Nissan GT-R Buyer's Guide
This page covers the R35 GT-R, the twin-turbo V6 supercar-slayer Nissan built from 2007 until the end of production; the earlier Skyline GT-Rs live elsewhere in our catalogue. We have no hammer prices for the R35 yet, but four active listings carry auction estimates, and they sketch a market that starts around £50,000 for the earliest cars and runs towards £100,000 for late, low-owner examples.
Know your versions
One generation, continuous evolution. The 2007 launch car made 480hp from the hand-built 3.8-litre VR38DETT; power crept up almost annually, with the Black Edition and Premium at 565hp, the Track Edition adding NISMO-derived chassis parts at the same output, and the full NISMO at 600hp with its own aero and suspension. The 2011 model year brought the biggest single step (engine, gearbox calibration and suspension all revised), and the 2017 facelift civilised the cabin. At the far end of the spectrum sits the GT-R50 by Italdesign, a 710hp coachbuilt run of 50 cars from 2018–2019 that trades in a different world from anything on this page. Early cars are the raw ones; post-2011 cars are faster, quieter and easier to live with.
What to pay
No sold results in our records yet, so estimates are the only guide. A 2008 car is currently listed at £50,000–£75,000, while a 2020 Premium Edition and a 2020 standard car are both guided at £75,000–£100,000; a 2021 Prestige Edition is listed without a published estimate. Read that as roughly £50,000 opening the door to an early car and the late, sub-30,000-mile examples asking twice that. NISMOs and the GT-R50 sit above anything in our current data.
What goes wrong
The GR6 dual-clutch transaxle is the R35's defining cost. Early cars (2009–2010 especially) could break a circlip in the gearbox under launch-control abuse, and a full rebuild is a five-figure job in any currency; listen for harsh shifts, judder in slow traffic and grinding on downshifts. Bell-housing rattle at idle on early cars is common and usually benign, but have a specialist confirm which noise you are hearing. The engine itself is strong if serviced on time, though hard-launched cars can suffer bore wash and premature wear; a compression and leak-down test is worth the fee. Budget seriously for consumables: bespoke tyres, large brakes and frequent transmission and differential fluid changes are part of the deal. Corrosion is not an R35 problem; skipped servicing is.
Our view
Buy the gearbox history, not the colour. A post-2011 car with a documented specialist service file and unmodified electronics is the sensible R35, and the estimates in our data suggest £75,000-ish is where those cars now sit. Early cars at the £50,000 end are tempting, but one neglected transmission wipes out the saving. Parts supply and specialist knowledge are excellent, and nothing else offers this performance-per-pound; it will keep running as a classic provided you fund it like the supercar it is.
