No joke, a "Nissan Santana Xi5 Autobahn" is ready for transportation at my friend's home in Yokohama. It shall be shipped to Hamburg, the export-papers are expiring end of August.
The price is total ca.3700 US-$ for everything (2990 $ shipping, 365 $ for paperwork - and just 280 $ for the car). No joke!

We've organized everything for a guy from the German VW Passat-club (he also owns a perfect US-Quantum) - but I cannot reach him any more since months?!?

Since me and my wife recently bought a house, I don't have the money left for it.

The car is really perfect, as my friend said, the best condition of all known Nissan Santana's in Japan. If anyone wants to see pics (zip-compressed), just send me a mail (Ingo.Menker@freenet.de)

Strange, but in Japan noone is interested. They even thought to crush it, because they couldn't sell it.



I don't know, if annother car still exists, it should be crushed, too. A perfect Mercedes 260 E [W 124] with original 11 000 km. It can be packed into the Santana-container, too.
Why was the Benz dedicated to be crushed? The former owner was a leader of the Yakuza-mafia in that area -so the other people think, that bad ghosts are now in the car and don't want to touch it.

A commercial of it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyZM6juUidk

(funny, the text inbetween is in German)

It would be good for me if the shipping destination couldn't be changed to Vancouver. I would almost certainly buy that 260E if it could.
Is it LHD by any chance? I've heard the Japanese like their German luxury cars that way.

Ingo, I don't think there exists a "Nissan Santana". The "Santana" is sold by Volkswagen and is an updated version of the second generation Passat. I have found no evidence anywhere of a rebadged Nissan version

EDIT: Never mind, as quoed from Wikipedia "The Santana was also built in Japan under license by Nissan. Outwardly it was all VW, however there were a few minor mechanicals (i.e. window wipers) that were Nissan."

But what I'm wondering is why the car is so cheap? For 280 dollars it must not even run! There must be something seriously wrong with it.

What? I thought there were tons of 200$ (or less) cars in the US. That's what LeMons is all about.
I know I wouldn't trust any car I bought in Canada for less then 1000$ to take me to the next town, but I always got the impression (used, crappy) cars were stupidly cheap in the US.

Have you ever really wanted and really not wanted something to happen at the same time? That's how I'm feeling about that 260E.
I almost bought two BMW 750iLs off Craigslist for 4000$. I think the Mercedes sounds like much less of a bad idea, but it's still not wise.
Sorry I'm not interested in the Santana, I could get something here more interesting for 3700$, but a Yakuza boss Mercedes? That's just too awesome.

taxiguy: You should totally buy that car.

That is likely wrong. The Japanese treat their cars very well (I had a friend who visited Japan, he told me all the cars looked like they were from a showroom). This car probably does not have a safety certificate in Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor-vehicle_inspection_(Japan)), which is why it is so cheap. Getting one is very expensive, and thus not worth it for a car this old.

No way, anything less than about $400 will not run, I garuntee you. Most cars that price are sold for parts. If you want a decent running (but crappy) car expect to pay $500-$1000 dollars at least.

@taxiguy: it was a complete and original VW Santana, which was assembled by Nissan - but on every single part they added to the usual "VW Audi"-logo a "Nissan".


Yes, old cars in Japan are usually cheap, except classic ones or sports cars like Nissan Skyline. As IRT has said, if they don't pass the inspection, they are quite worthless.

And isn't there some museum which would be interested by this car?

P.S: @taxiguy: the Santana is in really perfect condition, not even dust and dirt anywhere - typical for Japanese.

Just one wheel-bearing shall be a bit squeaky and one rubber-cover of the front-axle-link is torn (a part, which cost less than 10 Euro).
If you want, I can mail you the pics.

@BlackIce: As I know, it's RHD.

By the way: I've heard from a friend, who was working 31 years as a prototype-engineer in the VW Passat/Dasher/Quantum-plant, that LHD-cars from other countries than Japan and Britain are always much better than their RHD-derivates.
For example VW/Audi (the other European companies, too) constructed their cars as LHD. To create the RHD-version, they take a complete prototype and built the different technic. So a LHD-car is constructed well from the first screw, at a RHD one are always provisional compromises or real cobbled details.

here are previous comments on that subjet of "bad rhd": http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=37292

Aaah, forget these idiots from the VW Museum and the AutoStadt in Wolfsburg! A friend of mine (the nearly one and only worldwide "Mister Audi 50"), who works for a VW-supplier, has asked the chefs about our Nissan Santana. He pointed out, the extreme rarity and the perfect condition - but they aren't interested. A Bentley or a Lamborghini would be more interesting for the visitors of the AutoStadt -even the ZeitHaus-Museum, they have said!

But behind the show, they are restoring a quite rough, nearly worthless VW Santana - typical for them: with not much money (the Volkswagen AG is very restrictive with that) and nearly no enthusiasts-knowledge.
At the youngtimer-tour "Creme 21" in 2006 (where I've participated with my K 70), there was also a popular motor-journalist, which got the red Santana of the AutoStadt - it had the most break-downs of all cars! And the guy was a bit nerved, because it was summer, but it wasn't possible to switch off the heating.

Anyways' I'm fucked up with these clowns. The former leaders of the VW Museum have been ignorant, helpless idiots, but the new ones aren't better.
I know them, too. Second last year they've invited the chairmen of the biggest or most popular classic-VW-clubs to present a new style of behaviour to the VW-oldtimer-fans. Very soon we club-freaks have found out, that they have absolutely no ideas about it. We told about our problems (spare part, for example), gave a lot of tips, have offered our worldwide connections and so on.
What happend after that? - Nothing!

And if you are a car-enthusiast and want to visit the AutoStadt or the VW Museaum (it's located extra), you will be disappointed! The majority of the cars are junk! In every VW-fan-club you will find better ones!
After that meeting two years ago, we all have visited the exhibition. The AutoStadt-guys got read ears, when they heard our comments.
It isn't so, that we don't want to help them. Some of the cars, we club-freaks have organized for them, also spare-parts for the restoration.
So I've send several parts for the goldmetallic K 70 there (chassis-no 00001). The first packet was a free "Care-packet" with used parts from me. I thought, that a museum-show-car should have a cigarette-ligher, a model-badge and the sunblinds shouldn't hang down on the dashboard.

In 2000, shortly after the opening, I've visited the AutoStadt with my japanese friend. It was disgusting! They took the most and best cars from the VW Museum - so the most junk has been stayed there. The model range isn't complete any more in the Museum (It wasn't complete before anyways, but this is annother point).

The situation in the VW Museum has been worst! Later it was getting better, but it's still ugly.
No joke: in 2000 my friend and me have sorted the displays for the T3-Buses, because they have been wrong. They had a NSU 1200 in the show, which had more plastic smeared in the body, than my 800 D-Mark-all-days NSU 1200, I had 5 years before.
The mirror of the blue VW 1500 Sedan was broken - it was still broken in 1985, at my first visit there...

Sure, I've also checed the goldmetallic K 70 - so many defects and wrong mounted parts, waah. My own one is better - and roadworthier and safer (safer electric, the Museum-K 70 can burn off, if you don't repair the electric system). And I can use my K 70 in the rain - the doors or the Museum-car are hanging somewhere, but not, where they have to be. You can look through the door-edges and the B-pillar.

And at least I've found something, which had pissed me very much. They had a pre-war Audi, a 920 or so. I thought, I got a brain-attack, when I saw the hubcaps: no joke, they took hubcaps from the 1977 Audi 80 GLS and have fixed them at the pre-war-Audi with screws (for wood) in the center of the axle-bar!!!

I posted a link to this topic on forum-auto.com's old cars section.

Many thanks. In which thread you've put it? I haven't found it in the Nissa- or VW-section.

P.S.I'm also a member over there. Three years ago I've tried to found out something about the K 70's, which have participated at the Rallye du Maroc 1973.

But forum-auto.com is so big, that it's not easy to find the postings (even with my weak knowledge of French).

in the old cars section: http://www.forum-auto.com/forum2.php?config=automobiles-mythiques-exception.inc&cat=5&post=383010&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_p- ost=0&print=0&numreponse=0"e_only=0&new=0&nojs=0