R_Thirty_Four

Yeah, I may be in the market for one soon. I was originally looking at getting an R32, but the price differential isn't so great these days (for reasons noted above). I don't think such cars should ever be offered so cheap as it takes away a lot of exclusivity and quite simply, the car deserves to go for more, but time always catches up with everything. Only catch is the insurance though...that might ultimately kill the idea for me. I may move to a nicer suburb so I can insure it for a planet earth price, hehe (I want to move anyway). I've owned a couple of other hipo imports from the other stables (and sold them to buy a cheap runabout for the meantime) and it might be time to step up to the R33 GTR experience soon (despite my user name, hehe). It will feel pretty strange driving something so big again though (my current car is tiny), but I do feel safer when I drive something nice and solid...

One thing people should be weary of when buying imports from the Japanese auctions is that in general those condition codes are determined from visual inspection. My ex bought herself a nice looking Mitsu FTO which had auction grade 4, only to find that it was so riddled with rust underneath that it's major structural members will only be able to hold out for a year or two at the very most. And there was apparently nothing she could do for recourse from her broker. Basically she ended up with a worthless heap of rust, which nobody sensible will buy from her. Importing a GTR or the like under a 15 year rule is a very risky proposition, not just for all the other potential problems, but also for this one. Japan has a much harsher climate than we have here. Snow can be a killer, especially after all those years. I wouldn't be surprised to start reading more reports of this kind of happening once those 15+ year old cars start arriving in volume (if they can). Anyway, just something to bear in mind.

Well, with the sport car market, the price is often determined by the owner's desperation to sell rather than quality because the market is so damn small. I saw a very nice R33 GTR for $36k and the owner really needed to sell for an overseas trip. Also, with imports you have no guarantee that a $50k example is any better than a $36k example, since you don't have much chance of being able to know exactly what kind of a life the car has ever had. I say this all from personal experience since my last car (an import) didn't fetch anywhere near the premium it deserved and there was bugger all I could do about it because potential buyers in the ~$50k bracket for an import are relatively rare. Also, when someone sees a ~$35k example, expectations adjust, not only from buyers, but also from insurers who put appropriate agreed/market value ceiling prices on the cars. I personally would never get a 'market value' policy on any import for that reason as it is now so easy for them to make it look like the market value is as low as they like.

I suspect another reason contributing to this: hideous insurance costs. A lot of people would be looking elsewhere who would otherwise be buying because of this factor alone (Count me as one of those people for now). So, down go the prices, supply vs demand style.