Would you drive a legal A31 Cefiro?

[chokudoriS13]

Lets call this post a research study. If you had access to a fully federalized smog-legal A31 RB20DET-powered Nissan Cefiro with decent mileage, would you be interested and what would be the most you'd pay for it?

For those who are not familiar with the car, the A31 is an RB-powered, RWD 4 door sedan built from a mix of S13 and R32 parts.

[Toahk]

Without a doubt.

[psychedelicbeats]

are you hinting to auto con x ion's cefiro?

[chokudoriS13]

Originally Posted by psychedelicbeats

are you hinting to auto con x ion's cefiro?

As of Saturday, AutoConXion had no A31's. Their cars are also for off-road use only.

[that180guy]

a31 =

i wished i owned one...
a conversion from a old skool maxima would be pimp...sumbody should do it

[AKADriver]

The camber on that green one is just stuuuuuuupid. Hahaha.

You know this is one of my dream cars. It's like a big six-cylinder S13 sedan.

[xS1LV1Ax]

I was talking to my cousin from the philippines. If you could find a way to get them imported, you can easily get one there for like 1 or 2k. BUt then again, we get into the whole importing dealie...blah. I will drive whatever i can get.

[Brian]

cefiros are pimp.
what is an average going price for a cefiro with light/mild tune?

[HyperTek]

My friend just picked up a 91 Q45, is that the same chassis?

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by HyperTek

My friend just picked up a 91 Q45, is that the same chassis?

nope, different

[that180guy]

Originally Posted by HyperTek

My friend just picked up a 91 Q45, is that the same chassis?

its the 89' maxima chassis

[young gun]

hell yes, any chance of them being imported any time soon?

[mk20116]

last i've seen there's a company in los angeles selling a cefiro, s13, and some other cars...it was in one of those local car magazines. they didn't post the price for it though.

don't know if it's legalized though..doubt it.

[DuffMan]

This, like any other car thats not a high dollar sports car, is never going to be imported in the US legally, so its kind of a moot point.

[chokudoriS13]

Originally Posted by that180guy

its the 89' maxima chassis

Nope, '89 Maximas are FWD VG-powered. Later Cefiros shared chassis with Maximas.

Originally Posted by DuffMan

This, like any other car thats not a high dollar sports car, is never going to be imported in the US legally, so its kind of a moot point.

Never say never .

[cali240sxdrifter]

damn, they autocon has this toyota chaser there, very hot car. I think i'll have both of them =D

[phrozen]

the a31 cefiro had no us counter part.. only cerfiro/maxima or what ever you want ot call it that wasnt released with a us counterpart and its pretty much the only pimp RWD one too. I think japanese companys leave out the good stuff

[that180guy]

damn. i always thought its us counter part was the 89 maxima. i feel pretty dumb now.......

same chassis at least? body does look similar.

edit: nm the shared chassis question

[balmo]

i drove a cefiro when i was in saudi arabia. pletiful in torque and good in top speed.

[elevator]

I like Laurels better.

[kuramaya]

as mentioned up there I would take a Laurel first..but the Cefiros are better then weak sauce 4 door skyline's....

[jessfx]

YES. i love tank drifting.

echo knows it. he got me cefiro model car for christmas.

anyhow, i'm poor. 6G limit for me.

[Kaji]

It's better looking than a Cressy.

[jdm538]

i would get one, they are not too expensive and come with rb's oh yeah!

[yokotas13]

they are everywhere here....a guy drives a 2.5 one and drifts the shit outta it

[Ghettokracker71]

I would definitely drive one. Not those ones you posted pics of though but I'd rock one

[S14zenkiQ's]

do you want to bring mine back for me? I would pay up to 8k for one in good shape stateside. especially if it was RB25 powered, but the C33 and C34 laurels are nice too, and RWD 4 door is good in my book 4 door sliding FTW!!!

[Ghost Dancer]

True federalization of a Cefiro would represent an enourmous investment and not be worth the effort from a financial and logical standpoint. If someone was going to put up that kind of money and time why wouldn't they go for something more valuable like an R34 or perhaps a Chaser? The margins on a cheap, old, sedan are crap.

Cefiros are $500 cars here. Taking cost, shipping and other miscellaneous costs into consideration it will end up running you $2000-$3000 to get it into the US. Now since you say these are going to be "federalized" you will have to bring them in under Customs form HS-7 and EPA form 3520 which means the vehicle will have to be sent to an RI to be "modified" to meet the appropriate regulations. Depending on who you have do it you'll end up incurring more cost for the car than what you can sell it for. Of course I could be wrong. You may have an in at an RI that can do the work cheap.

So let's say you've got all that set up and you can get the car brought up to "spec" through the RI for cheap. A low ball estimate of cost in my mind is around 4k. Now if you can sell it for 8k that's a 4 thousand dollar profit. More than likely you're looking at 5-7k which drops that margin even lower. I don't see it worth the effort when you can "federalize" a number of other cars and end up with 15k-20k profits easily.

The only way I could see it being worth the effort of bringing a Cefiro in is to be sneaky about it. You can have the drivetrain yanked out of it in Japan and the motor and body shoved in a container and shipped to the US. Once it gets here there will be no HS-7 attached to the car. Just the EPA form for the motor. Once you pick it up you put it back together. Then you get it registered on a state level as a "kit car" or "assembled from parts". If you go this route there is a worthwhile margin as you didn't have to drop thousands and thousands to get an old, cheap, sedan "federalized" and you're only costs involve the vehicle itself, shipping, pulling/reinstalling the drivetrain, and the fees associated with deregistration/registration. Even if you could only sell it for 5k you would come close to doubling your money. Of course this way is not "federalized".

Of course I could be completely off base here.

[BlackSilEighty]

Wouldn't it be easier/cheaper to convert a Maxima? With a Cefiro front/rear end and Z32 engine/drive train/ rear end?

[FaLKoN240]

I like pretty much any fast RWD sedan. Cefiro is no different. I just wish they brought some of those turbo cool sedans to America. I don't think you can legally import them here. Plus, they're as old as dirt.