nate247

These still available or sold? Clicked the eBay link and putting two and two together I thought they could be gone buy just double checking

Received

I just can't seem to sleep much before 2am at the minute buddy, so get on here to try and tire the ol eyes... Im free and available tomorrow if you had something in mind. Got a small amount of Crimbo shopping to do whilst the GF is at work, but that can wait as I didn't really want to do it anyway lol

I start work tonight at 6pm until midnight. Funny is that i am over the Kingswood way Saturday but that will be in the wife's astra with all 4 of us.LOL Will have to make it another time now, ie xmas getting in the way. Thats a shame... well your more than welcome anytime buddy. Be good to put a face to the name and take a peek at your Z :-) lol RE this whole traction control issue. I have been reading the responses and trying to get my head round the best way forward (which seems to be change the rear tyres). However before I do anything, I just want to explain through an episode I had with the car this evening first of all, because I am still not 100% in terms of whats going on. I was driving along a duel carriageway this evening in what Top Gear call "mildly moist" weather. Things were going great, got to a roundabout, went straight over on to another stretch of carriageway. Doing about 30mph, put foot down, traction control kicked in. Lifted off throttle for a second or two, press down again, light on and engine cutting speed. Did this same thing about 4 times whist people were closing up behind me. Lasted about 15/20 seconds in total... At times I was lifting then slamming foot down but I was also trying to lift off and feather the power back down but still the light flickered and engine refrained me from progressing. Its beginning to become a real pain the more I drive the car now and in my mind, the variation in which I tried to get out of it, can't mean that its just the wheels spinning / slipping causing this. Presumably (reading between the lines), what some of you are saying is that the rolling radius of the tires is causing this and perhaps has closed the trigger point down from a big(ish) margin for slide, to right on the cusp so any little slide of slip triggers very quickly on the traction control to to the wrong RR / tyre size? Hope that makes sense and likewise shed's a little more info as to the problem I have. Thanks so much again for all the help... as per usual you've all been great in explaining things to a relative car DIY novice lol...

Are you traveling to see your parents buddy? Only problem I have is that I am at work tomorrow until 6pm. I am generally doing bugger all after the time of 3.30pm on a Friday but still got to man the office Shame I haven't got the day off or you were down Saturday instead of Friday as it would have been great to meet up...

Right, sorry bud i dno not have any D clips, only thing i can think of is try nissan, surely cant be too expensive , Sorry No prob's and thanks for replying... I almost feel tempted to get a net for the sheer hell of it (as they are so cheep and useful) but I can't think why I would need 2... unless there is a way to make use of two? lol

In principle the two schemes are different but when you break it down to the basics, you have a car worth say £30'000 and a middle man (i.e the dealer / leasing company). You buy the car from them and they finance it with a bank or in house finance company. Drive car for 3 years, both depreciate as much as one another... worth the same amount at the end of the term. Where each in my experience has differed is that leasing companies tend to underwrite the 3 year valuation of the car (after depreciation) much closer to the bone. i.e Parkers might state its worth £17'500 after 3 years and they pretty much push it to that. A bit like mortgage brokers used to elaborate on peoples salary so you could get a higher mortgage. Leasing companies push the final valuation to make their offers look more attractive. Dealers with PCP's however tend to be more conservative (some would say responsible) and generally pitch it low, which means that your monthly cost is normally higher in comparison to a leasing company (as you are paying more capital off) but at the end of your 3 year term you normally have a couple of grand equity (if you like) ready to put towards your next car. i can't remember what the term is they use for the final valuation I am sorry but hope the above makes sense. Anyway, I am yet to find a dealer that is cheaper than a leasing company for those very reasons and like I say, the marketing of each scheme is different but the principles are generally the same... Car, You, middle Man & Bank + Car worth the same after 3 years...

I know what you are going through buddy as I have been through the same dilemma many a time lol With it being such an uncertain market, whilst I have no doubt at all that such a pristine example of a car as yours "should" fetch £15-£16k. I have a few friends who are perhaps stating the obvious that private buyers are drying up, whilst dealers / traders are offering stupidly low prices with a view that if people are desperate they will get a bargain but if people ask more towards the guide price (i.e what its actually worth), then they don't want to tie their money up and take the risk. One of my mates works for the main Audi dealer here in Bristol and the way these dealerships work is that every car is bought in is financed by the bank (they own not one car). Generally they are confident of turning every car around in a maximum of 90 days (either by selling to you or I) or as it approaches 90 days, to a trader. He reckons that every car on their forecourt at the moment is discounted so heavily that every single one owes them at the very least £2/3k (some as much as £10k loss compared to what they paid). Goes to show what a desperate market it is at the minute. I guess there is no harm in using the free channels such as PistonHeads etc to keep your options open (i.e trawl for a buyer), you just never know who might be looking and its an enthusiast car as somebody else said. I do however think that those in a position to buy are wising up to the fact that they can pretty much offer whatever they want and get a deal somewhere along the line. My thoughts still stand in that is it really worth discounting your car by £2/3K just to get a sale when you could actually run the car with that for 3 years with a fuel difference of approx £1k per annum when compared to a more frugal car? Just get a roof rack for the Ski's and keep the Z... you know it makes sense Sorry to ramble on but you'd be surprised to learn just how much I have p*ssed away this past 24 months on cars. Only now do I feel completely contempt with what I have and in hindsight I wish I still had the money i'd frittered away as Im sure I'd be looking at a GTR or something by now lol

Exactly what I grew up with as my old man has always said the same. Like you say, its suprising though just how many people scrimp on the only thing keeping them on the road... You are 100% right matey. Thats why I am trying to work out if there is a prob or not...

Well thinking about this (as I do actually quite like my alloy's for now). Should / could I just get some new better fitting for the alloy's? Or do the alloys only allow these ill fitting tire's? These are my alloys. Whilst probably not the best brand or lightest. they do look quite good on my Silver 350z.

Its crossed my mind to go 19" I must admit... my will power is pathetic...! Would that give me the same problems though?

Yeah, that appears to be the case doesn't it. Its not massively frustrating but is filling me with less confidence for when I do drive it harder. What would the best tyre and alloy size combination be out of interest? Sorry to ask, but I could well just bite the bullet and bring my plans forward to upgrade. Many thanks

Really appreciate your advice buddy... They are all the same brand tire's and as I say, were all changed at the same time and virtually new when I bought the car. I am looking at doing something a bit later down the line with the tire's and possibly the alloys. But as I have plenty of tred left, now is probably not the right time. Especially as I want to sort a few other cosmetic things on the car first. I will (as you suggest) get a calibration done though. I presume my local tyre dealer will be able to help with this, or are you referring to something a bit more specialist? Thanks again... Nathan EDIT: just seen the other posts and now I am lost lol...

Definitely the right decision buddy. As I said earlier, these leasing companies don't own the car and merely use a financier to bear the costs. They just sit in the middle and cream what they can. With lending rates high between banks, I just thought it would be harder to get a bargain at the minute. When we were in this credit bubble and lending costs were low, I might have said there wasn't much in it. Still then though, the best way by far is to finance yourself and buy nearly new. Your repayments will be lower as you will get a better APR and likewise you are not building quite so much depreciation in to the equation either. Just seen that Nationwide have dropped their unsecured personal loan rate to 7.9% which isn't bad. Thats only up to £15k though and I presume you would probably need more than that? Just been on Pistonheads as well and there look to be lots of bargains about at the minute so I am sure you will find what you are looking for

Errr... that sucks... (I presume) lol On the front it reads: 235/40ZR18 95W Sorry to sound so dense RE tyres but I have always run stock and whenever they have needed changing, I take my car to a very good local garage and they sort it out for me. Never had the need to look in to width's, size's etc...

Not sure if this means anything to you buddy but the tire says: 265/35ZR18 97W

Same to you guys and a Happy Crimbo to you all at my new fav forum... New Year's resolution is spend less time here as my social life has been shot to bits since I got the Z and started posting lol... oh yeah, my wallet is also a lot lighter as well...

Slight tangent (sorry)... but are you able to get the fixing mounts that these net's fix too? I have three in my car but looks like the previous owner lost one, so I can only fix my net to three points in the car which is obviously quite useless lol

I have done both a lease and a PCP in the past and the only thing that I would say is that either way, you still end up paying for the depreciation of the car... Its just these financiers are very good at hiding it, making you think that its a great idea and that you are paying less, when in some instances you end up paying more because of them being in the equation (i.e as middle men). Also the current high APR's will have a bearing on how cheaply they can borrow as the cars are never owned by the leasing companies, rather the banks. Personally, my advice (for what its worth) is that if you have the money, go out and find a second hand deal on a nearly new motor as above. You'd still get the warranty and somebody else would have taken that initial hit. You can never tell the difference either once the dealers valeter's have got their hands on it either. In the current climate and considering the cars you have earmarked, you should be able to find a cracking deal on something and I have a mate who works for Audi and might be able to source something. However if you want to lease, because borrowing still isn't that cheap for companies at the moment. I honestly can't see you getting that great a deal buddy. By far and away the cheapest was is nearly new. Leasing is for people like me that lack in both money and sense lol

Guys, thanks as always for the suggestions and help. Appreciate it... I guess a good starting place (i.e the cheapest would be to try and reset the traction control / stability control) to see if that makes a difference first. If not then I guess the alloys / tyres could be next in line for a check. I will get searching now RE how to do the reset...

I understand what the original poster is saying about wanting something more frugal as he plan's on doing more mileage soon, but surely the level of depreciation on the car incurred in a market like todays would negate any saving made with buying a more frugal car? I would personally sit tight as your likely saving would be about £20 per tank of fuel. Even if you fill up once a week thats still only a £1040 saving per annum and I bet you will lose more than that (compared to what your car should be worth) given todays low low prices... Hope I have made sense there lol

Bugger... Thanks for the replies though guys... I wouldn't say that its intrusive at all times. Only maybe once a day (not multiple times). Which by the sounds of the replies doesn't sound as normal as I thought :-( lol However there are often occasions when I boot the car and really give it some, I get nothing. Then just pottering down a country lane about 25/30mph or something, I go to give it a bit of gas, traction control kicks in... makes acceleration all juddery and light stays on until you lift of for a couple of seconds... I guess there is no way of knowing for sure how or what your tyres are on at the precise moment the traction control kicks in. But I have monitored it for a month or so now and the times it does kick in just seem bizzare in that it almost suprises you it has because you arn't driving it hard... (if that makes sense)? ;-) lol Obviously if this is not normal, what are my options in terms of getting it rectified? Thanks again guys...

Wasn't quite sure what to write as the title but here goes. I have not long bought an 03 plate JDM 350z and am really really loving the car. I know that you can turn the traction control off but I am yet to find my limits within the car and this is probably not the weather to be pushing it. As a result traction control is staying on for now. My frustration is that at times, even when just driving normally and giving the car a tiny bit of throttle, the traction control light will flicker, starts blipping the throttle and if you keep your foot on the gas, it just carries on doing it (for minutes if you keep your foot on the accelerator). You have to take your foot off the pedal for a couple of seconds, wait for the light to flick off and only then can you get back to driving normally. I am not sure if its a general thing or fault with my car in particular? I have aftermarket 18" Wolfrace Shark alloys and Falken ZIEX tyres (which could be the reason for the random loss of grip). I am looking to replace them when they get a bit more worn as the guy had just bought them when I received the car). But the fact the traction control wont disengage until you take the foot completely off the accelerator, is that normal? I am so used to driving cars (like my old MK5 GTI Golf) where it is less intrusive, that perhaps this is normal for this car? Appreciate any help guys and thanks in advance. Regards, Nathan...

Thanks again Steve for all the help (not forgetting GIXXERUK)... I will try and find a better surround, but not overly bothered if its black or grey to be honest. You reckon the other 350z would be a good starting point. Are there any retailers within the UK anybody knows of? Thanks again guys

hallelujah... I have got the heat unit working and its fantastic. Got music at long last. It was a blue cable from the stereo that said "remote" but had a split to bypass something else in (which was the amp trigger cable from the Nis Rom). Just wasn't obvious because of it being termed as "remote" on the stereo. Any how, its working and I am happy as Larry (whoever he is), so thanks again guys for persavering and helping me out. Really appreciate it. I have attached a photo as the one thing that isn't so great is the black surround for the head unit doesn't sit very flush at all and I was wondering if there were something better to buy that fits the curves of the dash better and makes the head unit look more OEM? Thanks again for the help... Nathan