Living with a 350z

[Wkeogh]

Evening all

 

I'm very much thinking about getting a 350z and was hope'ing that someone could answer some questions to help me decide.

 

To have fun on the weekends I have a mk1 mx5 that I have track prepped and turbocharged which is awesome but I drive 35 miles to work so that's 70 miles a day 5 days a week

Currently I'm doing the sensible thing and I have a mk5 golf tdi which is great on fuel but Jesus its boring.

 

Soooooo I'm wondering, is anyone doing similar kind of mileage daily in there 350?

I've read that they can get around 30mpg, all my driving is on the motorway so I can hold a steady 60 the whole way.

I've also read that they are extremely reliable, would a 350 handle 20,000 miles a year? Obviously I would do constant servicing and maintaining of it.

 

If someone could help me decide and finally get something fun to drive daily I would really appreciate it or if this is a stupid idea please let me know.

 

Cheers

Will

[coldel]

I think Spursmaddave used to commute on main roads in his and clocked up 100k+ worth dropping him a PM

[Nick350z]

I'm a bit confused by what you're after. You say you're happy sitting at 60 - which as you say is boring - but 60 is still 60. If you bought a 350, once you'd gotten over the initial excitement, you'd get bored driving that at 60 . The problem with getting a 350 for what you want is that you'll no longer want to travel at 60 as you'll be tempted to give it the beans and then you can wave goodbye to your 30mpg! Also your costs will rise significantly on everything over the Golf you have already. I guess it comes down to how much disposable income you have to play with.

 

Depending on the condition of the car I couldn't see any reason why a 350z wouldn't be able to eat up that mileage. It's got a big, unstressed engine up front with proven reliability and will happily sit at speeds much higher than 60 all day long.

 

Why not take your MX5 to work a couple of days a week instead (assuming its road legal of course) to alleviate the boredom?

 

 

 

[coldel]

I would disagree Nick, even when sitting at 60 i would rather do it in a zed than a diesel golf. There is still more fun in that and you will have to do minor roads at either end of the journey as well as various bits of overtaking in the main roads.

[Nick350z]

I see your point, but I get bored driving mine at that speed. When I say bored I don't mean 'God this cars boring', I mean more a case of the car wants you to play, and you'll want to play, and it's bye bye mpg! Don't get me wrong - I love mine - but I wouldn't want to plod along at 60 in it 5 days a week - although I do have zero self control so that probably doesn't help.

[NeilMH]

There are a number of owners who clock up large mileages very reliably and yes, 30mpg is possible if driven in the way you describe.

[Ekona]

Why would you do 60 on a motorway in a car?

 

Must admit, I'd rather do the commute in a fun car than a boring one, but it doesn't make financial sense at all.

[ATTAK Z]

Base the economics on 24 mpg and you won't be far out

[gsexr]

Dont use mine as a daily only a weekend toy.

I ocasionally take it the 3 miles to work when i`m bored of the company beemer.

I cannot vouch for sitting in traffic but with mixed driving it returns 27 mpg which i think is pretty good.

You wont get anywhere near the mpg you get from the golf but who cares....you have to spend it on something

[Wkeogh]

Thanks for the replies.

 

I agree 60 in any car is 60 but I think that the interior of a 350 looks like a far nicer place to spend 2 hours a day and like what has been said, at the end of each motorway there are roads where fun can be had, along with trips to places on the weekends.

I enjoy using the Mazda and it is road legal but having to get it out the garage,having harnesses, no radio and being loud and rattily it's not pleasant on the motorway at all.

 

I agree I would rather not sit at 60 on the motorway and in all honesty I don't most the time but sitting at 60 really helps with the fuel consumption.

 

I fully expecting to have to spend more on fuel but I feel like it could be a worthy sacrifice.

 

How much does it cost to brim the fuel tank and roughly how many miles would you get to a tank?

I know it all depends how your driving it but a rough kind of idea would be helpful.

 

Cheers

Will

[WhackyWill]

60 mph in a Zed..Must be in the OAP brigade...as for getting 30 to 40 MPG out of a Zed..your not driving it properly

 

I get min 15.5 MPG and max 17.5 MPG.... :scare:

[ATTAK Z]

...... How much does it cost to brim the fuel tank and roughly how many miles would you get to a tank?

 

Cheers

Will

JDM or UK ?

 

ETA UK tank is 80 litres, JDM slightly less ... 24 mpg is your consumption

Edited September 29, 2013 by ATTAK Z

[barry350z]

Hi there,

I have a 04 350Z GT original Irish car completely stock in silver with 50K miles and its a daily driver doing 300 miles a week and it stays around 26mpg with lots of blasts of speed.Absolutely love it and have the car a year with very little only a service and a set of tyres with regard to costs.Its a rare enough car on the roads here due to the road tax being €1800 a year so gets a lot of attention. The only thing i have done was install a 7 inch android tablet in the cubby and did the aux in mod to the bose stereo to have sat nav, music, video etc.If you have the money go for it.

 

Barry

[WhackyWill]

Hi there,

I have a 04 350Z GT original Irish car completely stock in silver with 50K miles and its a daily driver doing 300 miles a week and it stays around 26mpg with lots of blasts of speed.Absolutely love it and have the car a year with very little only a service and a set of tyres with regard to costs.Its a rare enough car on the roads here due to the road tax being €1800 a year so gets a lot of attention. The only thing i have done was install a 7 inch android tablet in the cubby and did the aux in mod to the bose stereo to have sat nav, music, video etc.If you have the money go for it.

 

Barry

 

Welcome to the Forum Barry..

[vansman66]

I use mine as my daily driver and for work purpose, I do, daily 70 miles to and from work, I also use it for my weekend work where I could do anything from 100 to 1,000 miles in her, in fact have only just come back from three days in Europe travelling to Assen TT cirrcuit and Nurburgring averaging 24-27mpg mixed roads and speeds and in 17 months of ownership have clocked up 25,000 miles and she has run like a dream throughout. Love it.

[chubbster]

One of the nice things about a Zed is sitting in traffic, looking at all those other rubbish cars. Another nice thing is BLATTING* it.

 

 

*This means accelerating briskly, but safely, to a maximum of 70mph on appropriate roads.

[nowhereboy]

.

How much does it cost to brim the fuel tank and roughly how many miles would you get to a tank?

I know it all depends how your driving it but a rough kind of idea would be helpful.

 

It costs me about £90 and on average I get about 300 miles to a tank, thats a mixture of sensable and enthusiastic driving.

 

My main problem is the never ending urge to spend money on the car, I've been skint for the last 3 months down to buying mod's and I'm nowhere near finished.

 

I promised myself I'd leave this one standard but it's not easy, these cars wear mod's so well.

 

I love this car but it is a constant drain on my funds, on my wage I wouldn't be happy doing the sort of miles you're doing.

[brillomaster]

again, £90 or so to fill up - my work commute is 20 miles each way, and if i just do commuting (no weekend driving) i wont fill up until i've done 400 miles on a tank (exactly two weeks driving) and normally average 28mpg - thats with the cruise control on normally set to 75-80mph.

 

however, if i wasnt able to car share and half my petrol costs, i would probably buy a diesel shed for commuting... admittedly the cruise is nice in the zed, but im sure i'd be equally happy in a leather trimmed 320d, and it would be quieter.

[cs2000]

I do 70 miles a day, 2 weeks a month. Why 2 weeks and not 4 I hear you ask? Simply because its too damn expensive. Im on a wage above 20k and I still have to share driving 2 weeks a month with a mate I work with.

 

1 tank of juice lasts just about 1 week doing 70mph where it allows but obviously I travel at rush hour so I do a fair amount of 50mph and traffic.

 

I average 26.6 mpg

[AK350Z]

I try to avoid taking mine to work, as it would be about £25 a day! The problem is the roads are pretty good on the way, so I still treat myself occasionally.

[StevoD]

 

I've also read that they are extremely reliable, would a 350 handle 20,000 miles a year? Obviously I would do constant servicing and maintaining of it.

 

 

 

Kinda answered your own question any car will handle it if you keep up with maintenance and any issue get sorted

[J4CKO]

I think with the 350, with a bit of restraint you can get decent figures, I have seen over 30, anticipating lights and stuff helps as accelrating 1500 kilos with a 3.5 V6 isnt cheap, especially if you use the power reserves, I also think a lot of people in fairly mundane cars dont do as well on fuel as they think they are, even medium stuff like a Focus 1.6 isnt that economical, quite conceivable to drop those into the twenties mpg.

 

I tend to use mine and the 944 I had before for nice journeys, i.e. being a convertible, on days I can get the roof down, goign to the shops I will take our little Citroen C1 which offsets the consumption a bit, oh and I cycle to work to try to stem the middle aged spread, or work from home.

 

I think with fuel consumption the thought of it is much worse than the practice, people run diesels and pay twenty grand for one and harp on about the 50 mpg and low VED, but they spent twenty grand on it, invariably they then do 5k a year thinking its free motoring, ignoring the cost of diesel, depreciation and the expensive oil top ups they seem to need, then when it needs work, its expensive things like DPFs, Turbos and the like that need changing and they forget to factor in the two grand bills in the costs.

[hawker1986]

The Mrs nominally does about 50 miles/day but sometimes 80 depending on what her day involves. Money isn't really an issue as she gets fuel costs refunded thankfully (not that it would stop us running it). Her commute is all decent A-roads and she returns 27mpg on average, tbh she loves driving it and is always saying she misses it when shes running my Civic for some reason. Makes the drive more bearable for her. Weve not had any issues with doing the mileage in terms of other costs, just keep it maintained as is needed.

 

The cars perfectly capable of it and it is a nice place to be. Assuming you can afford the petrol and maintenance why not. Personally when im commuting to work in it I love to play with the loud pedal , within the speed limit obviously so I inevitable end up with worse consumption.

 

Hawker

[Jp606]

When I got mine I was thinking of going down the getting a cheap run around route and using the Z at the weekends but it's way too much fun to use it just at the weekends! If you're going to buy a decent car there's not point hardly driving it. I use mine as my daily driver and do about 250 miles a week, every time I get in it it still feels an event

 

You can get sensible mpg out of it, but you have to drive really carefully. I just returned from a 600 mile weekend away and averaged 27mpg and that was with over half of that milage on the motorways, so it does add up.

 

Also the Z is an extremely comfortable car to drive, I've got no problems sitting for hours on end on the motorway.

[hawker1986]

Also the Z is an extremely comfortable car to drive, I've got no problems sitting for hours on end on the motorway.

 

I just have to jump in and +1 this, the Zed munches up the miles very easily, ive driven 4-5 hours and gotten out feeling totally fine.

 

Hawker