There's nothing I like giving more at Christmas than little cars. It just makes me happy. Sadly, my mother and Aunt Dianne don't appreciate them so much ... but folks at work, different story.
This year, I gave Mike Magrath a Hot Wheels Nissan GT-R. Thus far, he's already made an appointment to have it serviced at Santa Monica Nissan. And apparently, opening package voids warranty.
Merry Christmas!
James Riswick, Automotive Editor
You've read the tests. You've read the blogs. And by now, you've even read the Long Term Wrap Up.
Now, click through and read our Parting Shots and submit your own. You won't have the big Nissan to kick around anymore; give us what you've got.
Continue reading 2009 Nissan GT-R: Parting Shots.
As I write this, our 2009 Nissan GT-R is somewhere between Los Angeles and the new owner's home near Atlanta, Georgia. After spirited early bidding the eBay auction closed quietly with the GT-R going for $52,600. The winner of the auction, Joao De Barros, an auto dealer who sells exotic cars and construction machinery, wired us the full payment, and then flew to Los Angeles. I picked him up at the airport, we signed papers, and he left the same night to return to Georgia.
I was selling the car by listing it on Mota's VIP service. Our Mota listing (which is also posted on Autotrader, produced a number of calls which were screened before I spoke with them. However, nobody was really stepping forward with any serious offers at our asking price of $66,000. With nearly 31,000 miles on the car, and the warranty expiring at 36,000 miles, I decided it was time to force the issue. I set up a 10 day eBay auction which seemed to get a lot of attention. There were 6,982 page views, 107 watchers and over 50 bids.
Continue reading 2009 Nissan GT-R: A New Owner Takes Possession.
One thing we won't miss about our 2009 Nissan GT-R is taking it to the dealer for service. We had our 30,000 mile service, which was basically an oil change and inspection, and it cost $283.
While it was in the shop at Nissan of Santa Monica they inspected the car pretty thoroughly and concluded that we will need brakes in about 3,000 miles. Other than that it was an uneventful visit which is good because it will be in the hands of a new owner soon and maintenance will be their responsibility.
Meanwhile, our eBay auction is concluding with the final bidding starting at $52,100. We'll let you know what price we wound up at tomorrow.
I've been driving our 2009 Nissan GT-R every day for the last three week as we sell it on eBay Motors and Mota.com. It's not my top pick for a daily driver but it is surprisingly practical and comfortable once you put the suspension in comfort mode.
I've even seen the fuel efficiency rise slightly to 19.5 mpg on the last tank from a lifetime average of 17.4 mpg (although I know it's kind of crazy to even talk about fuel economy in a car like this). But the fact of the matter is that, unless you are rich enough to save the GT-R for weekend jaunts, you will wind up driving this car around town and to work. And it definitely fills the bill there too. Just don't ask anyone to sit in the "back seat."
I have to agree with what they say in this hilarious Youtube video, "It was supposed to be the car of the century! You could own the track but you could still take it to go shopping."
Meanwhile, at this writing, the bidding on eBay is up to $50,100 with 5 days to go. The reserve hasn't been met but it's getting close. I'm happy to say we are now above the price that Carmax offered us for the GT-R.
I've been writing about selling our 2009 Nissan GT-R and predictably getting responses from readers who say they would never touch our car, even with someone else's 10 foot pole. But recently I got this opinion from one of our readers.
MN_Car_Enthus wrote, "Why don't you just put it no-reserve on EBAY and let er rip? Seeing how it would trade in this economy would be the most interesting aspect to this LT test by far. No offense.
"I'm confident you'll do better than $60k. Everyone seems to think that simply because this is an Edmund's LT Test Car it should trade at a discount to a car with comparable mileage. You never took it for a hard track (in fact your tires corded recently from a lack of "spirited" driving ), it has 100% documented history and has been treated well. I don't get it........................?"
Well, it is listed on eBay and bidding has been encouraging.
Continue reading 2009 Nissan GT-R: Bidding for Our Car on eBay.
Ever want to know what it's like to ride in a GT-R on the highway?
Well, yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
Driving north on highway 5, I saw this truck hauling a black GT-R and though the picture would be cool. With the shutter of my point-and-shoot set at 1/100 and with a wide focal length it should've been pretty sharp, afterall, it was a fairly bright morning. Well, it's not...and yes, I was in COMF.
*Kurt Niebuhr just saw the picture and added this: Yeah, it kinda does ride like that. Like it's being hung off the back of a truck."
Mike Magrath, Vehicle Testing Assistant
We used our 2009 BMW M3 sedan as a chase car to shuttle the GT-R to a service appointment this morning. Seeing the two beside one another made me wonder just how they sized up in terms of performance. Check out these numbers. Then look at the total package.
Which would you choose?
M3 Sedan
Price: $67,370
0-60 mph: 4.8 seconds
1/4-mile: 12.9 @ 111.0 mph
Slalom: 71.8 mph
Skidpad: 0.93 g
Service: 4-yr/50,000-mile free scheduled maintenance
Cost to date: $500.00 (@ 12,000 miles)
GT-R
Price: $73,165
0-60 mph: 3.8 seconds
1/4-mile: 11.8 @ 118.6 mph
Slalom: 74.0 mph
Skidpad: 0.93 g
Service: Pay as you go
Cost to date: $8,000.00 (@ 30,000 miles)
Mike Schmidt, Vehicle Testing Manager @ 11,210 miles
Below are the fuel economy numbers for October 2009. We've listed the best, worst and overall average tanks.
As usual, a couple of cars are out on the road or unavailable at the time of this writing. I'll continue to add them as they come in and let you know in the comments.
| Car |
Best
|
Worst
|
Average
|
|
| 2009 Audi A4 Avant |
26.8
|
15.2
|
21.7
|
|
| 2009 Audi S5 |
22.3
|
10.8
|
16.2
|
|
| 2008 BMW 750i |
21.8
|
13.0
|
17.3
|
|
| 2009 BMW M3 |
20.7
|
10.8
|
15.7
|
|
| 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS |
23.1
|
13.1
|
17.3
|
|
| 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T |
26.4
|
10.3
|
16.6
|
|
| 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 |
19.4
|
10.5
|
14.1
|
|
| 2009 Ford Flex Limited |
26.7
|
13.3
|
19.2
|
|
| 2007 Honda Civic GX |
47.3
|
12.7
|
31.5
|
|
| 2009 Honda Fit Sport |
39.0
|
24.9
|
30.9
|
|
| 2010 Honda Insight EX |
43.9
|
27.9
|
38.1
|
|
| 2009 Hyundai Genesis |
28.5
|
14.3
|
21.2
|
|
| 2009 Infiniti FX50 |
22.0
|
10.7
|
17.1
|
|
| 2009 Mazda 6 |
30.2
|
18.7
|
23.7
|
|
| 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 |
26.7
|
16.3
|
20.1
|
|
| 2008 Mitsubishi Evo X GSR |
22.6
|
11.0
|
17.0
|
|
| 2009 Nissan 370Z |
24.4
|
13.2
|
18.4
|
|
| 2009 Nissan GT-R |
21.8
|
11.5
|
16.4
|
|
| 2009 Pontiac G8 GT |
24.3
|
12.0
|
18.0
|
|
| 2009 Suzuki SX4 |
28.3
|
17.2
|
22.2
|
|
| 2010 Volvo XC60 |
19.0
|
12.7
|
16.5
|
After the jump you can see the list sorted by best average MPG.
Continue reading Big List of Fuel Economy: October 2009 .
Last week I wrote a post asking you to guess what we were offered by Carmax for the 2009 Nissan GT-R and what my asking price would be. If you're curious, you can check out the ad on Mota or Autotrader.
Some of your guesses were right on the money. We were shocked by how little Carmax offered. In the past they have often exceeded our expectation. But this time we were disappointed.
Continue reading 2009 Nissan GT-R: How do you Price a Supercar?.
Sunday I drove in our 2009 Nissan GT-R to have brunch with a friend I hadn't seen for 10 years. During this time he's become a writer-producer for the hit show "24." Naturally, I wanted to make an impression and show him how well I've done, too.
Turned out, he was out on his front lawn as I came rolling up his street. He rushed over and said, "I thought, 'That can't be Phil coming in that incredible car!'" Then he looked at it and said, "What is it?" I told him it is one of the fastest cars on the road. And it is a Nissan.
Being in show business, he was thinking Ferrari, Porsche, BMW. No, this is as fast as the big boys.
There's nothing Hollywood people like better than hearing about something they didn't know. Maybe Jack Bauer will be driving one soon.
In other news, we are selling the GT-R. So you can begin sending all the "I'd never buy an Edmunds car..." comments. Also, we took it to Carmax just for fun, to see what they would give us for it. Want to guess what their number was? And what about our asking price?
Our GT-R cranked through 30,000 miles on my commute home last Thursday night and this milestone got me thinking...
Continue reading 2009 Nissan GT-R: Highest Mileage GT-R in the Country?.
I don't have photographic evidence because my camera's battery died on me as I was taking the picture.
But I was just at the coffee shop up the street from us, and in the parking lot were 3 Mini Es and a silver and black GT-R.
How's that for luck?
There is a company that shares that parking lot and they must have a fleet of Mini Es. They have 2 high-voltage charging stations in their section.
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor
This ad was in my local Sunday paper yesterday. Who would have ever thunk Godzillas would be sitting on dealer lots (notice the 2 at this payment) and the subject of a dealer's Autumn Savings Event and move-the-metal lease deal? Is the GT-R's 15-minutes up?
Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief
Another day, another set of tires for our 2009 Nissan GT-R. This round we bought two fronts and paid $907.96, mounting and balancing included. Also in this total was a fee to patch a puncture located center-tread in the left-rear tire.
The last time we replaced the front tires was at 16,000 miles. We blame the aggressive suspension setting and extended freeway driving for the short tire life. But we knew what to expect. To date we've spent $2,700 on tires and accumulated 27,000 miles on the GT-R.
Mike Schmidt, Vehicle Testing Manager @ 27,780 miles
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