Jump to content
SAU Community

Prospective Gtr Owner Questions

vman69

By vman69,
in R35 GTR

 Share

Recommended Posts

vman69 Newbie

vman69

Posted
Posted

Hi Everyone

Since the release of the R35 GT-R I have always wanted to own one of these beasts.

Being of the playstation1/gran tourismo generation I have always held a fascination with the GTR and am lucky enough to now be in a position to afford one.

In doing my research I come across a lot of GTR haters and lots of commentary on "glass gearboxes" and Nissan voiding warranties for very little reason.

These seem to be related typically to earlier model R35's but not always.

So I have a few questions I would love to get your views on.

1. Are these gearbox issues sorted with newer model 2012 and 2013 R35's ?

2. Do Nissan after 3 years offer extended warranties ?

3. The stock sound seems a little tame. Do australian dealers have issues with adding somethng like willall mid pipes to give it a better sound ?

4. Whats options are available after warranty expires to harden gearboxes in Australia and what do these cost ?

Do dealers negotiate at all on price from the quoted list pirce of $188k

Thanks to everyone who responds. feel free to answer any or all of these questions.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/427237-prospective-gtr-owner-questions/
Share on other sites
2FA54U Enthusiast

2FA54U

Posted
Posted

1.2011 models and up are suppose to be better although the 2011 model is know to have a tortional dampener issue

2.From what I hear they don't

3.No this does not void warranty on the car unless a fault occurs due to the performance mod also depends on your GTR dealer

4.Willall racing do a lot of things to strengthen them and sort out old issues

I got mine second hand and there was pretty much no negotiating. Mine was owned by a bloke that is on his 4th one and gets a new one every 6months he buys his from WA they are cheaper there and gets it delivered to him. I hope this helps and please correct me if I'm wrong on any of these but this is what I have heard.

Hope this helps mate

  • Like 1
Wardski Rising Star

Wardski

Posted
Posted (edited)

1. Gearbox issues exist across the range, although with the 2012 and 2013 there have been very slight modifications along the way (strengthened shift forks, circlip redesign, solenoid manufacturer changes, etc. The 2008/2009's are the worst, I have a 2010 and no issues, although the 2011's and up have revised LC software that does smoothen things out. Nissan wont flash the latest LC software on the older models, so we have to use a COBB AP to get that (if we need). I've found with my 2010 that Nissan can tweak a few things to iron out some of the jerkyness (probably just touch points), although I have to admit that the recent trans and diff oil change (first one since purchase), this has made a MASSIVE difference to driveability.

2. No extended warranties offered in Australia thru Nissan (Allianz). There are aftermarket warranty extensions, but these are dealer specific.

3. Midpipe changes are not known to cause Warranty issues. I got this in writing from my dealer in Brisbane prior to having the willall titanium midpipe installed (by my dealer) during the replacement bellhousing warranty repair.

4. Depending on where you live, what year GTR you buy, Willall is the beez kneez. I wish they were based in Brisbane (they're in SA :( ), but not to be. If I go down the route to make any major mods to my GTR, I'll be shipping mine interstate to get the best people working on it.

5. Price Negotiation, well this really depends on the dealer. I actually bought my new 2010 (last of the new 2010's left in Australia at the time) from Magic Nissan, WA in November 2011. It had been sitting in their showroom for 12 months and only 43kms on the clock. Price started out at $150k, but then negotiated down to $138k including CEVAs shipping to me in Brisbane. They also gave me a great deal on my 09 Subaru STi Spec R which I owned 100% outright and in showroom condition. AFAIK, they were keen to sell as the 2012's were on the way and needed to make room for them. They also had a new 2011 (blue) in the showroom at the time, which sold about 6 months later for $159k to an interstate buyer.

Edited by Wardski
  • Like 1
Wardski Rising Star

Wardski

Posted
Posted

Moorooka Nissan had no issues. The boys down there have looked after me very well, although not the cheapest dealer in Aus.

Some dealers will negotiate. To be honest, sales have been slow this year with a lot of uncertainty in mining/oil/gas jobs. So, you can always try.

Thanks guys. Very informative. Appreciate the info.

How did you find the Brisbane dealers responded to you after buying car from WA ?

So it's does seem like list price is negotiable depending on stock and time of year.

TOMMI MAKINEN Apprentice

TOMMI MAKINEN

Posted
Posted

Buy a Porsche.

In Gran Turismo, there was a plethora of R-35 GTR's to chose from, but... unfortunately, there was not an array of Porsches to really delve upon. You were restricted to a few offerings from RUF. Maybe that is clouding your decision?

In the real world, Porsches don't break, whereas... GTR's do. Porsches are build to be thrashed - they are built for motorsport. Spend your $180-190K on a low km GT3 or 911 Turbo. Further, think about all the slarts you'll get! There's a lot I would rather spend my 200 large on, and it is surely not something that comes equipped with a Nissan badge as standard. :yes:

Wardski Rising Star

Wardski

Posted
Posted (edited)

Buy a Porsche.

Spend your $180-190K on a low km GT3...

Wait.. what?? Any decent secondhander GT3's are well into the 200's... After driving both, I think I'd take my chances with the GTR. At least I can have my track days, and throw 2 kids in the back comfortably.. Family SuperCar FTMFW! :yes:

Edited by Wardski
TOMMI MAKINEN Apprentice

TOMMI MAKINEN

Posted
Posted (edited)

Wait.. what?? Any decent secondhander GT3's are well into the 200's... After driving both, I think I'd take my chances with the GTR. At least I can have my track days, and throw 2 kids in the back comfortably.. Family SuperCar FTMFW! :yes:

Get your hand off it mate.

There's a nice example of a 25K km 997 GT3 right here: http://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/Porsche-911-2008/SSE-AD-162999/?Cr=6

With the change, you could even buy wifey a proper family car. :)

With the Porsche, you won't even have to ship it down to Adelaide everytime you have a part failure (common in GTR's) or need an oil change. Willall has got you boys all sewn up. Martin is quite a good salesman. Pity he couldn't even pass his uni degree lol

Edited by TOMMI MAKINEN
t5iv Grand Master

t5iv

Posted
Posted

Wait.. what?? Any decent secondhander GT3's are well into the 200's... After driving both, I think I'd take my chances with the GTR. At least I can have my track days, and throw 2 kids in the back comfortably.. Family SuperCar FTMFW! :yes:

Ohhh yeaahhhh

305kw......that's so cute!

ROFL!!

  • Like 1
Wardski Rising Star

Wardski

Posted
Posted (edited)

Get your hand off it mate.

There's a nice example of a 25K km 997 GT3 right here: http://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/Porsche-911-2008/SSE-AD-162999/?Cr=6

Uggghhh The pre 2011's had a dash uglier than a mofo.. And 0-100 in 4.3sec no thanx.....

Edited by Wardski
vman69 Newbie

vman69

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks for input gents. Always interesting to see different perspectives.

Dealers are currently advertising 2013 GTR's for 198k drive away. Ridiculous. They must be expecting a decent drop when negotiating if that's the starting rrp price.

I'm not too keen on 2nd hand but at those prices I may need to think a bit longer.

rehab2010 Proficient

rehab2010

Posted
Posted

There are some great bargains to be had with 2nd hand ones - with 50K depreciation already gone you really can't go wrong if you get a nice one with full service history.

If you plan on modifying it.........and trust me you won't want it stock for too long........then 2nd hand is the perfect choice - nice 2011 or 2012 is a very nice car.

Cherry Racer Collaborator

Cherry Racer

Posted
Posted

Have a good look at what is on carsales atm.

I searched cars with under 10,000kms and there are a lot. As mentioned above if its been looked after and serviced, you shouldn't have too many issues.

Later models will still have factory warranty too.

  • 2 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Duncan
      Neil's R33 Gts-t Build

      By Duncan · Posted

      well mate, while I hear your pain, turns out I don't feel it this time! Must have been a bastard of a job crammed into the boot The tank was very empty (probably pumped out, not dropped and drained because there were some fumes still) and in very good condition internally. I'm sure he never ran e85 in it I don't know what the hell Nissan's fuel tank engineers were thinking about their clipping system, this hanger was really hard to get moving but came out in the end All looks very good (as I'm starting to hopefully expect) and Matty was right it is an 023 (044) bosch which should be plenty for the injectors and turbo
    • acsplit
      SAU VIC Motorkhana Saturday 8th Feb + Entry List

      By acsplit · Posted

      Saturday 8th February 2025 8:30am Capped 26 entries Standard Entry Fee: $89 Members Entry Fee: $55 (SAU Victoria Only) Entries Close: Thursday 6th February 8pm. Supp Regs: TBC Disclaimer: Download  Please electronically sign and email to [email protected] or print and hand in and Driver Sign In. email [email protected] To compete in this event you will require A valid AASA General speed licence Or (Day license is $35.00 via the AASA Website) MA licenses no longer accepted A helmet, long sleeve clothing and it is reccomended a 1KG mounted fire extinguisher (But not Mandatory). Further details within Supp Regs Above. You can bring and have a passenger in the car but they need to comply to the same safety and clothing as driver. Entry Link >> https://www.sauvic.com.au/entry/deca/20250208 Entry List: 1. Martin Sullivan 2.  3.  4.  5.  6.  7.  8.  9. 10.  11. 12.   13. 14 15.  16.  17.  18.  19. 20.  21.  22.  23.  24.  25. 26.    Reserve list 1.  2.
    • Kinkstaah
      Mistakes were made, my R34 Story

      By Kinkstaah · Posted

      I had absolutely no symptoms whatsoever that anything was wrong.... I'm very happy it was all spotto'd and re-bled and re-torqued and aligned though. Will be picking it up tomorrow and undoubtedly be like "Oh, that clunk is gone" "Oh, the car really wants to drive straight" "Oh, that pedal feels better" "Oh, it feels like I've gained 25hp" "Oh, the handbrake works now" It should have been a sign that the new Project Mu shoes had 3mm of pad depth on them out of the box, and the OEM ones from 25 years ago that we took out also had 3mm of pad depth, implying the issue was not, and never was the shoes, but we put that down to it not being adjusted correctly. It wasn't, but it wasn't even adjustable at all given one side was boned and the T Junction of the cables was on a 45 degree angle, the non-working side being the one on the massive angle. Obviously when I had adjusted it and reset it and re-tensioned it I had either got it stuck or something along those lines. Oh well. Live and learn and absolutely could have been catastrophically worse so I'm rationalizing it as a win, kinda. I also got the chance to measure the distance between rear rim and the suspension arm/shocks and found a 30mm rubber block only just doesn't fit there. Which is great to know before ordering wheels, when I assumed 30mm was easy. The man with the Porsche adapters has rims that use 23.9mm of that space, so it's safe to assume I have between 23.9 and 29.9mm of space there to play with on the inside. The wheels looked pretty stupidly pokey with the 20mm spacers on the rear, only for me to find that the studs come out another 12mm and the wheel doesn't actually sit flush with the hub because you're supposed to cut your original studs. The wheels do have cutouts that kinda accomodate it, but not fully. So my 20mm spacer was anywhere between 25mm and 35mm. ~25mm and send it will determine on where the wheels sit with the spacers on. When I put the pads in for the track day I will mess around with spacers (with wheels that do not clear studs properly when mounted to spacers) and do more math, for the last time, for the 7th time.
    • The Bogan
      Mistakes were made, my R34 Story

      By The Bogan · Posted

      Lucky pick up Best to find these things before something horrible happened to the yoke flange thingies I would hate to think what would happen if it dropped the tailshaft  Hopefully the holes are not flogged out in the yokes and it was just the bolts that got munted  As for the hand brake.....ouch, look like the disc got rather hot, and I assume smokey, I recall when I had a front caliper seize on the Commodore, there was lots of smoke and the disc was glowing cherry red when I was able to eventually stop and have a look, and stopping a big heavy car, going down a big hill with some rather high RPM down shifts and some hand brake action is something that makes you think hard about life
    • Kinkstaah
      Mistakes were made, my R34 Story

      By Kinkstaah · Posted

      One of the things that never seemed right was the handbrake. Put in some nice new Project Mu shoes. We figured the rears were out, so why not. We're right there. My handbrake never worked well anyway. Well, this is them, 15km later. 67fdcf94-9763-4522-97a4-8f04b2ad0826.mp4 Keen eyes would note the difference in this picture too:   And this picture: Also, this was my Tailshaft bolts: 4ad3c7dd-51d0-4577-8e72-ba8bc82f6e87.mp4 It turns out my suspicions that one side of the handbrake cable was stretched all along were pretty accurate, as was my intuition that I didn't want to drop the tailshaft to swap them on jack stands and wasn't entirely sure about bolt torque. I have since bought the handbrake cables which have gone in. I'm very glad that I went to my mechanic friend who owns an alignment machine to get an alignment before the track day, because his eyes spotted these various levels of "WHAT THE f**k IS GOING ON HERE?". Turns out the alignment wasn't that bad, considering we changed the adjustable castor arms out for un-adjustable castor arms, and messed with the heights. Car drove pretty good with one side of the handbrake stuck on, unbleedable rear brakes, alignment screwy, and the tailshaft about to go flying and generally being a death trap waiting to happen! (I did have covid) (I maintain I adjusted the handbrake correctly, but movement caused shennanigans and/or I dislodged the spring on the problem side somewhat, or god knows what). G R E G G E D
×
×
  • Create New...