Over the past couple of weeks, the CC readership has been blessed not once once but twice with posts on the Nissan Stagea–forbidden fruit to most CCers, but as common as, well, Stageas here in New Zealand, Land Of The Used Japanese Import (“LOTUJI”). Although not sold here new, hundreds–probably thousands–of Stageaii have emigrated from Japan over the past decade or more. They come for the climate and stay for the great roads and the high-octane food! The sheer number of Stageaioux (even my Uncle and Aunt have one!), combined with the sheer number of home-welding kits, means vehicular mash-ups are only a moment away. David Saunders showed us one such mash-up, a gen1 Stagea with an R34 Skyline front clip, but what about the gen2? Can it be turned into a V35 Skyline or Infiniti G35 wagon?
Short answer: yes, yes it can. But the short answers are never as much fun, so let’s delve into the longer, funner, answer. The gen2 ‘M35’ Stagea (2001-7) rocked up sharing the V35 Skyline/Infiniti G35 platform. Although a clean-sheet design, gen2 retained gen1’s Volvoesque style. Capacious boot aside, the Stagea is mostly popular with Kiwis because it combines RWD straight-6 or V6 engined wagonly goodness with myriad options. Standard or wide-body (pictured above), RWD or AWD, auto or manual trans, 2.0/2.5/3.0/3.5 litres, naturally aspirated or turbo-charged… whatever you desire, there’s a Stagea for you! Unless, that is, you want a Skyline or Infiniti version. But that shouldn’t be too difficult, because these photos I gathered several years ago from the interwebs show the Stagea shares a lot more than the platform.
Okay, the Stagea-Skyline-G35 relationship isn’t quite so obvious from front-on, so turning your Stagea into an Infiniti will be more than a simple grille-swap. But let’s continue comparing other angles.
This front three-quarter comparison shows the front doors and windscreen are shared. Ignore the higher bump strip on the sedan, it’s just a cunning ploy to disguise the common panels.
Looking from behind, I’d wager the inner rear door structure is shared up to window level too. And that fuel flap’s gotta be interchangeable! From this angle the wagon looks like the sedan with its rear half still inside the box. Speaking of inside…
Yup, headrests and minor trim differences aside, she’s all the same in here too–the sedan even scores the wagon’s reclining rear seats, a nice touch. So there you go, a bona fide Skyline or G35 wagon is but a front clip away! (Welder sold separately). Okay, a real G35 would need the steering wheel on the glovebox side, but hold your computer up to a mirror and you’ll get the idea!
But what happens if an Infiniti G35 wagon seems too grocery-getteresque for your vehicular requirements? Well, in the earlier WC34-series Stagea, there was a special edition that was factory-fitted with R33/R34 Skyline GT-R running gear. Named the Autech 260RS, these rocket-ships get you home from the supermarket before your ice cream melts (although you may melt a little tyre rubber on the way). However, despite the Nissan Stagea Autech 260RS’s simply awesome name performance, their looks still scream “box-on-wheels.”
So, if you’d like a little more pizzazz for your pizza-getter, may I recommend a WC34 Stagea mashed-up with a C10 Skyline GT-R?
This Skygea/Stagline was built in the late ’00s by Japanese tuning house ‘Roadster Garage’, and although the discordant C and D-pillars are still obvious, the overall look is very well-done. Of course this was a mash-up of an old WC34 Stagea with an even older GT-R, wouldn’t it be nice to have a more up-to-date mash-up?
Pointy end; all the better to go faster with. Onlooker can barely contain excitement.
Yes, yes it would! This V35 GT-R/M35 Stagea mash-up is unspeakably magnificent! And you needn’t rely on my RWD-Nissan fanboiness, as the sheer desirability of this custom wagon from Japan’s ‘Kid’s Heart’ is easily proven by mathematical formula: (R35 +( M35-V35)) = (awesomeness x ∞2).
Blunt end; carries copious groceries home in a convenient manner. Caution: keep small animals away from exhaust afterburners outlets.
This post started by asking if an M35 Stagea wagon can be easily turned into a Skyline/Infiniti G35 wagon. The answer is yes, yes it can. But, as the GT-Rified Stagea above demonstrates, why go only to Infiniti when you can go beyond?
Want.
A very interesting topic on a vehicle not available in the U.S., much to my dismay.
As Scott says, they are abundant here. Sitting on the sofa here, all I have to do is sit slightly forward to see an M35 parked in the neighbour’s driveway. Same one as seen in the back of this Wildcat photo https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cohort-sighting-1968-buick-wildcat-found-lurking-in-campground/
I just looked out the front door at work, a green WC34 cruised by (very low), and there’s a grey WC34 parked at the doctor’s clinic across the road. Hilariously, the grey one is an RS, and is the staff car at one of the local old folks’ homes. Seems incongruous to see an RS Stagea with “Retirement Home” on the side and a wheelchair card in the window!
Yeah Nissan does panel swapping as well as any backyard bogan and the punters fall for it, I really have to look twice when seeing these, Releasing selected mashups as different models is as old as time GMH fooled you and wheels magazine by doing this, Nissan just makes it confusing by altering the scale of the actual cars.
I had been trying to find rust free doors for my ZXE do you know how many times Nissan used that door set and on how many different models and for how long, it was still in production under other model names well into this century, impressed MUCH.
Stagea…weird name. Is it pronounced sta-JE-a or sta-GE-a or STA-je-a or STAGE-A? or STAG with the last two letters silent?
I believe it’s STA-je-ah, but it’s one of the many mysteries of modern Japanese car names!
LOTUJI. Wasn’t that the Chapman-tuned version?
“Lotus, tuned in Fujiama”… No? 😉
Scott, a few more articles like this and I’m going to be tempted move to NZ. Who cares if you drive on the other side of the road, wagons are RWD and with an infinite amount of power!!!
If it was sold new in Japan it will be here used just swap the shocks and tyres for Kiwi grade units and your good to go a lot of our roads can be quite challenging even at the legal speed limit in a standard car especially a Japanese market car.
Do your NZ dealers support these JDMs with parts? It seems odd they’d stock parts for cars they never sold. Of course now there’s always the internet parts vendors.
PS: What would Frodo drive??
Yes, the local dealers are happy to support the JDM models. Toyota NZ actually import used JDM Toyotas by the thousands. They are refurbished in their old NZ assembly plant and sold as “Signature Class” Toyotas.
When the imports began arriving around 1987, there was a little resistance from the NZ dealers, often due to the myriad tiny variations between the imported and locally assembled cars. Once the age of the internet was upon us though, the NZ dealers were quick to embrace the imports – there’s plenty of money to be made in parts! Common parts are kept in stock, and less common parts don’t take long to arrive from Japan.
When I needed a/c cabin filters for my JDM C35 Laurel recently, my local Nissan dealer pulled up the exploded-parts diagram on the computer, grabbed the filter part number and I had the new ones three days later.
The downside is cost – as a comparison NZ-spec Maxima cabin filters were NZ$120ish; my JDM Laurel ones were NZ$500…! The dealer said that mark-up was stupid and charged me $300, which was steep, but I was happy with it.
Well on the downside Jason, there are a lot less American cars here, so you wouldn’t have that familiarity! But on the upside, it’s so expensive to ship a single car here (unless shipping them en masse a la the 10s of thousands JDM imports that rock in), so no-one bothers to import boring American cars – the ones cars that are here are generally more rare and/or sought-after models. It’s the best of all worlds really! Did I mention the awesome driving roads? 😉
I’ve seen some articles about F1 techs who move to New Zealand. One of them had a road-registered Porsche 962 in black IIRC.
Quite likely – you can register pretty much anything (except new Suzuki SJs!) here. As long as it has lights and wipers, and meets the required safety and emission requirements. New cars can remain LHD if they’re classified as ‘special interest’. I remember reading that our former F1 racer Chris Amon got one of his old race cars road registered – I think it only needed indicators. Don’t quote me on that though!
Even better, there was for a time the world’s oldest extant GP Ferrari NZ road registered in the 80s
Denny Hulme used to drive a F1 car on the road on occasions unregistered long time back when the cops were more Gentle but you can register most things providing it will pass a W.O.F.
Schweet!
Would that be around the time when racing cars had to be registered, even though they weren’t road legal?
These aren’t around in the UK though I’m sure someone will tell us all otherwise if I’m wrong.Infiniti isn’t seen anywhere near as much as Lexus either
Hilariously Gem, ex-UK used Infinitis are now being imported into NZ. Most I’ve seen are the Infiniti EX30 diesel. The EX30 is actually a rebadged version of the Stagea’s replacement, the imaginatively named “Skyline Crossover”. We’ve had some of the M37 sedans arrive from the UK too. As a big fan of RWD diesel Nissan sedans, I personally would love an M30D in a few years when I’m rich (hah!), so I hope some of them turn up ex-UK. We have plenty of the M30/37’s JDM Nissan Fuga cousin here, but the diesel isn’t sold in Japan, so our Fugas are all petrol.
Although we don’t officially get new Infinitis, the Australian brand launch last year was held here and all the launch models the journos drove remained here afterwards and were sold by Nissan NZ.
I never knew that Infiniti offered diesel engines. After some searching I’ve learned that it’s the same 3.0 V6 engine as in the Renault Laguna (Since 2009). Very logical: Renault-Nissan.
I’ll just add, and you may well be aware Scott, there there were some M35 Stageas that made it into NZ as NZ new cars. May have been only one, I can’t recall, and as I’m no longer at NNZ I can’t check details. But they were evaluation models, I don’t know the full story, but I imagine that pricing killed the idea off.
No I didn’t know, but that’s the sort of fascinating trivia I love! As an aside, I always wondered why Nissan didn’t import the Cefiro (Maxima) wagon. I think it’d have sold very well against the Camry wagon of the day.
I do remember when Nissan brought in a few W10 Avenir diesel wagons for evaluation – one of the local RD posties got one. Had the CD20 turbo-diesel I think. I once drove a non-turbo CD20 in a U12 Bluebird and it impressed me as the slowest car I’ve ever driven!
I remember the U12 Bluebird Attesa turbo hardtop coming in for evaluation too. I don’t know how many of either Nissan ended up selling, but I do have the brochures for each so they did go to that extent.
Speaking of unusual Nissans, did you see the NZ-new ’79 C210 Skyline on trademe? Super-rare, and very tempting.
The W10 with the CD20 was fully retailed, there quite a few around (relatively speaking), certainly in the 100’s rather than 10’s. Such horrible spec, but very economical and quite space-efficient on the inside.
The U12 Attessa was also fully retailed too, but I don’t know the numbers, I think they may have been somewhere around 20-50 or so.
It does seem a surprise that the Cefiro wagon was never brought in. I would imagine it would have been considered, but perhaps again, they may have not been able to get the pricing to when it would need to be. Before my time at head office unfortunately.
I just looked up that 210, I’m not sure that they’ll get what they’re looking for, she’s pretty rough, and the C210 is arguable the least desirable model of all the Skylines. I’d still love a JDM 2dr GT-EX though, they look good as coupes.
I figured you’d probably know 🙂 And with the brochures being printed it stood to reason they sold more than a couple! The Avenir brochure is super-budget, as reflective of the spec. The reason I thought they initially brought in 10 evaluation Avenirs is I remember the write-up to that effect in the Waikato Times’ Motor Times. I was 15ish at the time, and remember seeing one in person, being stunned at the stunning lack of spec, and wondering why anyone would buy one! And then the rural mail guy did.
I agree the C210 is probably the least desirable, but I do like that that one is probably the only NZ-new one around. And the L24-manual-a/c combo would be nice. I have traded with the seller before too, he’s a genuine guy and has an extensive collection of Nissan brochures. Or had, anyway, as many of them are now mine.
There was a white C210 GT-EX on trademe last year, had been off the road a looooong time but looked pretty good. Went for an okay price too.
Funny! I clearly remember poring over a pair of U12 Bluebird ATESSA’s at the NZ motor show in the late 80’s / early 90’s (’90?). They seemed pretty exotic and unattainable at the time. They certainly were very expensive! I think that they were in the high $40k range, which was a lot of coin back then (Calais money!) I’m pretty sure I’ve still got the price list and brochure kicking around somewhere. IIRC, interestingly they were available as a normal sedan or pillarless hardtop. My dad was looking to replace our aging Subaru GFAT (GL) Wagon, but the lack of headroom and legroom in the back was a deal breaker with two 6′ + boys to haul down to the ski fields every other weekend. The Subie soldiered on for a couple more years until he got an early 1st Gen legacy.
I had a nonturbo Corona diesel it was fine to about 70kmh when the torque converter locked up the all acceleration was over top speed around 120kmh if you could wait that long.
That C10 has me drooling on the iPad. Haven’t seen these later wagon bodies, super clean. I rate this article infinity plus one. Nice one, Scott.
The widebody’s gray/black cladding makes me think it might just have been “crossover-ish” enough to sell well in America with the right marketing. Maybe not at an Infiniti price point but in place of the Murano.
The widebody is a seriously good-looker I think. It has a higher ride-height and bigger wheels, and was available in 4WD too. A fairly unique combination in the market place. Most are the 3.5 V6, but I’ve seen several of the 2.5 turbo V6 (which was marketed at the Outback turbo). Here’s a couple more angles of the luscious red one. It’s a 2004 4WD model with 107,000km on the clock, NZ$13K which is excellent value. EDIT: I think the M35 was only officially available as an auto, but I’ve seen two that are manual trans. One was a 3.5 with a 350Z trans aftermarket conversion, the other was a 2.5 turbo widebody that appeared factory. Given that the V35/G35 were available in manual form, converting a Stagea wouldn’t be too difficult.
I had gathered from watching “Outrageous Fortune” that NZ is full of JDM cars – sounds like heaven.
Great show!
I hate it! (Though I admit to enjoying some of the cars in it!)
All the accents on it are funny. hehehe
Chur bro. 😉
The red Stagea has the facelift on it when the front end got crisper looking. It’s either the “Allroader” model (called ARX by Nissan I believe) or has those parts plus the AWD and higher ride height.
The Infiniti G35 front clip bolts right on. Here is a Stagea with the facelifted G35 front end. Looks completely different than the Stagea and both look nice but I like the Stagea front end a bit better.
Hilarious Scott, great work. For the uninitiated, NZ is often known as “Land of the Long White Cloud”, hence the LOTUJI phrase.
The Infiniti G37 coupe and convertible have been sold in Oz since last year or the year before, they waited for the new model before bringing in the sedan though, so Skyline sedans will still be eligible for grey-market import. They have had hopeless sales figures so far, maybe less than 200 cars last year for the whole country. Then again 99% of their target market probably doesn’t know they exist yet.
I saw a late model G37 (?) coupe at a drive-in ATM the other day and I have to say it was very, very sharp in white.
Sadly, no Infiniti dealers in the Quad Cities. Closest dealers are Chicago ‘burbs or Madison, Wisconsin.
But at least you have Infiniti dealers! To find an Infiniti dealer here in NZ would see me searching to infinity and beyond…
Hi all, I’m in the UK and have just bought an M35 and really want to make it look as less like a Volvo as possible, the original write up mentions that the Stagea M35 and the V35 Skyline are the same (front end wise) and share the same parts to an extent.
Can anyone confirm if they share the same windscreen as I am having a real nightmare getting hold of a windscreen and i’m hoping that the V35 and the M35 use the same one.
Any help would be really appreciated I’m pulling out whats left of my hair trying to source one over here in the UK. or worst case scenario can export one to here at least.
Hey Jonathan, I just rang Smith and Smith, one of our biggest national windscreen suppliers here in New Zealand. They said the M35 Stagea and V35 Skyline do share the same windscreen. Apparently there are two versions available – a heated version, and a non-heated version with the blue-green tint band at the top. They said they can quite possibly export a screen, but you’d need to contact them to discuss further. Website is http://www.smithandsmith.co.nz All the best!
Many thanks Scott, hopefully one day the UK will have a better access to imported car parts, I guess in some ways the M35 is a new model on our roads.
I am looking for some information on the infinity or stagea, Client has an 03 M35 250 RS 4 AWD. We are trying to source the correct front Hub and Bearing assembly, The 03-06 models normally have a seperate bearing to the Hub,, and the Inner Mount Pilot (the bit that fits into the strut) is 84mm. The next model 06 on has a combined bearing and hub 295-90125, this has a IMP of 92mm and naturly wont fit. This particular car it wood seem has a combined hub and bearing with IMP 84mm, so it is a bit different to the norm, what part would be correct to use here. petermcguire@mail.com