350z Opinions?

[Knoxville]

MR2 Turbo?

[Rave]

Does it have to be new? If I had 25K to spend on a sportscar I'd get a £7k Supra, spend £3k on making it mint, and save the rest.....or I'd get an Esprit Turbo SE or GT2 and pray for the safety of my wallet.

Seriously tho, a lightly breathed on Supra twin turbo would spank any 350z, and I can't believe that it's cost you more to run over two years even if everything that could go wrong did....

[tom deloford]

Yeah, but then you have to think of the shipping, registration, tax, any modifications that need making (none from US I dont think tho), the very low 2nd hand value, the the LHDness.

Yea, true, youre right you do have to pay import and you do have to get the car adapted (a stock us car wont pass an MOT!) , there are companies that do it for less than a grand and shipping can be got for less than 500quid. If you don't mind left-hand drive its worthwhile looking. My uncle bought a boxster from the states worked out about 20k althogether, here is was well over 30k. If you're female or rubbish at parking, dont bother tho!

[Shad]

Re the servicing... might be hard to avoid low interval servicing with the kind of thing you're after; high performance engines need servicing regularly. But if you're not bothered about having a FDSH then you can usually do most things yourself.

IMO 9k is too long without an oil change anyway.

[CocoPops]

Are there any other cars that I'm overlooking?

eg. Hyundai coupe v6?
early Z4?

[CocoPops]

Shame the 307cc and the Meg don't have higher powered engines

[Butuz]

350z is a super duper car. its in a different league to 307, megane, z4, hiyundi coupe, mr2 and almost everything mentioned above apart from the porker

Its won loads of motoring awards including Top Gear car of the year 2005. Its won them for a reason, its bloody wonderfull to drive by all accounts.

Just go take one for a test drive. The 350z marks a return to form from nissan that we havent seen since the 200SX, and nissan on form is something special

Only other competitors i would say are the Honda S2000 (too small), and the Mazda RX8 (not enough torque), the chrysler crossfire is a wallowy P.O.S. and audi TT is far to dated and common.

As far as servicing goes, your not gonna find any fast performance car that has service intervals of 12k or above. Its simply not possible, performance engines need regular oil changes, now if you change the oil every 3-6k your self, your on to a winner....

Butuz

[5lab]

could you get a clio v6? iirc all renaults (or is it pugs??) have a very long service interval.. it'd be *rare* too..

other than that - 2nd hand monaro? its gotta be so lazy that it should do a fair distance between services..

or how about a souped up signum?

[5lab]

how about

http://www.whatcar.com/RoadTest_Summ...DL=0&RT=212459

http://www.whatcar.com/RoadTest_Summ...DL=0&RT=212007

latter might not be what you're after, but 220 bhp thru a focus sized car should fly..

[Zak33]

no Mercs floating your boat?

[Zak33]

oh by the way....Evo's offically are serviced every 4500!!!!!

[CocoPops]

Clio V6 is nice and was consider but it's still.... a clio
Mini - Not really an upgrade from the 182

350z still keeps calling me.....

[Zak33]

this is gonna sound dead Vauxhall of me.....

but a Monaro will do BOTH jobs!!! Power house AND comfy big car. Big boot...etc.

its a thought

[CocoPops]

yeah, did think monaro, and what a beast that would be.
What about tyre costs tho? presumably that V8 chews through rear tyres?

Mercs? Hadn't considered, but they come across as a bit old man to me.

[5lab]

i would imagine that the rear tyres would probably last longer than the fronts on your clio, as all 4 wheels should wear a bit more evenly?? also if you leave the traction control on they should last for aaages.

[CocoPops]

That I doubt..... my fronts lasted til 21,000 miles