Km's On Your Import

[gtrzilla]

After buying my GTR, ive been wondering about the legitimacy of the kilometers on the ODO.

Last night, a friend of mine said that in Japan they export and sell cars at a certain age to comply with their ever growing pollution and emissions laws, hence the 80,000 k's on a 1990 GTR may in fact be legit.

Hence i looked this up:

"

Japan

Background

In 1992, to cope with NOx pollution problems from existing vehicle fleets in highly populated metropolitan areas, the Ministry of the Environment adopted the “Law Concerning Special Measures to Reduce the Total Amount of Nitrogen Oxides Emitted from Motor Vehicles in Specified Areas”, called in short The Motor Vehicle NOx Law. The regulation designated a total of 196 communities in the Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa, Osaka and Hyogo Prefectures as areas with significant air pollution due to nitrogen oxides emitted from motor vehicles. Under the Law, several measures had to be taken to control NOx from in-use vehicles, including enforcing emission standards for specified vehicle categories.

The regulation was amended in June 2001 to tighten the existing NOx requirements and to add PM control provisions. The amended rule is called the “Law Concerning Special Measures to Reduce the Total Amount of Nitrogen Oxides and Particulate Matter Emitted from Motor Vehicles in Specified Areas”, or in short the Automotive NOx and PM Law.

The amended regulation became effective starting in October 2002. Emission Standards

The NOx and PM Law introduces emission standards for specified categories of in-use highway vehicles including commercial goods (cargo) vehicles such as trucks and vans, buses, and special purpose motor vehicles, irrespective of the fuel type. The regulation also applies to diesel powered passenger cars (but not to gasoline cars).

In-use vehicles in the specified categories must meet 1997/98 emission standards for the respective new vehicle type (in the case of heavy duty engines NOx = 4.5 g/kWh, PM = 0.25 g/kWh). In other words, the 1997/98 new vehicle standards are retroactively applied to older vehicles already on the road. Vehicle owners have two methods to comply:

1. Replace old vehicles with newer, cleaner models

2. Retrofit old vehicles with approved NOx and PM control devices

Vehicles have a grace period, between 9 and 12 years from the initial registration, to comply. The grace period depends on the vehicle type, as follows:

* Light commercial vehicles (GVW ≤ 2500 kg): 8 years

* Heavy commercial vehicles (GVW > 2500 kg): 9 years

* Micro buses (11-29 seats): 10 years

* Large buses (≥ 30 seats): 12 years

* Special vehicles (based on a cargo truck or bus): 10 years"

So if you could be bothered reading it

I think the general gist is that the car may have been sitting in an Export yard/container, untill it was sold, or whatever

So the km's may in fact be real

* Diesel passenger cars: 9 years

Furthermore, the regulation allows to postpone its requirements by an additional 0.5-2.5 years, depending on the age of the vehicle. This delay was introduced in part to harmonize the NOx and PM Law with the Tokyo diesel retrofit program.

The NOx and PM Law is enforced in connection with Japanese vehicle inspection program, where non-complying vehicles cannot undergo the inspection in the designated areas. This, in turn, may trigger an injunction on the vehicle operation under the Road Transport Vehicle Law.

ANY THOUGHTS???

Edited January 15, 2008 by gtrzilla

[funkymonkey]

there's three places where an import can be potentially wound back:

1. by the seller

2. by the export agent that sells the car

3. by the dealer who buys the car and keeps it on his yard in australia

and i've seen hard evidence of all 3. That said, being in the import game I made sure my cars weren't wound back (and since my odo reads 150,000kms atm, if they did wind it back, they didn't do a shit hot job of it). Buying from reputable dealers in japan, and presence of log books can help you make sure that the car is true to its k's. I tend to not trust a km reading on a car that has already been bought at auction by an export agent, usually they buy em cheap when they come up, touch em up (wind the k's back, light panel work, polish, clean) then sell em onto their buyers at a higher price. Much more safer to bid on cars at auctions that are coming up, so you can see all the detals of the car before the agent has a chance to tamper with it.

[gotRICE?]

Me thinks someone is making themselves believe that their car has done less mileage than it reads

Haha jks

It does make alot of sence. But not in all cases.

I bought my 98 R33 this year with 48,000km on it. I was wary of this, but the interior condition, the carpet, steering wheel, mats and gearknob were immaculate. The seats are flawless.

You can generally tell if a cars bullshitting its mileage by interior quality.

The overall condition of everything was unbeatable. So i believed the NZ AA in their speedo guarantee and went with it. Seems to be still holding true!

EDIT: Also a speedo man once told me that if the 100,000 didgit doesnt perfectly line up with the 10,000 didgit its a good indication. For some reason when the 1 in the 100,000 is wound back to 0, it never goes back flush. Check it out?

Edited January 15, 2008 by gotRICE?

[MBS206]

It's not just the 10 000 and 100 000 marker, it's all of them don't line up.

My R33 has them all over the place, it's the easiest way to spot it (Unless digital dash)

But hell, don't judge a car on it's kays, judge it on its condition.

[stolen_s15]

It's not just the 10 000 and 100 000 marker, it's all of them don't line up.

My R33 has them all over the place, it's the easiest way to spot it (Unless digital dash)

But hell, don't judge a car on it's kays, judge it on its condition.

100% Correct.

[gotRICE?]

It's not just the 10 000 and 100 000 marker, it's all of them don't line up.

My R33 has them all over the place, it's the easiest way to spot it (Unless digital dash)

But hell, don't judge a car on it's kays, judge it on its condition.

Good to know!

And also correct, condition over km. Its all in how its looked after

[PM-R33]

Some of my mates skylines look like they have had 30 years of wear and tear yet their clocks read something like 50,000km.....haha yeah right!

[crofte]

After picking up my 1996 S2 R33 in November 2006 with 84 000 kms on the clock i found a service sticker behind the fuel door that was marked 120 000 km service due 10/ 2004. I was an innocent victim of the scams done by these scum bag importers. The car is in excellent condition and you would not be able to pick up on the fact the odometer was tampered with. No service books came with the car as i am the second Aus owner.

[Adriano]

I would say well over 50% imports have had their odo's wound back, especially R32 gtr's and S13's

[Fixxxer]

Ya can't always judge by the interior. My interior is almost perfect (only the beginning of a slight wear on the edge of the driver seat where you brush everytime you get in/out of the car). The carpets, dash, steering wheel all look very clean and 'newish', yet my '93 R32 GTST is at 183,000.

If they'd told me it was 80,000, I would have believed them no worries.

Fixxxer

[Mr Illuminator]

I have recently bought a 2000 rs four stagea with 52000 ks on the digital clock. how do you tell on a digital odo. The interior is also mint, so i would tend to believe this, although seats and interior parts are interchangable.

[sxc33]

Ya can't always judge by the interior. My interior is almost perfect (only the beginning of a slight wear on the edge of the driver seat where you brush everytime you get in/out of the car). The carpets, dash, steering wheel all look very clean and 'newish', yet my '93 R32 GTST is at 183,000.

If they'd told me it was 80,000, I would have believed them no worries.

Fixxxer

Same here. Coming up on 182,000 and the interior is 100 times better than cars everyone else's that have half the klms on em.

[pixel8r]

I have recently bought a 2000 rs four stagea with 52000 ks on the digital clock. how do you tell on a digital odo. The interior is also mint, so i would tend to believe this, although seats and interior parts are interchangable.

same story here - 1999 stagea with 28000kms almost 2 years ago (digital odo). The interior on mine was spotless - couldn't fault it. No wear marks on seats or steering wheel. Yet I've owned it for almost 2 years and the steering wheel now has a LOT of wear marks...

Would they go to the bother of replacing the steering wheel or seats?

But all the same, regardless of the km's, sometimes sitting in a car dealer's for 7+ years can do just as much "damage" as if it had 120,000km on it. I've had to replace the rear shockies when I bought it, and the fronts aren't much better now. Other than that its mostly been trouble-free but could well have been sitting around for years before I bought it.

So remember low km's isn't always a good thing.

[RBwhatever]

it would be possible to swap instrument panels. They just plug in and hey presto, low kms.

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

You can never tell but the only thing to realy go by is by checking out the Speedo if its a Factory Stock Standard.

All Japanese cars cam stock with a 180km speedo.

If you bought the car with a 260km or 320km speedo then you have to add the k's of whats it reading on top of what it had done before the speedo swap. Having lower k's is not necessary a bad thing. Ppl in Japan don't drive their Skylines all that much, sorta a weekend car, as I have been told.

(Btw if I remember correctly think some R34 GTRs came with 320km speedos stock..?)

My speedo was a 180km and it had 113 000kms (approx can't exactly remeber the last 3 digits) on it and its a 90 model. So hardly driven but how was it driven is the question... Had to fix a few things and not till you actualy start pulling things out you find out whats the story.

But yeah if a 15 yo car reads something like under 50 000km its a bit sus.

[xRHETTx]

The only way to be sure about the kms is if you have done them all yourself. My car is up to 180,000kms, I've done the last 110,000kms myself. And the car still runs near perfect.

As long as the engine has been maintained well, kms don't really matter (within reason).

[TTT]

We've got 2 cars with Legit km's on them

one got delivered yesterday and it has 54km.

the other 91 model has 322,000kms.

with imports, you gotta take the "Guilty until proven innocent" approach regarding the odo.

Digital ones are even easier to do.

go to wreckers, buy a one with lower km's.

swap over.

hey look.. 30,000kms.

[Howie]

there's three places where an import can be potentially wound back:

1. by the seller

2. by the export agent that sells the car

3. by the dealer who buys the car and keeps it on his yard in australia

and i've seen hard evidence of all 3. That said, being in the import game I made sure my cars weren't wound back (and since my odo reads 150,000kms atm, if they did wind it back, they didn't do a shit hot job of it). Buying from reputable dealers in japan, and presence of log books can help you make sure that the car is true to its k's. I tend to not trust a km reading on a car that has already been bought at auction by an export agent, usually they buy em cheap when they come up, touch em up (wind the k's back, light panel work, polish, clean) then sell em onto their buyers at a higher price. Much more safer to bid on cars at auctions that are coming up, so you can see all the detals of the car before the agent has a chance to tamper with it.

I think funkymonkey is 100% on the mark here. My run about is an R34 '98 with 134,000kms on the clock which seems about right for a car of it's age.. my previous car was an R32 '93 with 160,000kms on the clock. Yet friends I know have R32's with like 40,000kms on the clock and whine on about how mine has done way too many kms.. then I point to all their worn leather, the stained seats, the worn pedals, the rust marks, the dings under the body, and ask them if they really believe that it's only done 40k.

Go on condition not on km's.

[gtrzilla]

well

the car is going in soon for a major service

all fluids

timing belt

w/pump

fuel filter etc

so hopefully i wont have any real probs with the k's anyways as it seems to have been looked after well

just dont want the turbos to explode

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

well

the car is going in soon for a major service

all fluids

timing belt

w/pump

fuel filter etc

so hopefully i wont have any real probs with the k's anyways as it seems to have been looked after well

just dont want the turbos to explode

You should be fine, GTR engines are TUFF! Ppl say they are indestructerble WITH the the right type of maintainace. + the Block is pretty much made of pure iron. So what ya doing is good for the car. You still got the standard turbos?