Dan Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 A nasty man came and bought my Skyline yesterday, which was a shame as I was really quite enjoying it. Anyway, I will go looking for another but this got me wondering why Nissan never officially imported any Skylines into the UK. There are several good Jap cars that never came here ( Skyine, Soarer, Stagea, Legnum VR4 etc ) and I would love to know why. Any body got any ideas ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 Because the manufacturers are stupid! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zedrush Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 Probably along shot but might be to do with certain regulations that certain Jap brands couldnt meet up too in the UK. UK dealers in the UK always play it safe and are always looking a majority sales to the general Joe Bloggs rather than the enthusiasts which is alot smaller market. I wanna know why the Mitsubishi Eclipse was never allowed. Its actually illegal (so I heard) to import them over yet they look and sound fookin awesome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sl114 Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 i didnt know it was illegal to import over an Eclipse? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GC350z Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 Cos its not. Manufacturers cater to the market. We recently got the Nissan Tillda in Ireland where as the UK apparently isn't getting it. The current version of the Micra was launched in Ireland because we have the highest sales per capa of them. Shameful I know. US manufacturers don’t sell a lot of their cars here and the Mondeo isn’t available in the US. I think the Focus is the first small engined car compared to the norm in the US to sell over there. I do believe Nissan did sell a small number of UK spec’d Skylines over the years. Asking price was way too high though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmmackfc Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 Probably along shot but might be to do with certain regulations that certain Jap brands couldnt meet up too in the UK. UK dealers in the UK always play it safe and are always looking a majority sales to the general Joe Bloggs rather than the enthusiasts which is alot smaller market. I wanna know why the Mitsubishi Eclipse was never allowed. Its actually illegal (so I heard) to import them over yet they look and sound fookin awesome The Eclipse Remember seeing them in Vegas 1999 and I was smitten. Could never understand why Mitsibushi never released it here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 . I do believe Nissan did sell a small number of UK spec’d Skylines over the years. Asking price was way too high though. IIRC they were all supplied by Middlehursts in St Helens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 The R34 GTR was sold in small numbers in the UK. The list on it was 50k. No idea the numbers though. They never sold and GTS or anything though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zedrush Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 . I do believe Nissan did sell a small number of UK spec’d Skylines over the years. Asking price was way too high though. IIRC they were all supplied by Middlehursts in St Helens. oh yeh forgot about that, the owner there is car mad and got 80 uk Skylines GTR34 I think. My brother was tempted to by one, but pulled out. relly hold their values well, they come with the gold volk 19" alloys and full leather interior Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 I met a company man offshore that had one, abbey had tuned it up. It was sitting about 450bhp, maybe more. It was pretty damn tasty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted June 27, 2007 Author Share Posted June 27, 2007 IIRC they were all supplied by Middlehursts in St Helens. Yeah thats right, they were like a factory sanctioned Grey Import. They hold their money very well too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zedrush Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 Limiter almost bought one it was 525bhp from middlehurst, was black with black leather, took it out for test drive came back massive grin on his face but new the upkeep of that car was alot of hassel, and he didnt want to go through it again like he did with his 360bhp saab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickya Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 There is some kind of law IIRC that you cannot import a modified car directly from USA into UK for road use??? Read it on Newera Imports website regarding the fast & furious cars which have to go to Japan before comming to UK for this reason? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sl114 Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 There is some kind of law IIRC that you cannot import a modified car directly from USA into UK for road use??? Read it on Newera Imports website regarding the fast & furious cars which have to go to Japan before comming to UK for this reason?Well they are pretty shoddy with the work they do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zzzz... Posted June 27, 2007 Share Posted June 27, 2007 IIRC they were all supplied by Middlehursts in St Helens. Yeah thats right, they were like a factory sanctioned Grey Import. They hold their money very well too. It wasn't a grey import, they did a whole set of validation tests and homologations adjustments the R34 was developed for Euro Usage and for this it required greater cooling capacity for potential Autobahn usage, and generally harder driving expectations... , you will find the R34 are V-SPEC this meant that they added extra oil coolers for the transmission, and RR diff, also adjusted the suspension slightly , and the PC was tuned for UK market... The reason for deciding to sell a model in JDM only or Euro , is purely down to capability of selling it... things like Stagea and so on are big muthas...competing for sales in BMW, AUDI territory... and Euro is a very EURO market... and Japan cars never had the prestige or image to pitch against them... so the cost of developing and homologating the car to meet European requirements would not have justified/recovered by the expected sales in Europe. PLus there is also the fact that we are a market to sell NOT the home country, therefore the priority might have not been there.... (Think what Peugeot, VW etc sell in export markets compared to what they sell in EDM) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.