Skyline Owner Running Costs - Vs Income

[GTRNUR]

I had a thought the other day about why I keep hearing about broken skylines one after the other which are parked in garages all over the place which are taking forever to get repaired. It seems to me that there are way too many young guys getting $18-25K loans and buying an R32 GTR and then blowing the engine up. Then they are not able to afford to get the car back on the road again in a reasonable amount of time (2-4 weeks I consider to be reasonable), because all their remaining income goes to loan repayments.

So I thought I'd put this out there. The idea of the thread is to allow current and perspective Skyline owners to post up what it costs to maintain their car to the level that they maintain it too, factoring the modifications done to the car and how they treat it.

Personally i maintain my car to a very high level. I use top quality everything, and if something has to be replaced with new factory or aftermarket parts I only use genuine or best quality available products. Same applies for servicing materials. I use redline products only.

Others might use non genuine parts, 2nd hand or chinese parts, and no frills brand serviceing products.

There are costs that come up from time to time such as brake rotors and pads, paint repairs etc that are the biger ones for some of us. Then there are those that destroy an engine or two per year. Add up all your costs for everthing including insurance, a piece of rubber hose here and there, tyres, windscreen wipers, car wash, servicing costs etc. Thats what I'd like to see a total for for everyone's cars.

So here is the template:

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R3X GTS/R?

Year : 19xx/200x

Overall condition of car: 1/10 (broken and undrivable) to 10/10 (showroom)

How is the car treated: 1/10 (I drive like a grandmother) to 10/10 (I circuit race and drive like a Stig on speed)

Maintenance level: 1/10 (I put fuel and sometimes oil in it) to 10/10 (I am a majority shareholder of Nissan)

Modifications: Stock/bolt on's only/Internals/full house

Insurance: None/3rd party/Full comprensive/Other

Estimaged power: RWHP or AWHP

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: $xxxx per annum / $xx / month (NOT COUNTING UPGRADES or Registration)

And here is my car:

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R33 GTR

Year : 1996

Overall condition of car: 8/10

How is the car treated: 4/10 (Daily driven with the occasional 7/10 thrashing)

Maintenance level: 9/10

Modifications: All bolt on's except turbo's

Insurance: Full comprensive

Estimaged power: 240awkw

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: $8560 per annum / $165 per week approx. ($2500 in tyres this year, + 1200 front bar respray)

Please try to keep responses to a minimum. I'd really like this to be a useful thread to try and stop some of the younger car owners out there getting themselves stuck in debt they cant get out of while having a car that ends up getting sold for parts.

Cheers,

Ian

Edited July 7, 2008 by Vspec R33

[PM-R33]

Good idea mate.

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R33 GTST

Year : 1996

Overall condition of car: 8/10

How is the car treated: 3/10 (normal day use to and from uni/work) to 8/10 (When i feal the need to thrash it up mt stuart)

Maintenance level: 9/10

Modifications: Every major bolt on other then a rebuilt bottem end

Insurance: Full comprensive (Shannons)

Estimated power: 255rwkw last tune

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: $5000-$6000 annum on servicing every 5000km (motul fluids, plugs, filters) insurance, car care products etc. However i get stuff pretty cheap through Autobarn.

Edited July 7, 2008 by PM-R33

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R33 GTS-t

Year : 1994

Overall condition of car: 9/10 (showroom... but not showcar)

How is the car treated: 7/10 (i push it fairly hard sometimes)

Maintenance level: 9/10 (I am a minority shareholder of Nissan, creatd, centreline, HKS, apexi, nismo and SSR)

Modifications: all bolt on's with a bit of custom fabrication.... but stock internals

Insurance: its gotta be shannons

Estimaged power: 265rwkw (355rwhp)

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: probably round 6-7k

[ras1983]

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R33 GTR Vspec

Year : 1996

Overall condition of car: 8/10

How is the car treated: 3/10 (Its my daily driver and I drive like a grandmother and stretch its legs maybe ONCE per week. Having said that I only do around 200kms per week)

Maintenance level: 5/10 (car is stock so apart from the usual maintenance routine of servicing/tyres/insurance etc there isn't much)

Modifications: (Air pods, exhaust - so its fairly stock)

Insurance: Its gotta be shannons comprehensive

Estimaged power: not sure, but as its stock probably somewhere around 140-150 awkw

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: probably around $5-7K including insurance.

[typevu]

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R33 GTS25t Series II

Year : 1998

Overall condition of car: 7/10

How is the car treated: 3/10 daily 7/10 weekends

Maintenance level: 8/10

Modifications: Few bolt on mods

Insurance: Full Comp

Estimaged power: About 180rwkw

Estimated Not sure...... couple grand - had a major service when it first arrived and its only driven approximately 5000km so far in the past year!

[shepo]

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R32 GTR

Year : 1990

Overall condition of car: 9/10

How is the car treated: 8/10 (only used on the weekends, unless i have to drive it work for a reason.)

Maintenance level: 9/10 (always serviced, if anything goes wrong i have a special savings account so i can fix things straight away.)

Modifications: N1 turbos, various other bolt ons, had bottom end rebuild, coil overs, blah blah...

Insurance: Just car full comp (rating one)

Estimaged power: 310rwkw (last dyno run)

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: havent owned it for a year yet, but will most likely be around 5k (not including upgrades.)

it used to be my daily driver. but i do about 450km's per week (not including weekends) and the fuel bill was coming in at around the $150 mark per week!

[ras1983]

Sorry, I misunderstoon the maintenance part (I thought it was a scale of how much money was needed to maintain the car as opposed to how well the car was maintaned).

In which case Maintenance is 9/10 (its my baby after all!)

[GTRNUR]

Sorry, I misunderstoon the maintenance part (I thought it was a scale of how much money was needed to maintain the car as opposed to how well the car was maintaned).

In which case Maintenance is 9/10 (its my baby after all!)

With maintenance I am referring to how well you maintain the car to keep it at its current level of condition. Are you 100% on top of maintenance, or are you neglecting it are the two extremes.

Great replies so far. Interesting to see another near stock R33 GTR costing $5000/year ($100/week) to maintain at near new condition. Thats what mine was before I resprayed the front bar and replaced the tyres in the same year.

[SKYL1N]

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline r33 gts s2

Year : 1997

Overall condition of car: 8

How is the car treated: 8

Maintenance level: 5

Modifications: Stock

Insurance: 3rd Party F&T

Estimaged power: No Idea

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: 900 bucks on services/tires

[gibbau]

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R32 GTST

Year : 1993

Overall condition of car: 3/10 (Drift car, all banged up atm)

How is the car treated: 10/10 Purely track only, so it gets a workout

Maintenance level: 9.5/10 (new oil every track day, coolant and gearbox oil every three to four)

Modifications: Bolt ons in engine bay but nearly everything else is done

Insurance: None

Estimaged power: 200rwhp maybe

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: $500 on basic maintenance (oil etc.), hard to put a figure on everything that breaks then gets upgraded.

[bozodos]

To the OP, I really like the idea of this thread, i very nearly bought a 15k special R32 GT-R but then when i asked a few mates and looked them up, the parts and maintenence costs were absolutely hideous compared to a GTS-t, I ended up taking the middle road and going with the GTS-4, one of the best decisions I've made for a long time! I'm still doing an apprenticeship, and own another car, so I'll have to hang off a couple of years until I can get a GT-R, but then I'll have the means to look after it properly.

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline HNR32 GTS-4

Year : 1990

Overall condition of car: 8/10

How is the car treated:6/10 (its usually putted around in, but i'm not scared to take it out to redline and give it a strap, usually drive my V8 to work now because it's more economical and cheaper to service!)

Maintenance level: so far 5/10, I use midrange oil/parts in it, the best I can afford

Modifications: RB25DET, aftermarket turbo, engine manangment system, splitfire coilpacks + the usual basic mods

Insurance: still getting quotes

Estimaged power: got a CRD dyno sheet for 241kw not sure if its AWKW or RWKW

Estimated $ per month, around $800 including a basic service (which I do myself), fuel and loan payments

In the end its more expensive than my Commodore in terms of loan payments fuel, and services/parts but for the amount of power and enjoyment of having it, I think it's worth it.

[GTAAAH]

Hey.. i read this "It seems to me that there are way too many young guys getting $18-25K loans and buying an R32 GTR and then blowing the engine up" and laughed, (points to self). Car cost me 15.5, got it for fair cheap, engine blew after 6000 km's possibly due to having r33 afm's on possibly due to boost spiking or overboosting, so currently up for 9k loan to get a nice rebuild.

So here is the template:

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R3X2 gtr

Year : 1993

Overall condition of car: 1/10.. engine, 8/10 body (has a few lil scratches on the frontbar)

How is the car treated: Was babying it a bit, never revved past 7.5k, only gave it to it in corners mainly

Maintenance level: 9/10 always maintaining it am very overcautious, use redline motor oil, best of everything

Modifications: is 3 melted pistons a modification? if not then stock and a clutch/gab coilovers

Insurance: Full comprensive

Estimaged power: 0 atm.. was about 190-200 probably before hand

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: $9000 per annum for me cos it blew up.. otherwise had a tensioner bearing go, replaced my afm's and coil packs few other things..

[mr moo]

bought the car 2 months ago

make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R33 GTr vspec

Year : 1996

Overall condition of car: engine 10/10 body 8/10(stone chips on front bar)

How is the car treated: 10/10 (had for 2 months and done 2 trackdays and 2 drag days)

Maintenance level: 10/10 bought car and replaced all oils, filters, plugs(engine oil 5000kms, filters plugs every 10,000kms, gearbox etc every 20,000kms) race days every time before engine oil and plugs changed

Modifications: full rebuilt motor, stock (soon turbos,ecu)

Insurance:Full comprensive nothing but

Estimaged power: 200 AWkw

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: estimate 8-10k per annum / $400-800 per month (NOT COUNTING UPGRADES or Registration)

estimate $ on fuel: 100-200 per week(depending on driving)

[GTR-N1]

Make: Nissan Skyline GT-R

Year: 2000

Cond: Body=9.5/10 Engine=9/10

Treated: 6/10 except when organising drive days at 8/10

Maintenance: Nothing spared

Modifications: Cams, Exhaust, Cat, F-Con Pro-V, Tanabe Springs, Brake upgrade, HKS Crank Damper

Insurance: Shannons 2 car policy

Power: ??

$/yr Maint: $7K with Elf oil every 3K,

History: Datsun 1600, 180B, 240K, C210, Silhouette, R33 GT-R, R34 GT-R + others

[-Dukes-]

Car : Skyline R33 GTST

Year : 1993

Overall condition of car: 8/10

How is the car treated: 8/10 Only used for a sunday drive to blow the cobwebs off.

Maintenance level: 9/10

Modifications: Exhuast, Filter, Turbo timer, Tint, Chromies, Alpine RD Audio, Dynamat.

Insurance: Third party 50mil + Fire and Theft.

Estimated power: Stock plus maybe 15kw???

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: $2500 bucks for servicing, and $2000 for replacing old bits... plus mods...

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

Estimaged power: 0 atm..

lol

[Sklyn]

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R33 GTST s2 40th Anninverssary

Year : 1998

Overall condition of car: 8/10

How is the car treated: 4/10 (Daily driven with the occasional 8/10 thrashing)

Maintenance level: 8/10

Modifications: minor mods- Exhaust, Pod, Man boost control,

Insurance: Full comprensive - just car

Power: 186rwkw on 9psi

Estimated $ per year to maintain, repair and insure: $5-6k

[gts-4 dreamer]

Car : Skyline R33 GTS25T

Year : MY feb 1997

Overall condition of car: 7/10

How is the car treated: 8/10, Used to get to shops and back + weekend transport + occasional trackday when nothing else available and im at a track to blow money.

Maintenance level: 9/10

Modifications: 3" turb back Exhuast, Filter, phully the awsome pleb Chromies, clarion stereo+5x9's and tweats. replacement/upg shocks, castors(as usual), whitline sways,jjr control arms and joints + all the rubbers replaced with cusco molds, greddy ultimate management, back to stock hairdryer as "oil problem" on 2530 waiting on warranty replacement shop sorting out (_or ill throw him into a whore house to work it off_), also stock exhuast manifold again..unhappy..., fuel pump that sounds like hyper fish tank water pump when on full volt..., stock inj that seem to pump more fuel than they are supposed to so unknown came with car. interior >> blue seat covers for extra awsomeness. >

Insurance: comprehensive >> shannons

Estimated power: Stock with shit fuel economy and nothing over 4.5k rpm.

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: oil filter + 0w-30 oils changed every 3.5-4k depending... during winter its been 4.5 >;P, due to a diff in need of reco and 265 tyres with current geometry require 1 pair rears every year... prior to current setup same with fronts but toe them in for daily duties and out for track... the difference is immense but so is the replacement of a set year as opposed to 2.

I do have rims + tyres for track days for fronts but have lately been using htem all on rear while on skid pan or motoka.

[skylineboy84]

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R33 gtst s2

Year : 1996

Overall condition of car: 9/10

How is the car treated: 8/10

Maintenance level: 2/10

Modifications: intercooler, turbo, ecu, fuel pump, exhaust

Insurance: None

Estimaged power: 260rwhp 11psi

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: servicing every 5000km

had car for 3 years only had to change, spark plugs, timing belt due to 100k service

[BAMR33]

Car make/type/model : Nissan Skyline R33 gts25t

Year : 1995

Overall condition of car: 8.5/10

How is the car treated: 3/10

Maintenance level: 5/10

Modifications: bolt on's only

Insurance: Full comprensive $1300/year

Estimaged power:220rwkW

Estimated $ spent per year to maintain: $1000 per annum