NPoCP: 1986 Nissan Skyline GT Passage 4-Door Hardtop - $6,500

"carcrasher88" (carcrasher88) 03/08/2015 at 10:13 • Filed to: NPoCP, Nissan Skyline, eBay

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Yet again, I went browsing eBay for interesting cars. I searched for some Nissan Skylines, expecting them all to be either modified, in Canada, non-road legal, or a combination of 2 or more of those.

But, I ended up finding this gem, located in Camarillo, California.

It's a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . It has the Passage GT badge on the rear (though, officially, the model name is the reverse, 'GT Passage'), which makes sense, considering that it's the 4-door hardtop.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

It's all original, unmodified, and low mileage. In fact, it's got just a bit over 18,000 miles on it and was imported in 2010 as is.

Under the hood is an RB20E Straight-6 (which is clearly indicated by a decal in the rear window).

Also, the interior is a pretty vibrant shade of red, which might turn some people off.

Oh, and it's an automatic.

So, what do you guys think? Is this Skyline worth it's $6,500 asking price, or is the seller asking too much?

jkm7680 > carcrasher88 03/08/2015 at 10:23

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I'd say $5,000 is fair. It's a pretty uninteresting car to look at, and only the trained eye would really recognize it as something other than your average Camry or something.

Kanaric > carcrasher88 03/08/2015 at 10:34

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I'll say CP. You can bring a more desirable trim or car over for this price.

R31 GTS or R32 GTS-T or just skip those and go A31 Cefiro, Pulsar GTIR, or S13 Silvia. All of those would be more interesting to own at this price or less. Keeping in mind those are just the Nissans you could bring. You could get a HB Cosmo a JZ Supra MK3 or Toyota Soarer landed for this. Endless possibilities, skip the single cam Skyline.

Bird > carcrasher88 03/08/2015 at 12:17

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The price is fair...is there a buyer in the US at that price?...I don't know. You wouldn't be able to get that car landed and titled in the US much cheaper if you did it yourself. In that condition, with that mileage, it would be between 2-4k USD at auction in Japan. Then you have to pay shipping and exporter fee. The import paperwork, title, and registration would then be on you.

There are a couple issues with the seller though. They claim to be an RI, and they're not listed as one by the NHTSA. They could have become one since the last list was released two months ago, so I won't say they're lying, but that's a little weird. Also, you don't need to be an RI to import a 25yr old vehicle. They also say it's currently registered in California, but don't reccomend it to a California buyer because of the difficulty in registering it. If it was already legally registered in CA, then it wouldn't be a problem to transfer to the next owner. If it's not legally registered, then yes it would be a problem.

Kanaric's comparison isn't a great way to look at it. Yes, you could import something else yourself for the same money. That doesn't take into account the time and effort involved in working with an exporter. A landed and titled car will always be worth more than one sitting in Japan. It also doesn't take into consideration the condition. All of the cars he listed would be more than this car if you were looking for something in comparable condition with mileage that low.

What it really comes down to, is desirability. There won't be many buyers looking for a mint GT Passage. If it was a turbo model with the better looking grill, it would be worth more.