HollowPoint

My point is, the 300zx didn't move away from what the original Zs were about, it was a natural progression from the Z31, which was a progression from the 280zx, which was a progression from the 260z (280z was nothing more than a re-badged 260 to sell excess stock according to the most knowledgeable Z-heads out there.) the 350z did not then move back to what the original z's were about, it simply moved with the times, turbos weren't as popular, but it factored in other new tech that was in the car industry at the time.

Doesn't the 350z have a huge 3.5 litre engine? Traction Control? ABS? Air Bags throughout? New Crush technology? Double Din head units with bluetooth hands-free kits? A new style ECU to suit the era it came out in? Sorry but I've driven a lot of cars and the 300zx is actually one of the best driver focussed vehicles I've ever driven. I'm still lost as to your point of view here, unless you simply mean you didn't like the 300zx, in which case, each to their own and that's fine, lol.

Turbo engines started with the 280zx and carried through the Z31 and Z32 300zx. They were doing nothing more than moving with the times really, everything decent that came out of Japan through those years, had turbos, then when the 350 was released, they almost matched the power of the z32 without any. Besides that, plenty of NA 300zxs were sold.

How do you qualify that exactly? It was a rear wheel drive GT/Sports Coupe, with sleek looks, most of the same factory options as it's predecessors (targa top, slick top, auto, manual, 2+2, 2 seater).....I'm sorry but I really fail to see how it moved away from what Z cars were about. I have a 280zx as well and whilst the technology in the 300 is considerably further ahead obviously, the car is very similar. The driving experience is both challenging, but fun and very rewarding, the attention both cars grab from people walking/driving down the street is huge..... I really don't get where you're coming from and I certainly don't get why you think the 350 was in any way a step back to the origins, it was still a RWD GT/Sports Coupe, but suddenly offered with less options than ever before, less power than it's predecessor, completely different styling. To me, each iteration of the Z car was an evolution in one way or another, from it's predecessor, with the 350 taking a rather different approach.

You grew up in Essex, so you never saw the nice ones clearly, all you've mentioned is crap, including the 80s 911 that'd kill you as soon as look at you, one of the worst designed cars EVER for power, speed or handling. Has as much right to the title 'widow-maker' as any other car of the period. As for the 300zx being such a fat car, it was faster stock, than the 350z........

That's just not true at all. It was in the terms of the standard day to day cars, like the MkIII Escort and the Stock standard Sierra etc, but when you come to the souped up stuff, you had the 300zx Twin Turbo, the 200SX S14, the ICONIC BMW 3 Series and the introduction of the M5s, you had lots of very nice Lotus cars in that era, plus this was the era where all the cool engines started to be made and all the technology that makes up new cars as something we take for granted, was all developed. Car design went through the roof during the 80s and 90s, there's just no denying it.

I think lots are coming out from full restorations that have gone on for years. Over on zClub, lots of 240zs, 260zs and 280zxs are now coming out of full restorations. Our 280zx hasn't really been out much for 2 years because the previous owner fell ill a couple of years ago and just hasn't used it. Now we own it, it's probably done more mileage in the last few weeks than the last couple of years and once we've restored it over the winter, it'll do the full show season next year.

Seeing a bloke in an S2000, gives me similar thoughts (Not nice, nor particularly PC, so I won't express them) to those thoughts which occur when I see a bloke driving an Audi TT.......hope this helps with your decision

Woman driver, came across you as you came from the M621 onto the M1 briefly and then onto the M62 Eastbound. I go all the way to the M18 and you pulled off around the A19. VERY nice car, love the wheels, what's the bonnet bulge about?

I'd had a drink last night so found it amusing, apologies lol

So Revup is not what Nissan actually called the engine?

So although it's coded, do Nissan actually call it a 'revup' engine? Or has it adopted that nickname somehow in the community? VQ35DER is better, definitely, although of course it could do with being a VQ35-DETT or DET. I wonder if you could call it that when you guys turbo it? lol

.... put an engine in the 350z called the 'Revup'? Apologies if this has been discussed, but I don't own a 350 and in truth, don't know much about them mechanically, but I keep seeing this referred to on the forum and......well I'm just at a loss for words, lol. I mean seriously, what kind of a name is that, for an engine in the 'noughties'? FFS! Nissan used to code their engines, RB26-DETT, VG30-DETT, VQ45........but Revup? REALLY? Tell me it aint so?

amazing how you kept your cool for so long. I would of blown days before In fairness, days before I was busy trying to enjoy my honeymoon in Cologne and had forced myself (With some help from some fine German Beer and some schnapps) to forget about the fact our car was stuck in Belgium and we were driving a Citroen Berlingo (I stuck it in the multi-story in Cologne for 5 days and forgot about it tbh).

They haven't. I still use the AA, but now insist they tow me home, as if it's something I can't fix at the roadside, it's something they can't fix there either. The worst part about the blow out in London, was that a manager phoned me the next day, to apologise and advise me that as my car was heavily modified, I didn't in fact need to keep a spare, but the advisor the night before was unaware of that fact and that I also did not have to use the stupid tyre goo, as I have sunken valves and it doesn't work with my valve extention. Credit to them for ringing me to apologise, but it doesnt give me back the 5 hours it took to track down a spare space saver and get myself back to my hotel in full on limp mode, the night before. Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

Was in London when they left me stranded with a blow out. Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2

I should clarify a few things about that video: We weren't given the option of being towed home, even though we should have been We had to source, purchase and arrange delivery to belgium of the parts that were needed, from England! The Belgian Garage did not speak English The Belgian Garage did not accept Credit/Debit cards The Belgian Garage closed for an hour and they all went home to eat lunch In Belgium, Brothels are legal and have Amsterdam style 'windows' with semi-naked ladies in them, at 1pm in the afternoon - not relevant, but still The bill was $621 Euros for removing upper camber arms on both sides and fitting them with the new parts I had sourced, a maximum of 60 minutes work for a fully tooled mechanic After pulling out of the garage, it turned out the Garage had also set our geometry back to standard settings, so we then tore shreds out of our drivers side tyre on the rear arch. The Belgian Garage did not know what our 300zx was and asked me if it was definitely a Nissan I had just before this video begins, discovered that my AA cover did not cover fitting of parts either and apparently there was a tiny little checkbox I could have ticked when taking out the cover. This was not relayed to us BEFORE the work was started. This was half a mile (Or less) down the road from the Belgian Nissan garage. I had to pull into a Volvo garage and borrow a trolley jack so I could raise my suspension up and hopefully get back to England from Belgium without having yet another blow out, on a brand new tyre (Remember the other video I said they left me stranded? Well these tyres were 3 weeks old and were destroyed by the alignment the Nissan Garage did).

This video was taken by my wife, after I'd already been speaking to the AA guy on the end of the phone for a good ten minutes and getting nowhere. She started filming because she thought I was gunna blow. Considering the circumstances (Explained in the video), I think I held my cool quite well.......until I didn't. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ujijf4xc1s

And he'll die broke and young if he has a passion for both!

Gets more ridiculous every month too. Thankfully, I only have the one car that is post 2001, the other 3 are pre-2001. The amount of tax we pay in this country in general is ridiculous. I drive 4 large engined petrol cars, I smoke, I drink, I have children (pay for school dinners for the young one and everything for the 18 year old layabout one) and I live in a big house to make sure I have enough room for the cars, kids and the dog. In other words, I pay more tax than most millionaires and I'm not one! Do I get ANYTHING back for it? Nope. Not even decent pot-hole-free roads to drive on.

We all get it and with any Z, not just the 350s and 370s

I'm doubting that to be honest, like I said, I was never defending his choice of pricing, just pointing out a bad road I've seen lots of people go down many times with different marques and suggesting maybe it's one people shouldn't go down.

That attitude is exactly the problem. There's no need to contact anyone, you just do it. As Jetpilot says, it's a bit different holding out for top money than advertising at twice the price, but the simple fact is, threads like this will discourage owners from selling at high prices, because they fear the wrath of the forum. Happens time and time again on every car, so disagree with me all you like, the facts are in the history. I agree, doubling the price is stupid, my point wasn't that he's selling for the right price, but that this thread doesn't help with the devaluation of the 350s, as it will discourage others from selling at high prices, in fear of the same type of threads popping up about them and their cars. Think of it this way, second hand car dealers offer cars at roughly £1000 above their book price and buy them for £1000 less, yet in a private sale, where you're not dealing with a slimey salesman and you actually get to meet the previous owner of the car, we all seem to sell them cheaper. Now if you need to get rid of the car, that's fair enough, but if you just fancy something new and can hold out for more money, you should. Your comments about breaking are dead on, in the last few years numerous people have broken 300zxs for parts, including myself. Darren-B on here has just started putting his 350z back to standard, so that he can get the money it should bring and sold his parts separately, that's economically viable now, but in a few years time it won't be. For example, 10 years ago, my wife managed to sell her modified Celica for £7,500, when the car was worth £3,500, she had bought it for £3,000 and spent £12,500 modifying it. In reality that wasn't a bad return at the time, but if we had that same celica today, we'd be lucky to get £3000 for it, even with it in mint condition, heavily modified, etc. If we stripped out the parts and then sold the car standard, we'd get something like £1000 for it, even if it was mint and bog standard! There comes a point where a modified version of a sports car, is actually worth more than a standard one, then eventually it reverses again and the standard version is a classic, the modified version has to be to the persons taste, etc. All I was saying, was that threads like this are only going to discourage people from holding out for high prices, which further encourages the depreciation of the marque. It happens with every car, I've seen it loads of times and whilst everyone will tell you it's a 'buyers market' it isn't, it's a market to sell your car for the money you want. If you have a high calibre example of the car, modified or not, then someone, somewhere, will pay your price, if you can wait for it, on the other hand, you could just accept the loss, flog it quickly and not care.

Whilst I'm with you all on it being too much, be careful just how much you guys point it out. Having owned both new and old cars and been in the 'scene' a while, it's amazing how when the car is only a few years old (350z/370z), the owners have threads like this, where the car is advertised for far too much and the owner is crazy, but before long, the car gets that little bit older and suddenly the price plummets like a rock in a river and the threads change to 'OMG surely our cars are worth more than this'. Every car goes through this stage and every car ends up worth next to nothing (Well, unless it's a ferrari or a Lambo etc.) and eventually they pick back up again and begin to appreciate when there are next to no cars left. All I'm saying is, don't 'encourage' that depreciation of the car so quickly, maybe try to encourage people to be paying a bit more for the clean examples? All it takes is for a few people to price their cars like this and a few people to then buy them at that price and it actually makes a difference. Just the same as wages really, if you stand your ground and refuse to work for less, yes you'll miss out on some jobs, but the more people who do it, the louder the message is sent to employers that they can't just pay peanuts and get good workers.

http://www.bimmerforums.co.uk/forum/ - Best BMW forum I've been on. Couldn't get to grips with the rest of them, but I like that one. Nice helpful people, tonnes of info about the cars, known faults, repair advice, etc. Nice looking car you've got yourself there. I currently have an E46 330ci Clubsport and am seriously considering upgrading to a version or two above.