Getting a cheap Steering Wheel

Despite being one of the most reliable cars out there, interior parts in Skylines do wear out - the three worst examples are:

• The air conditioning vents
• The seat bolsters
• The handbrake leather
• The steering wheel

What generally happens with the steering wheel is the top of the rim gets sun damaged and worn out from contact and eventually splits open. This happened in my R33, while in my R34 the outer layer is starting to disintegrate - every time I go for a long drive I get little black specs in the palms of my hands.

Now that I have disposable income, it is time to start upgrading my cars (and bike) again. To kill time on slow days I often browse the auctions for R34 parts. That is where this came up:

For me this is the holy grail; it uses the original parts of the R34 but combines strength, ergonomics and looks into one sporty wheel. The alien-sculpted handgrips, the carbon-fibre texture and the flattened LMGTE bottom leave me frothing.
But this costs $1700 before shipping - and obviously it is in Japan, and by my calculation will cost $2963 to acquire.

Aftermarket is off the table, so I started looking at OEM steering wheels.
What better place than in your own backyard.

I found this for sale locally on TradeMe (the local copy of eBay).
It is an OEM steering wheel claiming to be for a GT-R, however the part number matches an optional leather with red stitching wheel for the 25GT-turbo.
$550 is reasonable for a steering wheel but I suspect there is a markup on this and I think I can do better, and what better place than a parts lookup from Japan?

I can order the parts through a Nissan dealer like I have done before, however as you can see above, the price on this is about $950NZD. That is even more than the one claiming to be an OEM GT-R wheel in NZ.
So I was wrong and it seems the guy in NZ made a purchase that he no longer wants.

But wait… manufacturers are known for making “parts-bin” cars. That means that cars often share components to save costs - like the Skyline and Stagea, or the E36 M3 and a rusty-bucket.

I know that there are at least two vehicles which share the same steering wheel as the R34, and here is the cheapest one:

The Nissan Primera Camino is a commercial stationwagon that was also sold as a family car, and was turned by Autech into a racing wagon.
A friend of mine owns one and he said he might give me the wheel off his car when it gives up the ghost, however being a well-built SR20DE, I don’t suspect that will be any time soon.

A basic steering wheel off a Primera still costs $550NZD.

Time to turn to another avenue…

The Nissan Silvia/200SX has the same steering wheel as the R34 Skyline, but theirs has silver bands where the gear-selector switches are on the Sequential Automatic R34 (like mine).
There was an S15 steering wheel for $150 but it sold.

And then I started looking at the Nissan Terrano Regulus.

They too have the same steering wheel, but in the same basic form as the Primera.
When you compare the two, the R34/S15 steering wheel is wrapped in 4 pieces of (artificial?) leather with black or red stitching on the inside. The P11/R50 has a basic resin steering wheel.

I asked on a few auctions for the price of the steering wheel and the best price is $60 for one in good condition. It will still look the same to the unsuspecting eye.