What Can I Expect For My Money?

[NLOZED]

£4750

As in the title, i know its a little vague but im after a 350 and limited to that amount.

I have little knowledge or experience of 350`s just know i want one :0

Was going to be a TT till a Zed pulled up alongside me going home from work, he sat there blipping his throttle and then floored it a little, it was just nice, like i want one of them.

So yes, i want one, is my budget too restrictive or are there bargains to be had, dont mind an old car nor higher mileage, condition and history is more important. Have spent quite a while looking and reading but kinda confused as prices seem to be all over the place.

Help, offers or suggestions all appreciated.

 

Also, maybe im not looking in the right places but is there a good buyers guide anywhere?

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited September 4, 2017 by NLOZED

[HiddenWomble]

She does have a lovely burble

 

Check out this buyers guide (scroll down for a 2nd guide a few posts below the first too!)

 

 

You might want to avoid Junction 17 as a potential dealer, this thread has a compelling amount of advice against them:

 

 

The 350Z is a tough car, mine has 150K on the clock and has only lost a few ponies from the factory. I have poured a ton of money into her though, she's long in the tooth and things need replacing. As with most cars as long as it's been serviced and kept topped up with oil the engine should be fine. If you're buying private ask about petrol too, super unleaded matches the requirements in the manual.

 

Well worth investing in good tyres, while you can go budget and drive sensibly on them it's no fun when a run of the mill ford focus can out accelerate you in the wet (yes, the tyres mine came with really were that bad). 

 

If this is your first car at a similar BHP then do a year on regular insurance then next year check out some of the insurance companies that do deals on here, they should be able to drop your premium and be very mod friendly. I went from 130bhp to 308 in one step, got a good quote from the comparison sites for the first year, with no mods allowed. Now I'm using some of the specialist and can mod away.

 

You will probably want to read up on the differences between UK zeds and imports, there are some good bargains to be had on the imports if they work for you.

 

I chose the zed over competing cars because of the big lazy V6,  that surge of power no matter what gear you're in is very grin inducing. As long as you can deal with the tiny boot and lack of rear seats she's a wonderful car!

[Redsky]

The price will vary on a fair few things but some simple points would be the trim options and the engine. You get your standard car with cloth seats and the basic interior then you get the GT pack which comes with the leather seats and a big bose sub behind the drivers seat, some cars also have sat nav built into the dash. More of these it has the more likely its more expensive. 

 

The 350 comes with 3 engines you have the DE which is the first variant, the revup which is a slightly revised DE with a higher redline and some tweaks (also sometimes a bit of an oil consumption problem) and finally the HR engine which supposedly has 80% new components. Again the newer the engine the more expensive it will be. 

 

Theres also the modded ones out there, so some will be modded to the heavens and will be super pricey and less modded tend to run cheaper unless its a super low mileage super clean unmodded keeper.

 

Then theres the imports which come under the fairlady badge. Sometimes run cheaper but will me in KMH unless converted and might run you a little bit of a premium depending on your insurer.

 

The best thing you can do to be honest is go and have a look at some, check the rear arches for rust also the W brace (the structural bar under the back 1/3rd of the car) if you can manage to see it.

 

Hopefully this helps  

[Ekona]

That's a very exact amount, most people would say either £4500 or £5000. My concern for you would be budget to actually run & maintain it, rather than whether you'll find a car in the first place. Can you afford 23 mpg at £1.30 a litre? Then there's clutches, suspension parts, tyres etc all of which the 350 likes to eat a lot of. 

 

Apologies for any general assumptions here, it's just how your post comes across. 

Edited September 4, 2017 by Ekona

[Willsy1980]

As above, the 350 can be a little pricey on the consumables side, a decent set of aftermarket pads and disks will be about £1000 fitted. Not trying to put you off, just be aware before you buy that a kitty is needed.

Good luck with the hunt though

[zippypooz]

Your budget is a DE, dont look at anything else as it may may a dog. Also the DE has the cheaper tax. I would have thought you can fine a decent DE (up to 2005) for that price.

All the models are great, there isnt a bad 350z model. Id try Pistonheads. Scan around and take your time, its easy to get excited and go for the first one you see.

You can try here too, that way youll be able to see some sort of history from the owner if theyve posted up on here. Good luck!

[Rock_Steady]

I sold my 2005 DE for £4500 with 88K miles on the clock. No rust. It had a re-map @ Abbey and a smattering of after-market upgrades. I think i spent around 3k on upgrades in total over the 4 years i had it. Bear in mind, mine was recorded as a CATD but had no structural/chassis damage. i think it was a fair price for what it was. 

Edited September 5, 2017 by Rock_Steady

[NLOZED]

Hi, thanks for the replies, some interesting points, i have been looking for a while, seen a lot of different cars sell for what seemed silly high and silly low prices where you might question both. Probably know what i can get in reality but not too confident taking the next step.

Thanks for the guide altho i did find it after posting always the way

Imports and Cat c\d dont appeal, will no doubt be an early 03\04 car, needs must.

17 hours ago, Ekona said:

That's a very exact amount, most people would say either £4500 or £5000. My concern for you would be budget to actually run & maintain it, rather than whether you'll find a car in the first place. Can you afford 23 mpg at £1.30 a litre? Then there's clutches, suspension parts, tyres etc all of which the 350 likes to eat a lot of. 

Im confident right now i can afford to run one, that is the exact amount i have saved to buy a car.

Needs must im afraid, my little runaround for work and like got written off a little while ago, the person who i currently get a lift with is leaving in 2 weeks so the need for a car is getting urgent, i have been saving for a few months with a goal of buying in November, birthday present to myself, but im bringing that forward because i need a car very soon.

 

[Kev]

You will be more likely to pick up a bargain just before Xmas. 

 

Winter is is the best time to buy a Z. 

 

Like people have mentioned check the brakes. I had to replace pads and disks when I got mine and it wasn't cheap. 

 

Compared to other performance cars in the same price range. Z's are reliable, easy to work on and cheap to maintain. 

 

Something like a high mile e46 m3 is a big risk in comparison. In terms of potential costs. 

 

350z's are a underrated car. 

 

 

[Irn Bru]

If it was me, I'd use the money as my contribution and finance the rest.....say up to an £8k priced car. The £3K (approx) on finance over 3 or 4 years would be circa £100.00 / month, nowt in real terms considering the Zed isn't a cheap daily car. That way your (hopefully) buying a gid yin and will have been looked after. Even better idea, buy from an established member off here who will probably have a build thread on their car.

 

Lots of abused Zeds around due to them getting more affordable of late so go in with your eyes open and perhaps even get a member off here to go view a couple with you, plenty of members up and down the country willing to help and be prepared to travel for the right one. Gid luck

 

[Payco]

I would echo Ekona comments.Dont just look at the purchase cost.You need to able to run and maintain it.Too many people go into ownership and then moan about this cost.Make sure you have a budget for both.

[Jords]

Your budget is absolutely fine and you should be able to find a nice motor with it. I would be looking for a 2004/5 model with reasonable mileage and we'll looked after.

 

Be wary of lower priced cars, some are imports and are less desirable when they don't have the gt pack or poor history.

 

Prices are all over the place sometimes, but that's down to condition, service history and extras. A well looked after motor with a recent clutch, brakes and service is worth the extra money. A clutch will cost £700-800 quid as an estimate. Brakes can cost a few hundred quid for the front or the back.    Buying a car that's a grand cheaper than another might seem like a great idea but the money saved can quickly change if you need a clutch and brakes for example.

 

Best place is the for sale section on here hopefully you could find something well known and well looked after.

 

Good luck.

[coldel]

As Jords said look in the For Sale section, there is a JDM 03 plate just bumped to your price range. For the money you are going to have to compromise on a few things such as colour, styling and location of car - suspect you might have to travel a fair way to find your car, but then again most people on here did.

 

As a general rule in terms of imports do not be put off by the myths that sit with them in the industry, you can get zed imports with GT spec options you simply just have to spend 5 minutes checking they have them. Insurance wise they make hardly any difference to insurance nowadays. My last two cars have been imports and nothing wrong with them at all. Have you got yourself some insurance quotes yet? Worth looking into as there have been various horror stories on here of people buying Zeds then facing an insurance cost of thousands because they didnt check it beforehand. 

 

To echo the above, make sure you have at least £1k slush sat in your account (or a credit card with it on!) as you can get bitten quite quickly by perishables, they are not cheap on these cars.   

[Jords]

As said above. Also to add, maybe I shouldn't have been as off-putting towards imports, they can be gems. Just be careful of its history regardless of UK spec or import.

[Nato]

Hey, I've just bought a Zed Roadster and was in exactly that price bracket when I was looking.

Plenty of coupes at that price but all are a little rough and are now in the hands of 'young adults' who like the look but not the expense.

 

I got an Azure Blue (non-GT) 56 plate with 86k for £4600. Needs a service some decent matching tyres and some tlc. Apart from that it has a new clutch (5k so far), decent brakes and should last a year for me without needing much more than basic servicing. It is however in the higher tax bracket so £535 a year. I think that puts a lot of people off but if you haggle I think you could get a newer model and just plump some extra cash on the tax.

 

Good hunting

[Ekona]

That's an utter bargain of a car for that price, good find!

 

Extra VED is nothing compared to the fuel costs, it's the equivalent of an extra pint of beer a week. I wouldn't let that affect my judgement at all. 

[NLOZED]

Cheers folks, i dont know what to say, good advice and good guides all went out of the window as soon as i saw it, heart ruled my head but i think i made a good choice.

Ended up spending £5250, 04 GT 84k Sunset Orange, my favourite and obviously the fastest colour, really nice looking car in n out, started to hoof it down on the way to view which made it a little uncomfortable could probably have done a better job of inspecting it and maybe rushed in a little blinkered, but initially very happy with the car i bought for the money.

 

Edited September 9, 2017 by NLOZED

[Jords]

Congratulations! Get photos up for us to see 

 

[HEADPHONES]

Congratulations from a fellow Sunset Orange owner.

At night when it's clean, sunset orange paintwork looks like it's on fire

 

[Ekona]

NLOZED: I only have this exact amount of money to spend on a car! Not a penny more! Condition very important too!

 

*spunks nearly a grand more than advertised figure*

 

NLOZED: Bought this orange one, didn't check condition as I was so excited!

 

*cue thug life meme*

 

 

[Jords]

43 minutes ago, Ekona said:

NLOZED: I only have this exact amount of money to spend on a car! Not a penny more! Condition very important too!

 

*spunks nearly a grand more than advertised figure*

 

NLOZED: Bought this orange one, didn't check condition as I was so excited!

 

*cue thug life meme*

 

 

Sometimes you find a way to raise the extra cash when you really want a car haha.

 

Also, original figure £4750,   purchase price £5250. I've extensively researched the mathematics required to determine the price difference. I have even requested the opinions of several professional contacts. They all confirm that's £500, not a grand haha.

[Ekona]

True, but it doesn't scan quite as well for the purposes of humour so I used a little creative accounting  

[davey_83]

Sounds a nice buy, qlwp

[NLOZED]

lol, i said i have this amount saved for a car, not this is all i have, altho it was

Needs must and all that.

Very pleased, pics eventually.

 

Edit - I lied obviously, i just re read my first post

Edited September 10, 2017 by NLOZED

[Ekona]

No judgment from me fella, I tend to buy the first car I see too and often without even driving them