autech_axis

Can't say publicly. This matter will shortly be sub judice. And they did. They were wrong.

Not my problem. I love this car, but it's completely useless to me as it is. The compliancer can take it away and do what he likes with it when I get my money.

Yes - well if you are going to sticky my misfortune, let's add this pearl of wisdom from the SEVS website... "The register of Specialist and Enthusiast Vehicles is a list of vehicles that are eligible to be imported by a Registered Automotive Workshop(RAW) or by a company applying for a New Low Volume Compliance Plate Approval. It does not infer that there is a current approval for that particular vehicle." Read carefully all ye Thrill Seekers out there in Importland. My lawyer's advice is as follows:- "Prior to the purchase of this particular vehicle you sought the advice of a person who held himself out to be an expert in the field and you sought from that person an indication as to whether or not, were you to purchase and import this vehicle, it could receive, without undue delay or complication, a certificate of compliance enabling you to register and use the vehicle in this country. You were given that assurance by that person and under the civil law both in New South Wales and in Queensland you had a legitimate expectation that the advice that you would have been given was correct, the person who having given it was amply aware that you would be relying upon that advice in making the decision to purchase and import the vehicle. It now appears that that advice was wrong and negligently wrong at that. The vehicle in question cannot be easily complianced in this country, if at all, and that has been confirmed by the delays in expense and time that have been experienced by Mr XXX in respect of the car which he purchased, apparently on receipt of similar negligent advice from another professional in the field. Your position at law is that you are entitled now to commence proceedings against the person who provided you with that negligent advice and to seek from them reimbursement of all of your losses occasioned as a consequence of your reliance upon that negligent advice. Those losses, or damages as they are called, would include the purchase price of the vehicle, all the shipping and other costs associated with transporting the vehicle from its origin in Japan to your door, any ancillary costs as you have been obliged to incur since the vehicle has arrived, and any further costs that you have incurred as a direct result of your inability to have this vehicle complianced and registered and available for your use now. Such additional expenses would include the costs of repairing, re-registering or re-insuring your current vehicle, assuming that you intended to replace it with the subject vehicle, discounted or set off against the costs that you would otherwise have had to incur in any event in registering and insuring the Nissan M35 Stagea in Queensland. These additional, second car costs, would be calculated on a pro rata basis, depending upon how long it took to resolve this matter generally and hence dispose of your current registered motor vehicle and replace it with another. Motor engineers of the type that you have consulted, and from whom you have on this occasion received negligent advice, are normally required to carry professional indemnity insurance so it would be wise to present a claim to this person soon and to invite them to notify their professional indemnity insurer of the claim so that it can be adequately and promptly assessed and paid. Such a claim would, of course, involve you handing over this vehicle in exchange for being fully reimbursed all of your costs or damages, but given that the vehicle is now of no worth to you as a motor vehicle, I assume that that would not pose a problem." All I can hope is that placing the bunsen-burner of my lawyer under the backsides of the persons responsible for giving me the faulty advice encourages them to A/ produce the emissions evidence, or B/ recompense me for ALL the expense incurred so far. I sincerely hope that no-one else on this board ever has the misfortune to be in this position in the future.

There are. They were all built pre 2004.

The issue here is that the engine in the car is a VQ25DET, which was not fitted to any vehicles outside Japan. Consequently it was not built to meet the Euro or Californian emissions standards. If it had, there would not have been a problem. The advice I was given before I purchased the car was that ANY M35 Stagea could be complied. I got this in writing from the compliancer. The SEVS entry at DOTARS permits M35 from 2001 to current, but of course this doesn't mean that the RAWS shop has the evidence. They told me they had. They lied, or made a mistake. Because the ADR changed at the end of 2003 the ONLY issue preventing this vehicle being complied is that the motor does not comply with the emissions standard. From what I can gather, this is partly to do with emissions on start-up - after the cats get hot the situation is much better. It is not a matter of bolting on a load of goodies and running it on rocket fuel - it would seem that emissions compliance is a bit of a black art. The whole thing is a complete circus, because so long as one vehicle can be modified and complied, any subsequent vehicles can be plated on that evidence, regardless of whether the mods have been done to those vehicles. I have obtained expert legal advice from my attorney in Sydney, the skinny of which is that the advice I was given came from a professional on whom I could expect to obtain expert advice. Fortunately we have a long paper trail of correspondence that will confirm all this, and when I finally have my day in court the advice I have is that they will lose. I should get all my money back, plus costs and expenses. However, this could take several months, in the meantime I have a fantastic car in my garage that can't be driven. All because some !@#$ made a mistake. And yes - I am pretty upset about it. This should have been a fun experience. It's turned into a nightmare. I wait to hear how Muz is going...?

Simple. Our government changed the rules as of 1 Jan 2004. Made emissions standards much tougher. Every time I see an old smoking Commodore bomb disappearing down the QLD road in a ball of rust and blue smoke, I dwell on the irony of it all...

Well the news is not good. Not good at all. On the basis of the information I have been given by the emissions testing facility in Melbourne, and by a RAWS evidence supplier who is familiar with the debacle the Muz and I find ouselves in, it would now seem highly unlikely that our 2004 Model M35 Stageas will meet the ADR emissions standard in the near future, if at all. As you may recall from my posts a few months back, the car was purchased on the express written advice from the compliancer that "any M35 Stagea can be complied". This was wrong. Unfortunately I didn't find out until the car was landed here. I would love to elaborate on the breathtakingly appalling level of professionalism shown by the RAWS industry culprits with whom I have had the misfortune to deal - and there are several - and to replay to you the foul-mouthed, expletive-ridden responses I got this morning to very simple questions about what progress was being made. But it now seems that this matter will end in the courts, and I have no other choice than to seek redress by suing the relevant parties for all of my costs associated with the purchase and importation of my Autech Axis Stagea. It has sat in my garage for three months - Muz's for even longer - and little or no progress would seem to have been made towards obtaining a plate for the car. I provide this information as a warning to all. Do NOT buy an M35 built later than 31/11/04. Wish me luck in court. What a pity I will never get to drive my car...

Angus, I wouldn't wait for compliance, just a buy an 03 build date car. I don't think there are any changes to the cars specs in 04. I would also be buying at least Grade 4.5. You want to be careful here as the auction gradings are very much a matter of opinion even within the same auction house. I strongly recommend you use someone like David Zozuk at Kobecars, who bids every week at the HAA auction, the biggest in Japan. He will actually inspect any vehicle you may be interested in and confirm the engineer's report. You can email him at [email protected]. Tell him I sent you! You also need to look VERY closely at the auction sheet to make sure that the Axis you are looking at has ALL the options you want - most don't have leather for example. There are also a number of engine options, and unless you can read Japanese these won't be obvious. If you want the VQ25DET then you'll have to make sure the car you're bidding on has that option. There is also the Axis S model, which has a slightly different body kit, and goes for a bit less. Some are also 2WD not 4WD. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I'm attaching the actual auction sheet for my car, which was sold for 1.84 million on the button. When you add 5% consumption tax, and 100,000 Y FOB fees, the total comes out at 2.032 million yen. So look out for those additional costs. As you can see from the sheet, every option was ticked except sunroof, which I didn't want. As you can see the car was rated as 4 B/B - but both David and his Japanese associate say really it should have been an easy 5. The car is bloody flawless! I have seen many, many cars come fresh off the boat from Japan, and they always look a terrible mess. This one looked like it had come fresh from the production line. So, again, be very very careful with engineer's reports. 2004_Stagea_AXIS.pdf

The car in your attached image appears to have 19 or even 20" wheels, which frankly I think it needs. My 18s get a bit lost in the wheel arches, but I bet the ride is lumpy as hell with bigger mags. You can't have it all I guess. Also the car seems to have a dual sunroof, which is nice, but you might want to think about headroom if you're taller than 6'. If you check the Nissan specs you'll see that cruise control was not offered as an option (except on the AR-X) which seems an odd omission on a car that is fitted with plenty of gizmos. No matter - it's a relatively easy retro fit for less than a grand. My guess is that you'll be paying somewhere around 2 million yen + FOB for a really good 2003 Axis or AR-X with leather and all the fruit. My car is in quite unbelievable condition, and looks like it's never been driven, let alone done 47,000km. The interior is flawless, and exterior virtually so. Even the underbody is immcaulate. Depending on whether you buy through a local agent, or DIY through someone like my mate David Zozuk in Kobe, you'll wind up paying a little over $30k on the road. The dollar is at an 18 year high against the yen (106) and has put on 5% since I bought my car. So there's never been a better time to buy. Let me know if you need help or advice, but remember anything with a build date later than 11/03 can not be currently complied.

Actually I HAVE gone nuts. But I'm taking the pills the doc gave me, and you know what, they really Do work! I stuck a bit more fuel in it today and ran it around the corner, just to blow out a few cobwebs, all on closed roads of course in strictly controlled conditions . This is the wickedest car I've ever owned, and I really, really, really can't wait to drive it on the road.

hahahahahah - that's a good one! Shall I bring it on the back of a tow truck? :laughing-smiley-014:

Crikey - you're quick off the mark! Which bits should I post? It's a pity I can't demonstrate the cheesy american voice doing the "valet start - stand clear" whatever that means!!! I thought that I'd shot those pics at 640X480 res, but obviously not - too big - will process and re-post some more tomorrow. Speak Friday...

The frustration just keeps on growing. One minute we feel like we're making progress, the next... ugh. One day I hope finally to drive my car. In the meantime, some more pics to while away the boredom... More detail of the sat nav and DVD system.

I have an Autech Axis 2004 model sitting in my garage. As Chris says, waiting for emissions, very painful... For the time being don't buy anything later than 11/03. The best place to find more info is goo.net... http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&am...Den-us%26sa%3DN try that for a start, also... http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&am...Den-us%26sa%3DN

I've got everything crossed that this will work out OK.

Chris, Have you seen this? http://g35ipod.com/installHW.php?skin=1&src=mp3car-sig It's a pictorial guide to integrating an iPod with an M35 (Infiniti) using an AAI-NIS interface. Seems like the same audio / navi setup as my car, except for the Bose sound system. I've also discovered (by accident) my Viper security system has a remote engine start system, with an american voice babbling on about valets! There are secrets aplenty gathered herein...

M35 is drive by wire?

Done. Just tried to call you at home - we need to chat. It's very important I feel to keep xxxx 'on side' Will try later. M

Muz - thanks for the Yahoo auction suggestion... As far as using names in public I'd be careful what you say (!) - better to PM or email. Having met the compliancer who is setting up the emissions test he seemed to know his business, and while all the firms involved in RAWS appear to be 'on the fringe' of the industry, I have no reason not to trust him. He gave every impression of being really committed to getting the emissions sorted, and since it will seemingly be costing him a great deal of money I would say that he'll be looking for a positive outcome. When I called him yesterday he seemed - in contrast with two weeks ago - very upbeat about the outcome of the test. Apparently their own testing had proved quite successful given the mods they had done, and on the strength of that were fairly confident that the car might get through first time. By the end of next week we should know. Perhaps there was some mix up in communication - I can't imagine why he would say the car was in Melbourn when it was outside his yard? The message I'm getting at this point is that they will eventually get emissions, it's just a question of 'when'? My problem is at what point do we seek redress if this drags on and on. My legal advice is that a suit against the companies giving the incorrect advice could drag on for several months anyway - so better ot wait and keep the faith.

Well, my new car finally arrived yesterday - the customs agent managed to deliver it to the wrong house, and called to say it was sitting in my back yard with the keys in the mail box. Looked out the window - no car! Turns out to have been dropped at my old house just up the street (so I got to drive it a little way - tsk tsk). First impressions are amazing. This car really is like new - interior is flawless cream leather, not a mark either inside or out. Or at least this would have been the case had not some malicious prick at some point in the shipping process taken the cigar lighter and stubbed it hot on the wiper stalk, ripped off the navi screen joystick, and put a nice big scratch over the front left guard. The thought processes of the guys involved with shipping the car beggar the imagination. So now to do battle with the shipping company. Amazingly the car came with ALL the original log books, manual, paperwork, tools etc even the spare remote key and valet key. I'll post some more pics soon. Raising the bonnet gave me a bit of a laugh (see attached pic). WTF is "Advanced Front Midship"?!!!! Don't ya love Japlish... Compliancer now informs me that things are looking a bit more positive in terms of emissions compliance, so by the end of next week we may have an answer. It's frustrating having such a beautiful machine sitting in my garage, and unable to drive it.

Congrats on your new car - my 2004 Autech Axis is sitting in my garage awaiting the results of the emissions testing, but I have driven it briefly and it goes like a scalded cat. First impressions of mine are plenty power! I would have thought 350kw was a bit optimistic given thw VQ25DET is only 206kW (well, probably more) stock, and the paucity of aftermarket bits available. You could start with the Impul ECU. Mine has the Autech body kit and 'private' suspension, which is definitely not soft. Very taut and responsive so far - and I have a 3" turbo back Fujitsubo exhaust. Did you keep the Xenon headlights? Cruise control seems to be a rare option - Muz's ARX4 has it. I plan to have Chris Rogers fit me an aftermarket unit. Now - please post some pics!

A few observations on this subject... I imported a UZZ31 Soarer (with 1UZFE V8) about 3 years ago with 70,000km on the Odo. Since I saw the car prior to compliance I was able to decipher various servicing stickers in the door jam that suggested that there was a possibility that kms were genuine - or at least the car hadn't been 'clocked' in the past 3-4 years. A sticker on the engine said that the cam belt had been replaced at around 67,000km. Regardless of this we recently did a 'major' at 100,000km, which included stripping the cam drive train and replacing water pump, idler bearings etc etc. We discovered that the cam belt was 'as new' which suggested it had indeed been replaced. However, the tensioner had been butchered when this was done, and the attaching bolt was seized in the casting. This required very careful repair. So the moral here is, trust no evidence, and do a major service before anything big lets go. (The Soarer now runs like new!). Also, watching auctions in Japan over a number of years, it never fails to amaze me how 10+ year old cars can be put to auction with less than 100,000km on the clock. While recently watching to buy an M35 the average number of km for a 2002-2004 model was 50,000km. Clocking speedos is I'm sure widespread in the imports business - there are various dire warnings posted around the auction houses in Japan threatening fines for offering 'clocked' cars. Not sure how effective these are.

Chris - could you give me a quick call tomorrow? Cheers - Matt

OK - I saw Muz's car at the the compliancer today - Chris has the dash in a million bits! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he can work his magic on the entertainment and nav systems. Muz's car should be off to Melbourne (as soon as Chris pulls his finger out!) ASAP, and I can only cross everything that it passes the emissions test. Until then, neither his nor my car can be complied. Very frustrating. It would seem the major problem is that the VQ25DET was never exported to the US (unlike the VQ35 et al), which means it was never designed for the draconian Californian emissions standards. If it had, we'd be breezin' it in. It does sound like there's going to be a colossal amount of work needed to get this engine to comply to the relevant ADR. The evidence workshop is confident he'll get there, he just can't say when... Well, I suppose while we're waiting I'll have plenty of time to detail everything, and spend lots of $$$ with Chris!

Despite Chris's somewhat trite (!) comment I would like to acknowledge here my appreciation for his work on my Delica this week. He turned up on time, installed my alarm, fixed the problems, and charged what I thought was a very reasonable sum for some excellent work. Good on you Chris - let's hope you get to work on my M35 Real Soon Now!