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a 350z to avoid (potential new owner)


adymi16

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Not sure if this is the best place to put this, but this being my old zed I thought I'd make any potential new owners aware of several issue that will cost money very soon. In fact I sold the car as I actually owned two, this one and late model hr. This one was sold as despite it looking mint (I looked after it cosmetically ) it needs some serious work which I very much doubt has been done. I sold it to a car buying website for 5.5k. It needed the following when I sold it end of Jan:

 

http://www.autotrade...dcars?logcode=p

 

 

1. It imminently needs a clutch it's on its original (79,000 miles) and after a long drive its smells very strongly, also pedal is very high.

2. It needs front discs and pads,

3. Both main front suspension bushes have split in half and need replacing.

4. It's has an issue with rust on the rear edge of the roof, hard to spot as the car looks so good but it's going to be a nightmare for someone soon. Runs right the way across width of roof on underside of where roof meets rear hatch.

5. The drivers side electric motor only works intermittently.

6. Non Bose head unit - CD' s constantly skip.

7. Exhaust is on its last legs I welded one section up but it will break again soon in several places.

8. It had started to use oil much faster (I know lots of rev up cars do this) but the usage had gone up considerably.

9. It's also on its original set of spark plugs as far as I was aware. I owned it 4 years we stuck 50k miles on it.

10. The last 50k miles servicing is not dealer stamped, I only changed the oils every 10k and wrote it in the book no p1, p2 , p3 inspections been Carried out, it's was a nice way to do 400 miles a week to and from work but it was a work horse not a cherished example mechanically (that was saved for my hr which had un till early Feb spent more time in our garage than on the road the past few years)

 

Basically all wear and tear stuff but the excellent cosmetic appearance inside and out will potentially blind a new buyer. I let it go for 5.5k as it would have cost me several thousand to get mechanically sound again. Hope this is of use to someone either in avoiding it or giving you the info you need to haggle. Rather interestingly it's now up for more than I bought it for with just 30k miles 4 years ago (from a dealer). I paid 8200 in for it in 2011 ( height of the recession)

Edited by adymi16
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Right, who's going to explain to me why this car doesn't have cruise control? :wacko:

 

The leather seats and gear knob look retro-fitted to me - the steering wheel doesn't have the matching orange bit (hand brake should be orange too if it's standard, no?) - and no Bose either; ergo it's not a GT.

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Right, who's going to explain to me why this car doesn't have cruise control? :wacko:

 

The leather seats and gear knob look retro-fitted to me - the steering wheel doesn't have the matching orange bit (hand brake should be orange too if it's standard, no?) - and no Bose either; ergo it's not a GT.

 

5 points :thumbs: minus 1 for the steering wheel because I'm not sure I've seen a facelift with the matching alezan on it.

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Right, who's going to explain to me why this car doesn't have cruise control? :wacko:

 

The leather seats and gear knob look retro-fitted to me - the steering wheel doesn't have the matching orange bit (hand brake should be orange too if it's standard, no?) - and no Bose either; ergo it's not a GT.

 

5 points :thumbs: minus 1 for the steering wheel because I'm not sure I've seen a facelift with the matching alezan on it.

 

Bah, so close... :lol:

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its definelty my car, I can tell i sat in it for 50k miles, it has bridgestone re50a on the front, continetals on the rear, retro fitterd seats and gear knob, even the wear on the drivers mat is excatly the same.

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Right, who's going to explain to me why this car doesn't have cruise control? :wacko:

 

The leather seats and gear knob look retro-fitted to me - the steering wheel doesn't have the matching orange bit (hand brake should be orange too if it's standard, no?) - and no Bose either; ergo it's not a GT.

 

5 points :thumbs: minus 1 for the steering wheel because I'm not sure I've seen a facelift with the matching alezan on it.

 

Alezen was standard on non-GT pack facelifts and I had to pay extra for it on the GT model I bought in December 2006 :wacko: ! And my steering wheel did not have the Alezan on it but never quite sure whether that feature was dropped with the facelift upgrade or they simply ran out of s/wheels with that feature :lol:

 

2006 Facelift brochure attached to help the understanding.

 

Nissan_350Z brochure.pdf

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I'm guessing most of those would show up as an advisory on the mot?

 

Just shows what these traders are making cars .....

 

As for trader fixing the problems .... I wouldn't hold your breath , they wouldn't make any money if they fixed before selling them .

 

Some car traders are ok ...... But my rule of thumb is they are all con artists who would sell their own mother for a tidy profit

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I was going to say that I feel quite sorry for the dealer here..... Most of the bad points seem to be related to knowing the car in side out... Clutch smelling on long runs, using more oil than it should, bit of rust that's hard to spot... When the reality is the dealer has probably driven it less than 10 miles, bought it at an auction and has probably paid 10-20% more than what you sold it for. The other bad points are Mot failures or advisories so surely fixed at the dealers expense.... By time he puts his 10-20% profit on top of that (plus haggle room) he's at the price it's up for sale......

 

BUT THEN... I noticed he's saying fully stamped service history ..... So for that he should probably burn in hell

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I'd say it's very unlikely. He probaly picked it up at auction between 6 and 6.5k. So a standard mark up of 2k. Makes it 8.5k. It only had 6 months mot when I sold it so I expect it's either had a 'friendly mot done now' or will have a 'friendly mot done when it's sold' . I'd bet all its had is a machine polish before it went to auction. As I said the cosmetic condition would make you assume it's been cherished, even the seats look brand new, I religiously wash, wax, Hoover , treat leather each week on all the cars I own, but this was just an 'interesting' car to get me from home to work 400 miles each week. I just took a car allowance from work and spent the bare minimum keeping it on the road, as the issues piled up it started to make no financial sense to repair them , I'd have never got back what I needed to spend. hence just an oil change every 10k then a Palm off to a car buying website when I genuinely felt money needed to be spent. I'm now using a diesel daily and keeping my hr zed for weekend use.

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I'll guarantee that zip has been done to the car. If anyone notices the servicing (or any of the issues for that mayter), the answer will be "not for you the sir" hell, they may even miss off the sir!

 

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Right, who's going to explain to me why this car doesn't have cruise control? :wacko:

 

The leather seats and gear knob look retro-fitted to me - the steering wheel doesn't have the matching orange bit (hand brake should be orange too if it's standard, no?) - and no Bose either; ergo it's not a GT.

 

5 points :thumbs: minus 1 for the steering wheel because I'm not sure I've seen a facelift with the matching alezan on it.

 

Alezen was standard on non-GT pack facelifts and I had to pay extra for it on the GT model I bought in December 2006 :wacko: ! And my steering wheel did not have the Alezan on it but never quite sure whether that feature was dropped with the facelift upgrade or they simply ran out of s/wheels with that feature :lol:

 

2006 Facelift brochure attached to help the understanding.

 

Nissan_350Z brochure.pdf

 

Thats crazy, if not a bit backwards :wacko:

 

That brochure lists the cloth seats, though and never mentions them or the alezan after page 6, plus the OP mentioned that they were retro-fitted on his. Are you sure they were standard on NON-GT's?

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