would like some help concerning buying a car

[car_fiend]

i'm in the DR, been looking to get a car for a while now. lately, i've found some good ones, but im particularly interested in one, 1994 Nissan Skyline R32. So far, i've found out that the car was shipped here from japan, and the only thing that has been changed it from right hand drive to left hand drive. Its a 5 speed manual, ac works... havent had a chance to go check or test drive yet. plan on doing that tomorrow.
i'm wondering what, if anything in particular i should look for on the car, what problems to check, etc. ? besides, of course, getting the car checked by a mechanic. all information is greatly appreciated. thank you.

[henk4]

that's interesting, afaik the Skyline was never exported to LHD markets, because the conversion from RHD was sort of impossible. Has anybody heard of such conversions before?

[digitalcraft]

Anything is 'possible', but yeah definitely have a mechanic go over that thing with a magnifying glass.

I'd imagine the conversion is a custom job, so the quality might be questionable, and being a skyline, the car has probably been driven like a worn out prostitute: though the money it probably would take to make a drive conversion, the person might have been very good with maintenance.

Is it expensive? Lots of aftermarket?

[car_fiend]

well, as far as i know, most of the cars that they bring to the DR from Japan, all of them, include in the price the change from RHD to LHD. it hasnt been touched since it got here, but as mentioned before, i gotta go check it. pricewise, i've been told thus far that its 200000 RD$ neg. which is about 5500 USD. no aftermarket stuff, just the skyline.

[fisetdavid26]

Err, something's got to be wrong, we have legally imported R32 GT-R's here (all RHD) and they sell for around $10,000 CAD, they're usually in good condition but with high(ish) mileage. And those are '90 or '91. Even the GTS models don't go under $7k.

$5,500 for a '94 and LHD sounds a bit fishy.

[clutch-monkey]

14 year old car, scarce in america, becoming a classic when unmolested, with a very difficult LHD conversion done....for $5500?

[092326001]

LHD conversion sounds fishy, i'd think that it'd be a custom job and very expensive, 5500USD sounds far less that the LHD conversion itself. I'm thinking it might be a botched job. And most unmolested skylines fetch far more money than 5500USD, it might have been in an accident of some sort. anyways have a reliable mechanic, or two, check it throughly.

[Quiggs]

Used car market in the Dominican =/ used car market anywhere else.

I'd still run away screaming though.

[clutch-monkey]

Originally Posted by Quiggs

Used car market in the Dominican =/ used car market anywhere else.

R32 GTR's even in standard RHD don't sell for that price anywhere, period. unless it's a wreck and even then..

[kingofthering]

Like the others said, don't touch this too eagerly. There are some LHD conversions out there, though. But don't expect anything cheap, as it's like 10K (or so I've heard).

[IBrake4Rainbows]

They never made the R32 in LHD.

Conversion? It's likely to be poorly done.

Run for your life from this vehicle.

[culver]

Are you sure it's a GTR? I thought the earlier Skylines were available in non-GTR form as well. In addition to all the other cautions could you be looking at a fake GTR?

[Ferrer]

Originally Posted by culver

Are you sure it's a GTR? I thought the earlier Skylines were available in non-GTR form as well. In addition to all the other cautions could you be looking at a fake GTR?

All Skylines are available in non-GTR form.

[culver]

I guess that's true as the current GTR isn't called the Skyline (or is it in Japan?)

[Ferrer]

Originally Posted by culver

I guess that's true as the current GTR isn't called the Skyline (or is it in Japan?)

What I meant is that the Skyline has always a mid-sized family car which has sometimes had a GT-R version.

And now they've separated the GT-R from the Skyline family (altough technically they are still losely related).