Daily driving an r35 for reals

[Evancol]

Before i begin, I'll point out that yes, i realize that what I'm about to ask might sound ridiculous and probably not the best idea given that caliber of car we're dealing with (honestly, i don't actually believe that but oh well)

My main questions are as such;
*all in regards to 2010-2011 models*
*money is not an object, but isn't exactly flowing like a river, so keep that noted*

What is the point at which, if there is one, where the R35 becomes a ticking time bomb? As in, do the engines/turbos/ect have a habit of blowing at say 100K, 200k, 300k, ect, regardless of how militant you are with maintenance? (I understand also also that everything will ware out eventually)

How does the car handle rust/ware and winter conditions? (i won't bother asking about actually driving it in winter. It's a car like any other. Proper winter tires and careful driving and I'm sure I'll survive)

Will this car stand up to 365days/yr DD duty?

Are there any particular faults with those years? (diffs, trannys, brakes, ecu, ect)

Strange costs a new owner should know about?

TSA/recalls that I should know about?

I'm sure there's more that i forgot, so feel free to oblige me.


When i first saw this car, i can honestly say i feel in love. I thought to myself, this is it, this is the car. The one car I'm gonna bust my ass to get into and love every amazing and miserable point of driving it until either it dies, or i do. I'm going to drive this car 365 days a year, every year, for the next 10yrs, regardless of what that takes. I'm want to be one those owners you only hear about, the one's that people say "wow, that guy put 300k on his R35, kudos to him for being a real driver"

So yeah, lol. Call it youthful ignorance, call it plain stupidity, call it awesome; call it whatever you want i guess, that's just how I'm gonna do it. Thanks in advance!!

[skylineftw]

Daily driving an r35 for reals

I can't answer any of the R35 specific questions, but I can answer a few things:

1) Any sports/performance car is a ticking time bomb. The sooner you can learn that, the better off you will be(mental condition and cash wise) when something does go wrong. Even militant maintenance can't always solve everything (not that it doesn't hurt though)

2)While there isn't really anything wrong with daily driving an R35 ( aside from the obvious sacrilege of winter driving, but it's not my place to banter about that) just remember maintenance costs. It's a 120k$ msrp car, which brings 120k$ msrp car maintenance and parts costs.
Oil changes ain't cheap homie.

3) Rust related question: militant washing all year round, and proper winter prep and paint care does wonders for vehicles.

4) A good rule of thumb, is to expect *at least* 10% of your vehicles worth in maintenance costs every year. If you don't spend that budget, great! If you do, at least you were expecting it. It's better to have money aside and ready for the unthinkable, vs in a pinch for a 5000$ maintenance cost that "came out of no where"

[Black BNR32]

ware will you be driving this car?

[Dragon Humper]

I can't answer any of the R35 specific questions, but I can answer a few things:

1) Any sports/performance car is a ticking time bomb. The sooner you can learn that, the better off you will be(mental condition and cash wise) when something does go wrong. Even militant maintenance can't always solve everything (not that it doesn't hurt though)

2)While there isn't really anything wrong with daily driving an R35 ( aside from the obvious sacrilege of winter driving, but it's not my place to banter about that) just remember maintenance costs. It's a 120k$ msrp car, which brings 120k$ msrp car maintenance and parts costs.
Oil changes ain't cheap homie.

3) Rust related question: militant washing all year round, and proper winter prep and paint care does wonders for vehicles.

4) A good rule of thumb, is to expect *at least* 10% of your vehicles worth in maintenance costs every year. If you don't spend that budget, great! If you do, at least you were expecting it. It's better to have money aside and ready for the unthinkable, vs in a pinch for a 5000$ maintenance cost that "came out of no where"

What a load....

Sorry man but the R35 is a trouble free Kitchen Appliance now. The early issues with the trans have been fixed and it will go 200k KM with no issues at all as a daily. Maint. is really nothing more than any other car and you are looking at nothing more than an oil change per 6 months and basic services every 40k. Just because the GTR can do what it can do in no way translates ito the "super cars" of the '80s nitemares that came with them.

It's a Versa that will spank a Ferrari from a "living with daily" point of view.



Jon.

[R32moneypit]

Depends what your used to;

Higher KMS reliability is a question mark as there are very few examples.

Tires are 500 a piece

Brake rotors 400-600 a piece

Replacement key $800

It's a performance car...maintaince won't be inexpensive.

Find a independent shop to maintain it....this will help keep the cost down.

That's my 2 cents

[bobbo]

I'm confused. You love the car and want to drive it 365.
What's the question? Do it! Stop being a candy ass asking questions looking for an lame excuse to not do it.
There's a gentleman here who drives his year around, drives to tracks in Quebec, Ontario and in the states for track days. Oh and it's an Alpha 6 2012 Black Edition.
Buy it. Love it and come what may. Unless you do something really stupid you'll never regret owning a GTR.

[403SKYLINEGTT]

I'm confused. You love the car and want to drive it 365.
What's the question? Do it! Stop being a candy ass asking questions looking for an lame excuse to not do it.
There's a gentleman here who drives his year around, drives to tracks in Quebec, Ontario and in the states for track days. Oh and it's an Alpha 6 2012 Black Edition.
Buy it. Love it and come what may. Unless you do something really stupid you'll never regret owning a GTR.

Yeah... What he say....

[Skym]

GTR = weekend car. Don't know of many that use a GTR as daily driver. It's more a second car for track duty.

[Evancol]

What a load....

Sorry man but the R35 is a trouble free Kitchen Appliance now. The early issues with the trans have been fixed and it will go 200k KM with no issues at all as a daily. Maint. is really nothing more than any other car and you are looking at nothing more than an oil change per 6 months and basic services every 40k. Just because the GTR can do what it can do in no way translates ito the "super cars" of the '80s nitemares that came with them.

It's a Versa that will spank a Ferrari from a "living with daily" point of view.



Jon.

An oil change every 6 months? When i say 365, i mean like 30-40k a year.

[Dragon Humper]

I barely put 12k per year on my daily, I am one extreem and you are at the other end. Thats out of control man, drive some POS 200 days of the year and your GTR the rest of the time. Tbe money you will save in tires alone will pay for some crapbox that you can mile out.



Jon.

[Grettar1]

I am gtr certified tech, would I use an r35 as a daily?? Hell no, noisy, jerky, not a fun commuter car. It is a perfect car for what it is designed for, the track. It is a blast to lite it up on the freeway or in the track, but no way in hell I would drive one everyday. My r32 is a much nicer car to drive daily. As far as costs, brakes at a dealer are 4600-6500 for 4 wheel brake job with rotors as rotors are required to be replaced. My previous dealer was charging 200 dollars for oil change (a rip off as it's very easy to do) the transmission fluid is required to be changed every 1800 miles for track use or 18000 miles for regular use. The fluid is 'Nissan r35 special' and costs 96.00 per quart and you will need 10 quarts plus labor. I could keep going, but it is what it is. A phenominal car for what it is designed for at a price that is far under an equal super car.

[Freebs]

I own a 2011 GTR that I daily drive all year round here in Calgary. I know some people get all worked up or say how stupid it is when they see me driving it in the winter or hear about me driving it in the winter. But in all honesty it is just a car that will never go up in value and is by no means rare so I just reply with "why not?". I have taken it on long road trips and had it out in the mountains during the winter in blizzard like conditions and it acted no different than any other "normal" car with good winter tires.

As for the maintenance costs on the GTR, it doesn't cost much more than my Evo X did as far as brakes, tires, fluids, ect as long as you are able to do the work your self.

- Changing the Transmission fluid and diffs were WAY easier on the GTR than the Evo with the SST tranny. And there are way better alternatives to the "Nissan" transmission fluid which is roughly $90-$100 a litre. Every local GTR owner I know has made the switch to Pentosin FFL-4 (BMW M3 DCT fluid) which can be picked up for around $30-40 a litre and just a simple drain/fill only requires ~7L (~10L if pulling the pan and replacing the filters which is not called for).

- Front/Rear differentials are just a simple drain and fill and there are a few aftermarket options for this (I went with AMSOIL) And I think this only took roughly 3L between the two differentials with the rear one taking majority of that.

- Oil change is super simple. Just remove 1 under panel which this is the longest part of the entire thing (remove 2 panels to make it extremply easy to reach drain plug/oil filter) its a straight forward drain/fill. Takes about 5.5L. Nissan says 9,500km oil change intervals for normal driving but because of how easy it is and relatively cheap, I just stick to every 5,000km changes

- Brakes / pads again are very simple and straight forward when it comes time to change. Lots of aftermarket options that you just have to do your research on and figure out which ones will work best for you but again nothing to crazy.

- Tires can get expensive if you stick to the OEM tires but these are garbage tires at best. Most popular choice for the daily driven GTRs is the Michelin Super Sports which are grippy yet have amazing wear and will last a lot longer them the stock tires. They aren't run flats but there are many ways to protect your self incase of a flat tires (I won't get into detail but you can PM me if you want to know more or just search GTRlife.com for what guys are doing). The other popular choice for guys who track their GTRs is the Toyo Proxes R888 which are VERY grippy but have a terrible tread wear. Both of these tires are roughly $375-$400 a tire which is not bad at all when you consider its a 20" diameter tire. Again referring back to my Evo X with 19" wheels I was paying roughly $350 a tire.

- Gas milage is petty damn good to for a car that can produce the numbers it does. it's a 70L tank and on the highway cruising around 120km/hr I can get 650-675km to a tank and in the city with mixed driving I get around 500-550km.

Feel free to ask me anything else you may want to know about the car as a daily driver. I will suggest picking up 2011 or newer if possible. I don't think Nissan had the 2009 and 2010s quite sorted out yet and they all felt very clunky. Even though the 2011 is still a CBA model, they seem to be better sorted out and less clunks and rattles than the 09/10s. the DBA's (2012+) are even better sorted out especially with the transmission tuning but there is a big jump in price typically. For me I couldn't justify the big jump in price right now so I just looked for a low milage, well maintained 2011 and couldn't be happier.

[LordFly]

Brake rotors 400-600 a piece

Hmm, that's weird. I would have thought gold was too soft to make a good quality rotor out of.

[JNS Performance]

^ thats actually reasonable for a rotor, get into the carbon ceramics and price will skyrocket from there.

[Dragon Humper]

And the GTRs are plain old iron. OEM pads are only $80 from RockAuto...rotors arent avail. yet but they would be in the $250 range.



Jon.