Good Buy?

[danny_tq]

So I am about to buy a skyline:

v35 skyline coupe, 2003, model, silver,premium edition, 25,000kms 18inch stock rims

pretty muuch a stock car, with a few extra such as rear and side cameras, overall pretty good condition.

advertised for 33k, I can get it for 31k, good deal?

nehting I should look out for/traps before I fork out the cash, plus neone recommend a a good bank for car laons for imported vehicles?

cheers,

Danny

[skyboy33]

if advertised for 33k you should be able to buy it for under 30k.

[NISMO]

The one thing I stress to everyone looking at imports - judge the car for what it is and ignore the km's.

On the above that car has travelled approx 4600km a year. Given it's not a super rare or special car in Japan, how many people you know in Australia that buy a Commodore and only travel 5000km's a year in it?

Unless it's got log books, I would ignore the k's and look at the condition.

Other than is at an auto? It seems like a typical price for an auto, however if manual it would be a fantastic price.

[WazR32GTSt]

i think its a good price regardless of auto/manual

its pretty rare to get the reversing camera which is over 1k to add on yourself

plus it menas you have the nav screen and everything...

if its a dealer, look to get ait for around 30k, if its private sale, then there's usually not as much movement possible

[danny_tq]

The one thing I stress to everyone looking at imports - judge the car for what it is and ignore the km's.

On the above that car has travelled approx 4600km a year. Given it's not a super rare or special car in Japan, how many people you know in Australia that buy a Commodore and only travel 5000km's a year in it?

Unless it's got log books, I would ignore the k's and look at the condition.

Other than is at an auto? It seems like a typical price for an auto, however if manual it would be a fantastic price.

why do you say km's dont matter? Woldnt that be a factor to be considered when judging the overall condition of the car?

with these imports, Are the cars km's actually legit? or do you think they've been manipulated some how?

cheers,

Danny

[WazR32GTSt]

i think its always fair to assume ANY import has had the kms played with

its just that with a newer car like the V35 its not going to make much of a difference as is so bloody new anyway!

as long as the car seems in good overall condition, and the engine checks out ok with basic inspection, rest assured you will be fine 99% of the time

Edited June 23, 2008 by WazR32GTSt

[NISMO]

i think its always fair to assume ANY import has had the kms played with

its just that with a newer car like the V35 its not going to make much of a difference as is so bloody new anyway!

as long as the car seems in good overall condition, and the engine checks out ok with basic inspection, rest assured you will be fine 99% of the time

yep exactly.

It's more important to have the condition of the car checked then to say it has 10000km's so it's a brand new car in great condition.

My point was to highlight that alot of people use km's when judging a car, and unfortunately with imports unless there are log books, everyone involved with them will agree that km's are almost always altered.

Common sense plays a large part, and people who think that in japan no one drives their cars and they just sit in the garage are kidding themselves.

Personally with both my V35's i stayed away from any car which had less than 10000k's per year. Not because i knew they were changed, but because they didn't have log books.

Again the V35 is not a super rare sought after car in Japan that someone would buy to sit in the garage. With space costing so much $$'s in Japan you can bet that someone who pays for garage space is going to use the car. And based on this i simply don't believe a 5 year old car would only have 10,20 or even 30 thousand k's.

Just my view.

[danny_tq]

yep exactly.

It's more important to have the condition of the car checked then to say it has 10000km's so it's a brand new car in great condition.

My point was to highlight that alot of people use km's when judging a car, and unfortunately with imports unless there are log books, everyone involved with them will agree that km's are almost always altered.

Common sense plays a large part, and people who think that in japan no one drives their cars and they just sit in the garage are kidding themselves.

Personally with both my V35's i stayed away from any car which had less than 10000k's per year. Not because i knew they were changed, but because they didn't have log books.

Again the V35 is not a super rare sought after car in Japan that someone would buy to sit in the garage. With space costing so much $$'s in Japan you can bet that someone who pays for garage space is going to use the car. And based on this i simply don't believe a 5 year old car would only have 10,20 or even 30 thousand k's.

Just my view.

Cool thanks guy,

Also you reckon I should get one of those NRMAS checks even if Im buying from a small dealer/importer? Cause by law they need to provide a statuory 3 month warranty am I correct?

I'm not exactly a car expert.

Im also having trouble with finance, I've rang a few major banks and they dont support imported secured car loans, any suggestions? One of them suggest go through the dealer/importer to organise it, but Im not so sure. My other option is a personal loan, but the rates are too high, might as well not buy a car.

Any experiences?

[WazR32GTSt]

my advice..

dealers have to provide a 3 month warranty but many offer extended warranties

and on the finance issue.. my honest advice is that if you need finance then don't waste your credit on a car. buy something you can afford. just my opinion, i'm against borrowing for anything other than a house.

[madbung]

Never had a car loan in over 20yrs of driving, i've leased a couple but personally I think If i can't afford to pay for it...I can't afford to drive it.

A car dealer with a 30k car will have between 2-5k of puff in their price..so min 1.5k off.

Private sales are fun, if you're any good you can generally crunch the shit out of the price and get a far better deal than a yard can offer. But never forget Caveat emptor.

[NISMO]

Cool thanks guy,

Also you reckon I should get one of those NRMAS checks even if Im buying from a small dealer/importer? Cause by law they need to provide a statuory 3 month warranty am I correct?

I'm not exactly a car expert.

Im also having trouble with finance, I've rang a few major banks and they dont support imported secured car loans, any suggestions? One of them suggest go through the dealer/importer to organise it, but Im not so sure. My other option is a personal loan, but the rates are too high, might as well not buy a car.

Any experiences?

I would get it checked. Pay $500 upfront for check or spend the next 2 years chasing a dealer to repair your only driven for 1 week $30000 car.

[danny_tq]

The two places Im looking at are either

- Top Motor Imports in Camperdown

- Nagoya Motors in Caringbah

Anybody had any experience with these guys?

[n15m0]

The two places Im looking at are either

- Top Motor Imports in Camperdown

- Nagoya Motors in Caringbah

Anybody had any experience with these guys?

I bought mine from Nagoya Imports...they have some very nice examples there. Alex is great to deal with...being in QLD, I actually bought mine from him based on feedback from the NSW section and also tons of pics that he sent me. I took a leap of faith and bought it without any inspection and got it sent up from NSW. Came with 3 yrs extended warranty, 1 yr roadside assist and 3 months rego...and to date, I still can not find another series 2 sedan at a better price with the options I got.

Car was pretty much exactly as described and after being checked by my mech in QLD, it was given a clean bill of health.

edit: I do not advise you to do what I did...if ur in NSW, best get it chked out by a professional

Edited June 23, 2008 by n15m0

[G7]

Is TOP Motors the one opposite the BP just off Parramatta road?

They have a big warehouse, not open air??

[Leev_35]

Hi Guys,

I bought mine from Nagoya Motors in Caringbah (NSW) and found them a pleasure to deal with.

I drove the car for a week and heard a clicking from the front end under mid range revs.

Nagoya Motors honoured their stauatory warranty and spend thousand replacing the CVT which had a loose spring. I didnt have the car for 2 weeks but I didnt have to foot the bill so was happy with that .

[Esky]

Im also having trouble with finance, I've rang a few major banks and they dont support imported secured car loans, any suggestions? One of them suggest go through the dealer/importer to organise it, but Im not so sure. My other option is a personal loan, but the rates are too high, might as well not buy a car.

Any experiences?

I personally finance my cars because I run a PTY/LTD business and it is the best type of expense to claim so for me my cash is better utilised elsewhere, i.e. in offset accounts, DIY Super or shares (although not right now).

But I suffered the same problems with obtaining finance as these cars are classified as "grey" imports... I have an outstanding credit rating with GE Money as I've had 3 cars through them with perfect repayments and the best they could do and mind you because of my excellent credit rating was 30% deposit upfront with 17% interest.. This I thought was ridiculous and after scrounging the internet for other finance companies, out of interest I phoned St George (I don't work for them) and they did it for me with no quams at 10% over 5 years with balloon or no balloon.

Interestingly they use the Redbook website for their evaluation reports, why don't you check out the value of your car there...

Good Luck!

[Blue Arrow]

Im also having trouble with finance, I've rang a few major banks and they dont support imported secured car loans, any suggestions? One of them suggest go through the dealer/importer to organise it, but Im not so sure. My other option is a personal loan, but the rates are too high, might as well not buy a car.

Any experiences?

you can try getting a personal loan as it's probably going to be quite difficult to get a car loan for an import. thing is, the interest will be a bit higher but the bank won't really care what car you buy or generally on what you spend the money on. they're only interested that you can pay it off as it's treated as an unsecured loan. i guess the advantage is that you can finance the whole amount (as long as you can pay) and when you do get the car, there will be no liens on it so you can easily sell it later on.

good luck.

[deanoss]

The two places Im looking at are either

- Top Motor Imports in Camperdown

- Nagoya Motors in Caringbah

Anybody had any experience with these guys?

[deanoss]

The two places Im looking at are either

- Top Motor Imports in Camperdown

- Nagoya Motors in Caringbah

Anybody had any experience with these guys?

top motor dodgy beware

[n15m0]

Definately recommend Nagoya Motors at Caringbah. I purchased mine from them and got it shipped up to QLD. Alex was a pleasure to deal with.