# Why Were Skylines Never Sold In The US?



## Rama (Mar 8, 2003)

Ok I have heard a lot of reasons as to why. They were never sold here. One of the biggest reasons I heard is that there was some law or pact that the domestics had to protect their sales or that they bitched about it. What is/are the real reason(s) they were never sold here. Was it simply Nissan's decision or were they forced not to by something the big three here in America started. If anyone can point to me where to find the info or if they have some sort of link that would be great. I have heard a lot of hear say but nothing definitive. This has been bugging the hell out of me for a long time. It just didn't sound right that they weren't able to sell that car here because the domestic thought it would hurt their sells. Any info will appreciated thanks.


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## scourge (Feb 27, 2003)

You can do a search here for the answer or:

Fresh Alloy.com
Skylines Down Under.com


Or even just do a google search.

But, it has a lot to do with making modifications to make the GTR LHD and the fact that pricey Japanese supercars were not selling well in the 1990s. Only the NSX survived. The Supra, 300Z, 3000GT, and RX7 all died. Nissan no doubt did not see profits for the GTR when its own US flagship, the 300Z, died.


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## HondaHater (Aug 27, 2003)

i usually like to think the japanese knew they had great power in their hands. they didnt want to share that power.

and usa didnt want a foreign car coming up on their american cars and crushing em like a bad habit.


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## Nizmodore (May 9, 2003)

Hmmm Down here Nissan tried to sell the R31 Skyline as a Normal car for all the people and got their arses kicked by a Holden and Ford

While Japenese comanys do export (and build, Toyota and Mitsubishi have large plants here) a lot of cars down here, they are far from killing off the big 2 (Holden ( (owned by GM  ) and Ford) 

They have only tried once to enter the big 6cyl area of the market (which is huge here) and failed. 

As far as exporting cars to the states, after several tried Holden finially did manage to export a car to the US....the Holden Monaro, Now rebadged (grrrrrr) as the Pontiac GTO......even then it took quite a bit time to convert the Monaro to LHD and set it up to American safety standards (eg the Aussie Monaro was released in 2001, now its 2003 and Monaros are just being exported to the states now...)

Taking to a bloke I know who works at the Adelaide plant (where they are built) I can understand WHY Nissan never wanted to inport Skylines to the states.....its just too much work to convert the cars.......


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## niky (Jul 20, 2002)

hear hear... and to think some aussie cars are being assembled under american badges... but never see American soil... that's just sad... 

A lot of European supercars never get sold in the US... used to be a real pain in the ass to get them there... there's a story (was linked on this site, but can't remember where...) about the first guy to bring in a McLaren F1... took him over $2million and 2 years to finally get it in and street legal... what a fkin PITA...


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## 180SX-X (Sep 21, 2003)

from what i know, theres three main reasons, 1)emissions(wich japan doesnt really have 2 deal with) wich requires more shiet,2)price of conversions to LHD, wich requires even more new shiet,3)stupid americanos(aka gringos) didnt want alot of high performance japanese cars here because they needed 2 protect their sale wich are already hurt buy foreign cars.


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## Nizmodore (May 9, 2003)

I don't think 3 is true...down here jap cars didn't hurt our domestic performance market too much.......

However I'm always willing to be wrong if someone shows me some sales figures.....


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## taminami (Jul 24, 2003)

Hello all,
At Tokyo Motor Show '03, Mr. Carlos Ghosn, President of Nissan Motors Inc., broke the news that Nissan will present new GT-R in 2007 and he also told that they will be sold all over the world not only in Japan. I don't have any English source but Japanese one is here:
http://dailynews.yahoo.co.jp/fc/economy/nissan/

It sounds exciting but can you wait till 2007? But may be I can save some money by then... haha. 

Tatsuya Minami


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## scourge (Feb 27, 2003)

Dow Jones Business News
Nissan Motor To Launch New GTR Sports Model Globally 2007
Wednesday October 22, 12:31 am ET 


TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Nissan Motor Co. will market from 2007 a new model of its flagship sports auto, the "GTR," as "a global car," president Carlos Ghosn said Wednesday at a round-table meeting with the media.
It will be the first time for Nissan to market the model globally. Ghosn said the company will launch the model in markets including the U.S., Europe and Japan.

The new GTR is expected to be the successor to the Skyline GTR model, which was launched in January 1998 and available only in Japan. Nissan stopped marketing that model in August 2002.

Ghosn declined to provide any sales targets for the new model. 

-By Yoshio Takahashi, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-5255-2929; [email protected]

-Edited by Bennett Richardson and Kirsty Mackenzie
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2007 seems like a long time to wait. Either they are going to have something for the ages or they will let everyone else pass them by. I hope for the former.


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## Rama (Mar 8, 2003)

Thanks all after some research it seems Nissan never planned on bringing it here and didnt really want to sell outside of japan at first. The first two things that 180SX-X also has some valid points. The third I keep hearing but I need some proof of. How exactly are they to keep it from being sold here? Pass a law that any car that can rival muscle cars are not to be sold? When ever I hear that it sounds like a myth that was made up and people use that to build up the mystique of the car since it was never sold here or just people that are bitter about it. That's the main reason for me starting this thread. I wanted to put an end to that myth. Because there are many cars that people would rather have than the muscle cars. Or any other market. I mean look at how many altimas, maximas, accords, civics, camry's and sentra's are sold. Isn't that eating into the sales of contours, taurus, escort, focus, malibu etc. This is why the 'american companies didnt want a car eating into their sales' reason always sound like horseshit but you'll always get someone to say that. 

Hmm 2007...start saving now I guess.


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## scourge (Feb 27, 2003)

A lot of cars are kept from being sold in the US via bullshit "safety" laws that US companies can meet without cutting profits. Import companies have an extra cost that adds to the price of a car to (hopefully for US companies) make the car more expensive than a domestic. But, in reality these laws are not to protect you but rather US indistries. This is how Detroit gets away with it.


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## Rama (Mar 8, 2003)

Hmm I'd like to see these laws. Time for more research. If anyone has any info feel free to share.

EDIT: actually do you know which laws exactly these are I'd be interested to know. I'm at nhtsa.gov but have no idea as to what to look for.


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## scourge (Feb 27, 2003)

5MPH bumpers immediately jump to mind.

Its not specific laws but safety regulations and I do not know the exact listings. But, one need only look a the GTR and what MotoRex has to do to get one US street legal.


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## niky (Jul 20, 2002)

actually, the laws aren't quite bullshit... just an example of naderism at work. The problem is that US companies already factor safety and emissions laws into production design and costs, whereas foreign companies have to think about these AFTER their cars have been designed and are on the market... it's changing now, and a lot of companies are realizing that they need to play by American rules if they want to get into the most lucrative markets.


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## 180SX-X (Sep 21, 2003)

yeah, the american market is one that ALOT of companies are now trying to get into. just look at subaru, they made a big jump 2 finally sell the wrx here, and wen they did, the sales went through the roof, now we have the best WRX STi, even better than japan, so now mitsu follows, and every1 else(like lotus with the elise in 2005)


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## tyndago (Dec 21, 2002)

You are looking for Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

FMVSS .

Its here on NHTSA site - http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/FMVSS/index.html


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

180SX-X said:


> 3)stupid americanos(aka gringos) didnt want alot of high performance japanese cars here because they needed 2 protect their sale wich are already hurt buy foreign cars.



that's wrong. Increased entries into a certain market increases competition, which is good for the entire market as a whole.

Notice the sport compact scene. Japanese companies basically started it, but look at all the new entires! SRT-4, focus SVT, Saturn Ion redline, etc.

it's good for the whole of the market. If the skyline came here, it would have created a whole new sports car market utilizing high power mid sized engines.


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

sorry for bringin back a dead thread, btw


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## Carlito (Aug 13, 2003)

Safety regs have nothing to do with it (well, a little) as Motorex managed to get the R32, 33 and 34 approved for import. But they are in right hand drive, whereas if Nissan did it they would have to have been LHD. Cost vs. returns would probably mean that they decided not to do it. Plus the Skyline turbo down pipe sits roughly where the steering shaft and U-joint would go, meaning that they would have to modify the engine and ancillaries for the US market -> more cost.

Of course this does not explain why they were not exported to the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other ex British colonies where RHD is used (except in limited numbers of R32 and R33 GTR's to the UK and Australia. Japanese hi performance cars never really sold well in the UK anyhow.


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## Nizmodore (May 9, 2003)

Well the reason the R32 GTR was sold here when brand new (yes it was! one of the very few countries besides Japan where you could buy a new GTR strait from a Nissan dealer, instead of a Importer), was at that stage it was being raced and developed by Australian group A race teams. Nissan Australia wanted cash in on the sucess. Also at this stage Nissan Australia after makeing huge losses on the Australian built R31 Skyline and R31 Pintara, needed some help for a sales boost. It didn't help however, as Nissan Australia closed down their manufacturing operations here in the early 90's......

Anyway at this stage in the early 90's and late 80's the Australian performace scene was dominated by the VL Commodore Turbo (RB30ET) and new 5 Litre V8 VN Commodore......while the new GTR sold well (so I'm told....please someone correct me if I'm wrong!) It didn't get the cult street status as the Commodores (Also the VL turbo could keep up/beat it in a strait line.......street wise).....however since the advent of Playstation games etc I belive the Skyline (R33, R34 are both nothing cars....not Group A history here etc....pathetic  ) has become more popular.......


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## Blank (Aug 21, 2003)

isnt the Infiniti G35 basically an American skyline? I know its not a GTR, but look at any adds for an 04 skyline in japan, its an infiniti with a nissan badge

rear wheel drive 280 HP 6cyl, sounds like a skyline to me, just wait for the supercharger...


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## Carlito (Aug 13, 2003)

Yes, and you get a bigger engine in the US than the Japanese do, I think. 3.5 vs 3.0.


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## INX2C (May 31, 2003)

scourge said:


> A lot of cars are kept from being sold in the US via bullshit "safety" laws that US companies can meet without cutting profits. Import companies have an extra cost that adds to the price of a car to (hopefully for US companies) make the car more expensive than a domestic. But, in reality these laws are not to protect you but rather US indistries. This is how Detroit gets away with it.



Hmmm...

So adding airbags all over, minimum impact resistant bumpers, fuel cut-off switches, shatter-resitant glass, dual-circuit braking sytems & ABS.... Not to mention, EGR , Cat converter (w/ platinum in it), and all the other emissions crap..

helps American car companies _*CUT COSTS*_????


Explain??

NOTE: Honda, Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, etc, etc all have multiple plants in the USA using all those usdm required parts - and thriving.


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## danifilth (May 14, 2003)

Threads this old dont get you replies they get you flamed


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## liqidvenom (Jul 18, 2004)

the g35 isnt a new version of the skyline. there is no skyline in america being sold through nissan/infinty. no matter wat its badged as in japan or whereever, the g35 is nothin more then a z car. thats it. and from wat i gather the skyline wouldn't pass front crash test here in america and that alone wont get a production car passed for sale. nissan probally didnt want to change around the entire car for just one country. and nissans are built to either be right or left hand drive, so swapping isnt that big of a deal if the possibility of selling it here arose.


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

the G35 is the skyline in japan dude.


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## Blank (Aug 21, 2003)

yea its not that hard to figure that out... if i wasnt lazy id throw up a side by side pic... skyline, g35, z, all share the same chassis/engine/tranny...


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## danifilth (May 14, 2003)

the V35 isnt a GTR though.Sure a Skyline is nice but people are shelling out the money to get a GTR series.


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## 96BeaSSt (Jun 21, 2004)

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/t9791.html


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## UnkalledFor (Sep 21, 2004)

taminami said:


> Hello all,
> At Tokyo Motor Show '03, Mr. Carlos Ghosn, President of Nissan Motors Inc., broke the news that Nissan will present new GT-R in 2007 and he also told that they will be sold all over the world not only in Japan. I don't have any English source but Japanese one is here:
> http://dailynews.yahoo.co.jp/fc/economy/nissan/
> 
> ...


here i had google translate it..


http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://dailynews.yahoo.co.jp/fc/economy/nissan/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://dailynews.yahoo.co.jp/fc/economy/nissan/index.html%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial

Edit: and i just realized this is an old ass thread...o well my bad


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## ailachami (Nov 23, 2004)

taminami said:


> Hello all,
> At Tokyo Motor Show '03, Mr. Carlos Ghosn, President of Nissan Motors Inc., broke the news that Nissan will present new GT-R in 2007 and he also told that they will be sold all over the world not only in Japan. I don't have any English source but Japanese one is here:
> http://dailynews.yahoo.co.jp/fc/economy/nissan/
> 
> ...


isnt the G35 going to be the new GT-R in 2007? better start saving money.


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## Blank (Aug 21, 2003)

ailachami said:


> isnt the G35 going to be the new GT-R in 2007? better start saving money.


no


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## wannaboostbad (Oct 24, 2004)

Yeah if u go to www.edmunds.com and look around the "future cars" i think and under Infinity it has a picture of a protocol of the 07 GT-R on the road. it looks nice. so i wonder what will happen


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## Dwntyme (Dec 18, 2002)

Because it will take a bigggg bite out of the profits of the big4, It's more relliable than any chevy or ford....


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## Dwntyme (Dec 18, 2002)

liqidvenom said:


> the g35 isnt a new version of the skyline. there is no skyline in america being sold through nissan/infinty. no matter wat its badged as in japan or whereever, the g35 is nothin more then a z car. thats it. and from wat i gather the skyline wouldn't pass front crash test here in america and that alone wont get a production car passed for sale. nissan probally didnt want to change around the entire car for just one country. and nissans are built to either be right or left hand drive, so swapping isnt that big of a deal if the possibility of selling it here arose.


 Hell, a damn Yugo and geo couldn't pass either..But it still made it to our HWYS


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## Spelchy (Jun 24, 1987)

My guess would hafta be that they were concerned for the safety of 16 year old kids with rich parents. Cases in point, that kid that drove his subaru through a house, and that other kid that died after stealing his Dad's skyline.


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## GTES-t (Jan 2, 2004)

spelch said:


> My guess would hafta be that they were concerned for the safety of 16 year old kids with rich parents. Cases in point, that kid that drove his subaru through a house, and that other kid that died after stealing his Dad's skyline.


Have you actually read the news story about the Skyline? The "kid" was 33 years old!


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## KA24Tech (Feb 2, 2004)

I guess I'll also contribute to a rather old thread...

The R3x Skylines were not brought over mainly because of the angle at which the RB engine slants toward the left side would require almost total reengineering of the chassis to allow for a steering column to be mounted on the left.
Also if you consider the American market for Nissan in the late 80's and into the 90's, it was not a good market for another high dollar Nissan sports car. Especially since the original success the Z32 enjoyed and Nissan N.A. didn't want to detract from the sales with another model which cost them large amounts of time and money to certify and market. Consider that a GT-R when I was therein 97 was about $75,000 USD. In the middle of the 90's Nissan was starting to run into financial difficulties and really scaled back both on platforms and production as well as research and development.
Of course they recovered remarkably quick, repaid their financial debt in the restructuring and have developed a series of more easily reconfigured designs with some of the most awarded engineering.

Troy


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## kaptainkrollio (Jul 29, 2003)

> Why Were Skylines Never Sold In The US?


Because you touch yourself at night...and for a few other reasons.


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## tougedrifter (Sep 17, 2004)

KA24Tech said:


> I guess I'll also contribute to a rather old thread...
> 
> The R3x Skylines were not brought over mainly because of the angle at which the RB engine slants toward the left side would require almost total reengineering of the chassis to allow for a steering column to be mounted on the left.
> Also if you consider the American market for Nissan in the late 80's and into the 90's, it was not a good market for another high dollar Nissan sports car. Especially since the original success the Z32 enjoyed and Nissan N.A. didn't want to detract from the sales with another model which cost them large amounts of time and money to certify and market. Consider that a GT-R when I was therein 97 was about $75,000 USD. In the middle of the 90's Nissan was starting to run into financial difficulties and really scaled back both on platforms and production as well as research and development.
> ...



i dont believe it was because they didnt want to hurt their sales on the z32. crash testing, emissions (which wouldnt be hard to pass...but still more work), and problems with other saftey issues (airbags, driverside impact beams). also....from what ive been hearing from nissan experts, that up until recently, who wanted to pay over 50 grand for a nissan? dont forget that the 90's were the dying days of true american muscle (the mustangs got watered down until 96, trans ams....firebirds...were considered 80s cars but were still popular). people didnt want to pay top dollar for a nissan. with the release of MANY of nissans high performance models now available in the US (the 350z, the new sentra SE-R spec v, and the 96-98 240's), they want to market more performance oriented cars. as we all know, the skyline was finally brought over in 2003 under an infiniti name, with the GT-R slotted for release between 07-09. people will pay more money for a car thats under a name that coinsides with luxury. its all market aspects of it, that is the main reason. americans (well...most americans...the ones that arent car junkies) think of cars differently than they think of them over in japan. in japan its like *performance performance performance* and everything else takes a backseat. in america its like *performance reliability saftey*. incase you didnt notice, every car manufacturer shells out horsepower/torque numbers to the crank instead of the wheel.....because americans (same ones as i stated before) like to think they are getting more power than they really are, in japan (i dont know about europe) they market the car with power to the wheels. we gotta think that the reason nissan held the skyline back for the US market wasnt just because of mechanical issues...which couldve easily been fixed if they really wanted the car to be sold here. nissan really didnt think we were ready for it.


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## BII (May 13, 2004)

GTES-t said:


> Have you actually read the news story about the Skyline? The "kid" was 33 years old!


The kid was in his 20s, his passenger was a 33 yo dude with a pregnant 15 yo wife.


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## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

bII said:


> The kid was in his 20s, his passenger was a 33 yo dude with a pregnant 15 yo wife.


WHAT! :waving: that is disgusting. i don't feel right looking at my neighbor and shes 3 years younger than me! jesus......18 year difference. and the reason they didnt bring it here was probly because it was to expencive to make it emitions legal and to make it emitions legal they would need to de tune it alot


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## tougedrifter (Sep 17, 2004)

1.6pete said:


> and the reason they didnt bring it here was probly because it was to expencive to make it emitions legal and to make it emitions legal they would need to de tune it alot



emissions was the easy part to pass compared to crash saftey, airbag, and the OBD issues. new cat, new EVAP canisters (Motorex uses evap canisters from 300zx's already in the states), new sensor and your pretty damn close to passing. a few friends of mine that have rb swaps into their 240's, passed emissions with only a new cat. a few of my other friends who went the route of sr20det passed with no problems, completly stock. no new cat, nothin.


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## Carlito (Aug 13, 2003)

People have converted R3x GTR's to LHD, mostly wealthy Arabs.


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## KA24Tech (Feb 2, 2004)

The Z32 just like most other Japanese super cars were greatly impacted by the changing market and new emissions standards with sales numbers at 11,599 for the 93MY and only 400 for the 96MY. The 96s also were going for an MSRP of $40K for the TT, which compared to many European sports cars was a bargain. The Corvette in 96 was $38k and had the same 300hp (with an 330hp optional) In comparision the $38k FD RX-7 left the US market in 95MY because of dismal sales and the lack of return to comply the with the new OBD II and tighter 96MY emissions standards on a difficult to clean up rotary. The American "Muscle" Car era crashed in 1973 with the induction of emission controls, lobbying by insurance companies, and the OPEC embargo. With less than 200 horsepower from the once ground pounding big blocks. 

By the way the US manufactures adopted the testing standard SAE Brake Horsepower which is the engine's output power applied to a dynamometer, of which most utilize the absoption of power by a measured application of a water brake to slow the rotation in an output shaft. The Japanese automakers adopted the PS (Pferdestärke or hp DIN) standard which converts to .9863 Bhp. PS is also measured at the engine's crankshaft or output shaft, not as you say at the wheels. 

In 1998 Nissan underwent restructuring (one of several reasons why we didn't get the S15 besides the fact that the S14 sales declined sharply). So they pulled back to concentrate on their domestic market for the majority of their model diversity. 

The mechanical changes that they would have needed to make DO create large difference in manufacturing cost for retooling and assembly changes and thus the sticker price would have sharply increased to recoup those costs. Never mind the fact the US version of the Skyline may have been repowered to be equipped to a VG or VQ series engine. Much like our S13 and S14 never got the CA18 or the SR20. Another fact is that cars are taxed by liter classification thus under 2 liters is less expensive than say a 2.4 liter and so the use of a turbo is an inexpensive way to improve the performance of a smaller displacement engine. However, with a turbo the longevity of the engine is shortened which is the reason our versions usually had a larger normally aspirated engine because it is cheaper to produce and maitain. 

You may ask how do I know much of this stuff it is because I lived in Japan for several years and had an R30 Skyline RS Turbo which originally had a FJ20ET but I replaced it with an RB30E from an R31 and then turbocharged it. The engine swap was done legally and I had to reregister it with new engine which also reclassified it from a 54 to a 33 series license plate. It was a huge amount paper work but I learned alot about the Japanese motor vehicle department. I also wrote a research paper for a college class in 1998 over this exact subject about why the Skyline didn't come here.

Troy


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## tougedrifter (Sep 17, 2004)

Carlito said:


> People have converted R3x GTR's to LHD, mostly wealthy Arabs.


theres a shop in socal that does converting RHD to LHD.


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## djTitan (Dec 18, 2004)

*The truth that I've come to find about no US Skylines*

I have done extensive research into the reason Skylines never came to America. And what i've found out is that it came down to the good old dollar that kept the Skyline out of America. The right hand drive set-up for this car is unique to itself. As the car gained popularity, Nissan looked into whether or not the car could be made into left-side drive with little redesigning. The inline engine plus the twin turbos worked perfect for the right-side drive design. As you can see in most engine pics there is a lot of components filling the right side of the engine bay, meaning no room for steering and other essentials. So to make a US version meant back to the design table almost from scratch. The cost of the redesign plus the cost of retooling the plant to accommodate the change plus the cost of shipping to US and making them US road ready. I'm sure after looking at projected sales for the car in the US (let's face it this car has a very segmented following) Nissan determined that a US Skyline would never sell enough to be profitable for the company. I would guess Nissan would never see a profit from any US sold new Skylines. Plus rememeber Nissan would have had to start the US design roughly by 93-95 in order to enter the 97-99 model years. At that time Nissan was floundering in the US market (the 300Z was cut, Toyota was killing them in the US with the best selling Camry, they were looking for a new CEO). They had many issues back then that affected their decisions and Nissan has only regained any real market share in the US from 2001 to date. I for one love the mystery about Skylines in the US. I definitely would not like the car as much if i saw a soccer mom in one at the store, or a spoiled 16 year old picking up a new one. The best supercars are supposed to be rare and highly sought after. So start saving your $ now and learn to drive on the right.


02 Nissan Altima 3.5
Las Vegas' Ultimate Sleeper

PS - Better hurry I'm close to getting mine. 

Titan


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## SkylineR33gts (May 24, 2004)

hmmmm too close to buy mine?


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## Zen31ZR (Mar 24, 2004)

SkylineR33gts said:


> hmmmm too close to buy mine?


You'd think about the 300th time advertising it, you'd realize nobody wants to buy it. But not you. :loser:


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## jeong (Jul 22, 2004)

for sale advertisements aren't allowed in technical sections  knock it off before i report you to scott!!!


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## A-ball (Dec 22, 2004)

Who cares, We didn't get it and now we're gonna get it. 
I'm glad we never got it because it makes it that much more awsome.

-"I drive a dodge stratus!"


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