Dingdongler

Well I'm on holiday but both kids are unwell so we're stuck in the room looking after them!
Thought I might as well waste some time thinking about the next car options

Rather than the new E63 AMG I'm thinking maybe a 2009 GTR + Ford Smax for about the same money. I have some questions for GTR (and John Banks especially) owners

1) There were internet rumours that the gearbox is fundamentally flawed and inherently weak.
When fixed under warranty (though I understand Nissan turned some down) there was a lag time of up to 3 months as they were ordered in from Japan.

Nissan to some extent has accepted this weakness as from 2009/2010 they reprogrammed the launch control to be less vicious. Though from what I read some failures were in non launched, non modded etc cars.

Does the fact that LC has been changed (and if you use the old version with that 'button' switched off the warranty is invalid) mean that all the acceleration times I've read are rubbish? I'm sure they were all done using full fat LC?

Can anybody tell me the real deal in relation to rumoured gearbox problems?

2) I also read that if you have a minor front shunt some sort of sensor/mechanism is triggered that costs £10k to fix?

3) I understand that earlier premium cars were not sat nav but later ones are. If that is the case then what's the difference between a later premium car and a black edition car?

4) Would you know whether a standard size pushchair fits in the boot? LOL

Thanks for looking!

john banks

1. All UK cars have the softer "launch control", but it launches well by just flooring the accelerator, I think sub 4 seconds is typical, sub 3 has been done with a remap on a good surface even with the softer launch control. On standard or lightly modified cars the only gearbox issues I'm aware of are a few that have clogged up the solenoids with swarf. Nissan replace the whole gearbox, aftermarket clean them out or possibly replace solenoids, although parts are difficult.

2. Yes exploding bonnet to increase clearance between engine and bonnet, reduces severity of head injury.

3. Black adds red seat leather accents (stock is black/black or grey/grey fabric/leather), I think anthracite headliner, option of black paint.

4. Probably quite easily.

Nissan customer service sounds quite poor when one guy's bonnet exploded spontaneously and they blamed it on earlier damage to the splitter. Servicing is frequent and abusively expensive at dealers. The gearbox could be stronger if they used gear oil and ATF in different compartments like Porsche instead of one combined fluid. Cooling isn't that great.

Amazing performance (perhaps as I said before too fast for the road) at a good price, if it doesn't go wrong that is great. If it goes wrong can be a headache.

Dingdongler

Thanks John.

Is it true that the exploding bonnet costs £10k to fix? Any idea what it takes to trigger it? Could a minor shunt do it?

Have the servicing costs/intervals been revised at all? I remember some talk of this back when I was looking before about a year ago.

Is it still £600 per tyre or are there now other good cheaper alternatives?

If only I could afford a 997 turbo! (other than an out of warranty 2006)

Thanks again for your help.

john banks

Hitting a cone that leaves no mark is enough to set it off. Yes it was £10k, Nissan are being a bit idiotic about repair costs.

Servicing is getting a little cheaper, in Japan they let you go a year if your mileage is low, and to go twice as long on gear and transmission oil if the temperatures are typically what they would be in even idiotic road use.

A set of Bridgestones is about £1100, I think I might fit non-runflat Pirellis when the time comes, probably at about 8000-10000 miles as I have 4mm on the back after 6500 miles, but I do use some rough roads.

I had the same conclusion about a 997.1, price of a used one that needed work and was about to leave warranty was the price of a new GTR that drives better except for ride quality.

urban

iTrader: (1)

I'd heard of this exploding bonnet before
See here - its absolutely mad
http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/134041-sp...mbination.html

alloy

1) I had a gearbox issue after 2000 miles on my UK spec GTR. Nissan had a new box built, shipped and installed within 3 weeks not 3months. They said the fault was a solenoid issue.

Have you taken one out for a test drive yet? Having just got back from Le Mans i'm more in love with the car than ever its such a comfy cruiser when it needs to be and a vicious animal with the flick of a few switches and a prod of the loud pedal!

Dingdongler

Hi Alloy, no I haven't driven one as yet. I was looking into buying one about a year ago (and may have asked you guys some similar questions then)

I sort of went off the idea because there were all these internet rumours flying around (many of which I never really got to the bottom of. Thanks for clearing up the 3 weeks for the gearbox thing btw

I'm happy (!) to accept high service/fuel/insurance etc costs but the thought of a £10k bill if I just clip a bollard scares me. I'd feel sick if I had to cough up the cost of a top notch family holiday for a minor bump.

Anyway, that's my issue and takes nothing away from the car which I'm sure is brilliant.

I just wish they had charged another £5k for the car in the first place and not had some of these idiosyncratic pricing policies.

John, haven't any clever bods (wink) managed to rape the data logger yet?

Thanks again

john banks

We're in two modules - the engine and transmission control. I think the datalogger may be able to be unplugged, but that would also void warranty as I suspect it will timestamp events with GPS based time logs and will be designed to accept data in a stream but not allow it to be overwritten. Not something we're planning to look into for practical and legal reasons.

alloy

There are lots of rumours that i can see potential buyers being put off by, don't believe the hype sure the bumper issue is a snag, but only a few cars have suffered it and i've killed a bird at 90mph and nothing went off so i guess you have to be unlucky like i was with the gearbox!

zip106

No problems insuring them?
I'm sure Moley on here mentioned a bit of difficulty sometime back?

alloy

well i think as a driver i must have a pretty high risk profile and i had no issues, renewal in a month so presume it'll be the same if not cheaper

pippyrips

I weighed up the above pros an cons and more for ages before finally buying my GT-R. If you have the chance to get one, do it. You will only be missing out on what is a great car if you don't.

john banks

Mine went up to about a grand in May (about 20% increase), but the wife had a fairly big claim last year and she is on the insurance.

Dingdongler

Thanks. A grand sounds reasonable for insurance, I pay that for my M5 and that's worth about £25k now!

I will have a drive when I get back to the UK. The other options (for a two car scenario) are limited. The £50k a 2009 GTR would cost me buys me a 2007 plate 997 C4S. I don't stay awake dreaming about a Porsche unless its a turbo/gt3 etc so spending £50k on one that's three years old just doesn't make any sense.

The one car option (ie the e63 amg) has its advantages but its still less than one year old and costs about £70k plus. In two years time I know my trade in will be about £35k! That's a big hit. I can't see the GTR being worth £15k!

I will organise a test drive when I get back.

Btw, John, does the Y pipe add some power or just sound?

Thanks again.

Maz

iTrader: (34)

You took the plunge then! Nice one mate. I'm looking forward to the photos and extensive write up that is going to follow.

john banks

Agree Deep, a C4S at that age and price wouldn't excite me either, but it will ride better, be quieter and need less frequent servicing, but so would many other cars

The Y-pipe adds perhaps a few % of power, not noticeable. The noise varies from droning at cruise to quite pleasant. I don't have one and have no plans to get one. After an Evo I like a quieter exhaust. It is maybe as stock a little louder than an E60 M5 which I found surprisingly vocal (in a nice way). There is more road noise than the M5 though, and the ride goes nowhere near as soft.

Really depends how you drive.

pippyrips

Yep - had her for 3 months now, they really are brillant cars. Just back from a weekend in the Brecon mountains - best fun i've had in ages

I've got a few pics in the link below

https://www.scoobynet.com/wales-26/8...ml#post9459474

Moley

iTrader: (9)

Insurance is a bit odd on them.

Apparently the renewals are going up quite a lot, but the only renewal i have done on one reduced by almost 20%

Admiral were insuring them at very cheap prices, but i know they've had quite a few big claims, so will be interesting to see what happens.

Lots of underwriters i have spoken to are very aware of the repair costs, so will follow with interest.

Re-sale prices a bit low, insured an 08 plate GTR the other day that the guy just paid £37k for.
Have noticed the R34 GTR's have gone back up in price though.

Jimpreza

I went in a friends who has just had a y pipe fitted. I don't know what it was like before this but I find it way too loud even when crusing. Awesome car for the money though. The only thing I found though was it rattled like mad inside the cabin it was doing my head in. You could even hear it over the y pipe exhaust.

alloy

Y-pipe is essential, they sound so tame with the mid pipe cats in! For your guide my UK car with just a y-pipe made 504bhp and 496 ftlbs on Surrey Rolling Road

Jimpreza

Alloy - Don't you find it too loud though when cruising?

john banks

Depends on the design of Y-pipe, some are horrid. My standard exhaust is louder than the wife's Golf V GTI at low speeds but similar at high speeds, I'd happily drive 500 miles in a day in either car but not in some GTRs with Y-pipes. I would not in an Evo or Scooby.

Dingdongler

Really? I've never seen a GTR on sale for below £40K!

Moley

iTrader: (9)

Yep.

What they sell for compared to what they are advertised for seem to be two comptelely different things at the moment.