Anyone From Nz?

[win4ever]

Hey Stuart.... yes.... I love the v35 and it is a bit sad to let it go....I was trying to convince my wife to sell her car and keep the v35 but she prefer a smaller car (she's driving a Mazda 3 at the moment). The v36's review looked awesome and seems to be a great improvement to the v35 in terms of the features as well as drivability. It still seems to cost quite a bit over in Australia but in NZ, but importing it myself, the cost seems much more affordable!

The Nav DVD you gave me is still in the car! I am still having a little dilemma on whether I should aim for a v36 without the Nav system or with it as Chris Rodgers pointed out that it's probably easier get a working Nav system in if the car comes without the in-built nav system. But then, with the in-built Nav system, you get the 9GB of HDD space for music as well as bluetooth connectivity which seems like a pretty good trade-off as I don't really need the sat nav. Guess I will just see what comes up at the auction. If a great condition car comes up, and it has a sat nav built in, I will probably go for it and vice versa.

How's your V35 Stuart? Still going strong?

Anyway, welcome to the forum Sonny! Great to see more n more Kiwis joining and hopefully we with more of us, we can share more NZ-related information. Anyone has any info on import agents in NZ? I found 3 so far which is pretty good to deal with so just deciding on who to go for once I find a car that I like.

[M35]

Hey Stuart.... yes.... I love the v35 and it is a bit sad to let it go....I was trying to convince my wife to sell her car and keep the v35 but she prefer a smaller car (she's driving a Mazda 3 at the moment). The v36's review looked awesome and seems to be a great improvement to the v35 in terms of the features as well as drivability. It still seems to cost quite a bit over in Australia but in NZ, but importing it myself, the cost seems much more affordable!

The Nav DVD you gave me is still in the car! I am still having a little dilemma on whether I should aim for a v36 without the Nav system or with it as Chris Rodgers pointed out that it's probably easier get a working Nav system in if the car comes without the in-built nav system. But then, with the in-built Nav system, you get the 9GB of HDD space for music as well as bluetooth connectivity which seems like a pretty good trade-off as I don't really need the sat nav. Guess I will just see what comes up at the auction. If a great condition car comes up, and it has a sat nav built in, I will probably go for it and vice versa.

How's your V35 Stuart? Still going strong?

Anyway, welcome to the forum Sonny! Great to see more n more Kiwis joining and hopefully we with more of us, we can share more NZ-related information. Anyone has any info on import agents in NZ? I found 3 so far which is pretty good to deal with so just deciding on who to go for once I find a car that I like.

Thanks Loh,

Well I got my car from Paul Kelly in Moorehouse Ave and they are very good to me. Although I was told that no more Stageas are coming in to NZ???? but in saying that Russell Taylor in Ferry Rd seems to be still importing them. Anyone here replaced their suspension with coilovers for pnm35's? Im sort of heading that way or just changing the springs to lower the car a bit, but reluctant due to quake damaged road and the jarring effect of it. Any opinions?

[win4ever]

Thanks for the update on where you got the car Sonny..... anyway, I believe I have managed to secure a V36 coupe! Agent emailed me on Saturday morning saying I managed to get a car within my budget from the Friday's auction and is now waiting for them to invoice final amount in.

I think I got a bit lucky.... I was always thinking I will probably end up with just a type S given my budget but finally managed to secure a type SP with a sunroof as a bonus!!! Mileage is slightly higher than what I would have hoped for but I will still consider it as a good low mileage car!

So looking forward to the day when the car finally arrives in Auckland.... right now, I guess looking at photos and watching youtube clips about the v36 will need to do.....

Anyway Sonny, sorry, not much idea on the suspension and coilovers for the pnm35..... perhaps other Stagea owners will be able to help.....

[Gnome73]

Thanks for the update on where you got the car Sonny..... anyway, I believe I have managed to secure a V36 coupe! Agent emailed me on Saturday morning saying I managed to get a car within my budget from the Friday's auction and is now waiting for them to invoice final amount in.

I think I got a bit lucky.... I was always thinking I will probably end up with just a type S given my budget but finally managed to secure a type SP with a sunroof as a bonus!!! Mileage is slightly higher than what I would have hoped for but I will still consider it as a good low mileage car!

So looking forward to the day when the car finally arrives in Auckland.... right now, I guess looking at photos and watching youtube clips about the v36 will need to do.....

Anyway Sonny, sorry, not much idea on the suspension and coilovers for the pnm35..... perhaps other Stagea owners will be able to help.....

Can I ask which website / japanese auction agent you used? I just purchased a 2007 V36 250GT Type S, 34k on clock from www.japaneseusedcars.com who were recommended to me by the customs / freight forwarders McCulloughs which Im gonna use http://www.mmnz.biz/.

I think I got the non NAV version as in the 50 odd pics i was supplied I cant see any cameras on the side mirror or boot.

I went for the Type S for the 18inch factory rims, sportier front bumper/scoop and I also read somewhere they come with rear wheel LSD which the standard models dont have.

A question on your latest car which im assuming is a V36 coupe, do the front seats have a manual release to fold the seat forward without having to use/wait for the electronics to do it? I have kids and when I was looking at buying a v35 coupe from memory there was no manual release which meant that if it was raining and I had to get the kids in the back seat I would have to stand there waiting for the electronics to move the front seat forward to allow them access to the back. Can you clear this nagging question up for me?

If there is a manual seat release I might just onsell my 250GT and get a V36 370GT coupe from Japan.

Edited March 12, 2013 by Gnome73

[win4ever]

Hi Russell,

Welcome to the Skyline NZ family!

Got mine through carwebs. OK experience but felt that my previous agent offered better service in terms of response time and keeping me in the loop on things at his own initiatives. I would have stick with him if he is still in the business but sadly he ran into some trouble and went out of business.

Yes, my car is a v36 Coupe. Mine is a type SP and from my research, I think a type SP will have an auto / electronic seat release which automatically comes forward when you fold the seat. From memories, I think Type P has this feature as well but Type S and the base model do not have the this feature. Instead there will be a button for you to push to get the seat to move forward. However, this is still not a manual release but an electronic one. I am not 100% sure so perhaps ask those already having a v36 in the forum if you want to be 100% certain.

I actually quite like the auto seat feature. Makes the car looks much classier. Although I do agree with you that getting into the back seat during rainy days can be a problem. I don't really have too much of an issue with this as my back seat hardly gets used (no kids yet).

Anyway, do share some photos of your car here if you can! When's your car arriving?

[Gnome73]

Hi Loh, thanks for the reply.

My car arrives on the 12th of April then its gotta go through customs/compliance which i've been told takes about a week. As this is my first car that i've imported Im just going to get McCulloughs to do all the paper work and customs clearance so hopefully that should speed things up.

Because Im considering upgrading to the 370gt do you mind telling me the year, ks and the yen price you paid? Mine is a 2007 V36 250GT Type S, 34k which set me back 1,300,000 yen / $17k NZD excluding GST and compliance.

The Yen/NZD hit 2-3 year high yesterday and is looking to break the 80 yen to $1NZ so we are re-entering the dream days of the late 90's and early 2000's where Jap sports cars were such good value for money.

My dream car is the GTR but they are so damn expensive even with the good FX rate. I can afford a 370GT but was going to wait till my kids got a bit older

Where are you in AKL, I'd like to come check out your car once you get it, when do you think you will have it? I'm in Mt Albert.

[win4ever]

Fellow kiwis..... just making a post to keep the thread alive and give an update on things. Have been discussing with Russell on our cars and the fact that there is a near new V36 coupe on sale currently on trademe with a $1 reserve!! Up to $26k now with another 2.5 days to go so will be keen to see what price that car ends at! Only done 7,700km and looks awesome (apart from the wood trim finish inside the car which I don't fancy ) Just wondering if the current owner of the car is in this forum.....

Do hope that this thread will continue to have people posting on to discuss on our cars!! Seeing more n more V36 owners now on the road although I still haven't seen a coupe yet in Auckland except for one in a car yard! Any v36 coupe owners, please stand up!! =)

[Gnome73]

I'll be watching with interest to see what that coupe on TM goes for. Currently at $28,100 and ends in 5 hours.

Hope to get my car next Thursday the 4th. Will then take it to Newmarket Nissan for a check up and to fibrenew for steering wheel and inner door pull plastic respray.

http://www.fibrenew.co.nz/markets-we-service/automotive-leather-plastic-fiber-repair/

If anyone in NZ is looking to import a car I'd recommend www.japaneseusedcars.com I cant fault these guys at all so far, service and sales process has been fantastic.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Gnome73

[Gnome73]

Sold for $30,200 or $25k Aussie. Pretty good for a SP Coupe/sunroof with only 7k on the clock.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=572564042

[win4ever]

Hello everyone... not too sure how active is this thread nowadays but just trying to keep it alive and also give an update on my car.....

After weeks of waiting, I finally got my car last week! Took awhile longer than expected particularly due to the need to Compliance being a little too petty on the car's tyres which to me still looks pretty ok and has decent thread but compliance was saying the tyres is not in good condition due to a bit of cracks in the front tyres due to its age (the tyres were stock Bridgestone Potenza tyres).

Anyway, took awhile for me to decide which tyres I want and another couple of days for the importer to get the tyres I want. Had a bit of a problem getting the same stock tyres size so had to move to a slightly wider set which is common for the v36. The importer initially ordered some Nankang NS-20 which I didn't want after reading some reviews of them online. So he next recommended some Nitto Invos which I liked. The reviews of the tyres were good and the thread pattern is very nice! Took a couple of days for the tyres to arrive and once that is done, the car is ready for collection!

Got the car serviced by Nissan in Botany and after a week of driving the car around, I gotta say the V36 is really awesome to drive!! The Nitto Invos tyres are a joy too as they are really really quiet on the road! The car feels very "European" and with the Type SP, I do get quite a bit of extras over my previous V35 coupe. The music box, bluetooth and compact flash options is awesome as far as music is concern! So far definitely enjoying the car.

Still have a few things I am planning to do to the car but apart from that, touch wood, the car is as good as I can ever hope for! Things ideally I want:-

1) Install bandwidth expander - Saw a few deals going on before in 0800 Best Deals through Grabone. Anyone has used them to install an expander in their v36? Russell, have you done yours? If not has anyone used someone else to do it and how is the quality of their work?

2) Alloy wheel repair - One of the wheel has some paint stain on it. Seems like the previous owner has scratched the rim and has attempted to touch up the scratch with a wrong colour paint and just left it there after finding out he got it wrong!

3) Wait for an English conversion for the v36 to be ready and get the conversion done.

4) Install some reverse and front sensors - car has reversing and side camera which is awesome but won't mind having some sensors installed especially for the front.

I have started to see more and more v36 sedans around in Auckland but haven't really seen any v36 coupes out there. I think I only seen one heading south on the motorway and one sitting in a car yard near Parnell once and that's about it. Is there any V36 coupe owners out there?

Anyway, do hope the NZ contingent stay active in the thread and share their experience as a proud Skyline owner....

Cheers!

[win4ever]

H

[Greaver]

Will give this thread a bump

Going to be joining the V35 Club tomorrow with a run about for the missus that I will no doubt wreak havoc on

Not happy that the TV unit pops up when it feels like it and its the bose system so it may all be a pain in the arse but provided I can get a secondary amp hooked up in the boot for a proper sub and one of those anycar bluetooth CD changer hook ins I will be content

Located in Tauranga

[Hertz Donut]

Can't say I've spotted this thread before but I'm another M35 Stagea owner, out in Hawkes Bay. The car was almost-perfect when I got it just over a year ago, it even still had the factory plastic film over the sill plates in the rear. Needless to say after a year on family taxi duty it's looking a bit grubby and has collected a small dent in the front right fender after my mother-in-law used the Braille parking technique. Suffice to say she hasn't driven it since. The pop-up screen doesn't work but I think that's just a missing fuse and I can't be bothered looking into it.

Aside from that it's been faultless so far, plenty of grunt from the VQ35DE, plenty of traction from the AWD and a ton of space in the back - I've slept comfortably in the back for a couple of nights on a king single (183cm x 91cm) air bed.

There's a 250GT V35 sedan a couple of doors down from my house, and a silver 350GT couple getting around Hastings with chromes and a GTR badge on the front. I've spotted 3 other M35s locally, all lower-model S1s - one silver, one dark blue, and a sign-written white one. I get down to Wellington every now and then and I've seen a very nice maroon-coloured S2 (I think) and a great looking grey S1 that's lowered on some dished satin black alloys.

[Greaver]

They certainly are nice, saw an S2 M35 dumped on 18's today that looked sick

If I was shopping for myself I would have considered one but my missus wanted a sedan

Thinking of putting some of these on it as I can get a 19"set in 9.5 and 10.5 for $1800 new

[M35]

They certainly are nice, saw an S2 M35 dumped on 18's today that looked sick

If I was shopping for myself I would have considered one but my missus wanted a sedan

Thinking of putting some of these on it as I can get a 19"set in 9.5 and 10.5 for $1800 new

Hi Rhys,

How did you get on putting new wheels?

[Zedone]

They certainly are nice, saw an S2 M35 dumped on 18's today that looked sick

If I was shopping for myself I would have considered one but my missus wanted a sedan

Thinking of putting some of these on it as I can get a 19"set in 9.5 and 10.5 for $1800 new

I've probably seen your V35 around then, I'm in a M35 Stagea around Tauranga as well - Hi guys!

[keriboi]

Hey Guys,

Few questions about buying a 350GT in New Zealand.

How reliable are the odoeters these days when buying a car in NZ?

What is wrong with this car http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=746752269 Its been on trademe for ages.

Ideally I am looking for a 2007-2008 350GT Type S with around 80,000 on the clock for around 15,000. Are the flappy paddles any good?

Anything too look out for or avoid?

Cheers

Dane

[Hertz Donut]

Take odo readings with a grain of salt, look for other telltale signs like worn seats/steering wheel/pedals.