About To Buy A R34 Sedan, Questions About Cond / Price / Insurance..etc

[Darkmoon]

Hey, am looking at getting a Black 4 door R34 GT auto, it apparently has 48,000kms and seems to be in pretty good condition.

Its in Sydney located at an Importer called Jap Link.

so ive got a few questions..

What should i be looking for on the car in terms of problem areas / expensive things to fix up ?

(paint seems original / no sign of accident dmg)

Thinking of getting some guys to check out the car (State Roads - www.stateroads.com.au) any one used them ? or can recommend some1 else who can come and do some thorough testing on the car??

Has anyone bought / dealt with Jap link before? are they alright?? the car comes with a 3 year parts warranty which seems good...

What kind of money should i be paying for a 4 door black auto R34 sedan (GT) with 48000km ??

Lastly, who are all you guys with for insurance?? i got a comprehensive quote with just car, and they quoted me

$1450 , (excess $1950) - agreed value 17.5k.

does that seem okay for a 23 yo / clean record / daily driver?

thanks for anyhelp to any of the above questions.....!

[nsm034]

insurance seems expensive for a non turbo. i'm 26 agreed value 28k turbo $900

Edited March 15, 2007 by nsm034

[n15m0]

For a Non turbo sedan, agreed value of 17.5K is pretty reasonable. IF you look around most private sales of these models go anywhere from 12-15k on average. They should still in quite reasonable condition but if you are sceptical, best to pay for a 3rd party mechanical inspection RACQ/RACV etc... Rust is probably something I would chk for first, not that they are prone to it but you never know. Take it for a test drive and make sure there are no iregularities. NA sedan 34s in Japan would have normally been family cars or even taxis, so not much chance of it being really thrashed..

[Darkmoon]

thanks for that n15m0 !

just wondering how easy it is to wind the K's back on R34's ??? the dealer says it was bought of a japanese 2nd hand dealership, and theres no log books or anything...

anyother way to tell its age aside from a bit of dash wear ??

also is there a site to check out VIN / CHASSIS numbers or anything ?? like what do i look for to check for the original colour / type etc...

thanks again!

[sewid]

Winding back R34's is a piece of cake if you have the equipment. Alternatively if you don't you can just buy a new dash unit from Yahoo auctions for bugger all money. I've even seen DIY articles on Japanese websites on how to roll back your R34's odometer. 48,000k's seems a little optimistic.

[32vspecII]

dont get hung up on the km

use the condition of the car as a guide

also consider what you want the car for , cause you might get a bit dissapointed in the auto sedans lack of power and go hunting for more pretty soon

lots of people buy the n/as and you see them soon after going how do i turbo it

[Meek34]

I had State Roads inspect my R34 GTT sedan and I can highly recommend them, very comprehensive and good prepurchase investment. I would recommend them over RACQ. GL and make sure you are 100% sure it is the car you want before handing over any money!!

[smurf80]

Make sure you go for the GT-V or GT-X models they are more appointed then the run of the mill GT's The GT-V model is the turbo model without the turbo. It comes with the turbos Suspension brakes etc. Non turbo suspension is harder to come by the turbo suspension.

Hope this helps.

Chris

Edited March 16, 2007 by alphanumeric

[GTshortie]

Also recommend 'STATEROADS' for pre-purchase inspections, all my mates have used them and been very happy with the detailed report for the money they are asking.

[Darkmoon]

well, did the state roads inspection today, went good... car seems to be alright, also checked out the VIN , in the fast thread thanks to karen and cy!

So looks like a purchase is on the cards VERY soon....

they are throwing on 4 new tyres as the current ones have cracks on them/ not gunna last long...

only thing is, the suspension seemed quite stiff / a bit rough when going over bumps, now a degree of this i think might be caused by the current bad tyres, but im also wondering is it common for the shocks to be worn a bit?? or do they genuinely last for a while ??

thx again will post up some pics eventually once all goes through!!

[lanky71]

One of my mates went thru japlink and bought a car off them... lasted 3 weeks then problems arose all over the place and they were a bugger to deal with.

If you do buy it, for sure get a inspection done just so that they can at least check the basics.

As with kms it is very hard to tell original or not.. like mentioned above check condition of the rest of the car to help. I bought my '98 R34 GTT Sedan with 45000k on the clock and i am pretty sure its original kms as engine inspection and other durable parts looked to be "warn" properly. I paid $22k aobut 8 months ago for it and its a turbo so looking for a non turbo i would suggest if you can pay around $16k as you can get turbo sedans privately for like $18k and coupes for $20-23k.

Also japlinks warranty doesn't cover alot of things as my mate found out... if u want to know more give him a pm, he is on these forums: hempy33

My insurance is $2000 for a turbo, i am 22 with one at fault accident in 5 years. I am with justcar but they have alot of excess's if you do need to make a claim so it appears cheap but if i need to claim then i pay the extra there.

Also can i ask why are you looking at a non turbo? If you haven't already I would test drive both as whilst a non turbo skyline is still nice, it is alot harder once you have bought it to make it a turbo compared to already paying the little extra and getting one stock and from what I have read the fuel consumption is very similar on turbo/non turbo models in the r34's just depends on how you drive it and where your driving.

I average 10l/100km and i do city driving at each end of my trip and hwy driving in the middle... round trip of approx 140km per day and get last time i almost ran the tank fully out of 570km... standard except for a pod filter.

Just somethings worth considering. Hope it helped.

Drew.

[smurf80]

One of my mates went thru japlink and bought a car off them... lasted 3 weeks then problems arose all over the place and they were a bugger to deal with.

If you do buy it, for sure get a inspection done just so that they can at least check the basics.

As with kms it is very hard to tell original or not.. like mentioned above check condition of the rest of the car to help. I bought my '98 R34 GTT Sedan with 45000k on the clock and i am pretty sure its original kms as engine inspection and other durable parts looked to be "warn" properly. I paid $22k aobut 8 months ago for it and its a turbo so looking for a non turbo i would suggest if you can pay around $16k as you can get turbo sedans privately for like $18k and coupes for $20-23k.

Also japlinks warranty doesn't cover alot of things as my mate found out... if u want to know more give him a pm, he is on these forums: hempy33

My insurance is $2000 for a turbo, i am 22 with one at fault accident in 5 years. I am with justcar but they have alot of excess's if you do need to make a claim so it appears cheap but if i need to claim then i pay the extra there.

Also can i ask why are you looking at a non turbo? If you haven't already I would test drive both as whilst a non turbo skyline is still nice, it is alot harder once you have bought it to make it a turbo compared to already paying the little extra and getting one stock and from what I have read the fuel consumption is very similar on turbo/non turbo models in the r34's just depends on how you drive it and where your driving.

I average 10l/100km and i do city driving at each end of my trip and hwy driving in the middle... round trip of approx 140km per day and get last time i almost ran the tank fully out of 570km... standard except for a pod filter.

Just somethings worth considering. Hope it helped.

Drew.

Might be the fact that $2000 on insurance is the deciding factor on turbo and non turbo.

Chris

[lanky71]

Might be the fact that $2000 on insurance is the deciding factor on turbo and non turbo.

Chris

Yes true but when you look at it costing nearly $1500 and sometimes more for a nonturbo the difference is not that much.

Drew.

[Darkmoon]

Thanks for all the replys guys...

state roads inspection went well, hopefully japlink will be okay with future services etc, they threw in 4 new tyres which was ok...

picked up the car for 17.5k

Drew, the car is my gf's ... she is driving it , although im enjoying it myself quite a bit as well!! insurance is one reason, price is another...for a decent sedan turbo it seems we would be looking at 23k + for something in good cond..

the current car is very clean and runs excellent with 1 exception... i think the shocks are fairly worn... so will be looking at replacing them next week.. just wondering what you guys recommend for new shocks that wont blow the budget that will offer a nice bit of handling whilst still being pretty comfortable...

might make a new topic regarding shocks soon...

will post up some pics in a week or so when i get it washed up good!

cheers

seb