M35 - It's The End Of The Line For Me...

[autech_axis]

Well, it's now been six months since my 2004 model M35 Autech Axis arrived on these shores - bought in the advise from a well-known compliance shop that this car could be complianced. I'm still waiting on emissions testing to be completed and no sign of any progress whatsoever. Once Murray Bain has decided what to do with his (the test) car, we will be embarking on a major 'name and shame' campaign alerting Stagea enthusiasts to the debacle caused by the unprofessional morons involved in giving the advice to Muz and me.

I have given notice to the compliancer that he has 21 days to buy the car off me for what it has cost me, or else we're off to court. I will probably have to re-export the car to Japan for auction, and sue the compliancer for both my losses, liquidated damages and costs. This will be very expensive for him, and bloody inconvenient for me - but I now have no other option.

It was fun being part of this forum, but as you might imagine, I have no interest in Stagea any longer. Not your fault, or the car's, just time to go do something completely different and put this saga behind me.

[Tangles]

damn dude; all the best with whats ahead

[Stinky Rooster]

Well, if nothing else, all and sundry are VERY appreciative of the info you have left us with. You have probably saved some of us future M35 buyers a lot of time, expense and heartache, so for that, you have our unqualified appreciation.

good luck with your future endeavours.

Kitteh pic for the road?

[ssshonky]

Best of luck matey.. I hope it all works out for you..please be sure to drop us a line and tell us of the outcome ..

the thing that amazes me is these people in complaiance/car import etc must KNOW how the word gets around in car forums etc. That alone would make me want to be extra dilligent if I were an importer.

[Brycey]

far out what a mess very sorry to hear that it has gotten to this point mate

hope it all gets sorted quickly

edit: did you ever try anything like installing another cat? (dual cats) for the emissions test? sounds silly but could work..

Edited December 11, 2007 by Brycey

[AlexCim]

Oh shit..............

Edited December 11, 2007 by AlexCim

[32vspecII]

Well, it's now been six months since my 2004 model M35 Autech Axis arrived on these shores - bought in the advise from a well-known compliance shop that this car could be complianced. I'm still waiting on emissions testing to be completed and no sign of any progress whatsoever. Once Murray Bain has decided what to do with his (the test) car, we will be embarking on a major 'name and shame' campaign alerting Stagea enthusiasts to the debacle caused by the unprofessional morons involved in giving the advice to Muz and me.

I have given notice to the compliancer that he has 21 days to buy the car off me for what it has cost me, or else we're off to court. I will probably have to re-export the car to Japan for auction, and sue the compliancer for both my losses, liquidated damages and costs. This will be very expensive for him, and bloody inconvenient for me - but I now have no other option.

It was fun being part of this forum, but as you might imagine, I have no interest in Stagea any longer. Not your fault, or the car's, just time to go do something completely different and put this saga behind me.

were you told that no emission results were avaliable at the time and you would have to wait for them to be completed ?

if so then you were fair warned . its a long , expensive and complicated process and could take along time.

if you were not made aware of what had to happen then fair enough

[autech_axis]

were you told that no emission results were avaliable at the time and you would have to wait for them to be completed ?

if so then you were fair warned . its a long , expensive and complicated process and could take along time.

if you were not made aware of what had to happen then fair enough

I was told that "ANY m35 stagea can be complied".

I sent through the TAA auction sheet prior to purchasing the car.

I asked several times.

What more could I do?

They made a mistake. Now they're going to have to pay.

[STAG250]

my frustration is of a different order but I feel your pain

I would love to take it off your hands but NZ prices would not be to your satisfaction and I am informed by a friend who is importing his old Datsun 240Z from Oz that it is a bureaucratic runaround. I have yet to spot an Ar-x over here.

[JVP]

Kitteh pic for the road?

Oh shit..............

my thoughts exactly...

sorry to hear about your loss mate, kick em where it hurts

[Appealing]

Yeah Matt.... sorry to hear.... but please keep us posted with the outcome.

Like the others said, through your experience some good will come if only so others don't have to go through the same.

Still shit though.

[GoldZilla]

Well, it's now been six months since my 2004 model M35 Autech Axis arrived on these shores - bought in the advise from a well-known compliance shop that this car could be complianced. I'm still waiting on emissions testing to be completed and no sign of any progress whatsoever. Once Murray Bain has decided what to do with his (the test) car, we will be embarking on a major 'name and shame' campaign alerting Stagea enthusiasts to the debacle caused by the unprofessional morons involved in giving the advice to Muz and me.

I have given notice to the compliancer that he has 21 days to buy the car off me for what it has cost me, or else we're off to court. I will probably have to re-export the car to Japan for auction, and sue the compliancer for both my losses, liquidated damages and costs. This will be very expensive for him, and bloody inconvenient for me - but I now have no other option.

It was fun being part of this forum, but as you might imagine, I have no interest in Stagea any longer. Not your fault, or the car's, just time to go do something completely different and put this saga behind me.

A quick note, Matthew: Please be VERY careful about naming and shaming on this forum. If you are to post the particular importer's details on here for public view, then the SAU forum (and its owner) may later be sued for defamation. This is something that none of us want, obviously, as it could well mean the end of the existence of the Skylines Australia forums. As such, we have forum rules stating that no business can be directly named in a negative light.

Although I've never personally been in this situation, I have a fair understanding of how pissed off you'd be over the debacle that this has turned into. If you were to offer to PM to other members the details of the business in question then it at least reduces the risk of the forum being sued as above - the information is still being shared, but on more of a "need to know" basis, and it's not really out there for anyone to view and complain about, if you get my meaning... Here's an example.

I hope that makes sense.

On a more personal note, it's a shame that this has led to your loss of interest in owning a Stagea and being on these forums - I don't think that any of us C34 owners are unhappy with our decisions to buy these cars, and I wish you'd been one of the lucky ones who would have been able to bring the love with some M35 goodness. It's a damned shame!

Anyway, in whatever you choose to do next (and I'm hoping you either get your car or a settlement that will bring you some joy in a new and complianced one), I wish you the best of luck.

Nick

[autech_axis]

Thanks Nick - kind words and good advice that I shall heed...!

All PMs answered promptly and fully!

Every single day of the past six months I have had to look at this beautiful car in my garage that I can't drive. It's an unusually clean (spotless in fact) import, and presents as new.

If anyone has any suggestions for what I might do with it, or would like to buy it - $26,000 and it's yours.

Matthew

[32vspecII]

I was told that "ANY m35 stagea can be complied".

I sent through the TAA auction sheet prior to purchasing the car.

I asked several times.

What more could I do?

They made a mistake. Now they're going to have to pay.

so you supplied the car ? is impossible to tell every variant on a car from an auction sheet . I have had to have atleast 4 new evidence samples created for a v35 i have just completed and that car was nothing special and the v35 is a pretty mature import by now.

technically your car can be complied as far as I can tell from the sevs rulings .

what makes the autech special that it requires different emission results to others? sorry i am not familar with the m35 variants.

have you approached other raws to see if any others have evidence ? or any of the evidence providers ?

legally this is a bit unclear case . if the car can be complied , eventually , and they provided that information in good faith and did not try to deliberately mislead you might find it hard to mount any action

at the end of the day having to wait for the car to be complied is different to having it uncompliable so until that process is completely exhausted you might have to stick it out

i have just done 2 sample cars where the customers have been waiting since may and only 1 has just been complied , the other probably wont be until jan . dotars , raws and sevs is a shambles and even reputable well intentioned raws can have problems interacting with the redilculous system . and everything is so slow . dotars can take 8 weeks to just respond to something.

[autech_axis]

OK - as you should be aware, the ADRs for emissions changed from 1 Dec 2003. So far no one has been able to make the VQ25DET motor meet this ADR. Therefore my car cannot be complied.

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE AVAILABLE FOR M35 STAGEA POST NOV 2003.

I did not know this when I bought the car.

I was told by the compliancer "any M35 Stagea can be complied".

He was WRONG. He made a MISTAKE.

The year model was crystal clear on the auction sheet, and photos of the build plate supplied. Therefore there was no excuse.

SEVS rulings are of course irrelevant. Simply because a car appears on SEVS register does NOT mean that evidence is available for every car. This, as you would know, is down to each RAWS shop.

The case is NOT unclear. My legal advice is...

"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 the vehicle in this country. You were given that assurance by that person and under civil law in both NSW and QLD you had a legitimate expectation that the advice 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...."

Open and shut case mate. Unless the compliancer does the right thing and buys the vehicle from me, I WILL without further notice initiate immediate proceeding against them through the courts to recover all of my losses, costs and liquidated damages incurred as a result of this negligence.

Since this will probably wind up costing the compliancer (s) more than the value of the vehicle, you would think their next course of action would be obvious. Wouldn't you.

so you supplied the car ? is impossible to tell every variant on a car from an auction sheet . I have had to have atleast 4 new evidence samples created for a v35 i have just completed and that car was nothing special and the v35 is a pretty mature import by now.

technically your car can be complied as far as I can tell from the sevs rulings .

what makes the autech special that it requires different emission results to others? sorry i am not familar with the m35 variants.

have you approached other raws to see if any others have evidence ? or any of the evidence providers ?

legally this is a bit unclear case . if the car can be complied , eventually , and they provided that information in good faith and did not try to deliberately mislead you might find it hard to mount any action

at the end of the day having to wait for the car to be complied is different to having it uncompliable so until that process is completely exhausted you might have to stick it out

i have just done 2 sample cars where the customers have been waiting since may and only 1 has just been complied , the other probably wont be until jan . dotars , raws and sevs is a shambles and even reputable well intentioned raws can have problems interacting with the redilculous system . and everything is so slow . dotars can take 8 weeks to just respond to something.

[32vspecII]

OK - as you should be aware, the ADRs for emissions changed from 1 Dec 2003. So far no one has been able to make the VQ25DET motor meet this ADR. Therefore my car cannot be complied.

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE AVAILABLE FOR M35 STAGEA POST NOV 2003.

I did not know this when I bought the car.

I was told by the compliancer "any M35 Stagea can be complied".

He was WRONG. He made a MISTAKE.

The year model was crystal clear on the auction sheet, and photos of the build plate supplied. Therefore there was no excuse.

SEVS rulings are of course irrelevant. Simply because a car appears on SEVS register does NOT mean that evidence is available for every car. This, as you would know, is down to each RAWS shop.

The case is NOT unclear. My legal advice is...

"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 the vehicle in this country. You were given that assurance by that person and under civil law in both NSW and QLD you had a legitimate expectation that the advice 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...."

Open and shut case mate. Unless the compliancer does the right thing and buys the vehicle from me, I WILL without further notice initiate immediate proceeding against them through the courts to recover all of my losses, costs and liquidated damages incurred as a result of this negligence.

Since this will probably wind up costing the compliancer (s) more than the value of the vehicle, you would think their next course of action would be obvious. Wouldn't you.

"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 the vehicle in this country."

were you advised that they did not have evidence for the car and were trying to get it ?

if not then yes sue them . if they did then you have to live with it and wait . I am assuming they didnt then yes , they are dodgy get your lawyer out.

remeber just because the car hasnt passed emissions tests YET doesnt mean it CANT be complied ever . Lots of cars took ages and had heaps of problems to pass emissions. i dont know the specifics of the vq25 so by the sounds of it its having a hard time . were you advised its unlikely to pass ever?

[autech_axis]

"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 the vehicle in this country."

were you advised that they did not have evidence for the car and were trying to get it ?

No! As I have stated several times, the advice they gave me was that there would be no problem compliancing this car.

They made a simple, but catastrophic, error.

Their bad - not mine.

I am now advised by the buyer in Japan that re-exporting to Japan could be complicated and expensive. Quite apart from the cost of sending the car back there (say $3000), the car will have to be inspected and re-registered prior to submission to auction (at least $2000), then theres the cost of the auction which is a couple of hundred dollars each entry, plus the agents fees. My best is that the costs incurred won't be far off what we achieve at auction... Trouble is he doesn't know what's involved as he's never had to do it! It sounds very complicated and very messy.

Perhaps I should break it up for spares?

Oh dear - this really is going to end badly for all concerned.

[Lil_Bobby_260]

How about tranplanting a compliable engine into the car? And having it approved by an engineer? That was the only difference between the 02 (compliable) models and the later models, right? So if u run an engine from a car that REACHES complaince, surely it would pass due to all other variables remaining the same as the 02 models?

[32vspecII]

No! As I have stated several times, the advice they gave me was that there would be no problem compliancing this car.

They made a simple, but catastrophic, error.

Their bad - not mine.

I am now advised by the buyer in Japan that re-exporting to Japan could be complicated and expensive. Quite apart from the cost of sending the car back there (say $3000), the car will have to be inspected and re-registered prior to submission to auction (at least $2000), then theres the cost of the auction which is a couple of hundred dollars each entry, plus the agents fees. My best is that the costs incurred won't be far off what we achieve at auction... Trouble is he doesn't know what's involved as he's never had to do it! It sounds very complicated and very messy.

Perhaps I should break it up for spares?

Oh dear - this really is going to end badly for all concerned.

generally its better to send it on to nz

one last thing is there something happening to make you think the car will never pass emissions or they will never do the tests ?

because if its a matter of waiting another 6 months , i know it sucks but its going to be much less hassle to wait for the evidence than re-export and take legal action

im guessing the det has trouble passing emissions ? because the vq35 n/a has no problems meeting 03 or even 06 emission requirements

Edited December 12, 2007 by 32vspecII

[32vspecII]

How about tranplanting a compliable engine into the car? And having it approved by an engineer? That was the only difference between the 02 (compliable) models and the later models, right? So if u run an engine from a car that REACHES complaince, surely it would pass due to all other variables remaining the same as the 02 models?

its more to do with the date of the chassis number on the car itself

the later car has to pass stricter emission standards. it will make the same amount of emissions as the earlier model . it will be the same engine.