Anyone From Nz?

[win4ever]

Another question for everyone in NZ esp v35 coupe owner, what is your insurance premium for your car and which insurer are you going with? Thanks!

[austingtir]

Mines a 350gt-8 sedan but insurance was 390NZD a year..... will be intrested to see the coupe prices for sure.

Edited June 26, 2010 by austingtir

[win4ever]

Hmmm.... i wonder if there's gonna be a big difference between the sedan and coupe...which company is ur insurer? anyway, where do you service your sedan? Will be keen to know roughly how much it cost usually. Thanks!

Mines a 350gt-8 sedan but insurance was 390NZD a year..... will be intrested to see the coupe prices for sure.

Edited June 26, 2010 by win4ever

[austingtir]

Hmmm.... i wonder if there's gonna be a big difference between the sedan and coupe...which company is ur insurer? anyway, where do you service your sedan? Will be keen to know roughly how much it cost usually. Thanks!

AMI I actually think we can do better than that but its o.k for now... might put some pressure on them in a year or something as they usually try to hike the price up after a year... thats what iv found anyway.

I do all work myself.

[Spong]

WoW! Thanks for the detailed explanation Spong! What was your car's grade when you brought it in? So your car had some corrosion when it got in?

Mine is a Grade 4.5 exterior / A grade interior so I was kinda thinking it's gonna be a quick and easy compliance with no issues hopefully. My dealer seems ultra optimistic and thinks it will be cleared within a matter of 1 or 2 days! I sure hope he is right now coz if it gets stuck in compliance for a week or 2, that's really adding to my long hard wait of the car!

Anyway, he is covering the cost of compliance, so not too worried about that for now. He also apparently claimed he got agents over in Japan to do an inspection b4 bidding to ensure the car is in compliance with NZ requirements b4 bidding so hopefully there'll be minimal drama there. I did recall there's another car that he advised me against bidding coz the agent found some rust on the underbody and he is sceptical it will pass NZ compliance, so hopefully the agent there knows what he's doing and my car is issue-free.

Did you checked your car out when it arrives in the wharf on Quay Street? I saw heaps of cars there usually so I was thinking that's the place they keep the car b4 they are complied. I'm thinking of asking my dealer where the car is and go have a peep as well!

Your experience waiting in the past seems to really mirrors mine! I've been looking at whatever photos I have of the car and been going to youtube looking at clips of the v35! =)

With regards to the imports of cars in Japanese auction, from what I heard the Japanese auction sounds so unreal! 150,000 cars is sold each week!!! I doubt turners can hit that in a year! But yes, my dealer was telling me it's getting super hard to make much money by selling cars he won from auctions in Japan as it's too competitive with even taxi drivers going there 2 get a car! Do u know wat other countries are big importers of japanese cars? I know Malaysia is a country that brings in car from there as I would imagine the profit is much bigger due to high prices of cars in the country. My dealer is now importing quite a number of cars apparently from Singapore esp. European cars. He says it's much much more profitable apparently.

Finally, did you get your new M35 locally?

My M35 was 2006 grade 4 exterior/ grade B interior (but more like grade A) so not in the same league as yours. There are minor signs that a smoker's been there, but it's not bad like many. The only exterior issues were a couple of scrapes on the front bumper down low and I've since had the bumper repainted ($240). There was a spot of minor corrosion underneath at the back by the subframe (about 3 out of 4 Stageas get pulled up on this apparently as they're prone) but that involved the work I mentioned. It was very minor, but they're very tough on private imports. This was repaired to factory spec, under supervision of a compliance inspector so shouldn't be a problem down the track. In addition, I had to have new brake rotors and pads all round, despite the old ones being perfectly serviceable. (I still have them). At 84,000km, it's likely I would have needed skimming and possibly new pads around now, so no biggie. Once the cars are unloaded from the ship at Auckland, they have to be transported by an authorised transport company, direct to a garage that's setup to oversea the compliance, and that's normally done by VTNZ or the AA, or some other "authorised" centre. Any remedial work is carried out by the garage, then it gets retested. When the cars are sitting at the wharf, you're not allowed to go anywhere near them, that's why I was only able to view mine through a wire fence, and only because it was within view, and fairly unique (I haven't seen any other S2 M35's in the same blue as mine). This all happened about 6 weeks ago. The attached photo is one I took through the wire fence while at the wharf in Auckland, and you can see other photos once I had it in the garage section of this site (see my details to the left). My car cost 620,000 yen at auction (around NZ$9700 at the time I bought it a few months ago). All up, including shipping, additional costs and all the extra work that needed to be done, my car probably cost around NZ$15,000 all up which was no bargain. However, all the other comparable models I've seen at around $16,000 to $17,000 have had 120,000+ km, plus a lot more wear and tear. If I'd gone with say a 2002-2003 model, I'd have saved quite a bit, but as we tend to keep cars along time, we wanted something a bit newer.

I'm sure your one will sail through. A grade 4.5 A is about as close to a brand new car as you'll see with rare exceptions, and your dealer sounds like they know exactly where it's at. The cars are also inspected by NZ Customs in Japan before they leave, and everyone wants to "clip their ticket", so I'm not keen to go through the process again myself, unless it's with a grade 4.5 car like yours.

[windmill]

I'm new to the forum.

A 2001 V35 300GT owner for 18 months. A great car.

Only hassle has been the dreaded CD error F0. The early in-dash 6-stackers go well then they work, but eventually most die.

A suggestion is just put one CD in at a time.

I pulled my system apart today, around 2 hours to get the head unit out and another 2 trying to pull the HU apart - a few of the tiny screws got burred so I put the unit back in and will fit an ipod cable instead.

In terms of insurance I'm paying around 650 with AMI, after max no claims.

There's a guy in Glendene, Auckland who's doing the english conversion for the info pages on the navi system - but not the maps. NZ$280.

And JPNZ in Kelston are selling english versions of the handbook - cheapest through trademe. They're polling to see who wants an english version of the workshop manual - 22 signed up so far.

cheers,

Trev.

[win4ever]

Hi Trev,

Welcome to the forum! Glad to see another v35 owner here to share info on! Thanks heaps for the info for the english conversion! Tat's really excellent news as I am sure many would want to get that done! Do you have the contact details of this guy that you can share? Hopefully there's someone around that does the maps as well as that will be awesome! Will definitely be great if we have the NZ version of Chris Rogers!

Anyway, how much is the workshop manual? If it's not too expensive, I'll be keen as well!

And yes, from the ppl in the forum here, it seems like the 6 cd stacker is a pain after awhile.... my car is the S2 version so hopefully it's more reliable....

Cheers!

[win4ever]

Hey Spong, thx for the photo! I think i'll probably be doing what you are doing as well once the car lands here! I sure do hope my dealer's agent know what's the requirement here in terms on compliance. It's really probably not about the money but the time that's needed to get things sorted if there's an issue as my deal is the price cover compliance costs. Yeah, with a 4.5/A grade, I do hope there'll be no issue. My dealer, like i said, is pretty confidence on that!

Anyway, from your message, u said u got the car in Japan a few mths ago and the car only came 6 weeks ago? So how long it actually took u to get the car? Based on what i read, it seems like the aussies have heaps of issue with compliance (as I think it's much harder to import a car there and much more expensive). Doubt we have as much issue eh?

Btw, your car looks great! The interior looks brilliant and the color is really nice too! Awesome car! And the price is really probably about $2k-$3k cheaper than if u were to get one of the same year and mileage here so I think it's still worth it! Of course it's really a compensation for all the wait and pain of compliance.

I still haven't got my car, but I do think it's probably worth it for me as well (assuming the car comes to me with no issues at all) as I won't have the budget to buy one that is readily availabl here that is the same year and mileage.

My M35 was 2006 grade 4 exterior/ grade B interior (but more like grade A) so not in the same league as yours. There are minor signs that a smoker's been there, but it's not bad like many. The only exterior issues were a couple of scrapes on the front bumper down low and I've since had the bumper repainted ($240). There was a spot of minor corrosion underneath at the back by the subframe (about 3 out of 4 Stageas get pulled up on this apparently as they're prone) but that involved the work I mentioned. It was very minor, but they're very tough on private imports. This was repaired to factory spec, under supervision of a compliance inspector so shouldn't be a problem down the track. In addition, I had to have new brake rotors and pads all round, despite the old ones being perfectly serviceable. (I still have them). At 84,000km, it's likely I would have needed skimming and possibly new pads around now, so no biggie. Once the cars are unloaded from the ship at Auckland, they have to be transported by an authorised transport company, direct to a garage that's setup to oversea the compliance, and that's normally done by VTNZ or the AA, or some other "authorised" centre. Any remedial work is carried out by the garage, then it gets retested. When the cars are sitting at the wharf, you're not allowed to go anywhere near them, that's why I was only able to view mine through a wire fence, and only because it was within view, and fairly unique (I haven't seen any other S2 M35's in the same blue as mine). This all happened about 6 weeks ago. The attached photo is one I took through the wire fence while at the wharf in Auckland, and you can see other photos once I had it in the garage section of this site (see my details to the left). My car cost 620,000 yen at auction (around NZ$9700 at the time I bought it a few months ago). All up, including shipping, additional costs and all the extra work that needed to be done, my car probably cost around NZ$15,000 all up which was no bargain. However, all the other comparable models I've seen at around $16,000 to $17,000 have had 120,000+ km, plus a lot more wear and tear. If I'd gone with say a 2002-2003 model, I'd have saved quite a bit, but as we tend to keep cars along time, we wanted something a bit newer.

I'm sure your one will sail through. A grade 4.5 A is about as close to a brand new car as you'll see with rare exceptions, and your dealer sounds like they know exactly where it's at. The cars are also inspected by NZ Customs in Japan before they leave, and everyone wants to "clip their ticket", so I'm not keen to go through the process again myself, unless it's with a grade 4.5 car like yours.

[Spong]

Hey Spong, thx for the photo! I think i'll probably be doing what you are doing as well once the car lands here! I sure do hope my dealer's agent know what's the requirement here in terms on compliance. It's really probably not about the money but the time that's needed to get things sorted if there's an issue as my deal is the price cover compliance costs. Yeah, with a 4.5/A grade, I do hope there'll be no issue. My dealer, like i said, is pretty confidence on that!

Anyway, from your message, u said u got the car in Japan a few mths ago and the car only came 6 weeks ago? So how long it actually took u to get the car? Based on what i read, it seems like the aussies have heaps of issue with compliance (as I think it's much harder to import a car there and much more expensive). Doubt we have as much issue eh?

Btw, your car looks great! The interior looks brilliant and the color is really nice too! Awesome car! And the price is really probably about $2k-$3k cheaper than if u were to get one of the same year and mileage here so I think it's still worth it! Of course it's really a compensation for all the wait and pain of compliance.

I still haven't got my car, but I do think it's probably worth it for me as well (assuming the car comes to me with no issues at all) as I won't have the budget to buy one that is readily availabl here that is the same year and mileage.

My car (like many destined for NZ) came on Kiwi Car Carriers (see their current schedule at www.kiwicar.com) and at the time, they were sending about one ship a month through Kawasaki/Yokohama where my car was delivered to by my friend. They have a cutoff date prior to departure, so I had to wait about 3 weeks+ before it could be booked onboard the next ship. Shipping to NZ took approx 2 weeks, then it can take up to about 3x days to get from the wharf to your dealer's contracted garage. Time for it to be processed and through compliance will depend on workload. My garage was snowed under, and even if nothing needed to be done, would have taken around 4 days. Your dealer maybe able to tell you which ship yours is on, then you can check online close to arrival at http://www.poal.co.nz/shipping_cargo/ExpectedArrivals.asp to see the exact arrival time and wharf your car will be unloaded from. Details there are updated hourly and change often. Compliance in NZ is generally a lot easier than Aussie from what I can see. In Aussie, they have to fit new tyres, and an imobiliser meeting Aust standards, even if the current ones are OK and meet Japanese standards. I believe they even remove HID headlights and do a few other ridiculous changes to give the local industry a chance to clip their tickets. Even more strangely, they don't allow in any of the non-turbo S1/2 (RB25DE) or M35 (VQ25DD/VQ30DD) Stageas, apart from the later VQ35DE equipped models. However, they do allow V35 Skylines in with the VQ25DD/VQ30DD motors. I've no idea why, unless it's something to do with protecting Holden/Fords territory. If there are any Aussies reading this thread, please let us know why.

Edited June 27, 2010 by Spong

[Spong]

Hi Trev,

Welcome to the forum! Glad to see another v35 owner here to share info on! Thanks heaps for the info for the english conversion! Tat's really excellent news as I am sure many would want to get that done! Do you have the contact details of this guy that you can share? Hopefully there's someone around that does the maps as well as that will be awesome! Will definitely be great if we have the NZ version of Chris Rogers!

Anyway, how much is the workshop manual? If it's not too expensive, I'll be keen as well!

And yes, from the ppl in the forum here, it seems like the 6 cd stacker is a pain after awhile.... my car is the S2 version so hopefully it's more reliable....

Cheers!

The Japanese to English translation of the V35/M35 navigation is very well covered in a couple of threads here. Start here: http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/So...re-t194126.html

Your S2 V35, like my later M35 doesn't have a conversion yet, although those with earlier models can have them done. Contact details for Aussie and NZ are at: http://www.xanavi.com.au/ The guy in Auckland dealing with this is Shaun and he's contracted to handle this through Andy65b in this forum who arranged this with a Russian company. I think it's unlikely we'll ever have NZ maps for this system, but we can live in hope. It would be awesome if we did as it's a really nice screen and integration. The workshop manual, if enough people commit to it will be NZ$150 I believe, but they'll need at least 150 people first. See www.jpnz.co.nz for more details. Luckily the list for the M35 is a lot long longer currently at around 66 or so and they only need 100 committed sales. One reason the list for the V35 is shorter could be because the USA Infiniti G35 manual is easy to find on the net as a free download.

Edited June 27, 2010 by Spong

[win4ever]

Thanks for the great information Spong! You really is the master of private import here!

I've just spoken to my dealer 3 days ago and he has again assured me that the car is going to arrive on time next week and it shouldn't take too long for him to get it complied and ready for my collection. He's also moving his yard to somewhere near milestone motors! Hopefully his yard moving process won't delay anything. It's getting closer n closer to the day i finally lay my hands on the car so I am getting super excited! I went to another dealer b4 i decide to bid on the car last month in the city and test drove a 2003 model and immediately fell in love with the car!

Anyway, i'll check with my dealer again for shipping details and will definitely go check out the car the moment it gets on the wharf! Hopefully it'll get to his yard quickly and he can get compliance done in a couple of days with minimal issue.

Does u M35 comes with an immobiliser? If yes, it's the one from the factory? Do you get it disconnected here or u still keep it running in the car? saw some post by the aussies saying that there's a risk the car will not start with that immobiliser in there. not too sure though.

And yes, Australia definitely has this super strict rules on compliance and imports. Pretty sure they are due to Holden and Ford and trying to protect the industry. That's what happened in Malaysia after Proton came to the scene in the 1990s. The govt just slapped in a big tax on imported cars and then started to be more picky on giving out approved permits to import cars.

Thank God NZ doesn't have a national car! lol.....

Again, thanks for all the details and links mate! Really appreciate it!

Cheers!

My car (like many destined for NZ) came on Kiwi Car Carriers (see their current schedule at www.kiwicar.com) and at the time, they were sending about one ship a month through Kawasaki/Yokohama where my car was delivered to by my friend. They have a cutoff date prior to departure, so I had to wait about 3 weeks+ before it could be booked onboard the next ship. Shipping to NZ took approx 2 weeks, then it can take up to about 3x days to get from the wharf to your dealer's contracted garage. Time for it to be processed and through compliance will depend on workload. My garage was snowed under, and even if nothing needed to be done, would have taken around 4 days. Your dealer maybe able to tell you which ship yours is on, then you can check online close to arrival at http://www.poal.co.nz/shipping_cargo/ExpectedArrivals.asp to see the exact arrival time and wharf your car will be unloaded from. Details there are updated hourly and change often. Compliance in NZ is generally a lot easier than Aussie from what I can see. In Aussie, they have to fit new tyres, and an imobiliser meeting Aust standards, even if the current ones are OK and meet Japanese standards. I believe they even remove HID headlights and do a few other ridiculous changes to give the local industry a chance to clip their tickets. Even more strangely, they don't allow in any of the non-turbo S1/2 (RB25DE) or M35 (VQ25DD/VQ30DD) Stageas, apart from the later VQ35DE equipped models. However, they do allow V35 Skylines in with the VQ25DD/VQ30DD motors. I've no idea why, unless it's something to do with protecting Holden/Fords territory. If there are any Aussies reading this thread, please let us know why.

[win4ever]

Thanks for this! Just never failed to learn something new everyday when I am here! Looks like I won't be able to get the screen converted to English until they sort out the S2 version of the nav system. Wonder what is going on with regards to this currently. Sure hope there's an update for the S2 V35 soon.... I'll probably follow the thread there n see how things go. Meanwhile, guess I'll have to rely on my wife who can read some of the jap words on the system I guess....

Hmmm... we need another 128 ppl to register interest! That seems to be quite far off! Again, probably will need 2 rely on the G35 ones then....

Anyway, thx heaps Spong and Trev for the details on things so far! Cheers!

The Japanese to English translation of the V35/M35 navigation is very well covered in a couple of threads here. Start here: http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/So...re-t194126.html

Your S2 V35, like my later M35 doesn't have a conversion yet, although those with earlier models can have them done. Contact details for Aussie and NZ are at: http://www.xanavi.com.au/ The guy in Auckland dealing with this is Shaun and he's contracted to handle this through Andy65b in this forum who arranged this with a Russian company. I think it's unlikely we'll ever have NZ maps for this system, but we can live in hope. It would be awesome if we did as it's a really nice screen and integration. The workshop manual, if enough people commit to it will be NZ$150 I believe, but they'll need at least 150 people first. See www.jpnz.co.nz for more details. Luckily the list for the M35 is a lot long longer currently at around 66 or so and they only need 100 committed sales. One reason the list for the V35 is shorter could be because the USA Infiniti G35 manual is easy to find on the net as a free download.

[windmill]

re: cabin air filter.

I went to Nissan Parts today and was quoted $96 for a standard (particulate) OEM cabin air filter.

On eBay non-OEM filters start at US$6 for particulate, and US$9 for the carbon activated ones.

I've just ordered 2 of the latter.

FYI part number is: Nissan B727A79925

[windmill]

re: Car audio manual.

The early V35 Jap-import models have a PN2413E or PN2414E audio system. I have the latter which is a Clarion. The 'Bose' badge refers just to the speaker system.

A near equivalent to these models is the PN2615E as fitted to the 350Z in 2003 (info from Chris Rogers).

There is a free service manual available at http://elektrotanya.com/clarion_pn-2615e.pdf/download.html

[Spong]

re: cabin air filter.

I went to Nissan Parts today and was quoted $96 for a standard (particulate) OEM cabin air filter.

On eBay non-OEM filters start at US$6 for particulate, and US$9 for the carbon activated ones.

I've just ordered 2 of the latter.

FYI part number is: Nissan B727A79925

Thanks for that useful info. Nissan seem to charge crazy prices for some things in NZ, then surprise you with reasonable prices on others. They want $300 for a set of platinum plugs for my M35, but thankfully I have a friendly Pilot friend who's going to get me some from the US - approx US$60 for the set, and some cabin air filters also. BTW, Ryco at www.ryco.co.nz list their version of these filters also -p/n: RCA113P. I saw a price of around $28 for the Ryco equivalent on one Aussie site.

Edited June 29, 2010 by Spong

[Spong]

Does u M35 comes with an immobiliser? If yes, it's the one from the factory? Do you get it disconnected here or u still keep it running in the car? saw some post by the aussies saying that there's a risk the car will not start with that immobiliser in there. not too sure though.

I believe most M35's don't have an immobiliser as standard. If there's a flashing LED on the dash to the right of the ignitiion key, then I believe a factory immobiliser is fitted. As I understand it, if the car has an immobiliser, it requires the presence of the matching remote which has a chip or coil within it, which will then allow the car to start. Without it, for example if you tried to start the car with a simply copied key, or forced the ignition lock in some way, the fuel system will remain disabled, and although the starter would operate, the car wouldn't start due to lack of fuel. Some cars take this a step further, and use a similar principle to allow the car to be started without a key at all, as long as the remote is near by. I believe the percentage of V35's with immobilisers standard is greater than M35's. In Aussie, I think an immobiliser must be fitted that complies with their standards in order for it to be complied and insured. There's no requirement for this in NZ. If your car only comes with 1x key/remote and an immobiliser, then getting an additional key/remote could be more expensive and require Nissan to pair the immobilizer to the remote using Consult. Otherwise, pairing an extra remote is pretty easy (see my thread in the M35 area). Removing the immobiliser (if fitted) is not a simple process, as it's intended to prevent your car being stolen, so if it's all working fine, I'd leave it there if it was me.

Edited June 29, 2010 by Spong

[win4ever]

Thanks Windmill!

My car (arriving next week) is a S2... any idea if the stereo is similar to urs?

Cheers!

re: Car audio manual.

The early V35 Jap-import models have a PN2413E or PN2414E audio system. I have the latter which is a Clarion. The 'Bose' badge refers just to the speaker system.

A near equivalent to these models is the PN2615E as fitted to the 350Z in 2003 (info from Chris Rogers).

There is a free service manual available at http://elektrotanya.com/clarion_pn-2615e.pdf/download.html

[win4ever]

Thanks Spong! I think my car will have the standard immobiliser fitted in there. Not too sure how many keys it comes with though. And yes, I'll definitely keep the immobiliser in there (unless, touchwood, there's any issue). Hopefully there's a spare key with the car else may need to get Nissan to sort a spare which is probably gonna cost an arm and a leg!

Anyway, thx for the update! I gotta say I am learning heaps for this post! Esp wif more ppl sharing news and info on parts etc.

Coming to the end of another week at work and another week more b4 the car arrives! Getting more n more excited by the day!

I believe most M35's don't have an immobiliser as standard. If there's a flashing LED on the dash to the right of the ignitiion key, then I believe a factory immobiliser is fitted. As I understand it, if the car has an immobiliser, it requires the presence of the matching remote which has a chip or coil within it, which will then allow the car to start. Without it, for example if you tried to start the car with a simply copied key, or forced the ignition lock in some way, the fuel system will remain disabled, and although the starter would operate, the car wouldn't start due to lack of fuel. Some cars take this a step further, and use a similar principle to allow the car to be started without a key at all, as long as the remote is near by. I believe the percentage of V35's with immobilisers standard is greater than M35's. In Aussie, I think an immobiliser must be fitted that complies with their standards in order for it to be complied and insured. There's no requirement for this in NZ. If your car only comes with 1x key/remote and an immobiliser, then getting an additional key/remote could be more expensive and require Nissan to pair the immobilizer to the remote using Consult. Otherwise, pairing an extra remote is pretty easy (see my thread in the M35 area). Removing the immobiliser (if fitted) is not a simple process, as it's intended to prevent your car being stolen, so if it's all working fine, I'd leave it there if it was me.

[win4ever]

Seems like lots of ppl are importing spare parts from the US! Sounds like a good alternative (esp. for parts that we don't need urgently and more for servicing of the car).

Is it easy 2 get parts flown in fr the States? How long does it usually takes and do you guys shop via ebay?

Thanks!

[win4ever]

On another separate topic, what transmission fluid have u guys been using for ur car (auto transmission)? I read somewhere in this forum the other day and someone pointed me to this site:-

http://www.tds.castrol.com.au/pdf/2701_transmaxj_b1650_03.pdf

seems like we can use a castrol transmission fluid which is the same as the j-matic of Nissan. Has anyone tried this?