rabbitstew

I certainly did. I found the HR 350z actually felt quicker & more exciting to drive. I also preferred the looks of the 350z. I test drove a Monaro V8 whilst I was in Australia as a mates friend had one and happily lent me the keys. Have to say I wasnt too impressed with that either. Certainly nice soundtrack, but the v8 was a bit of a lazy drive compared to the 7500rpm screaming v6 the HR 350z had. It felt slower and heavier. I likened it to comparing my HR to my 123d really without the v8 noise. The VX220 turbo is quite a bit more expensive. Ive been keeping an eye on elises and vx220`s for the last 12 months and you can pick up an elise or vx220 for about 5 or 6k now. But the vx220 turbo`s are 11k upwards. You can stick astra vxr bits on them and get a lot more power out of them. Also, a big problem now elises & vx220`s are getting on a bit, is that any slight bump writes them off due to the cost of the clams. So theres a lot of cat c & d ones out there. Still, if one comes along at the right price i`ll be on it as quick as a flash still.

I think they should be made to work for free for life so at least we get something back of out them.

It can catch on that cross member. You can shim he cross member with a few washers, or slightlyly bend / flatten the pipe to clear - dont start bashing it too much else you`ll mess up the exhaust gas flow. For the money (around £150 second hand) the K1 isnt a bad system in my experience. Certainly very loud, but i thought mine sounded pretty good. Id be going for a scorpian or cobra system next time around though.

Glad the OP managed to get the problem sorted out. With regards to the courtesy car, whilst the garage may normally give out micras id have expected something better for the fact you are leaving them to work on quite an expensive car you bought from Nissan. When I took my 350z 313 roadster in for them to look at the hood. As soon as they realised it wasnt just an hours fix, they gave me the keys to a brand new 370z Roadster they were selling on their forecourt and told me to use that until they fixed my car. No messing about.

I knew someone, somewhere would! Think you're in a minority though Adam. In last week's Wheeler Dealers Mike Brewer (spit) bought a Boxster S for £1000 because the seller thought it had 'major gearbox issues'. Edd solved it with an oil change I saw this show. The seller actually priced it up at £1500 originally, which upon seeing my initial reaction was "thats cheap". But, in actual fact the car had gearbox problems and the seller had been quoted £2000 to have it repaired. Looking on ebay etc.. you can get a perfectly good boxster S for less than £4k now. I saw one for £3750 the other day, so assuming the seller accepts £3500, then this guy on wheeler dealers selling his for £1500 is about the right price. The boxster on wheeler dealers also had been sitting in the guys drive for 4? years did he say, needed new seats, a service plus after doing nothing for 4 years you`d assume it needed a few other minor bits. When you factor in mechanics time etc... then it all adds up. Which explains why the guy was so keen to let it go for a grand. Of course, the seller could have broken the car into bits and got more than a grand, but having done this myself on a few cars, the time / effort in stripping a car, then selling bits off etc.. is a right pain.

In my on road experience up against one it wasnt. And looking at the on paper figures there really isnt much in it. (z4m 0-100 in 12.3 vs HR 12.7 and 1/4 mile both do it in 13.5) I wasnt sure what to go for when I off loaded my HR zed last year. Biggest thing for me was the depreciation, as I paid £16k for mine 2 years back. If you only paid £13.5 for yours then you wont be hit quite as much. Really depends on your budget. I budgeted 25k last year to replace the zed and was spoilt for choice. Do I go for a scoobie for £4k, a boxster for £4k, lotus elise for 7k, a porsche 996 for 8k, a range rover for 8k, e46 m3 for 10k, vx220 turbo for 12k, clio v6 for 15k a 997 for 17k, a e92 m3 for 25k, a nearly new mental Evo for 24k. They were pretty much all the stuff I was considering. But for me the kicker was the running costs. My zed was costing me £1200 a month all in to use on a daily basis. £600 depreciation, £450 fuel, £250 insurance / servicing etc. So if I was going to go for something like one of the above cars, my running costs would probably remain the same. As a daily runner I wanted to try and reduce this as much as possible. Problem then is you think... well for 18k you could buy a cheap diesel shed for £1500, then spend the remainder on a mad weekend car and probably still save money. You could dump £2k on modding your HR and gain very little extra power out of it. And then when you come to sell thats another £2k you`ll just loose on it. Just too much choice these days!!!!

You can get a zed for £5k but dont forget to factor in running costs.

I stuck with the oem alezan orange!

doh!

Which is why i swapped my zed for a 123d. You can get 270bhp out of them apparently with just a remap. For me, I wanted something rare but not something which stands out. In 18 months of having my 313 roadster I saw about 2 others, so that was pretty rare. In 8 months of 123d ownership, ive not seen a single other 123d, let alone a 123d coupe like my one is. Loads of 118d`s and 120d`d out there though. Sure, they do all look the same nearly until you see the badge. And initially for me, it did feel weird having a car which blended in! A car which people didnt point at or come over and say "wow, nice car" etc. But then again, im quite enjoying it, the old wolf in sheeps clothing thing i guess. Only earlier on in the week, I was sitting at some traffic lights and heard some tyres squealing I looked and saw some lad in a Focus ST beside me flooring it off. I put my foot down and out accelerated him up to the speed limit before I pulled over and let him past. He was more than surprised. Sure, the 123d isnt cheap. Looking at current prices I could have bought a 997 and a boxster for the weekend and still had change. Still, im looking forward to remapping mine when its out of warranty and am enjoying the "stealthness" atm.

Michael Bolton auditioned for Black Sabbath when Ozzy left them. They choose Ronnie Dio instead.

Damn, if i had my golf id have bought this, 37p is a bargain!

And theres your problem. Norton is well known for killing computers. Even a top spec one will run like a dead dog after putting that on. Id uninstall that and just use windows security essentials or something like that.

Something strange there then, as no reason why a computer would slow down as the hardware doesnt change inside. If the pc was originally fast then it should still be fast unless they have installed programs etc What usually happens is that because apple computers are still quite a minority compared to windows pc`s, malware and stuff tends to get onto windows computers easier - as a lot of users click on everything and get all sorts of stuff installed. I know as I fix no end of them for friends / family. Which is where apple stuff is better as virus / malware writers cant be bothered to write stuff for them and iphones etc... are so locked down you cant install stuff you want to yourself, let alone install rogue software. Its ideal for parents who you dont want to mess things up, and one reason why loads and loads of businesses are rolling out ipads. Not only does apple nearly give them away, but the business can lock it down so tight that employees cant install their own stuff and mess it all up.

And its for this reason that i never trust any of my cars to garages. Nearly every single time ive had any work done at any garage they have not done it correctly. From a well known clutch chain who ended up setting fire to my car, through to Nissan who at one garage took great delight in revving the hell of of my car to hear the exhaust note, at another didnt bother reading the notes the receptionist wrote down explaining what my wifes juke needed doing and at another breaking my roof so it didnt close properly. Ive zero faith in any garages and so just do the work myself. I know thats not something everyone can do, but im lucky I can. If I could afford tyre change equipment id never take my car anywhere to have tyres fitted - its a total nightmare trying to find a garage who wont end up scratching your alloys etc.

Apparently the s4 is actually smaller than the s3 even though it has a bigger screen. So its looking like they are settling on that sort of size as being the optimum size for a phone. Have to say I was very sceptical about the s3 being "too big" when i first saw one and handled it. However, buying one for work, and using it every day I find its not too big at all. It fits easily into my jeans front pockets and because its so slim and light you forget its there. Handling & using it isnt a problem and the colours & clarity of the screen is just incredible compared to other phones ive used.

Looks like it was the 276bhp zed too? Although could have been a revup. Be interesting to see how the 313 compared.

err.... the older samsung s3 totally rinsed out the iphone 5, so samsung have already been there and done that. Personally at the moment for me its between 2 phones, the s3 (I have one on EE 4G) and the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 represents incredible value for money as its about £230 sim free brand new. Its basically same spec as the s3 but you dont get the option for an SD card slot. Ive had a play with the nexus and found it actually felt quicker when using as it hasnt got the samsung touchwiz overlay on it, although I prefered the slimmer feel & better looks of my s3. The iphone 5 isnt really any better over the 4s. The samsung s4... which is released in 2 days time... well, if its any bigger than the s3 then its not for me. However, if like my missus you have been tied into apple with itunes and their apps etc... then you may as well stay with them. She certainly wont ever move now to any other brand, even if apple continue to fall way behind the competition. However, one of my mates was a die-hard apple fan and was constantly saying how crap android was. He tried an s3 last year, loved it so much he went out & bought one. He hasnt looked back. The other option however, is like what ive done on my other phone contract. Ive kept my old samsung s2, and switched to monthly sim only contract so i only pay £6.99 a month. That way, when a decent phone comes out I like I can just switch over to that if required. However, the s2 does everything I want from a phone. Sure the s3 I have on my work contract is flashy & quicker, but in real life terms the older s2 ticks all my boxes.

Been toying with the idea of getting one of these myself for summer fun as you can pick the early ones up for just a few hundred quid now.

Whilst I like Lambos, that one looks horrendous. More like something from the transformers film.

Talk about drive by shooting!

+1, i set mine for 7500 and left it. Havent touched it since!

When you have a totally mint unmarked car I find I get paranoid as to where I park it. At work its parked in a secure locked underground carpark, and the person who parks next to me is always careful not to get too close to my car. At home, its parked on my drive about 1 foot from my front door. And if we go out anywhere at the weekend, 9 times out of 10 I will take the wifes car to avoid parking mine somewhere where it could get marked. Sure, its not a lambo or a 100k car, but its still very valuable to me and with the amount of care i take to make sure it looks immaculate, the last thing I want is some chav scratching it or denting it in Asda carpark.

+1, you can get an HR for that price.

Welcome!