coldel

Sent an email, no response. To the original private seller.

Fortunately for traders they can just throw working capital at cars and take a chance - most private buyers would have to at least look at something unless it was peanuts cheap and you take a punt. Same happened with that Strosek one, guy paid £7k or whatever and now has it up for £15k (which it isnt worth clearly as no one is touching it).

No wonder the originally seller never got back to me...bloody traders Looking at another car marque tomorrow morning car looks very promising, dont think I will be hanging around for a 300zx after all :surrender:

I looked at 5 R33s before buying my one, looked at 3 Z32s now and all three were worse for rust compared to the most rusty R33 out of the 5 - seems really odd that these cars just don't weather it so well - its not like there are decades of difference in the age, the R33s were ranging from 1993 to 1996 cars. Strange!

Yep first one, sorry!

That black one has been advertised since last November when I was first looking. Someone did have a close look at the pics and spotted rust in the engine bay etc on another thread somewhere...

You might want to keep notes of for sale ads if you are going to think you are going to value them higher with insurers. More often than not the insurance payout is much lower than anyone would value it at and if you challenge it you will need to show proof that these cars are for sale at the level you want to be paid out at, especially if you are insured with Admiral or some other mainstream insurer. Its tricky as clearly money has been pumped into these cars to restore, but the insurer will only be interested in seeing what these cars sell for in terms of values so the more evidence you have the better your chance of getting what you want in any claim.

The biggest mistake as you hint to above Joely is that the value of cars is not what they are advertised at. No one really knows the true value i.e. what someone would buy one for as sold prices are not advertised but I suspect they are around 10% lower than the advertised prices on average. But it is the way of things as sports cars age, they become rarer, good condition ones hold a premium (in most cases, there are maligned sports cars that will never appreciate) but its not unexpected that Z32s will go up in price. I sold my 02 plate VX220 for £7750 two years ago, I would be looking at paying around £8500-£9000 to buy it back now.

Why pre 94?

And ten years ago the Yen wasnt worth anywhere near what it was now against the pound, when I lived in Japan in 2006 I think it was 245 yen to the pound, what is it now, around 180? Just doesnt offer the bargain it used to I guess.

I have been watching the import auctions for the last month and you are right, I think I have seen one I would have gone for but only saw it about 30 minutes before the auction started - fair play to Jurgen I mailed him at 9:30pm on his work email and he responded within 10 minutes! I just dont like to rush into a car purchase with 30 mins notice so declined to bid, but havent seen anything worthwhile since...

I am hoping so, I have a budget of around £5k which I think puts me in a reasonable position to want a fairly good condition car, its just finding one...have to say I am tempted to try something else if nothing comes up in the next month or so though, I cannot keep driving the wifes Focus around for the next 6 months...haha

Its completely relevant unless the fact is that none of them will ever be for sale at any point in the near future, which I suspect is not the case? Last year after I bought the R33 I still kept an eye on the 300zx market and saw 3 maybe 4 for sale which I thought to myself 'yeah I would have that' but since November have seen nothing that catches my eye - although appreciate that its winter etc. It will just be a bun fight for who gets there first when on the odd occasion one does pop up (excluding the ridiculous Strosek one for sale at £15k that the guy bought for £7.25k a couple of weeks ago off ebay...)

I think its horses for courses, if Dan has garage space and is quite happy accepting in whatever condition it arrives in then the risk sits with him. Personally I have no drive and the cars sit on the road, I am also a mechanical incompetent so would ultimately have to pay the importer to assume the risk - I have chatted to both Torque GT and Jurgen and it is comforting to know you have a walk away clause in there that protects you but then I have to pay for that. But it is something to swallow buying a £2.5k car and paying £5k for it, especially when you know there are equally good ones here in the UK but just not for sale!

Stuart! I have heard box conversion kicking about the £800 mark - mind you went out for a drive in Gio's auto NA a month or so ago and it wasnt too bad - although I will always be wedded to that manual shifting - pretty sure you could live with it in the short term. Sorry to hear about the Skyline mate, was a very nice car and will make a good project for the next owner.