This is the whole sorry story of how I bought my car, and what happened after...
I was looking for a GTS25t, because I wanted a turbo, and the R33, being newer than the R32, was the one I chose. The thing that really clinched the R32/33 dilemma for me, was what began to happen to my R32 GTS. Within 2 or 3 weeks, my air flow meter, and then my crank angle sensor, died on me. I felt it was time for a newer car, which wouldn't cause me any problems. Well........
Initially I went to Croydon Wholesalers, as they usually have a large number of Skylines in stock, and on the way from Japan, and are also sponsors of SDU. Nick had a couple of 25ts in the yard, but they were both sedans, auto, and pre-facelift. I was absolutely definite that I didn't want a pre-facelift R33, as I thought the look of the front was somewhat "softer" than the facelift models from 1996 on. I was similarly clear that I wanted a coupe, and it had to be manual; in fact I was fairly sure I wanted a factory manual, rather than one which had been converted. Nick showed me a photo of a car he had on the way: a 1996 White GTS25t coupe. It was white and auto; the two things I really didn't want. But the more I looked at the photo, the more I liked the white, and the less I minded having an auto converted to manual. So I put my name down.
In the meantime, I saw a silver GTS25t,
factory manual, same year and kms for sale at a yard in Manukau. The
car yard was Buy Right Cars - dreadful name, but I thought "what the
hell". I liked the car, got it AA checked - largely came out well - had
a few things listed to be fixed before I took the car (scrapes, tyres etc),
and agreed to buy it. When I picked it up, I found some things they were meant
to sort out, that they hadn't done: air filter, fixing the interior lights,
cleaning up the boot, and removing some surface scratches. Did those myself.
Two days after I bought, I had an alarm fitted at Kiwi
Performance - another SDU sponsor - so the car was there all day (big
alarm install, that one). When I picked it up it was misfiring unbelievably
badly. I took it to Joe's Mechanical in Henderson (he works all sorts of hours,
and I'm rather glad he does), and he saw the spark plugs and coil packs were
terribly corroded. So I could drive it home, I bought and paid for a set of
platinum spark plugs, and Joe cobbled together a "band-aid" sort
of coil pack to replace the one where the spring had completely corroded away.
The next day, I spoke to Buy Right, and asked what to do. They said "leave
it at your mechanic's; just get him to call us". So I did. Joe spent
a couple of days, replaced the 2 worst looking coil packs, found the timing
was jumping around all over the place, and recommended that the car go to
Harvey at TechnCar. He said on the
wednesday that he'd spoken to Buy Right, and they said yes, so I took the
car to Harvey.
Around this point, I butted completely out of it, and left it to Harvey and
Buy Right to liaise. Harvey spent another 8 1/2 weeks fixing this thing. He
replaced the rest of the coil packs, found the crank angle sensor was faulty
- and then found it was not the original CAS, and was the wrong one for the
engine anyway! He got the injectors cleaned, and reported they were the dirtiest
he's ever seen. They substituted the ECU, and that made no difference, so
the ECU was fine. He found he couldn't control the variable cam timing, so
- after checking with Buy Right, and faxing them an account of the work he'd
done, and what he expected to be needed next - he took the head off. Cleaned
that, and the valves and pistons, and replaced the piston rings. He told me
later that the valve seats were so pitted they needed more work than a 300zx
he had in the workshop with 100,000 more kms! He recounted his conversation
with them at that point to me: he asked them if they wanted to take the car
away or if he should carry on; he said he was only interested in doing a proper
job of it; and they said ok.
After all of that, the car was fixed. I should have been happy, you'd think.
Then Buy Right turned round and said they don't think it's "reasonable",
and that they would never have authorised $3000 of work. They really really
didn't want to pay. They proposed paying $2000 of it - leaving me $1240 to
pay!!!!!! I even offered (as a gesture of goodwill, and to try to settle it
the same day) to pay $500, but no more. The manager was not at all happy with
that, and kept trying to insinuate that I was trying to take them for a ride,
and that I was being unfair!!!!^%$@&^$&*!&%!
So I spoke to my solicitor, and asked her to fix it for me. Two hours later, the manager rang back and voila: a cheque for $2700. I should have asked her to do that before I offered to pay any myself 8) - but I don't really care, cos now I have my baby!!! She is absolutely beautiful, and goes like a dream.