Ricey

HAHA! You tea leaf!!!!!!! Stole it out from under me and another bloke who are looking to get Zeddy. It looks mint mate and if we'd had the money a week earlier would of been haring it down to Wolves to get it! You did well to get it for 8k - pretty good bit of negotiation. K1 and a pop charger.........from what I've heard you'll need to get your ear muffs out

Driving a powerful rearwheeler can be quite hair raising to start with. I've not got a Zed yet but I managed it in my RX8 which by all accounts is a lot easier to drive and has 100 horsies less. Be gentle with the throttle when coming out of corners and don't do what I did when I was 18 in my arcaic Vauxhall Chevette pulling out of a busy junction.........turn the wheel 90 degrees and give it full throttle. Her hair turned from grey to black and back to grey again!

Cheers Paul! Any have thoughts on me being a bit more open minded with the milage? The missus really wants a black one (story of my life!). There's one for sale but 80k on the clock. Not particularly excessive for 2003 plate but just wondered how well the engines and other hardware stand up. A rather bone chilling post above suggests that the clutch is a bit prone to destuction? There is another black one thats only got 62k on it and is a UK spec - I can't work out why it looks dull!! The paintwork looks very strange on the pics - its as if its been washed with sandpaper! Might have a buyer from the MX at the weekend so could be making a purchase sooner than expected!

Mate thats hilarious! We've got one too but the house isn't big enough to swing a cat in and it knackers the ceiling! I get endless earache about putting it up but I'm slightly concerned she's gonna fly off into the TV! Unscrew the allen key nut at the bottom and the pole spins too.........if you go fast enough you can make yourself well sick! Or if you've got the upper body strength you can climb up to the very top, put your feet on the ceiling and pretend your spiderman!

Congrats mate! Nothing better than bagging up a new motor. I've got some serious issues with the buzz of buying a new car..........doesn't matter how old it is and what I'm swapping it for - if it gets my pulse racing then I can't wait. What colour did you opt for?

Cheers for that mate. We're up in Chester - looks like me and PDean are going to stalking the same cars If we get to a stage where the MX sells and we've got the cash in hand I might spend a couple of weekends touring the country! Luckily we work for the same company and its close enough that I can always run home if needs be.

I rang him a couple of hours ago........you could tell he was probably getting slightly hacked off with the calls about it! 'Hi I'm ringing abo... 'Its gone mate' DOH! Longer we wait the cheaper they get I suppose! Its a bit harder when your buying an older car thats got the potential to be ropey. When I got the lancer it was easier because they were so new - I literally searched the entire country and whoever was cheapest I travelled too......can't really be doing with driving 150 miles to look at a Zed just to find a pidgeon nesting in the air filter housing or some such dodginess. Might wait until next weekend and see if the MX5 shifts on autotrader - I've budged it down a bit after trying a 'speculative' price for a week Andlid - only colours she's not keen on are red and silver. Other than that just the best combo of spec and condition we can upto 9k. Private sales are a bit of a problem until we offload the MX5...........we probably should just be patient but its far too exciting for that!

Managed to find reasonably local (51 miles away) UK spec gunmetal - the fastest colour so I'm told GT on autotrader for £8695 66k FSH and Alzean leather. Looking at the piccies it has a pop charger, some very pretty alloys and what I think........and I could do with someone confirming........a K1 exhaust. From what I've read most people didn't really feel the love the for K1 - is it something you can live with or is it just a bit too much? http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

Yep - the RE040's were horrendous! In addition mine had 3 RE040s and 1 Ventus on it to start with!!!!! Once I changed to Toyo's it was much better but by that point I'd lost confidence in the wet completely so I was always a bit nervous of pushing it - wish I'd had a Pro-Drive day really so I new exactly how far the DSC would let me go. There is no way I could say that the RX handelling was anything less than amazing (in the dry it was almost unbelieveable)......I think I was just a little 'green' thinking that lobbing 190bhp round a roundabout, with mismatched tyres, in the wet was going to end in anything less than tears. I had the same reservations about the Zed (expecially given the power jump) initially but after a couple of years behind the wheel of a Merc CLK I have been fully trained in driving a car that handels like a U-Boat!.........besides I keep being told 'Its not YOUR car!'

Lexx!! If I remember rightly you (or someone with the same nick) was on the RX8 owners club forum too weren't you (one of the none grumpy members I'm probably being a bit harsh on the old girl in fairness - it was more the overall experiance. Bought it from Arnold Clark (mistake number 1!) and at 23 I thought I was was shelling out 14k on what was going to be the (realistic) car of my dreams........being young and a bit crap at driving I perhaps didn't get the best out of it. After a couple of near death exits from roundabouts (including a near 360 on my first test drive in a brand spanker - an experiance that very near turned my pubes grey with fright) I lost the confidence in its handelling and my ability to drive it. Lesson 1 learnt - treat powerful rear wheel drive cars with respect! Car before it was a 2.5v6 cougar which pulled like a train.....I found it a bit tiring to rev it to death every time you wanted to over take. So much went wrong with it too! I must of had at least 3k of warranty work done and I only had it for about 15k. We've got the Lancer for the vast majority of the daily grind driving and hopefully a Zed for some fun! Luckily we're in no rush so I'll make sure we bag up a good one rather than jumping at the first horny exhaust note we hear!

Husky/Rich - thanks for the advice. I noticed the wrinkle on the leather too but its so difficult to tell in the pics - asking the garage would no doubt illicit some sales burble so I'll investigate for myself. Good tip on the stitching - I'll check that out. Is there any real implication to the cubby being different? I was assuming it previously held a dud sat nav and had been replaced - deffo a different head unit anyway. I know its an import (reg 2005 apparently so it sneaks in with the cheaper tax)......assuming that its not got the UK rump due to any bumpercar action but I'll have to check it out. Weathers too grim this afternoon so prob nip over in the morning. Shame about the blue one really - after telling me the history was lost the bloke at the garage really nailed it by saying 'we let one of the salesmen have it for 6 months and he said it drove really well'. Loosely translated as; 'One of the sales men thrashed it for 6 months and he said it drifted really well' I think I've....errm I mean the Missus has got to expect the odd comprimise given the price we're paying - I've already talked her up to 9k instead of spending 6k on a ropey RX!!

Cheers all! I think the biggest challenge is finding one thats got a reasonable history. We're only looking to spend 9k max which only really just pokes us into Zed territory. I've not long gone all sensible and bought a new diesel Lancer so can't really push it beyond that. The one we're looking at today is at http://www.richmondcarsales.co.uk - titanium with heeeeyawge spoiler and pop charger. Apparently full service history, leather and the lower tax bracket. We did like the look of a Blue one that was a bit more local with less miles but the service history has been 'lost' which is a little concerning! Prob not the best day to be looking at a car though given the good old Northern weather!

Hi everyone, In the very near future I (well technically the missus!) will be bagging up a Zed. Based on budget in reckon it will be a JDM but there seems to be a few decent examples out there. Luckily I've managed to talk the missus out another RX8 and to get a Zed (which I shall now be referring to as 'our car' ;-) - we used to have an RX8 a couple of years back and it was probably the most dissapointing purchase of my life! Unfortunatly Zeds were a bit too expensive at the time and after the RX depreciated from £14500 to £7k in 18 months it left me with a bit of a sour taste for another car that would cost a bomb to run.......however - I didn't actually realise how comparitively cheap the Zed is! Same tax, same insurance as the MX5 (god knows why!), slightly better fuel consumption than the RX8, bullet proof mechanics and a big hairy 3.5 litre to boot. I must admit I had a little chuckle to myself reading about the problems you lot have with your Zeds 'OMG my battery has died!' 'this sat nav is in Japenese!' 'I need a new door handle' 'my alternater belt is a little squeaky'...............haha! You should read the RX8 forum for a laugh sometime....'my engine fell off - what do I do' 'I'm getting 12MPG any ideas why?' Also I just wanted to say after reading the forum for few weeks what a truly nice bunch of helpful people you lot are - I've only been a member of one forum before (the RX one) and it was like a stand off from Fast and Furious - Tokyo Drift every time you put an opinion on there! Off to go and look at one in Hyde this afternoon so might have some news! Ricey