The wounding of Clocks

[fattdex]

my 96/7 r33 had 16,894 or something on the clock when i got it nearly 3 years ago, it still doesnt have 30 on it, but 17k in 4-5 years... hmmm

[DaiOni]

I have mazda service logs for my rx7 that show in it's first 4-5 years of ownership it did something like 5-6,000km. Plenty of japanese people buy nice cars purely to drive on sundays.

Here's a real-world example (and I live in the sticks, so the cities would be even worse):

* I see several awesome vehicles every week (r33/34 GTRS, rx7s, Ferrari, etc). But I only usually see these particular cars on sundays.

* The traffic sucks, a lot of the time, especially weekdays. I pretty much use my rx7 as a daily driver - and it's not fun to drive in traffic (a caged animal). Most people have kei cars or something boring (I, for instance, use my r33 sedan (auto) when I know traffic will be really bad). With a few exceptions, the only 'performance' cars I see regularly on the road (ie: commuting every day) are mx5s, hi-po keis, and VIP cars (which are almost all auto anyway).

* In the winter - (4 months of the year) you see very, very little in the way of performance cars - 3 main reasons: (1) high snow and low cars don't mix, (2) a lot of hp and a lot of snow = unintentional 'drifting', (3) snow tires are frickin' expensive when you have 9" wide rears (believe me, I've priced them). About the only nice cars you see everyday are evos and wrxs (and still fewer than usual).

* Most people don't commute very far to work. Those who do, use the trains - which, unlike australian train networks, are on time 99% of the time. In a public service job (like mine), you are nearly always placed as close as possible to your workplace - so even if you commute, it generally isn't very far.

in short: many people only drive their nice cars on sundays. Most people don't drive their nice cars at all in the winter.

I think these enviromental/social circumstances are quite different to australians and their way of thinking - which is why we can't really comprehend the low kms we see on so many import cars.

Not to say that odometer winding does not happen - it definitely does.

[JimX]

DaiOni, thanks for that. My car had 85000km on it when I got it, and based on its condition I'm 99% sure that it hasn't been wound back. Even if it has, it's got 100k km on it now and still in much better condition than many other cars with 100k on it.

[BuzLightyear]

Yeah... mine is a similar story. My car had 80k on it when I imported it. The steering wheel was quite worn on the right side but not the left, and the gear knob was worn. But the rest of the car checked out just like it had 80k - super quiet motor, no seat or carpet wear, etc. Most of the brake rotors, from what I can gather, tend to wear due to stop/start driving and the nature of the standard pads.

In any case, I was under the impression that it really wasn't worth the time to knock the clock as any change would not be all that significant - I understand that a car won't fetch much more at auction since it is mainly the age of the car and overall condition which determine selling price. Can anyone confirm this?

Also, who recovers steering wheels and what is the cost - I know nothing of this kinda stuff and happy with the standard wheel which I'd like to keep. I'd just like it re-covered.

[Greg]

my 95 model r33 came in with 30000 on the clock and the car is like brand new. no wear at all on steering wheel, pedals, gearknob, carpet, seats or anything. only imperfection is a light scratch in the dash.

[JimX]

BuzLightyear, there is a psychological "100 000km" barrier which is sure to cause late model cars in the auction yards to go for a few hundred thousand yen less than those with less than 100k. This applies less to earlier model cars, so when you get down to a 15 year old GTR it might only translate to a few hundred bucks.

You can get your wheel re-leathered at a few shops, usually the ones that do car interiors. I priced one a few years ago and I think they quoted me around $150? The price has probably gone up since then.

Make sure you get really good quality leather though, I've heard stories of people re-covering their wheel and the leather never lasting as long as the factory stuff (which is actually very good quality).