Nightcrawler

^^^ manuals are for people who can't afford the auto option

Where in Adelaide are you Ryan? If you are not North I might just go the $12 shipped option, which would be easier than running around to pick them up.

^^^ yeah that is the key - the Jp auction sheet. I guarantee you pretty much NO car yard in Australia will give or show you the Jp auction sheet - most will claim "we bought it from a yard in Jp so it has no auction sheet" - if that is the case ask for the dereg papers (which EVERY car has to have before leaving Japan), which always have the genuine Jp kms. They won't even show you these, as they know all the ODOs have been doctored when the cars come into Aus. I actually found the auction sheet of a V35 sedan (here on a lot in Adelaide) stuffed in the bottom of the glove box under other stuff. It showed that the ODO was not correct, AND the car had had major rear end repairs so should never have been brought and complied here at all. Dodgy, dodgy, dodgy.

You CAN'T drift a car with an E-Brake. The whole concept of drifting is that you need to hold the brake button in on a conventional handbrake so it doesn't lock in, so you can pull it up and down at will. In order to engage and disengage a foot brake requires considerable effort and time that makes it impossible to drift. But I agree that the foot brake setup on the V35 leaves a LOT to be desired. I got sick of it not working effectively so a little while back I pulled off the rear wheels and tightened the adjusting screw to maximum possible (any tighter and the rear wheels would no longer turn) .... the park brake was effective for about 2 weeks, then it went back to how it was before. But it still didn't work effectively enough to completely lock the rears in order to drift - even if it were possible with a foot brake.

Yeah my car at a supposed 48,000km had a fair amount of wear on the drivers seat and the rotors were absolutely lipped and almost shagged. The drivers door lock actuator had already failed and the drivers window periodically won't go up or down without half a dozen attempts at the switch. liger that looks good - I have never seen that before. Today Tonight should get them to go down to the car yards in Sydney and look at all the cars down there - would make for a GREAT news story! As I said above, when I was looking to buy a V35 the amount of 2003 V35s with 25,000-30,000km on the clock in Sydney yards was amazing - yet when I subscribed to the Jp auction sites and Prstige/JSpec they were extremely few and far between. Almost all had 50,000km+, which is still quite low really for a 5-6 year old car at the time - even for Jp cars. At the end of the day as long as you are happy with the car it doesn't matter what the ODO says .... until it hits near 100,000km like mine does and the lower control arm and a heap of other bushes are rooted - the retail to buy them all, press them in and labour involved is around $2k. Unless you can do it yourself like me. Also of concern is that if a car is wound back and the 100,000km service is not done until say 150,000km you run the risk of snapping a worn belt or your water pump failing/cavitating and you probably wouldn't know it until you cooked your motor.

^^^ bollocks to that - there is a guy in Sydney that will come to you and change your ODO via consult for $100 and it is completely untraceable. How do you think there are so namy 20-40,000km V35s for sale in yards in Sydney (one particular yard is VERY famous for it - there ave been threads on SAU even about it), yet when you go search the Jp auction sites they are very few and far between.

I just had a look on CarSales - fact is that there are black ones on there for as high as $38k (dreamers), and VERY few below $25k ... so buying one from a dealer for much less than private ones go for is a warning sign. PLUS, ANY dealer adds a MINIMUM of $5k price on the price you can import one yourself .... so by your own admission Series 3s should be well over $30k .... It is really only the silver ones that have seen massive price drops - when I paid $30k for my black one 2.5 years ago the yard offered me a silver one with same spec/kms for $22k ... all the way back then. But I agree - NONE of the V35s in Aus have genuine kms .... mine supposedly had 48k on it when I bought it, but that was a load of bull due to the various factors you have pointed out.

Wow $22k for a black one with those km seems MUCH too cheap .... make sure you get a thorough mechanical check done on it before you hand over $$$. It will be nice to see another black V35 around Adelaide - join up to SAU:SA (www.sausa.com.au) if you want to come on our club cruises, track days, dinners, go-kart nights, etc etc). Congrats on choosing to buy the best car (for the money) in the world!

Yeah I am frustrated daily by the inability of Gen Y to spell or use correct grammar - it is a truly scary thing that one can go through school and not understand the difference between "your" - which is a possessive (will you ride YOUR bike today?), and "you're" - which is a shortening of two words "you are" (YOU'RE going to get run over if you ride your bike on the road).... it is not really that hard.

haha but don't you think it is ironic that you misspelled and used incorrect grammar in a post where you told someone to improve their spelling? I think it is awesome

errrr try spelling unsuccessful correctly before you start telling people to learn how to spell

Awesome advice - thanks mate - I willl give that a go.

I thought so too .... but the guy explained that the alloy in the lower controls arms is very soft and apparently it is a fair pain in the ass to do with a reasonable chance of lunching the arms and having to replace them .... nah I am not going to name names ...

Yep put me down for Control Arm Lower-Inner Bushing - SPF3298K - $83 - http://www.superpro....art?id=SPF3298K please - mine are screwed and I was about to order replacements out of the USA. Are we doing a local 'group buy' on pressing them in - I have been considering buying a cheap 10 ton press since I have been quoted $70 per SIDE to have them pressed in

Sled you are forgetting one VERY improtant factor - that idiot redhead's Carbon Tax. So as of July 2011 we will see businesses having to either suck it up, pay the carbon tax (and make 15% less profit per year), OR pass on the 15% increase in prices to the consumer. And this is a compounding tax. Not a remittal tax like the GST - the 15% gets added at EVERY STAGE of production, packaging, transport, wholsaliing, transprt again, and retailing. I will give you one guess which one will happen. So now imagine a whole generation of people who paid significantly too much for property during the boom, have HUGE mortgages that they took at 5.5%, but are currently struggling with at 7%. Then factor in inflation of every single thing we do of AT LEAST 15%, THEN factor in the RBA RAISING interest rates to try to dampen consumer spending/inflation, then see interest rates hit 8-9% while the cost of living rises by 15%+. Then consider the tens of thousands of manufacturing businesses in Aus (that already cannot compete with overseas-made items) have their operating costs rise by 15% overnight due to having to buy carbon credits. These factories will cease to exist, as why would you stay in Aus and make a product when you can have it made in China (where of course there is no carbon tax) for half the price. Fact is, most of them are only still in Aus to be good sports .... I see only significant doom and gloom in the Aus property market between people having less disposable income, significant mortgagee in possession sales (we are already seeing significant numbers of thes - I did 2 today) and massively increasing unemplyoment qeues. There is a bad 5-10 year period ahead of us I am sorry to say .... time willl tell if I am right, and to be honest I sure hope that I am wrong. And in the longer term, exactly as you pointed out Sled - our incomes are relatively fixed and will be for a significant period to come - how can rents (and subsequently property values) rise? Already since rents have move a poultry 10-20% in the past 10 years - yet values have doubled and in some cases tripled - the balance is way out of whack when you only return 2-3% on a property, with no prospect of capital gains ....

Yeah true, listening to every point of view is a good idea - learning is learning. As long as you don't get sucked in to any ideal where the professor of that ideal has some personal gain in your learning or actions thereafter. But if you are smalrt enough to filter through the bullshit, then you will be better off. Sorry I have no recommendation of financial advisers. My wife is a charetered accountant, so she does all our advice/planning (and most of our spending lol) .... maybe check with your relatives/friends and see who they use?

As I have said above in posts, it is important to see a financial adviser first to work out your net financial position and what type of investment benefits you the most. Property investment is NOT just about rent (in fact, far from it) .... you need to work out relative to your personal financial situation whether you want an investment for depreciation/income shield (brand new home), high rental return (cheap home in the outer suburbs - and/or look at a larger block if you want potential to redevelop/sub-divide down the track) or high capital gain with moderate rental returns (safer, but you will have to find more out of your own pocket to top up mortgage payments) .... then you need to find out what type of loan best suits you - interest only, fixed rate etc etc ..... only THEN is it really worth talking to a property professional or similar. Problem is that ANY seminar you attend will push THEIR product, whether or not it actually is the best product for you. At the end of the day MOST people are just out to make their commission out of your deal, so it is hard ot get good advice. I even know of loan consultants who push a particular brand or product as they get kick-backs from how many loans they write of that product/brand - whereas they are SUPPOSED to be finding you the BEST deal for your situation ... sadly many do not.

^^^ 100% correct. It is not unknown for car yards to pull out the gauge cluster and remove the globes to 'make errors go away'. You just never know.

Don't get it checked AFTER you buy it - if they find any major faults you are screwed. Don't listen to the dealer if they tell they will fix anything you find - once you have handed over your cash they won't want anything to do with you.

Or they have hidden the problem. Make sure you get a car checking mob (or better still a reputable import workshop) to thoroughly inspect the car before you put any money down. Car dealers will do ANYTHING to make a sale. Never underestimate how dodgy they can be.

Simple. Get them to fix the problem, THEN put a deposit down. YOU asked for our advice and are now not listening to anyone. Don't buy it, then in a few weeks turn up here whinging that the trans is rooted, or the wiring stuffed, or whatever else.

Seriously, you are asking why is it dodgy? - the car is too cheap - they are pressuring you to make a quick decision and are using the old 'someone else is interested in the car and you will miss out' line - if they knew what the problem was (and it was easy/cheap/quick to fix), why haven't they fixed it already - car yars don't normally put defective cars on the lot for sale - all of the things you have described make the car and dealer sound dodgy as - surely you realise that?

Sounds dodgy as hell.

Believe it or not we actually did have a like button on the forums about a year ago, but we took it off because people were abusing it. There was a reputation rating of each user as well, and when you got too many dislikes your reputation went down the toilet and there were too many idiots abusing it, so we removed it. But yeah, when a user has 6 threads on the front page of any forum it is time for me to tell them to calm down. Especially when most of the the topics have been covered before. Thanks for the 'Likes' guys :D .... I am just trying to keep the peace and make SAU enjoyable for everybody.

Haha .... he has a week off to think about how he should respect his elders, and when an Admin suggests he do somehting it is for a good reason