David M

I'm new here and I presume that this has all been well discussed so maybe I'll just update you all a little bit.

I bought a new 2008 350Z from a dealer in Washington state and just completed all of the paperwork and inspection. All I need to do now is take it to my insurance agent for insurance & registration.

The main hurdle is the immobilizer, or so I thought. I phone RIV for clarification and they told me in no uncertain terms that the 2008 Nissan 350Z immobilizer is not certified and there are no aftermarket immobilizers that are certified. They are wrong, wrong, wrong. I did my own due diligence, and the Nissan immobilizer passes the test. It complies with National Standard of Canada CAN/ULC-S338-98. I located the notice in the Canada Gazette and found the car listed as approved by the Insurance Bureau of Canada. And there are in fact 4 approved aftermarket immobilizers.

All that I needed was the child restraint ( $6 at Cdn Tire ) and the daytime running light module - $450 or so. That's it.

The rest of the story is the same that you've all heard before so I won't repeat it unless requested.

FYI, the only Z that I saw locally was the grand touring and it was about $51,000 including the PDI. I paid $30,000 Cdn/US ( dollar was at par). The only additional costs were duty - $1,843, Excise tax - $100 and RIV fee of about $210. It's not a perfect apples to apples comparison but I got the car I wanted with limited slip & traction control and didn't want some of the stuff on the GT that I was going to replace like the stereo. So, once the smoke cleared, I saved a bit over $20,000. If anyone wants a complete breakdown, let me know as I've tracked it every step of the way.

Doba

Thanks for the info, i will be importing in the near future, so this is quite helpfull.
I've never read or heard of this immobilizer?? is it only a 2008 thing?

David M

It was all over the news back in November & December. But it seems to all have been sorted out now. It had to do with 2007 and 2008 only as best as I've been able to find out. Perhaps only only 2008 as they were a bit fussy about cars built after Sept 1 / 08. I'd have to go back over my notes for the exact details.

nickstrati

are you concerned about warranty?
I brought in an 07 back in sept and haven't had an issue with the dealers here, as long as i'm doing some serv with them there fine. I work for a dealership saab etc, and we wont touch an american car, we're kinda being dicks about hopefully you have a good exp with the dealers in your area

David M

Only minimal concerns. I talked to two different US dealers about it. One, who does a lot of export sales said that when I go in for my first service, the Cdn dealer will effectively register me in the Cdn system. The dealer where I bought the car said if I can't get warranty work done in Canada, they will do it. I also found that Nissan is one car maker who seems to recognize the realities of the import/export side of car purchasing and, while not necessarily embracing it, they tolerate it. They got my recall clearance letter to me in just one day. That really says something as to their attitude. My thinking is that if I had to pay $50k for a Z, I would more likely have bought an S2000 so nobody connected with Nissan would make any money off of me - either by way of a sale or by way of after sales service.

At the end of the day, given the amount of savings, I'm not as worried about the warranty as I might otherwise be.

apharmdb

iTrader: (1)

Not sure if it applies to the factory one but the I did have some extended US warranty work and TSB work done here on my US imported car. Dealer didn't hassle me at all. Hopefully this is also true for the factory warranty.

240Zplus110

iTrader: (1)

Been there done that... back in May '06.
A week before I bought my US vehicle (private sale) Nissan Canada announced that an import had to be registered with a previous owner for a minimum of 6 months in order for the US warranty to be fully transferable to Canada -- I met that requirement by 1 extra month.
My first trip for service, the dealer registered the car in their system and ever since they have done a few warrranty repairs for me already.

The only annoyance is that the CDN system puts service reminders in based on Km's and the service tech's keeps entering mine as Km's even though my odometer is in miles, ie "your next service is due at 24,000 kms" when my actual mileage is 20,000 miles = 30,000km

240Zplus110

iTrader: (1)

BTW.. check out the local Vancouver G/Z forum.
We are having a local meet in March -- so far 20 cars have signed up (including me and apharmdb)

blastoff99

iTrader: (5)

Back when the Canadian dollar was worth next to nothing, I bought a CBR929RR in suburban Vancouver and took it home with me to the US. I found out later that I had no warranty in either country.... Hope it works out for you.

David M

In late 2004 I bought a Yamaha FJR in Seattle and never needed a warranty...

toples z

nice buy. congrats

isaacbush

nice write up, good info

Heps

iTrader: (3)

What what what...$450 for day time running lights!?! It cost me about $10 to do mine!

Doba

explain ?? lowest I heard was $60 for DTR moduel then have CT install it for another possibly $60

how did you do it for $10 ????

Reality350

iTrader: (25)

Congrats! Great buy..

Question,
Will your warranty, even be valid in Canada?
As 240plus110 mentioned, you need to have the vehicle registered within the US for at least 6 months in order for the warranty to be transferable.
At least from what I understand.. I purchased back in '06 so regulations may have changed.

David M

See my reply back up at post #5 above.

I don't think that it's regulations so much (at least not in the Government sense), but rather Nissan policy.

David M

Sorry, it was $350 ($100 was inspection costs). Still higher than others have paid, but there are a number of factors here. I read enough of other experiences to know that there were some horror stories about botched installations or installations that wouldn't pass inspection. In the end, being pretty much captive to Cdn Tire for the inspection, I just let them do it because then it would have to pass. My head was still floating from the savings on the purchase. Plus, I was happy that the DRL was the only required mod, and my 10 day temp. insurance was about to run out. Finally, it's a very busy time at work and a couple of lost hours there would easily pay the difference with no hassles of running around town or ripping into the wiring myself. Not the best price, but overall, I'm still happy with it.

Reality350

iTrader: (25)

Yes you are correct, its nissan canada;s policy.
Back in '06 the Nissan Canada rep, that I spoke with, explained to me that NC would not provide warranty. But this may have changed.

Best of luck

240Zplus110

iTrader: (1)

Yes but you are forgetting that starting with the 2006 models they now have Xenon projectors which cannot run effectively at half power.

The old system of wiring was to switch the headlight circuit from parallel to series, which effectively causes the halogens to run at half the voltage. So the DRL's were the regular headlights at half voltage (power). This was achieved through a simple relay.

The new system (06 and higher) uses the BCM softwired internal logic, which is not programable nor does adding a simple relay achieve factory spec. The BCM inputs E-brake position, engine running status, etc. before turning on the headlight circuit.

To bypass the BCM, most people install a relay which switches the headlights on once the car is started... or switches the parking/marker lights on. Either way the lights are always on at full power. I chose the parking/marker lights so as to not decrease the life of the Xenons and I installed brighter bulbs.

FYI.. I was quoted between $500 and $1000 to do a factory spec DRL conversion by Nissan dealers. One aftermarket shop said they would do it... but once they saw the electrical schematic they told me it couldn't be done. The shop I used charged $275... $75 of that was the Fed inspection fee.

XERMAN2001

iTrader: (1)

Can’t a relay just be installed to activate the parking lights? Just like an alarm or remote starter would power them to flash. Does the car have auto light sensor for night time or do you always have to manually turn the lights on. I am thinking is it not possible to find the activation wire in the parking light switch power that by a relay. When the car is on the relay turns on, relay powers the switch wire just like if you had manually turned the switch that turns on the parking light relay and the lights are on. Do you need to have the factory lights as DRL can you install some fog lights that are on when every the car is running then remove them after the inspection?

What is the tax in Florida? If I wanted to buy a new 08 and keep the warranty could I get my friend in Florida to buy it in his name, pay the taxes ect. Park it for 6 months then buy it off of him used pay the taxes and import fees then. Would it be worth it, what is the taxes and fees on a new car in Florida? If it was say 8% and other fees would cost $3000 more I would have warranty but I would have to wait 6 months to bring it home.

I am going to Florida for 2 weeks vacation in a week, how hard would it be to bring a used one home from there?