Rich, before you go getting too aroused by the lovely big Nissan/Mitsuoka thing
, ask the vendor how much he's been quoted to sort the gearbox..
I did, and it seems that they're not a cheap thing to fix. As for picking up a good, used trans from a UK-based breaker, forget it, these are JDM only and hewn from a solid lump of unobtanium with liquid gold fluid, clutches made of cheese and complex ecus required to keep the engine speed constant rather than good old manifold vacuum-triggered servos.
I've put below what the guy said to me, I suspect that someone is trying it on with him as that amount would get you a good, used transmission from a seller on Yahoo.jp. A quick check showed a couple of these cvts selling in the last month at a reasonable £87 (auction format) and a cheap £52 (outright), worth a punt even if your proxy agent in Japan takes the slightly cheeky 30% that the guy I use for the radios claims is normal.
I spoke to the garage and they said that they'd
"got the price wrong" and that all it needs are a fresh reverse clutch pack, new CVT fluid and some work to the ECU, which is currently preventing the unit from being moved out of low hold. Fine if you want to drive home at 5000rpm and 30mph though. Oh, and if you don't need to go anywhere backwards that's even slightly uphill.
The quote we've had was £1800. We could put you in touch with the garage that's been dealing with it. We don't know the nature of the fault, but from our internet research it seems to be CVT. Sorry, we don't really know anything about these things...
im winning euromillions next week & will return to the uk & buy it then 
