rabbitstew

Think I-Jack has covered it nicely. When I bought my zed last year I saw what price the dealer had paid for it, and knew what price I was paying for it. The dealer marked it up by £2000 over what they gave for it on part ex. They had to MOT the car, respray the front bumper, service it and refurbish the wheels, all in that "profit". Sure, they made additional profit on the car they part ex`d it for, so all in all they did okay. Having part ex`d the same car a few weeks back to another dealer, who has since moved the car onto another car dealer to sell as they only sell BMW`s on their forecourt, They also gave me £2000 less than the forecourt price for my car. I guess once the car gets worth less in value, the mark up will be a bit less. This new garage really wouldnt have had to spend a penny on my car apart from a service as I had kept everything mint on it, right down to giving it a full detail before part ex`ing it. Knowing how hard zeds are to shift atm, especially the more expensive ones like mine, I opt`d to part ex, rather than have it stuck for sale for months. I think the cheaper zeds (sub 6k) are much more affordable to people now, so probably have a bigger market for potential purchasers. But, any big engined thirsty car isnt an easy sell these days.

Reflectors are more vertical on the facelift ones too.

Having just part ex`d my 350z which had the optional extra £1400 factory sat nav fitted, I got exactly ZERO more for the car. So, that means that 2nd hand it makes no difference to the cars value at all, so ones with the system fitted should cost you the same. On the other hand, there werent many people who when buying a new zed figured paying that much for a sat nav represented better value than an £80 tomtom, so there are loads more non sat nav cars out there. Functionality and usability wise I found the factory sat nav to be really good. Sure, you cant enter postcodes which is the biggest bug bear. But, the screen is nice and big, it integrates with the radio perfectly fine, the maps (i had the 2011 maps in mine) were more accurate than my tomtom and I never once had a problem where the system hadnt heard of the address I wanted. But, I certainly wouldnt turn down a nice 350z which didnt have the factory sat nav so for me personally it would not be a deal breaker. These days there are a million & one options out there. Ive just bought a new bmw 123d m sport and opted NOT to go for the sat nav. I use a free app on my galaxy s2 called "Waze" which is an awesome sat nav system. And its free. Alternatively you can get garmin & other systems which will fit nicely into the 350z`s cubby hole and look very oem. Im currently considering a 7" android tablet for my beemer now on which to run Waze.

AEX shares creeping up after their last anouncement. Still about 50% less than I paid for them mind, but at least they are heading in right direction.

+1. Had me worried then after just buying a bmw.

My girlfriend is staying in the country until she finds a job and I am currently a named driver on her MX-5 policy. I'll try that route. Be interesting to see if that works, it might depend upon insurance company, as whenever ive ever asked insurance companies about temp insurance just for a few weeks whilst I sell my old car, none of them have been willing to do it. Ive always had to insure it as a seperate vehicle, on which i cant use my ncb. I remember when I got my zed, my old car was costing me 180quid a year to insure and i ended up having to pay 120quid just for 4 weeks insurance on it when I was selling it.

So, the most important question we all need to know, is are the massaging seats any good? Happy ending?

Jesus thats some serious drive by bird pooping...

That might still be enough to scare him.

What about other providers? Adrian Flux happily did me a "rolling monthly" insurance on a car I was selling the other year. Only problem was for me was that because I was using my NCB on my main car, the cost per month was very high - but in your case you should be fine if you have some NCB to use.

That is mental. I would be be livid if my car ended up looking like that.

You`d be surprised at how easy it is. Baring in mind im a 14.5 stone skinhead, when I used to do debt collecting I grew a big goatee beard, and used to turn up at peoples houses wearing big dm boot`s and a bomber jacket. People used to take one look at me and decide to clear there debt there & then. Those who didnt had no problems with me taking their telly or whatever away. Its all about the stereotypical type of person people associate with an image. The fact im nice as pie (oooh.... pies!) and certainly wouldnt have done anything against the law in order to persuade someone to pay their debt was neither here nor there. It was opening your door to someone who looked like a serious thug which did the trick. I remember when I moved into my old house, my neighbours were bricking it when they saw me for the first few times, especially when me & my mates would be messing about working on our motorbikes in the drive. They assumed I was some hells angel. It was only when they saw me going off to work in my 3 piece suit and got to know me they realised I was fine! So id get a bomber jacket, shave your head, grow a goatee then knock on his door asking him to turn the music down! problem solved!

Actually I saw a new RR yesterday and I immediately thought that the front looked like an evoque, so they may already be rolling that styling out over the rest of the range. Still not sure on the back of the evoque though, looks too much like a giant as sat on it!

Depends... its amazing how your opinion changes. I never ever used to see the point in spending more than 5k on a car. For that I could get a quite a range of cars which suited me. Then I had some good fortune with a new job, saved some money and I bought the zed... for cash... and believe me, that took some getting my head around, forking out £15k for a car!!! But, once you break through that barrier, it gets easier. I had the same problem as docwra, im a company director and rocking up at a customers site in an ear splittingly loud 350z doesnt always give the customer the right impression. Not to mention 23mpg and the mental running costs it was costing me as a daily runner. I looked at all the options and the cheapest way to get me in a new (or virtually new being 6 months old) more "appropriate" car was to pay cash for it. I was lucky id been saving up for a while and could afford it. Otherwise, id have got a loan from my bank and paid it off over a couple of years. Rather than think of it as a huge some of money im throwing away, i saw it as money invested in a car and i`ll get a load of it back when I sell it. So, i looked more at the overall estimated cost to me over the period of time i`ll be keeping the car. One problem with paying "cash" though, is that debit cards have a transaction limit on them of £30k per day. So, bare that in mind when you hand the dealer your card if the car is more than £30k. Your`ll have to pay for it over 2 days...

Didn't most companies factor in 10%, so you couldn't blame the speedo if you got caught speeding? I think legally they now have to make it accurate... although I have no source / evidence to back this up! My SatNav (on my phone) is always set to show the gps speed, and ive noticed on all my cars the speedo speed is usually around 6->8% over. For example, 70mph on the sat nav is 76mph on the dash.

One problem when you have 30k to spend is the wide choice out there. There is just so much to choose from!!! I started off looking at the v8 M3`s, then figured I may as well keep my 313 350z as the running costs of an M3 wont be cheap. Then I noticed a nearly new high spec EVO well within the same price range and considered that for a while. Even stuff like Range Rover sports, a virtually new Evoque, various Porsches. In the end I decided I had to be sensible, so started looking at cars with lower running costs and better fuel economy. Even then the choice is huge....

love it! Really made me chuckle here!

I did briefly consider one earlier in the year as it was coming in at a similar price to my 123d m sport. Also, the fact the evoque`s are currently the "fashionable" car to have for a lot of people, means they hold their value really well. In the end the RWD Coupe won my vote.

lol! excellent!

Its done very low mileage for the year. So, the first thing id be checking is that the service history is all correct and matches up with the mileage. Id be looking at previous MOT`s - you can check these online - i think you need the reg number and the number from either the v5 or current MOT - then it will list all the previous MOT`s and any advisories and the mileage at the time. Outside of that, other obvious things are the tyres... if they are needing to be replaced soon your looking at £525 for Falkens and upto £1000 for some other more expensive brands. Check for a clicking noise from back axle, the drivers door handle inside is prone to chips, if its got the bose system, try a cd to see if its skipping or working fine, the front bumper on them are very prone to stone chips - so if its chipped you can use that to knock off a few quid. Looks like a nice clean car! Good luck!

Car dealers make a nice bit of commission from PCP. As you may have read on another post ive just bought a BMW 123d M-Sport Coupe. The salesman was bending over backwards trying to get me to go for PCP. His calculations were, the car new was about £33k. So he was saying, £10k up front, then something like £285 a month over 3 years and at the end of 3 years I could hand the car back to them and walk away with nothing, or give them an agreed value for the car of £12k or whatever it worked out at. Or alternatively, pay £600 (or something like that) a month, then at the end of the 3 years, give them the car back as a deposit on a brand new one, and carry on the process. He even went as far as to say the interest rate on the deal was unbeatable at 4% and that id get more than that on the interest on the £23k id keep in the bank over those 3 years. So I thought about it long and hard and couldnt really see how loosing £20k in 3 years was appealing whichever way I looked at it, nor forking out £600 a month just to get a new car. I even looked at contract hire, but they were coming in at more than the £600 a month when you factored in the spec & mileage. So, in the end I went for the buy outright for cash option as for me it was the cheapest option. I also went for a 6 month old car with 2000 miles on it, so basically as new but without the initial depreciation. Looking at 3 year old cars for sale, i wont be loosing anything like the £20k the PCP was offering me. I agree though that for some people PCP or contract hire is by far the best option.

Id definitely seriously consider Jamies car, you wont get a better minter for that sort of money. The prices on the roadsters vary like mad. I had a look before I part ex`d and there were only 6 313 models for sale nationwide. There was only 1 with sat nav and the alezan orange interior and it was 14grand for the same year as mine. Others came in between 12k and 15k depending upon mileage. So, it looks like this dealer priced my old one up for £11.5k to get a quick sale based up on the price he paid for the car. He`s not factoring in the £8k of extras the original buyer added to the car when he bought it which should make it worth slightly more than the average car. Since I sold mine however, ive seen one 313 up for £9500 and another for £9000 which seems mega cheap. Albeit both are lower specs and higher mileage.

Welcome!

That does seem rather high. Ive seen 313 roadsters up for £9000 which would be a 3 year newer car too!!! The thing ive noticed with zeds though is that the prices seem to vary like mad for the same year/mileage car. Plenty out there, so shop around!

Welcome!!! Loads of zeds out there, so workout which model you want. Also shop around as prices seem to vary so much - much more than other makes of cars it seems.