poita

ooooo man, that is one sweet sounding package!!! Cant wait for power runs!! B)

Wow thanks heaps for that! Did you get the bar custom made or adapted from another car? I found out tonight that the caravan is bout 1 tonne and has brakes so all is good there. I just showed Dad and the only thing he is really worried now is the resale... i.e. would it be hard to sell later. I wouldn't have thought so, but he's a bit nervous about the whole turbo import market. Also cause we can get them cheaper Dad is wondering if he should go manual... if we can find one. Which would be better for towing? Has the auto still got plenty of get up and go? Would be nice if we could find a car yard with one to test drive, but there virtually impossible to find in Adelaide. Ive only ever seen 2 Thanks for all the help! Pete

Hi all! Been a long time since I posted here! Cant find any of my old threads though? Anyway, me and my parents are both looking at getting a Stagea (one for me and one for them!). A couple questions though: 1. Dad wants to tow a meduim caravan and a small ski boat. Is it possible to get a tow bar to handle this? 2. Spare parts. Being a pretty unique import, whats your experiences with finding spare parts i.e. general parts like brakes etc and things like interior trims, panels or other not so common stuff like that? Reason is we're both a bit worried that we're going to get em and then find it heaps hard to fix/service them. Hopefully we will be able to get em direct through one of Dads work associates for cost price with him doing all the importing and organising compliancing etc! Cheers Pete

that maroon one... *drool*

its sold. my pick of the bunch, but when i rang on thursday it had gone. i assume it was the same anyway the blue one has gtr rims and leather interior!

Sounds like the place to go then! Thanks.

sweet, thanks for that. Bout the only thing they might not like is the exhaust, as there is no turbo timer, guages etcetc. So that shouldn't be so bad after all then. Whats this place next to Sturt Police Station? Ive never heard of it or Sturt before for that matter. Is Sturt a suberb in Adelaide or a town?

what is the stock rim and trye sizes on a Stagea? Im in SA, so we are only allowed to go 2" bigger in rim size legally. Only reason I ask is that I dont want to buy one with nice mags and then have to sell them cause they are illegal, as Ive seen a few advertised with 18-19" rims. Is the standard 15" or 16"?

Has anyone here bought an already complied and registered (or non registered) import from interstate and gone through the process of registering it here in SA? Regency tol me the following: if its registered in another state (not sure what happens if its complied but never been registered before) and it has been complied under the new RAWS scheme (burgendy coloured complience plate, not a green one), then all you need is to drive the car in and get an ID check to make sure the engine/chassis numbers etc all match up and its not stolen etc. You do not have to do a roadworthy. The thing that Im worried about, is that if I go in there with tinting, sports exhaust and mags, they will defect it and I will have to do a full Roadworthy anyway! What sort of experiences has anyone here had doing this? Do they just check the ID and leave it at that or will they slap a sticker on it if they are having a bad ahir day? Cheers Pete

hmmm i know regency are a bunch of jerks, which is why I tried to find an already complianced one in Adelaide first. There are some around, but they are heaps expensive. Its enough to make you not want to buy one cause its all too hard and too much of a risk!

Just rang regency. If it was complianced under the new RAWS scheme (i.e. has a burgendy not a green compliance plate) then it only needs a ID check, not a roadworthy. So I dont think you would need to take any non-stock stuff off in that case. Though knowing them, they would probably slap a sticker on it anyway for some dumb thing and get you to come back for a roadworthy anyway! :S

Yeah that seems like a good idea. I found pretty much exactly what I was looking for in Brisbane.... White, dual sunroof, sweet rims, very nice bodykit and low ks. These are the main 5 things I want... But it had sold basically straight away QLD is about 2-3k cheaper than ecerywhere else though.

Thats what I thought, but doesnt hurt to check! Anyone here live in Melbourne close to Cheltenham that wouldn't mind checking out a car for me? Its sounds pretty sweet, and the salesman seemed honest enough, but hes still a salesman, so I would like an honest opinion... Thanks Pete

Ok thanks again! Went and had another chat to Mike, and had a close look over the whole car. He would only go to $25,000 with no trade in, which I still think is to expensive, as you can get the same car with a body kit, leather int, dual sunroof and 18" GTR rims from QLD advertised for $22k (so they should go even lower as I've never heard of anyone paying full price from a car yard!). Also I noticed about $400 worth of little imperfections in the paint and some small tears in the drivers side arm rest just where your elbow goes in the vinyl skin. So Im definatly going to look elsewhere. He also said (Im very much inclined to think its just salesman talk here) that regency is very picky when checking the VIN numbers from import cars that are from QLD as 'apparantly' there is a lot of dodgey re-skinning of cars over there. He had an example the, a lexus 4WD, which he showed me so I believe him in this case, where Rengency had unscrewed the compliance plates and impounded the car, cause they THOUGHT it had been reskinned and they dont have to prove a thing. The only way you can ever get the pates back is going through court. Whether he is just trying to scare me or not I dont know. Anyone heard of this happening before? Man... what an essay! Sorry, but I dont wanna spend that much money on a lemon! Pete

Ok thanks guys. I had a look at autotrader and yeah he is asking way too much. Also I noticed the car doesnt have the sunroofs, which I want so im looking elsewhere now! There is a very nice Series 2 1998 C34 for $28990. Tiptronic and Neo engine. This is a bit off topic, but whats the diff between RS4 and C34? I had never heard of the C34 before... Cheers Pete

Hi all! Anyone know what the rules are for buying a car from another state and then registering it in SA? Do you have to go over Regency at all, or just ring R&T and transfer it over? Its just that cars are much cheaper in QLD!! Cheers Pete

What is the legal limit? (for lowering purposes!) Or does that differ from state to state?

Far out... I have just read from start to finish of this thread... i feel sorry all you guys. First thing we have to remeber though, is not to give the cops any reason to pick on us by our behaviour in the car or out. I have a slightly modified car (only visible thing from the outside is the exhaust, but its loud) and got pulled over for doing a powerslide at 75kph... i LOVE LSD! No turbo though. But because I was nice to the 2 female cops who busted me, they didnt even look at my car. If they did they would have defected it for the wet-type unifilter as apparently is illegal cause its highly flamable. But yeah, Ive rung Regency a few times, and only once got a helpful person. He was great, explained why you couldn't do this or that, how to get this and that etcetc. Everyone else has been rude, arrogant and complete jerks. And they wonder why people hate them. No we wont tell you wat mods are legal until youve done them and paid us the bill for checking them, only to tell you they are illegal after all!!! Pete

Also how hard is it to get spare parts? Engine shouldn't be too hard as there are a few around, but what about body etc? What are spare parts like costwise? Cheers Pete

Hi all! My first post as have just joined, Have been looking at getting a Stagea for a while and stumbled across this site when I googled 'Stagea'! Had a quick skim through the threads in this section and there is some great info! Now to the point... what are some things to look for when buying a Stagea? I have found one I really like. 1996 RS4 Auto (of course!) Grey 37,000ks Immaculate cond $29900 They had only just taken the plastic covers off the rear seats and headrests as the owners in Japan left them on!! Does this sound alright? He will do it for round $25 with my R31 Silhouette as a trade-in. Any help/advise will be appreciated! Cheers Pete