Just picked up a 1990 Nissan Skyline GTR!
- Gunmetal Grey
- 40,322 Miles
- Gram Light Wheels w/new Bridgestone tires
- Tein Coilovers (not installed in pics)
- 60mm Garret Turbos
- Mines Turbo-back exhaust
- HKS Intakes
- Nismo Twin Plate Clutch
- Nismo front/rear Tower bars
- Nismo R_Brake pads
- Nismo Steel brake lines
- Greddy Turbo Gauge.
I had a friend take a look at the car before purchase and he said it was in excellent shape and had very well thought-out and high-end modifications. I'll be having i shipped to my house this week.
I bought it from a company called Phase9Motorsports. He is Anaheim based but has an office in Japan where he travels to hand select his vehicles from private sellers, not the autction-block like other importers. The result is pristine, well cared for examples, I believe he has a bone stock Gunmetal grey with only 30K miles and a genuine Nismo GTR currently available. He quickly answered my myriad of nit-picky questions and quickly agreed to meet up with my friend to allow the car to be inspected. All-in-all my experience has been excellent dealing with Phase9 and I would recommend him to anyone who is considering purchasing a JDM classic!
Here are some pics. I plan on getting the coilovers on ASAP and switching out the head-unit for a iPod compatible model. Other than that I cant think of much more besides maybe a boost controller to unleash the 60mm turbos
Update: How to Register/Finance/Insure
For those of you that are wondering what you need to register and title a grey market car like a GTR:
- NHTSA Form HS-7 (DOT safety equipment waiver under 25 year rule)
- EPA 3520-1 (Emission exemption form)
- Manufacturers Certificate of Origin (confirming the build date and the car is in-fact 25 years old)
- CBP-7501 (DHS form confirming that the car is legal for sale in the U.S.) Most Important!
- Depending on your state, Vin inspection, standard registration form.
The NV DMV had a fact sheet that they referenced on Grey Market Vehicle registration, so be sure to ask your local DMV if they have such a resource, it will greatly expedite the process.
If you are thinking about getting a loan to cover the car, there are two roadblocks. Most banks will have no problem loaning to companies who have dealership license, however a lot of the importers are still working that out and while they have a legally registered business, they do not yet have their dealership credentials. So you will have to get the loan based upon a private sale. This was actually better for me because NV doesnt charge sales tax on private sale cars. The problem was banks typically will not loan to a private sale without a copy of the free and clear title, which none of these freshly imported cars typically have. So what I ended up doing was getting an unsecured personal loan at a higher interest rate, pushed the first payment due date out 60 days, and will secure the loan when the title is produced by listing my bank as the first lien holder at which time they will reduce the interest rate to a significantly lower percentage essentially revering it to the original auto loan APR.
Insurance:
Since most insurance companies will only see this car as a 25 y/o Nissan, you may have a hard time getting full coverage for what it is actually worth. The way around it is to find a company that has a collectors or rare/valuable clause that allows them to set the market value of the car. I was pleasantly surprised that for $25k coverage of the value of the car with the standard 300/100 and zero deductible, the car was only about $35 a month to insure.
