 110K on it, as I don't drive it every day to work etc

Looking at the trading post numbers, there are many 1997 stageas '46K' plus or minus 2K, and even a 1996 one with '39K'.. So 'just under 50K' seems to be the wind back aim point. Either that or ALL those cars have been doing 8K a year!!

Of course, as has been said in other posts, the KM's are normally over emphasised when someone is looking at a car. I'd much prefer a car with 140K's that was in excellent condition than one with 50K's (even if genuine) that wasn't!

This is particularly relevant for the RB* engine - it was made so bloody well that it's just not going to fall apart just because the car has done a few K's! ie Someone I know recently clocked over 500K km's in his early skyline, and apart from replacing the fuel injectors about 100K ago, has never done anything apart from the regular service items…

since stageas have a digital odometer is it harder to do? i thought you needed to flash the rom that holds the figure in memory which was not that easy to do as compared to winding back an old school odometer

I haven't looked into what chips it uses, but I think they are in the dash (ie it isn't kept by the eco) - and they have to be electrically changeable memory as that's what it is doing. Who knows, unless someone who does it a bit wants to tell us how, but it can't be too hard or there wouldn't be so many low km cars around!

  • 5 months later...
they are all wound back

ALL OF THEM

james

Horse shit.

It's like anything - you get what you pay for. For example, you won't get a genuine low km (i.e. less than 50,000km) Stagea for less than $18K landed and complied. If it's showing that few km and you're paying less, the odometer has been hit.

I'm not saying it's hard to do, just that there are plenty of low km cars available in Japan....at a price.

I'm not saying it's hard to do, just that there are plenty of low km cars available in Japan....at a price.

Yes, at a price that means they could not be sold in the yards for the price quoted - unless the dealers were prepared to lose money everytime they sold one... The vast bulk of them just have to be wound back...

they are all wound back

ALL OF THEM

professional is pulling out the dash and using a drii and wind it back

or back yatd

pin on the number and pulling it down like that

james

I made sure I got all the books with mine and checked the K's and dates of services. Therefore I know the odometer reading was accurate.

Pin ain't gunna do it on a digital read out

I don't think mine records reverse k's, so the old drill trick wouldn't work.

:P cheers :O

i spent a year in japan, as an an exchange student. bought my stagea off my host family, then imported it through a firend and complied it. 16500 start to finish, registered in aus. 49,750km. hows that for "i know exactly what its done" it had a ding in the right rear quarter - but i was in the car when it happened. the odos are electronic - they dont register the fact that it is turning backwards and go "oh, the car must be travelling back in time, ill remove some kms".

after some off the stuff ive seen sydney kid and even AMS post before he even GOT his stagea, ill take their word, and my experience, over a rumour.

cheers.

Mine was wound back, from about 150,000 to 75,000km when I got it.

Service stickers and dates tell more truth than any books.

However, its a pity because when i sell my car, doing all the services myself, i wont have "books" to sell with it.

I had a few mates in the import business that told me of the winding problems and 5 of my friends 2 with gtrs are all wound back

mine was wound back about 50,000 kms but was in amaculat condition

the 2 gtrs were pined as well and the 3 gtst were profesional done

all in good nic

eletric should be ok but i hav here of a scrambler for computer

remores probebly but winding increase the value and the car sellers wont as much 4 the cars as pos

james

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