Geek Newbie

[CondorMan]

Hi All

Just started looking at the Stagea's, started noticing them around and thinking I like the look of them. Then when I found out a bit about them I thought, sh1t that's a pretty serious car. So I am seriously considering getting one. I have had a sh1t year with marriage breakdown and whilst I don't need another car, I thought I would spoil myself by getting something FOR ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more Mr Nice Guy !!!!!

So I have some questions/concerns before I part company with some hard earned cash or before I invest too much energy into the whole thing. And apologies if these have been asked before, when I get a moment I will have a better look.

OK...queries;

1. I am mechanically a simpleton, grown up on Falcodore's and just given it to the mechanic and said fix, and only ring me if its gonna hurt my hip pocket - so mechanincally speaking if I buy a stock Stagea (and I have no intention of adding stuff on) am I going to get a reliable beast?

2. Following on from that, are service costs comparable to Falcodores, or are imports a bit heavier for servicing

3. Fuel, from what I have read, normal use should be like my Commodore, unless I choose to release the horses

4. Nag_ya motors seem to advertise a bit - reputation wise, should I be wary

5. Theft - is this a serious problem for these cars? I will be parking on driveway (Location - The Lodge).

6. Finance - looking at a car thats 2002 or thereabouts - anyone been able to get commercial finance on one ?

7. Insurance - any tips for lowering the Premiums?

Thanks, and all going well, I'll be enjoying one soon.

Cheers...CondorMan!

[iamhe77]

1 & 2. Yes a VQ25det powered Stagea can definitely be reliable. If you are not prepared to learn, expect it to be an expensive exercise though.

3. Fuel should only be 98. Do not put 91 in there... unless you are out of fuel and need a couple of litres to get to the closest servo, then put 98 in.

4. If buying through a dealer, recommend Northshore Prestige and Japlink.

5. No.

6. No experience, so can't answer

7. Shop around. Shannon's are good and reasonable but others have had reasonable premiums with other companies.

Need a new mindset from the Commodore. Stagea's are not a generic car so best not to treat/think of it as one.

[GTR260]

i bought from nagoya,

paid for the car then got told had to wait 3 days for compliance plate to arrive, then got told after 3 days that it had a idle problem and they sent it to autosport engineering at Kirrawee.

was told they would have it no longer than a week, so 9 weeks later i received the car by road transport to my door, still had a idle problem and a miss on cyl one.

so i rang Nagoya and asked what the go was and the said that autosport couldn't fix it and for me to find somewhere up here in bris to fix it and send them the bill.

called up autosport and asked what they had done,

the replaced afm's, coils, igniter, ecu, had the head off got it checked ( replaced valve stems & seals ect) replaced timing belt, all inlet & exhaust gaskets, had injectors cleaned ect & still couldn't find the problem

anyway i thought id attempt to find the problem myself, did compression test and it was perfect at 170psi across all cylinders, pressure tested all the inlet, that was all ok.checked plugs and found 2 broken plugs so changed them and still didn't sort it, pulled the plennum off because autosport didn't do up the nuts on the injector section of the inlet. when i got the plennum off i found one of the throttle butterflies was bent which was allowing air into cyl one & causing the idle problem

replaced all the throttles put it all back together and both the idle problem & the miss were gone.

sent Nagoya a bill of $1200 which they paid, apart from all that the car is exactly what i wanted, in good condition & hasn't caused anymore dramas.

communication was poor, they wouldn't return calls. they do keep their word. they paid for everything they said they would including qld rego, rwc, Hire car & repair bill.

The lengthy delay was due to mechanics that seem to just guess and not actually know what they are doing.

Just my 2 cents worth

[CondorMan]

Need a new mindset from the Commodore. Stagea's are not a generic car so best not to treat/think of it as one.

Thanks...and yes, this seems to be the case.

Thanks GR260.

Edited December 6, 2011 by CondorMan

[WAGON_BOY]

if you are keeping it stock then try NRMA for insurance because they will do it and for quiet a resonable price.

also another thing to note is the turbo's dont last so read up on that also.........

[OMY31T]

i just bought a C34 diect from a dealer, i would recommend Toyko Prestige any day of the wek to buy from. Phil the owner is great to deal with and imports stageas by the dozen. i have seen heaps of the cars he has imported and im yet to find one that isnt A GRADE quality, he mainly imports low km cars in almost show room condition. Phil himself is in melb, but he sends cars and has yard in every state im to believe.

cheers.

[wht510]

+1 for Phil at Tokyo Prestige (in VIC)

I bought my NM35 Axis Autech from Phil. Car has been great.

Poor bloke got pretty sick when he was over in Japan looking for my car. Regardless he was very helpful and keen to help. Communication is the key with importers. You want to make sure they let you know of everything that is going to happen. Phil delivers. I knew exactly where my car was, I knew about the duty for importing, I knew about the steam cleaners which were cleaning it all out. etc.

If you are going to use 'The Import Factory' in Nunawading VIC for compliance, my suggestion would be to get the car checked over by your fav. mechanic and road worthied before getting compliance done by The Import Factory. Their rates are pretty high ($110 an hour for generic mechanic work) which is pretty steep for something which I don't really think was quality work.

I had to organise a windscreen replacement (it was cracked probably in transport) because The Import Factory couldn't find one. (WTF?)

I also had to double check most of their quotes because they couldn't be bothered finding the best components at the cheapest price. They wanted to import full suspension arm sub-assy's when I only needed some new bushes (cracked rubber covers on the castor arms - RWC problem) as an example.

The mechanics didn't do the basics, such as an oil change and filter change (I drained the engine oil/gearbox oil/ brake fluid/radiator fluid, and most of them were pretty dark like the car had knocked off 5-10K). I think it's a compliance regulation they must change the brake fluid...

I had the car checked over by my local mechanic ( nothing like a second pair of eyes) to check anything I may have missed (usually I don't but it's better to be safe than sorry).

After having the basic bits and pieces fixed, I noticed the child restraints The Import Factory had fitted were leaking water into the back of the car. I fixed it by making up some simple foam gaskets and mounting it underneath. Luckily I found the leaks appearing on the carpet. Otherwise I probably would have never found it.

Aside from all of these small issues, the car has been great. Love it. Love how the damn thing grips in the wet. Handling is pretty good in the dry and the wet and fairly predictable for a reasonably fat wagon. It's a great cruising and you can fit a surprising amount in the boot.

[TWOAR81]

Mmm, plus one also for Phil..... But the fact mine had issues with the clutch fan the same day I got it registered. his only comment was that I brought it without a warranty... Hence your bad... Plus 100 for shui at import factory who in conjunction with consumer affairs sorted it out with phil. And all clutch fan replaced with new! Shui had gone above and beyond to sort me out.. phil never returned phone calls after that one.... And now uses another number... Also to others looking at the cars make sure you get the service history outta the cars before they do otherwise I'm sure it'll be missing a few pages. The first m35 I received was missing some recent pages after I saw the car and the kms where different. Lucky that one failed compliance from import factory as shui found rust through the floor near the wheel well. But I'm sure it'll end up in another state... Buyer beware!

[CondorMan]

Thanks all. Great help. Might go test drive a coupple this weekend.

[zei20l]

Where are you located?

If in Sydney, beware of a few dealers. Im not going to mention names as Ill get into trouble. But I had a bad experience with a dealer on parramatta road, in concord. has a guys name in it. the surname is very short, only three letters.

[CondorMan]

Located N/W Sydney. Looks like I may be taking a drive to Caringbah and Burwood on the weekend.

Thanks zei201 for the heads up.

[Drogba]

http://www.tokyoprestige.com.au/car_details.asp?id=143

This looks a pretty schweet deal. In fact it's annoying how cheap that is for someone who's just purchased but i'm stoked with my AR-X all the same.

13k for a well optioned 4.5 grade model is great ... that particular one has the VDO, fully powered/heated/black leather seats.

Steer clear of a car-yard you've named above, K's most likely wound back.

[TWOAR81]

http://www.tokyopres...ails.asp?id=143

This looks a pretty schweet deal. In fact it's annoying how cheap that is for someone who's just purchased but i'm stoked with my AR-X all the same.

(be happy mate, your klms are probably legit!)

13k for a well optioned 4.5 grade model is great ... that particular one has the VDO, fully powered/heated/black leather seats. (snow pack!! watch out for rust)

Steer clear of a car-yard you've named above, K's most likely wound back.

these cars come w/o reg, complianced only (less immobiliser), no transfer costs inlcuded, 7 day permit to drive (only to vicroads to register) oh and in his words " they're wholesale cars, i buy off dealers not auctions as i get better cars for a better price. " and surprisingly the all have around 66-86 thousand klms...... but this says otherwise....

leaving the rest up to your imagination..

[Aegats]

I went to Nagoya but didn’t see what I wanted in terms of cars. Check them out and before you get a car make sure its inspected thoroughly.

If you don’t mind me asking what dealer/ car are you going to see in Burwood? PM me if you dont to make it public.

Dont really know anything about finance on a car like this.

With your insurance, check out NRMA. I'm with them and they did a good price for me. I'm making a claim so will see how good they are. I guess if you want to lower your premiums choose a higher excess.

[coparts41]

I had a problem with the import factory myself , known as Kamakazi when i dealt with them, They damaged the R/H rail because some moron was to heavy handed and damaged the rail , then they fitted cheap tyres to my Volts which fell apart , then they borrowed parts from me to put in another customers car and three years later still trying to recover my stuff Not Happy

+1 for Phil at Tokyo Prestige (in VIC)

I bought my NM35 Axis Autech from Phil. Car has been great.

Poor bloke got pretty sick when he was over in Japan looking for my car. Regardless he was very helpful and keen to help. Communication is the key with importers. You want to make sure they let you know of everything that is going to happen. Phil delivers. I knew exactly where my car was, I knew about the duty for importing, I knew about the steam cleaners which were cleaning it all out. etc.

If you are going to use 'The Import Factory' in Nunawading VIC for compliance, my suggestion would be to get the car checked over by your fav. mechanic and road worthied before getting compliance done by The Import Factory. Their rates are pretty high ($110 an hour for generic mechanic work) which is pretty steep for something which I don't really think was quality work.

I had to organise a windscreen replacement (it was cracked probably in transport) because The Import Factory couldn't find one. (WTF?)

I also had to double check most of their quotes because they couldn't be bothered finding the best components at the cheapest price. They wanted to import full suspension arm sub-assy's when I only needed some new bushes (cracked rubber covers on the castor arms - RWC problem) as an example.

The mechanics didn't do the basics, such as an oil change and filter change (I drained the engine oil/gearbox oil/ brake fluid/radiator fluid, and most of them were pretty dark like the car had knocked off 5-10K). I think it's a compliance regulation they must change the brake fluid...

I had the car checked over by my local mechanic ( nothing like a second pair of eyes) to check anything I may have missed (usually I don't but it's better to be safe than sorry).

After having the basic bits and pieces fixed, I noticed the child restraints The Import Factory had fitted were leaking water into the back of the car. I fixed it by making up some simple foam gaskets and mounting it underneath. Luckily I found the leaks appearing on the carpet. Otherwise I probably would have never found it.

Aside from all of these small issues, the car has been great. Love it. Love how the damn thing grips in the wet. Handling is pretty good in the dry and the wet and fairly predictable for a reasonably fat wagon. It's a great cruising and you can fit a surprising amount in the boot.

[zei20l]

take a run up to mosman, check out the stock at Northshore Presige. nothing but good cars

[TWOAR81]

Northshore all the way, just do a search for them.... sooo many recommend them!

[zei20l]

or just go to www.northshoreprestige.com.au

[OMY31T]

these cars come w/o reg, complianced only (less immobiliser), no transfer costs inlcuded, 7 day permit to drive (only to vicroads to register) oh and in his words " they're wholesale cars, i buy off dealers not auctions as i get better cars for a better price. " and surprisingly the all have around 66-86 thousand klms...... but this says otherwise....

leaving the rest up to your imagination..

to right, i retract my statement about phil. whether he knows or not, i today found some eneos japan sevice stickers in my fuel flap on my c34, the car had its last service at 111,045kms and i bought the car with 84,xxx on it. dodgy as f**k, will be calling him tomorrow, steer clear of toyko prestige. i now am going to have to fork out a little over 300 bucks to get timing belt done, no way am i driving from melb to sydney not knowing if its been replaced at 100k.

[Jetwreck]

to right, i retract my statement about phil. whether he knows or not, i today found some eneos japan sevice stickers in my fuel flap on my c34, the car had its last service at 111,045kms and i bought the car with 84,xxx on it. dodgy as f**k, will be calling him tomorrow, steer clear of toyko prestige. i now am going to have to fork out a little over 300 bucks to get timing belt done, no way am i driving from melb to sydney not knowing if its been replaced at 100k.

He would be getting a pretty f#$King dirty phone call from me......

.I visit pretty much all the dealers in Sydney regularly doing the English conversions......The best NM35's I have seen are from Northshore Prestige and E&M Unique.

P.S. Don't skimp when buying one of these....it could end up costing you more that the $ you save in haggling!

P.S.S Clock winding is very evident from dealers.....I have been under many a Stagea in the last couple of years and when I see the clock on some of these cars saying 40-80K and the under carriage is looks worse that mine(my car has 190K and travel's on dirt) it makes you wonder!

Another way to tell if the car has more than 80K on it is if the front caster bush's are gone......they go at about 80-100K.

Edited December 7, 2011 by Jetwreck