fungoolie

Dissonance? Not in the slightest Birds!! Don't feel even the slightest unease over purchasing the GT-R over any other secondhand car in the same price bracket. I'm am totally rapt with the car and love it. My brother, who is much like me, has a 997 911 Turbo and I'm sure he would have bought the GT-R over it if it was available when he obtained the 911 in Easter 07, he simply went and bought the fastest thing he could get for the money back then. I've never purchased cars for pose value or styling over substance. Always purchased purely on a bang for buck performance basis. Had STi's for the past 10 years so that speaks for itself. Compared to them the GT-R is the sexiest thing on the planet!! If I had so much money it's value was meaningless to me, I'd probably have a 458 Ferrari or GT-2 Porka over a GT-R but since I'm not in that situation I always go for the best value for money. On top of that, my car is a daily driver and a warranty on a reliable car plays a major factor in a purchase decision when the alternative would be something that is significantly slower, temperamental, out of warranty and would probably cost an arm or a leg to keep running.

Having looked at carsales.com I see theres some 99/00 Modenas going for less than the price of a new GT-R..... I bought a GT-R. Having found this out I still don't regret that decision...

And...... Is it just me or is Nissan being hypocritical by working on current model JDM Skylines which were not brought in by Nissan Oz but won't touch JDM GT-Rs? I mean if Nissan Oz were slow off the mark getting GT-Rs in and we get 12 months of grey imports before they shut the door then why punish the initiative of the JDM GT-R owners when they have no such bugbear with the owners of the Skylines?

No I understood. What I was getting at is that the car is worth far more as a wrecker than as something to be repaired and re-registered. It would not even be an option to repair. If it sold I almost guarantee the buyer would not be repairing it...

What the??? Motor alone worth between $20 and $30K ....Then the trans, brakes, wheels, tyres, interior, panels. The list goes on. I estimate between $80 to $100K dismantling value.

19s

Yeah but the only reason you'd fit aftermarket pads is if they don't come to party and fix it under warranty for free anyway so what value the warranty you forgo?

yes but the launch RPM dont change, thats the warranty issue...

Slot me in with a bog stocker Martin. Cheers David

Well considering my LC2 car launches no different with VDC off or on then why the hell should it void the warranty if VDC if off??? They changed the software from LC1 to LC2 but forgot to change the warranty policy....

I drove the car carefully only on the road for 3 months, (basically running in conditions), and Nissan saw it for an unrelated issue and told me the pads were cracking!!! They said not to worry about it. I'm sure they all do it...

I hada look at the car in the pits. It's running 19" slicks....

Yes there are, just browse the Tirerack website. There are Pirelli's, Michelins and also alternative Dunlops. I just found a set of of Dunlop DSST7010s sitting at my back door to try next. My car's a daily driver and I've knocked up 12,000 kms in less than 5 months and looking at replacing them at 15000 kms so I thought I'd try these to see if they wear a bit better than the "extreme performance" Dunlops and Bridgestones. They only are rated up to 270 kph but I dont see that being a major issue to me in our overpoliced SA... Out of interest I looked online because I was quoted $1100 for rears and $850 for front Dunlop DSST600s which I regard as highway robbery when these tyres cost under US$400 in the states. All up landed at my front door they were: US$362 x 2 (Fronts) US$402 x 2 (Rears) US$264 Shipping ($450 if I bought 8) Total US$1792 In AUS$ at 0.86 exchange rate totals AU$2083 AUS$25 wire transfer fee. Import costs of $540 which consisted of: Duty was 10% on the tyre value alone. GST was 10% on everything. Freight company customs clearing costs and quarantine. Total AUS$2648 which comes to $662 a tyre inclusive of GST. A saving of almost $1300 over local prices. When arbitrage opportunities like this exist its no wonder people will incur a little inconvenience to save a bucketload. (And it wasn't exactly inconvenient either, 20 mins on a website and on my internet banking...) Also another tip. If you cannot claim the GST as an input tax credit just order them as two parcels of two tyres which will get each parcel in under the $1000 threshold for duty and GST. You'll pay extra for freight, (~US$200) but it will more than be offset by the saving in duty and GST however there will not be any GST on the purchase price that you can claim back. Just order them a week or two apart so that customs don't deem them to be the same shipment and lump it all together and hit you with the duties and taxes. Get together with your fellow R35 owners and order in 8 and save another $20 a corner.

Is there an exemption for import duty if the tyres are for a car over a certain age? If so is all thats required is the supplier to state on the inoice that the tyres are for an "old" car?

Well done fellas, It's a beautifully engineered package.

Off topic perhaps but would anyone else out there love the ability to preset your trans/shock/stab control settings so that they come up the same every time u fire the car up? I find myself having to go through the process of setting Shoclks to comfort and stab control to race every time I get in the car and honestly its a real pain especially since I have to wait a second for R to be engaged. I can appreciate that for safety reasons we cannot have it default to say VDC off but for more innocuous settings like comfort for the shocks why cant it be made to default to this setting? Very irritating....

Its just like any other novated lease purchase except that you only get a little more than $5K input tax credit because they only give you ITC on the non-luxury car tax incurring component. All other aspects exactly the same as when I novated my Subaru STi lease.

Just take a look at the photo of the 4 GT-Rs lined up in the "R35 Development Project, A snapshot of a customer build" thread. One of the cars has the black wheels (premium) and three have the "charcoal" wheels. Can you really see that much of a difference? And if you spent $4000 on upgrading the standard stereo I'm sure you'd end up with a hellava better stereo than the so-so Bose system. (Plus you get the stickier Dunlops)