Winding Back The Clock.

[Iron Chef]

Haha, I better watch my mouth!

You're correct on the assumptions being made, and they're just as dangerous. Condition is always more important than kms, but people (myself included) struggle to get their head around it. I haven't bought a high-km for myself in years, regardless of condition. Everyone thinks a car is worth half its value as soon as it hits 100,000km, which is ridiculous.

Edited March 3, 2009 by Iron Chef

[elrodeo666]

Sorry Ronin got to disagree with you there. The japanese have got better things to waste their money on than petrol...e.g stupid faggy clothes.

Seriously they hardly use their cars, maybe to go shopping, pick up the kids and go to work but as for getting out and going for long drives its too much bloody hassle. Public transport is too good here. Honestly for example you wanna go somewhere say thats 150 k's away. Well Mon-sat your too busy working so no chance, sunday comes and your off bright and early with the other millions of maniacs with the same idea.If you take the fast way using toll roads (and hefty toll at that) you might make your destination in 3hrs if your lucky and traffics cruisy, take the minor roads (toll free) and your average aussie road rager (me) is absolutely losing it after 4hrs in the car. Now ya got the return trip and thats just as good.

Ya other option would be grab the train , get there in 90mins have a great stress free day get on the train and head home, even have a sleep.

Yep they use their cars but theres no way they do the same k's as oz. Since I've been here I reckon the distance I drive now compare to oz has cut by min of 50-60% at least and I'm on the road most days and drive to the surf and the snow as much as possible. The thing is you dont drive far as it takes too bloody long and too much hassle. My Gtr is lucky to get on the road once a week, drive my misso's car as its small and hell of alot less hassle around town especically parking as gtr is too low to get into half the bloody parks.

I bought a Gt legacy off an old farmer who only drove it 5 k's to the nearest town a couple of times a week. It had 29,000 k's when I got it for $1000 ausie and it was mint condition with all the extras. Drove the thing into the ground.

Your right though..there seems to be these majic cars that keep popping up with amazing low k's. Have a look inside and you can tell they have been through a bit more wear and tear than that. Definitely cant judge a book by its cover so suppose thats where you have to trust your importer.

[Ronin 09]

hey mark,

my predominant issue with this one is that the cars that we all like to buy (GTRs, GTSts, Supras, Silvias) are often bought by people just like us - motor heads - in Japan.

If i had my car in japan i'd take it out driving everywhere too...

I do agree with you that it's too hard for the average user to drive in Japan - the times I've been there i've only even got in a taxi a few times! - but for the enthusiast with these turbo play cars, they'd go out and use them.

even if we assume that people won't do as many kms, there are still a few too many 12 year old GTSts and GTRs that have done 88,000kms for my liking... just a look through the classifieds on this site will give you heaps of "original low km first time registered in Australia barnyard find" cars...

[elrodeo666]

Ronin

I agree with ya totally.

But ya would be suprised how many 40plus year old family man japanese get about in pretty grunty gtr's. Guys I race with are all late 30's early 40's and hit the track as much as possible but usually have a 2nd car as a daily and only bring the weapon out on weekends. Fark I've had mine not quite 2 years and only done 4000k's tops.

But its amazing how many low k cars keep popping up from under the magic tree.

Have a squizz thru the goo site for my area and you'll see what I mean, theres always new fodder being added.

http://www.goo-net.com/cgi-bin/goojp/used_eng/summary_w.cgi

[Iron Chef]

I can almost guarantee that the original owner of my N1 falls into the category you mention, Mark - it had Omega Oils stickers in various spots ($100 a litre just for engine oil!) so I'm presuming it was used at the track, but pretty well maintained nevertheless.

[Kujotk]

that is bullshit because in japan they only use the cars up to 80,000km or 100,000mk or somethin like that and then they get rid of them from memory they arnt allowed to drive the car if its done more than that or something like that anyway thats what ive been told and it might not be true since i got told that but the other guy did get told that to doesnt mean its true he may have said he saw it but you been't so how do you know he isnt bullshitting. most things prob arnt true cause im sure heaps of people have been told different things.

last time i was in jap i saw s13's road registerd.... 280z's..... i'm pretty sure theyve done more than 100 000kms they don't get rid of them but the tax on them goes up when you register them.... besides if you buy a $2000 car because you can't afford a $10000 car, an increase of rego by $1000 is the only choice poorer people in japan will have.... might as well go for a high performance car for similar price and rego costs..... also what is stopping people from constanly winding back the odometer before every official inspection??? the car does 20 000km between inspections, but its wound back 15000? it is super common over there as it is over here.....

also an r33 gtst over there range from $1000 to no more than $7000 for a decent one.... (dont look at the price now compared to our shitty dollar)...

Also most japs that buy a high performance car are not going to let it go to waste, they will and do drive it as much as we do, if not more because they are more into the racing scene, so what everyone here in aus also forget is that the way they drive over 10000km is allot different to our 10000km journey.... if they dont use it as a daily driver then it is going to be mainly a track car. So i'd rather a line that has done 100000km milage over here with longer roads than a car thats done 80 000km over there, coz chances are its had a harder life...

the common misconception with us is we think that they dont drive their cars much because japan on a global scale looks small.... the southern island is about 1400km long, with cities and population spread throughout. Thats equivalent from melbourne to brisbane in length with cities spread throughout, we have a hand full of cities spread throughout and are much more likely not to travel between these cities....

[Kujotk]

The 100,000 km's rule is a crock of shit, NO SUCH THING here in japan. Its just the number where 100,000 service comes up and most japanese think these are excessive k's and the value of the car for resale drops , plus dont want to pay for the 100,000 service. Thus the japanese and their consumer mentality trade in for mass loss and upgrade, upgrade, upgrade.

As for winding back , yep it gets done here for sure, theres a hell of alot of low km cars that keep popping up and control in the 2nd hand car market sems to be like everything else here..pretty slack. Why do you reckon theres so many russians,pakistanis, indians etc in the export game. unless you get full paper history with your car you got to be a bit dubious on the k's.

Also as for the Japanese pussy footing around in their vehicles and hardly flogging them, come over here for a bit, they are speed crazy and shit house drivers.

just read this..... straight out the horses mouth, simillar to what i said and what i saw over there

[PhilKenSebben]

Just go on the condition of the car. I know drivers that will F**K a car in 20,000kms and drivers who will have an awesome car after 150,000kms. When I bought my 33 I was told it was owned by a 40 year old who owned it since new. WHAT BS! And yet i bought it cos it passed the basic criteria I look for. If you don't know what to look for, take it to someone who does!

Any seller who won't let you take it to a professional has something to hide. I was truly stunned when I had coil overs installed and got told that NONE of the bushes were worn, and the chassis was in great nick.

When I had it tuned with an apexi pfc they did things like compression testing and told me it was in excellent condition, likely to never have been boosted. My mechanic (very trusted friend) told me the kms were either genuine or it had the fussiest of fussy owners Japan, as everything was tip top.

The panel beaters could tell me it had been rear ended fairly lightly but the repair job was spot on, so it was literally as good as new.

I was VERY surprised by these outcomes, but it does happen. Take anything with a grain of salt when someone wants you to buy their car, but true professionals can smell BS a mile away. Pay one of them to give it to you straight.

[PhilKenSebben]

I should also add that engine HOURS are different to kms. Even if the k's ARE genuine, it may have spent ludicrous amounts of hours idling in traffic, and that takes its toll on the internals.

That said, it should still be more reliable than a brand new falcodore.

[Iron Chef]

Also most japs that buy a high performance car are not going to let it go to waste, they will and do drive it as much as we do, if not more because they are more into the racing scene, so what everyone here in aus also forget is that the way they drive over 10000km is allot different to our 10000km journey.... if they dont use it as a daily driver then it is going to be mainly a track car. So i'd rather a line that has done 100000km milage over here with longer roads than a car thats done 80 000km over there, coz chances are its had a harder life...

the common misconception with us is we think that they dont drive their cars much because japan on a global scale looks small.... the southern island is about 1400km long, with cities and population spread throughout. Thats equivalent from melbourne to brisbane in length with cities spread throughout, we have a hand full of cities spread throughout and are much more likely not to travel between these cities....

On the first part, I've seen (and bought) various cars like twin turbo Aristos that have been driven by pensioners. They usually go for the most expensive model, regardless or not of whether it's the sports version. Japan is also a mass of freeways that run right into the centre of every city. There are traffic jams, sure, but more often than not on the freeways, people are cruising along at 100km/h+, same as we would be on the open road.

On a global scale, Japan IS small. Just because it's 1400km long doesn't mean people are driving long distances. I lived in Osaka and asked a class of 30 adult English students how many of them had been to Tokyo - one hand went up! When Japanese people travel, they go overseas. When they travel locally, they use the bullet trains - they're faster and cheaper than using a car on the freeways (which have exorbitant tolls).

I should also add that engine HOURS are different to kms. Even if the k's ARE genuine, it may have spent ludicrous amounts of hours idling in traffic, and that takes its toll on the internals.

That said, it should still be more reliable than a brand new falcodore.

See above.

[Kujotk]

True true, point taken,

Summing up all the posts..... The car's condition is more important than the milage reading.... but both should be considerd when purchasing. I guess If the km's look dodgey then there "could" be other dodgy things done to the car.

There are allot of dodgey KM cars around and allot of good legit cars around still. But dodgey km's doesn't mean the car is bad. As i said near the beginning i'm pretty sure mine has done allot more than the 66 000km it said when i got it particulary because the timing belt was changed and things like that, but i chose that car coz it was in excellent condition with the common slightly noise 5 speed that most lines have nowadays anyway..... and touch wood, i havent had any probs in a year and a half....

And yes i agree that any import cars that make it over here are better than the Commonhores and Falkadores