S15 Owners?

[ZK]

I'm an OG from 20+ years ago... Been a while but I remember Zilvia was my go to for all my S chassis news and builds.

I just got my S15 Silvia Spec R from Japan!

Any other S15 owners here?

[240Zfunahollic]

Sadly zilvia is not as it was back in the day. I am as well an OG having owned a swapped s13 and now have a s14 kouki k's aero. There's still good info here but lacking photos sometimes. Welcome back.

[ZK]

Originally Posted by 240Zfunahollic

Sadly zilvia is not as it was back in the day. I am as well an OG having owned a swapped s13 and now have a s14 kouki k's aero. There's still good info here but lacking photos sometimes. Welcome back.

That's too bad! The photos thing make sense as all the free image hosting sites went paid and so most of them got dropped or they stuck huge watermarks over them.

I had a S13 240sx coupe back in the day with a SR20DET swap. It is still around, currently owned by my friend. S13 Silvia front end OEM+ build and still OEM+ to this day.

The S15 I am planning to do the same. It is 100% stock from Japan. The Japanese owner dealer serviced it and kept it completely stock for 25 years.

It was weird to see nothing aftermarket at all. It had a Kenwood double din radio which had moving bars and a MD player, i thought, that must be aftermarket. Nope, I pulled it out and it had OEM radio plugs and a Nissan stamp on the back.

[240Zfunahollic]

Hell yeah man. I'm so glad to be back in the schassis game. My kouki is 99% stock. And my best friends dad had some MINT seats he bought from a local importer back in the day. Going for a oem+ build myself. I've enjoyed the process of replacing the little things over this past year. Nissanparts.cc has a really good organized site for parts. Have fun with the journey!

[dizzariot]

I'm not a super OG Zilvia guy but I have one now.

Who did you buy yours through? What color?

[BoostinIX]

Hah, I'm shopping for an S15 / doing RB homework and just came back myself

[azndan2]

I live in Japan... my s15.



Hope this site comes back! It was always a great source of info. If anyone needs info on their Varietta, hit me up.

Bonus: my S13 back in the day (2007 zilvia bay area meet)

[azndan2]

Originally Posted by dizzariot

I'm not a super OG Zilvia guy but I have one now.

Who did you buy yours through? What color?

You are most definitely OG my friend. Totally recognize your screen name!

[graure]

I'm just waiting on the ship date for mine! I got a bone stock Spec S Aero in pearl white - the clear coat was peeling on the roof, hood, and one of the quarters, so I'm currently having it resprayed in Japan in Toyota Crystal Mica II.

Mine also has the MD player and popup satnav panel (which doesn't pop up anymore).

[ZK]

Originally Posted by dizzariot

I'm not a super OG Zilvia guy but I have one now.

Who did you buy yours through? What color?

I got mine from Toprank. Took 1/2 a year to get the car after I paid them. They are not easy to work with, terrible communication and overall customer service is not good. Car is ok. I've been wrenching on it every weekend to redo some things they did and fix all the stuff that's old and worn out.

It's WK0 Aspen White Pearl. 1 owner car. He drove it 100% stock with dealer servicing for 25 years.

Here's a pic. Not sure if I can direct link images.

[ZK]

Originally Posted by graure

I'm just waiting on the ship date for mine! I got a bone stock Spec S Aero in pearl white - the clear coat was peeling on the roof, hood, and one of the quarters, so I'm currently having it resprayed in Japan in Toyota Crystal Mica II.

Mine also has the MD player and popup satnav panel (which doesn't pop up anymore).

Damn, that's awesome! Mine is also pearl white. It had the OEM option Kenwood CD/MD player. It worked but I had to remove it for something that actually works in the USA.

My car came repainted from Japan... they (Toprank) did not do a good job. It's not the worst I've seen but definitely not good. Sand marks under the paint, they masked around the trim and aero kit without removing it and did a terrible job masking, dust under the clear, lots of imperfections.

Overall, I'd say body work in Japan is pretty terrible. I looked at dozens of cars before getting mine. They don't put in the effort to do an excellent job at most shops. Lots of scratch and sprays. But labor cost is cheap so you can get a respray for a fraction of the cost than in the states.

[ZK]

Originally Posted by azndan2

I live in Japan... my s15.



Hope this site comes back! It was always a great source of info. If anyone needs info on their Varietta, hit me up.

Bonus: my S13 back in the day (2007 zilvia bay area meet)

Damn! SF bay area here too!

I went to Japan in March and rented a S15 to drive around. Had a great time. Pretty awesome to experience driving RHD in the homeland and do some touge as well.

[dizzariot]

Originally Posted by ZK

Damn, that's awesome! Mine is also pearl white. It had the OEM option Kenwood CD/MD player. It worked but I had to remove it for something that actually works in the USA.

My car came repainted from Japan... they (Toprank) did not do a good job. It's not the worst I've seen but definitely not good. Sand marks under the paint, they masked around the trim and aero kit without removing it and did a terrible job masking, dust under the clear, lots of imperfections.

Overall, I'd say body work in Japan is pretty terrible. I looked at dozens of cars before getting mine. They don't put in the effort to do an excellent job at most shops. Lots of scratch and sprays. But labor cost is cheap so you can get a respray for a fraction of the cost than in the states.

TopRank only sells the 'good cars' to influencers. They are essentially the first shitty shop to garner a good rep with car people because they pandered to popular people in the community. Luckily other shops were quickly found out (Japanese Classics, etc.) and people avoided them. Besides the paint, how is the rest of the car?

Body work in Japan is 95% dogshit lol. I only use Nissan proper or trusted shops my friends have used. I have had factory aero painted and mounted and also some metal work for a small spot on my rear quarter where I back my car into something like a moron lol.

Mine is mostly stock and I drive it for like 1 week out of the month. I have some white SLs with OG Blue decals to mount but my car has largely been the same since I switched from LMGT4s to the original TE37SLs. I currently daily the S14 I have for sale here and I really enjoy it.

[dizzariot]

Originally Posted by azndan2

I live in Japan... my s15.

Which base are you on?

[ZK]

Originally Posted by dizzariot

TopRank only sells the 'good cars' to influencers. They are essentially the first shitty shop to garner a good rep with car people because they pandered to popular people in the community. Luckily other shops were quickly found out (Japanese Classics, etc.) and people avoided them. Besides the paint, how is the rest of the car?

Body work in Japan is 95% dogshit lol. I only use Nissan proper or trusted shops my friends have used. I have had factory aero painted and mounted and also some metal work for a small spot on my rear quarter where I back my car into something like a moron lol.

Mine is mostly stock and I drive it for like 1 week out of the month. I have some white SLs with OG Blue decals to mount but my car has largely been the same since I switched from LMGT4s to the original TE37SLs. I currently daily the S14 I have for sale here and I really enjoy it.

Damn! that is one great looking car! Those wheels fit the car so good! It has the same equipment as my car too! All aero without the wing. I really want to find a wing to complete the kit! Really hard to find one though.

The rest of the car is pretty good! I asked them for a ton of pictures of the underside and odd places like under the spare tire in the trunk. There's no rust, even the underside heat shields look fine, no black undercoating either - so many sellers do that to mask rust. They also sent me before the paint pictures so I can see the peeling paint. I also asked for the auction sheet which they provided. The communication and customer service was bad, it was like a week between messages and sometimes they would not reply. No one would ever answer the phone and never call you back.

They kept pointing out that it was 17,000km verified mileage - which is what it says on the auction sheet. But I saw the pics and the wear was definitely much more wear than 17,000km. Things like the steering wheel was really beat up, the driver's floormat had a hole in it from someone's heel and the driver's seat was worn. I pulled a carvx and sure enough it had over 130,000km - the owner changed the cluster for a Nismo one sometime years ago. Toprank changed their tune then. They apologized and said they were just going off what the sheet said. Really? Use some common sense? They gave me a small discount on the car and I agreed and I'm happy with the car.

I think Toprank is a step above places like Japanese Classics which sell some pretty bad cars at marked up prices. But definitely better if you know someone and even better if you could get the car worked on at a reputable place before shipping out of Japan. I learned you have to look out for yourself though as there's some real crap cars out there no matter who you buy with.

[azndan2]

Originally Posted by dizzariot

Which base are you on?

I was stationed at Misawa during 2019-2021. Currently living in Osaka with a real job

[Annoying Eric]

I got my grey market spec r in the US, back in 2017. I got lucky also and scored a single owner car. Original owner even gave me all the service receipts since new. Feels crazy that so much started here. I still have my hatch though. I’ll reassemble it eventually. Maybe. Been on here since 2002 and I still lurk around occasionally. I’m even still friends with some oldschool members. I’ll hit one up and tell him to post. His car sucks but he’s alright.


You can see mine on Instagram. Illviaspecr

[hatch999]

looks nice congrat

[240meowth]

Hi, i'm new here, how to get an s15?

[mav1178]

plenty of shady sellers of cars out there, the worst are the ones that don't address issues with the car.

customer service is one thing, not addressing known problems is another. for example, this one sold on BAT in August for well under market price because we called out the seller for hiding underbody rust (that wasn't even a huge problem)

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...ia-spec-r-4-2/

the buyer of this car is now listing it on Facebook for $31k and didn't even fix the rust, but at least he addressed it in the Marketplace listing.

[ZK]

There's a lot of sellers of cars. You can hire a broker to help you find an auction car in Japan and ship it over. Dealers such as Toprank and others have cars that they purchased for sale. Or you find cars that have been brought over and are available for sale from individuals.

You'll find S15s for anywhere from $10k to $50k+ depending on condition, mileage etc. Cheaper cars usually have rust and/or are heavily modified or damaged. 100% stock cars with no rust will be on the upper end of the pricing.

Japan has a surprising amount of single owner S15s who bought them new and drove them 100% stock for 25+years.

[bekeanloinse23]

Originally Posted by mav1178

plenty of shady sellers of cars out there, the worst are the ones that don't address issues with the car.

customer service is one thing, not addressing known problems is another. for example, this one sold on BAT in August for well under market price because we called out the seller for hiding underbody rust (that wasn't even a huge problem)

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...ia-spec-r-4-2//fnf

the buyer of this car is now listing it on Facebook for $31k and didn't even fix the rust, but at least he addressed it in the Marketplace listing.

You're absolutely right about shady car sellers, especially when they don't address known issues with the vehicle. Transparency is key when selling a car, especially in a marketplace where buyers expect full disclosure.

[ZK]

Finally got the car prepped a bit after importing and took it out for its first track day at Laguna Seca. The car is mostly stock. Kinda low on power but its light weight and fun to drive.