rabbitstew

When I bought my HR zed, I test drove one at a Ford dealership and he had no problems. Salesman came with me to make sure I didnt trash it. We didnt even discuss price until afterwards. He refused to budge a penny on the full screen price so I walked. The only other HR Roadster for sale within 100 miles was at Nissan Birmingham. The test drive they let me have was just driving the car around the block. Literally 5 minutes. I barely got into 3rd gear. Likewise, even with hours of haggling, they also refused to budge on the full screen price although threw some mats in for free. However, when I bought my beemer, all I wanted was a quick test drive in the car to see if I liked it. They sat me down in the show room and proceeded to go through tons and tons of paperwork, questions about what I was looking for in a car etc. etc. etc. It was ridiculous. That lot took about 45mins alone before they even let me sit in the car which was outside on the forecourt. I guess they figure that stops people just turning up, test driving, then buying from elsewhere? All a far cry from when I test drove a Lotus Elise back in 2000. I turned up, they gave me the keys to the car and told me to be back in half an hour. Didnt even check my driving license or anything. As it was I took the car back after 10 minutes as I hated it.

If I remember correctly the Highway Code is just guidelines and not the law?

I remember when Nissan Birmingham gave me a brand new demo 370z Roadster to use for a week. I picked it up, filled it up with super unleaded and drove it home. Then, when I was looking around the car, I found a whole bunch of fuel receipts in glove box where they had been using it for customer demos etc, and every single one of them was for normal cheapie unleaded. doh!

Awesome. Reminds me of my HR roadster although mine had the optional alezan orange interior and the optional sat nav as well. Id check that they have changed the spark plugs as that would have been needed by now on that, regardless of mileage, and check the condition of the aux drive belt on the very front of the engine. Mine seemed to shred them every 20k miles. Nissan said they had no idea why but as it was a "consumable" they wouldnt cover it under any warranty. With regards to the roof, one of the bow motors always seemed to be a bit weak on them, especially when its cold and the hood material is stiffer. It would get to half way, then struggle. A sound "clout" with your hand or switch it to close slight, then reopen seemed to resolve it. Its as if Nissan knew this would happen as in the manual they say you shouldnt use the hood below a certain temperature. Didnt bother me though, id frequently have the roof down over winter, was great fun with the heaters on - you`d be in this lovely warm bubble of air as you raced down the back roads.

If you know your way around a 350Z, in an 8 hour day you could replace the clutch, fit pads and rotors all round and carry out a P3. So with an outlay of £80.00 you would save circa £500.00 in labour charges based on £60.00 per hour + vat. The rent a ramp garages should also have jacking beams and transmission jacks to boot. Agreed £80+parts compared to stealer prices. I was comparing £80+parts against £0 + parts by jacking the car up in your drive & servicing it yourself. But for things like a clutch, having the car in the air would be easier.

Seems expensive to me tbh. £80 a day. That would pay for a service on the car itself with oil/filters etc. One thing id be worried about from experience is that very often what you think is a 1hr job ends up being a nightmare and taking 10 hours or more. If your car is in bits on a ramp then you will be stuck there until you get things fixed, hoping that if you need any extra parts they wont take ages to arrive.

Also, I dont know if this is still the case, but each time you have a credit check done on you its flagged, and if you have more than a certain number of checks within a certain time frame then that is flagged as a black mark. I believe it's almost the opposite from what I'd read over the last. Any credit checks performed within say 4-6 weeks are deemed as only one application by most lenders. Simply because when searching for a loan, a customer may apply for a hand full at the same time or within a short period of time to try and get the best rate possible and penalising someone for being responsible and trying to save money is quite frankly stupid. Of course all lenders are different as there are no guidelines for how they score the information given to them by the credit reference agencies. You might be right, might depend upon the lender. I know a mate of mine went to buy a new motorbike the other year and as part of the finance quote they did a credit check and all was good. He then went out, bought a new telly, mobile phone, leathers & helmet, then when he went back to sign for the bike, they obviously did a new credit check as part of the finance sign up and he got rejected due to too many credit checks in whatever time space it was. He was a bit gutted as he had already bought the leathers, helmet and all the gear (all on finance... ) I forget what they did in the end, i think he had to either wait a while, or prove what the credit checks were for (or something like that).

I hope you are selling off all the bits you remove on ebay, or at least keeping them to once side. When I stripped out my Renault 5 GT Turbo many years back, I simply stuck the wheelie bin next to the car and anything which didnt help the car go faster I ripped out & chucked straight in the wheelie bin. Now, many years later im kicking myself as all the bits I chucked are fetching a fortune now on ebay. Luckily the wiring on my car is a lot simpler than yours looks, but a couple of mistakes I learnt is to check whats behind the dash when your drilling through it... i ended up butchering a load of wires and then having a nightmare trying to rejoin them. Also, when fitting a cage, even if it a bolt in one, you need to weld in strengthening plates under the cage legs. Again, make sure you know whats behind & around what your welding, otherwise a) undersealant my catch fire under the car resulting in a brown trouser "where the f**k is the hosepipe" moment. or b ) you wonder weeks later why a load of wires are all melted then realise it was because they were within close proximity of where you had been welding. doh. Does the M3 have any of that orrible black bitchaman tar stuff stuck over the floorpan under where the carpets were? It looks like it does, but painted over in some of your pix. That stuff weighs tons. I chipped out loads from my car. Apparently makes it loads noisier in the cabin, but with an exhaust like yours I cant see you stressing too much about that. Good work!

Also, I dont know if this is still the case, but each time you have a credit check done on you its flagged, and if you have more than a certain number of checks within a certain time frame then that is flagged as a black mark.

Cant beat building supplies at times like that. I used a load of breeze blocks as axle stands for years until I got a set of cheapie halfords ones! Can now recycle my old ones by building a wall!

What are the Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsa like (I assume they were the stock tyres on that too?) Read a few reviews and some have said they're a bit crap in the wet. Mine would have come with those at one point but a previous owner changed them to the non-corsa versions. I found them terrible. I had several "moments" where the back end slid out whilst leant over powering out of bends. At first I thought it was the back suspension being too hard as I had the same problem on my 748S back in 2000, but after setting that up correctly it still happened, so I then thought it was something on the road. It really knocked my confidence on 996 as you just darent open her up out of bends in case the back end went. Whereas, on my R1 which is running ancient Avon Azaro SP tyres, I can crank that over and roll it right off the tyres around bends - they grip like mad. So after reading loads of reviews I swapped the half worn Diablos for a set Metzeler Sportec M7RR`s. Ive only been out on them a couple of times so still breaking them in, but they already seem to feel a bit more grippy. I only really ride in good weather these days, but apparently they are also good in the wet.

Nice monster there, be good fun in the summer. I cant wait to get out on my 996 now ive fitted some better tyres!

That's exactly how it happens, however, right at the end the insurer says "Now that your car is faster and more desirable, I will be doubling your policy price" Or not as the case maybe. I remember my first car was a 1971 850cc mini which had a staggering 34bhp. It would do 80mph flat out at a push and if it came to any hills id end up having to change down to 2nd or 1st gear nearly to get up them. As I loved the racing look, I fitted a full safety devices roll cage in it, which weighed a ton and actually made the car even slower. Being a good boy I told the insurance company who promptly doubled my premium as apparently now I was more likely to roll the car. I shopped about and actually found very few companies would actually touch a car with a roll cage in it so I was a bit stuck for choice.

I always thought refunds went from the date the DVLA actually received the paperwork. So, in your case, I expect it arrived at the DVLA maybe 1st or 2nd of December, in which case that meant you would miss out on a refund for December. I know thats exactly what happened when I sold my zed. I sold it on the last day of May, posted it all off and because the paperwork didnt arrive with them until June I missed out on Junes refund. Like you, my zed was higher tax bracket, so i missed out on 40quid.

They look really nice!

You`d really need to test drive all 3 to see which you prefer. The engine in the 313 was redesigned and is 80% new over the older engines. Basically Nissan took it and did everything they could to get more power out of it. It has a dual ram air system which apparently gives it an extra 6bhp at speed, improved cooling around the block, longer stroke, 1000rpm higher rev limit over the older 276 model, and is even mounted lower in the chassis to improve handling. I seem to recall from the "whats new for 2007" brochure from Nissan that the 313 also had suspension mods to improve handling and a few other things. Whether or not you`d really notice much difference on the road between them is debatable. Some say its like night & day the difference between say a 276 and a 313, others say the 313 is slightly better but not worth the premium price over the older models. I personally opted for the 313 model as I wanted the extra power. Some people go for the cheaper 276 then end up forking out for a different pendulum, exhaust, air filter then a remap and still dont get as much power as a stock 313 has. On the road I think they all pretty much handle the same so id just buy the best example you can find in your budget.

I remember when I first got my zed, I was driving along minding my own business when this boring looking 4 door Merc family saloon appeared behind me and was seriously right up my rear. So I figured id have some fun. I waited until I was coming off the roundabout onto some nice bit of dual carriageway and booted my zed in 2nd gear, then 3rd, then WTF. The Merc just pulled out and shot past me like I was in reverse. It was one of those rare moments when I really was surprised as I really did not expect that. It was seriously seriously quick. I could just about see C63AMG on the boot of it as it vanished into the distance. The first thing I did when I got to work was to google what the hell was a C63AMG.

Its just statistics really, im guessing the insurance company has probably paid out more for zeds than 650i`s hence cheaper price, although you never know. When I got my zed, insurance companies were quoting me something like £400 for a Lambo Gallardo, £500 for a Porsche Boxter and £600 for a E46 BMW M3, but wanted a staggering £900 for my standard unmodified zed. On the other hand, the older the zed gets, the cheaper its worth so they will have to pay out less. Still, based upon the quote i got today, £278 compared to £900 a couple of years back is a huge drop on the same car. My BMW 123d`s insurance has remained pretty constant at £300 a year over that time and nothing has changed in my circumstances / location, so it must be down to the actual zed and not me.

You mean you can see pictures of whores on there??? Where do I sign up?!!!

Amazing. Im tempted to get a quote myself just to see if the cost of insuring a zed has dropped drastically or if they will still quote me nearly a grand for a 2007 zed. EDIT: Yep, looks like zed insurance has dropped like a stone since I sold mine. Great. Just about typical. Cheapest I could get a few years back was £900 a year to insure mine fully comp. Now, the cheapest is coming up at £278 Fully Comp. (Out of interest I also checked and whilst Third Party Only means a much much lower risk to the insurance company, they actually wanted £360 for that... mad).

Im another who has never seen the point of instagram. All the instagram pix any of my friends ever stick on facebook look like some 1970`s faded square polaroid picture. I really dont see the point in making my pictures look like that when ive a 10mb HDR (or whatever) HD blah blah camera on my phone which takes super awesome sharp pictures for me, and even take them in a "normal" photo ratio so I can view them on normal screens.

Depending on its condition id sell the original exhaust off. They are prone to snapping in front of the back box and so someone with a broken one might be interested in buying it. Saying that, ive still got the 20k old exhaust off my HR Roadster sitting in my garage and I keep tripping over it. doh. EDIT: As a side note, when i sold my roadster, the first thing the new owner did was to have the aftermarket exhaust taken off and paid for a new standard one to be fitted.

I was going to mention the insurance thing too. I think nearly every insurance quote ive had has come in MORE expensive if you say its garaged rather than left on a public street. The logic from the insurance companies perspective is that if its in a garage a thief can break in, then as he is out of sight can spend as long as he wants messing about with your car. Whereas if its on a street then more chance of someone seeing/disturbing any potential thief. However, you may figure that the increase in insurance premium to keep the car garaged is worth it. I know I would if I was worried. As it is, my garage is full of low(ish) value motorbikes/cars and I keep my £25k beemer on the drive.

I used mine as a daily driver, and I do about 25k a year. I got my zed when it was 4 years old with only 20k on the clock and immediately doubled that within less than a year!

I think the main point here was what needs to be declared and what doesnt. If you have a new exhaust at kwik fit and they fit a generic walker exhaust rather than a OEM Nissan (presumably cos generic one is cheaper), does that need to be declared or not. And how is that different to say someone fitting a stainless scorpion exhaust, when any performance gains from changing the exhaust in either cases are more than likely next to nothing unless the car is then remapped. In my experience its a bit of a grey area. Most insurance companies ive spoken to said they didnt care about me changing my exhaust as long as it didnt increase the performance. I said the only reason I was changing it was because a) cheaper than replacing with a genuine Nissan one and stainless so better quality and hopefully last longer. I guess technically I should have got the car on the dyno and checked to see if it now had 1bhp more than originally and if so let insurance know. But on the other hand, should it actually have reduced the performance by 1bhp I wonder if the insurance company would reduce the insurance premium accordingly?