rabbitstew

I find that the K1 with bungs in it is a lot more manageable. I suppose the roadster will be louder though anyway. I do tend to leave them out but then my commute doesn't involve anything over 40mph, they always go in if I'm going onto a motorway. Ive never taken them out yet. The db inside the car is 110db with the roof up. But the roadster has nearly zero sound deadening in the roof - if im parked up I can hear people talking as they walk past. Still, good fun when you boot it. It never fails to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The sheer sound is incredible.

Of course exhausts can be "too loud" although its very much down to personal preference and how understanding your neighbours are. I remember having a straight through exhaust on a mini I had once and a work colleague followed me into work one day. She complained that my car was so loud she couldnt hear her stereo in her car behind me! My zed is rudely loud atm with its K1. Im still considering swapping it out for a scorpian system. It would be fine just for w/end use, but when im doing 90mile comute every day its a bit too much.

Yeah, id check the insurance carefully. Admiral multicar always doesnt mean it will be cheaper. I just renewed my car insurance and it was cheaper for me to insure 3 cars and 1 motorbike seperately rather than go through their multicar. They must have rang me up at least 4 times asking if I wanted to "save money" and go with their multicar policy and each time they just couldnt beat the prices I got from insuring each car seperately via quotes from confused.com. If 1 claim only takes 2 years of your NCB then I need to start cashing in on my 20 years NCB. I could probably have 8 claims before id have to start worrying about things!!! Still £1450 isnt bad for a 25 year old with no NCB and an accident. I was getting quoted £1200 and im 40 with 20 years NCB.

+1 Summed up how I feel about it all perfectly.

That was also my reason for getting into shares. Unfortunately mine are worth 60% less now than when I got them, so on that basis when I retire in 30 years time i`ll be screwed!

Protected no claims maybe? Pete Even so, they still take it into account if you have an accident. Also NCB protection only applies if you stay with the company your currently with if i remember correctly. If you move elsewhere you still have to disclose you have made a claim.

Bet he`s got about 3000 feedback on ebay now. Nice work tho on the car, I remember the thread when you first bought the car. You`ve restored the old gal nicely!

Nice one. Id find out if its the 313 one before you buy it. Does it have the big bonnet bulge?! Thats usually the give away sign. Performance wise, the torque certainly is mad. You can be in 4th at 30 and the engine will pull smoothly. If you were doing nearly 90 in 3rd then you`d have been not far from the red line. Mine does 90 in 3rd and 120 in 4th last time I checked.. on a private road. 29k is very low miles, although a lot of people tend to use these as weekend toys and keep them in a garage over winter. Good luck, hope it all works out!

I use my zed as a daily driver. Its costing me about £860 a month to run including fuel & estimated depreciation cost. So, certainly not cheap. In fact it would be cheaper for me to get a mortgage on a house next to work and live there in the week. Fuel costs and depreciation are the biggest costs for me. I do about 26,000 miles a year, and im getting about 24->25mpg on super unleaded. So, its something like £20 a day on fuel alone. Depreciation will vary depending on what model & year you buy, but looking at some of the prices recently, mine has plummeted in value a lot more than I expected and what I factored into my £860 a month figure, so that monthly cost figure may be a lot more yet for me. Insurance on zeds isnt cheap. You`ll find something like a Imprezza WRX will be cheaper to insure as its 4wd. Even Porsche Boxsters, BMW M3`s and even the new Skyline GTR were coming back cheaper on the insurance for me. Outside of that actual servicing costs are cheap. Cost me less to service my zed then my missus`s 307 HDI cost to service. Spares will obviously cost more than "normal" cars, but you can get 2nd hand bits and even new bits cheaper via the traders on here. All in all I dont think the zed is any more expensive to run than similar cars.

Hang on. So you have just had your car written off by the insurance company and can now afford to insure a zed?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really hope you have checked the insurance cost before you get one. When my missus made a claim on her car a couple of years back, (wasnt even a write off), her insurance rocketed so much she couldnt afford to insure it and had to sell it off and buy a shed. Even then she struggled to insure the shed!!!!

Hmmmm.. so at the moment the government is throwing money at pensions when really they should be watchin their pennies. Ive just been reading about pension credits, and if i understand them right, they are saying that a pensioner couple should get £240 a week (for example), and if their state pension is less than that, then they can claim pension credits to bring them up to the full amount. Pension credit is another VIP pass which automatically means you get full council tax benefit & housing benefit etc. And yet, we are saying that in 30 years time there will be no money left to give pensions. Whilst i know people are living older, surely the money we are paying in now should go towards our own pensions. If us "young uns" are paying for the current crop of pensioners, what happened to all the cash those pensioners paid in when they were young? Also, with the influx of millions of migrants into the UK who are all working, surely that means more people are paying tax / NI than ever before?

Very nice. Are there many 350z`s in Lithuania?

Interestingly I just had my companies pensions advisor come in and speak to me about setting up a pension as I have nothing atm. I sat there listening to him saying that if i put in say 300quid a month for the next 30 years i`ll have a pension pot which will give me enough to scrape by on when I retire. Surely though, i`d be better off without a private pension? As then id be able to claim benefits? If I have a private pension then that immediately will be classed as an income and i`ll be worse off?! Whats the criteria for Pension Credits? Surely everyone gets the same government rate for pension dont they?

Id say about the same. They are heavy cars, the convertible even more so. Once its moving, 2nd gear will give most cars a run for its money, but off the line you`ll find some hot hatches will be quicker. One plus thing about the convertible though, is that even though its slightly heavier, the reviewers reckon it handles as good as the coupe. Its all about fun though with a 350z convertible, the engine noise and the thrill of the drive with the roof down.

Great read. Im off to buy a set of yingyang specials now for £100 a set.

The cog thing you refer to is called a "reluctor ring" which goes around the cv joint. I replaced one on my missus peugeot 206CC last year. Peugeot said you had to buy the whole drive shaft. But, my local car spares shop actually sold just the cv joints with the ring on for £30 each. Took me about 45minutes to swap the CV joints over whilst taking my time, and fitted a new CV boot at the same time. Didnt even have to remove the drive shaft to do it. Nice and easy. You can actually buy just the ring of ebay for £2.75!!!!!!, but its easier to just swap the cv joint. £180 seems expensive, even if they have swapped the whole drive shaft!

I guess on one hand you can say if you have only spent £700 in 5 years on a car then that isnt bad. But £700 in one go is something id find had to swallow on a 28k mile car. Lets look at the break down.. Service - if this was a minor one, oil + filter you`d be looking at 30quid tops for the bits, plus 30mins of someones time. A "major" service would add maybe 15quid to the parts bill. Track rod ends - about 8quid each normally and about 40mins work. Very easy to swap out. Boots - these are likely to be CV Boots. If you are doing the track rod ends then this would take less time to do as you already would have the wheels off and have the hub half disconnected. Doing the boots is a bit of a fiddly job as you really have to pop the cv joint off, but you can get stretchy boots which are quicker to fit. Id say maybe an hours job in total to change both. Actual boot costs about £10. Pitted discs and brake pads are just their opinion of them. If its past the MOT with them then they are fine. If you need to replace them then they are cheap. About 30quid for pair of discs and pads and your looking at about 45mins work Handbrake adjustment is just labour.. lets say 30mins. Suspension bushes? They could be anything, bushes are cheap, but its the labour which costs. So, based upon my estimate your looking at maybe £120 of parts and 3 hours work @ around £60 an hour, so thats £300 already, plus the ABS bit and fitting, plus £50 for the actual MOT. So all in all, it adds up and their price of £700 seems about right. As always its the labour charges which jack the price up. Only alternative is to buy a haynes manual and some spanners and have a go yourself. Or find a mate who can do the work. Im always being the spanner monkey for my mates. This month alone ive serviced 3 cars and swapped out the brakes on another one.

If its a minor one, cant you do it yourself? you really only need a couple of spanners and 30mins spare.

You really need one of those terrier type dogs that continually shivers, they must change hands for a fortune. They have even been known to get me, a born and bred Yorkshireman, to put my hand in my pocket. I did, however, pop into the local convenience store and buy a tin of dogmeat. The dog just might have been fed it! Sounds a plan, you have really thought about this one havent you! And I can confirm that. I know someone who whilst outwardly appearing perfectly normal and lives a perfectly normal live gets disability allowance for a minor disability they have. Its only something like 2quid a week, but its a golden get out of jail card as it automatically means they have VIP treatment for other benefits. So, since getting this he has had his entire house insultated, and loft insulation done. He had a new boiler fitted, plus new radiators, and now has just had an entire new bathroom suite fitted - all free. Basically the government are paying to renovate his house!!!!

Definately dont rush into buying, esp if you have the cash ready. Take your time over it. Theres plenty out there, its a buyers market. Make sure you do your research and if you have any questions ask on here. Good luck!

Re: Big issue sellers. I used to very often give them a few quid, but a few years back I went out on the town with a few mates and actually saw the same big issue sellers who id given a few quid to earlier in the day actually in a bar, wearing designer gear and drinking bottles of expensive beer. That put me right off. Esp when me & my mates were wearing primarni and drinking cheap fosters. As for beggers... I had an interesting experience at a wedding the other week. We were outside having a fag and this guy staggers over and asks for a fag or some money to buy some food. Normally I dont entertain them, but as it was Christmas and everyone was in good spirits at the wedding I gave him some cash. We were chatting for a bit, then one of my mates who is a copper starts chatting to him. He dont know shes old bill. She soon establishes this guy knows all the people who run the local homeless shelters, but she picks up immediately that he`s got clean clothes, doesnt smell and isnt drunk. Matey soon starts back peddling when asked about how come he doesnt smell and has clean clothes etc.. if he`s homeless. He quickly left after then and I wish id not bothered giving him some money. Ive always fancied borrowing a dog put him on a bit of string, getting some old clothes from a charity shop, then sit around in a doorway in a busy shopping centre over a weekend just to see how much cash you could get. I reckon you could make a few quid. I really dont see how anyone can be homeless, when if you have no job you get dole money, and if you have no home you get housing benefits who will pay for a home.