roscopervis

Mine usually failed. What I found helped was putting the original cats in the boot. The MOT tester who, when confronted with the fuss of having to replace the cats just to pass the MOT, would find another car to stick the probe up. Not technically right, but suited me fine!

I would love to come out for a drive.

I have one, got it straight after my 350. I have a PASM one on 19's. I really like PASM and wouldn't get one without it personally, but that's just me. I also really like the Sport Chrono pack , mainly for the throttle sharpness it brings. Other than that it's not about the figures, it's about the way all the facets of driving come together really well in the one car. IMS is a very very small risk not worth worrying about I'd say, the bore scoring is at 5-10% but there are things you can do to help minimise risk - get a low temperature thermostat, run the Millers oil that Hartech recommend, don' thrash it from cold or standstill etc. It also doesn't sound as good as the 350 did but that can be fixed with a Carnewal exhaust. I'm really happy with mine. Definitely get an inspection, you'll save the inspection cost in your negotiations I would think.

As ever, Bilt Hamber's product in this sector is excellent - Auto Wash. Seriously underrated. Only bad thing is that it doesn't have much of a smell.

Back to the original question, I was in a similar position a few months ago, originally thought was the 370Z wasn't worth the extra and I should get a M135i coupe. In the end I got a Cayman!

How much is the Zed going to depreciate from now, compared to what you get? Unless you pick wisely, this is a move to lose a lot of money in a car that quite quickly won't feel special enough.

It isn't too bad, certainly for a 10 year old car.

I've already done the subwoofer padding mod and it surprisingly makes it 100% better! Still Bose though so can't get the tones to sound too realistic. I'll be doing the condensers shortly, got them cheap at ECP's in their Halloween sale. Will look into getting some mesh too, thanks for the tip.

https://flic.kr/p/NrsgAm

After much consideration, driving and internal conflict I ended up going for a Porsche Cayman S 987.1 with the 3.4 M97 engine. Yes this is one of the main ones that can get bore scraping so that is something to keep a close eye on, but so far so good. Initially I was looking at E46 and E90/92 M3's, Audi S4's (3.0 supercharged), a Porsche 996 911 and the Cayman. The BMW's are great cars, the E46 is more practical with a bigger fuel tank, the E90 is faster and more expensive to run, but they are both heavy. The same goes for the S4, which can be remapped to 470 bhp quite easily but is not particularly involving. Chris Harris drives both an S4 and a Cayman on roads near me which also helped make my mind up. So it boiled down to the Porsches. They drive quite differently but are very similar in terms of straight line power. The Cayman however is excellent at handling. The 996 911 has challenging and rewarding traits, which may be more rewarding potentially in the long term but the Cayman is spot on immediately. Steering feel, balance, poise and the controls all feel right and I prefer the way they drive. So that was that and I had to find the right one. I ended up with a Basalt Black 2006 (MY2007) Cayman S with lots of spec. Some of it I didn't want, but it was the balance of everything and condition of the car that sold it to me. It has 997 Turbo 19" wheels so it's a good thing it has PASM, Sport Chrono, unfortunately it has BOSE too which isn't very good. It had also just recently been detailed and coated with GTechiq C1 ceramic coating so it should help it look spic and span for a while. I had an inspection done which found no bore scoring and everything in very good condition generally. It does need a new aircon condenser but that was used to negotiate the price down somewhat. I haven't had a chance to take any decent pictures of it yet, so I'll put up what I have.

Car has been bought.

They are nice cars. I ran a Golf GT TDI for 4 years and 100k miles, was still getting up to 73mpg out of it on my daily commute when I sold it. 72mpg seems unreal now compared to the 24mpg im getting out of my current daily. I've put 60k on it, the most I've put on any car. I've squeaked 60 mpg out of it but the average is almost bang on 50mpg. Made the 26 of the Zed and the 27 of the new weekend vehicle much more palatable.

The Bilt Hamber stuff is the best stuff now.

Seat Leon tdi 130. Pretty dull but works well and 50mpg. Means I now have 2 'German' cars!

I agree, the Galaxy S7 Edge is as good as it gets, same internals as the Note 5 too.