pptom

I've still got a 182 centre section in my garage surplus to requirements! Renault are renowned for their rediculous prices for 182 exhausts. I sold my 182 a couple of years ago, but the last I knew was that Quickfit of all places were offering Janspeed stainless replacement exhausts for circa £350 thats cat back. quite a subtle sound, so I'm led to belive. I had a scorpion on mine, which i think was about £380, again, quite subtle, but nice. I wouldn't change the cat until you've replaced the other exhaust components as its the least likely part to be rattling and the most expensive to change, as i recall, a race cat will only set you back £350 so that Renault price is pisch. I seem to recall they had alot of trouble with the cetre sections, the exhaust is meant to be one piece, back from the cat, but alot have had replacement centre sections so have a join 'cut in' just before the backbox. If you want another centre section, let me know. A good alternative would be to register as a member on cliosport.net and buy a complete standard system from one of the members on there. I reckon you should pay no more than £100 for a second hand, good condition cat back standard renault exhaust. The cats are a little harder to come by, but ask the same questions on Cliosport and they will help you out. Tom

Most of the google apps are pretty good, as mentioned above sky maps is a great little gadget, also My Tracks and Navigate which is their new Sat Nav program. Great as a backup, its got me to the right place a few times when I've struggled / waited for my Garmin to find satellites. Just type Google into the search Oh just remembered Google Goggles and Text to Speach I don't rate

They can fit one to my car for free and then borrow it for the weekend if they like Its in great condition, just been machine polished.

By the way, I'm in Northampton and have a machine polisher with a fair bit of experience using it

I only just got my touch up pen from Nissan today, I've gone over the front bumper and am very pleased with the colour match. The trouble with touch up pens is that, where they will restore the colour, they will never leave a perfectly smooth finish that blends seamlessly with the rest of the paint. That said, I can now look at the front of my car and only see a couple of blemishes rather than lots of little white specks. As for scuffs etc, post your location and maybe a member with a machine polisher might be able to help you out. These will go some way to removing minor marks in the clearcoat, but if too deep, as previously said, you'd be best off going to chips away.

Not exactly 350 related, but I've had a few different types when I ran my 182, mostly road driving but also occasional trackdays. I know there's a big weight difference, but my experience might help: DS2500 - not too bad on the road, needed some heat in them though, squealed like hell, rubbish on track, very quick fade. Pagid Blue - absolutely superb, but very expensive. The front set for the clio's puny little calipers were in the region of £160. Felt like OEM on the road in terms of initial bite, no heat required, but didn't fade at all on track. OEM are by far the best road only option in terms of cost and cold bite, you'd be doing well to fade them on road aswell and probably driving like you should be on a track. EBC are regarded in the racing world as shocking, fair enough they may sponsor a few big names, but you ask and 'privateer' race team about EBC and they will tell you to stay well clear. They have a depot in my town and give very good discount, but I would only fit EBC pads to a very cheap car that I knew wouldn't do much work

As title really, I'm looking to make my car sound as i think it should have all along. Got to say Nismo would be my No1 choice because I'm a brand whore, but heared some decent sound clips of Scorpions on the tube and I used to have one on my 182 and I was quite impressed with it all round. Ideally I'd be looking for a Y pipe to go with the Scorpion so if anyone has one fitted and is not too far from Northampton, I'd appreciate a listen please

another one bites the dust... initially a nice car to look at, GM/Alzean, had gt4 alloys, refurbed in a nice colour. However, the bumper and front of the bonnet looked like the car had just been driven through a swarm of midges, there was so many little black marks which were of course stonechips. all 4 tyres needed replacing, crunch from 4th to 5th, and the exhaust was blowing a little from the backbx joint, but thats no problem really, as long as it wasn't too rusted, a few points that could be rectified and would go towards haggling. What really put me off though was that it had been involved in a rear end accident in the past, the owner was a genuine nice chap and he was a bit gutted to say the least when i pointed it out to him. The rear bumper didn't sit evenly, then i noticed some edges where it had been sanded prior to painting, then the driver mentioned that its previous owner had commented about a smashed rear window and there were still come bits of glass rattling around in the rear and finally I found the masking marks where the N/S rear quarter had been resprayed. It wasn't a bad repair and perhaps an extra hour or two finishing off in the bodyshop and i never would have noticed. Structurally - boot floor / underside etc didn't look damaged or repaired, but I've been burned in the distant past with a covered up accident damaged car and thats put me right off.

Thanks, you lot are too helpful. I don't really want to spend that much though. going to look at a private sale this afternoon, fingers crossed

well spotted, i shall chase in the morning

Right, I'm p1ssed off and starting to think if its ever destined to happen. The dealer phoned this afternoon (southern prestige cars) - a Bl**dy Nissan dealer has called him about the car. he allegedly said that i was viewing it, so they then offered him £500 more than his asking price. He called me and asked if i was willing to pay the price offered by the nissan dealers, to which i politely declined. I know i wasn't desperate to buy, but didn't realise it would be this difficult to buy a 350, theres well over 400 different cars currently advertised on various internet sites and none both fit my specs - GM/Alzean/Rays and are in good condition. Disheartened I might fall back onto plan B - Z3M coupe!

Wrong colour I'm afraid chris, made quite a few enquiries about a Nismo kitted car in essex thats advertised on the trader and PH and the sellers have been very helpful sending me copies of receipts etc. However, i've eventually found out that at least 2 services can't be accounted for and despite assurances that the leather is 'immaculate' i can see major scuffing in the drivers seat pic that they've sent me. for that and other reasons I can smell a rat, so have saved myself a 240 mile round trip. Just booked a viewing at a small independant dealers for Sat morning - 53 plate, FNSH, 38k miles, 4 owners - ticks all of the spec boxes. The dealer has been good enough to e-mail me some quality pics of the seats, which show some wear but nothing excessive, and he's given me the numbers from the Mot cert, which enables me to do the Mot history check online. I know, its a dealer, but he's been very helpful and honest so far. Just a thought but does anyone think theres a place for prospective owners to place reviews of cars they have been to see and discounted? might save some people alot of time and possibly indicate problems that some may miss.

I'm near northampton and my 2008 on a 57 plate is for sale, pm me if you want to view it To be honest, this one was over budget anyway, I've properly reigned myself in now and £12.5k is going to be my target area. I had seen it advertised though - looks nice

I'm in Northampton Gizmo Well I've just wasted 4 1/2 hours looking at this car, the reasons are as follows: As I walked up to the car the very first thing i saw was a significant door dent halfway up the drivers door, right on the creaseline that runs the length of the car. I'd been told, over the phone that the PDR guy had been over the car, so I'm assuming that this was one he couldn't remove and so would require a Smart repair. Drivers seat: you may have seen my other post, but despite me specifically asking about the condition of the leather over the phone, this drivers seat was possibly the worst I've seen so far. Most of the panels were fine apart from the upright and seat bolsters, which no amount of leather care solution was ever going to fix. this would need a partial retrim and new foam inserting. Service history, yep, all main dealer as said, but the car is only 2 months shy of being 5 years old, it was serviced last week by the dealer and has only had 4 services from new, where obviously it should have had 5. The first service (the most important in my view) was overdue by a couple of months and 1500 miles and a couple of others were a little bit out, with the order a little odd aswell going: P1, P2, P3, P1 Overall though the car was not that bad, just not what I'd call immaculate as it was described to me. I was prepared to live with the history if I could get the car for the right price, bearing in mind I would have to factor in seat repair and tax. When it came to the crunch I told the salesman i was interested but it would all hinge on price, to which he replied the price is on the windscreen and would not change, let me get my sales manager. He came out and tried to give me the old 'its what you'd expect from a 5 year old car' blah, but ultimately the price would not change, so I walked. Thats 4 cars I've now seen at dealers, and, while this one was far and away the best in terms of condition, none of them ticked all of the boxes. Nissan dealers must shift 350's pretty easily given that they have some nasty examples in and do not budge on pice and I think their attitude is a bit arrogant really. I think I'll stick to my original plan and aim to buy privately, its just a shame that i wasted time today, I had 4 possibles to look at and narrowed it down to this one due to time constraints and borrowing the bread knifes car. Oh well, onwards!

Sorry guys, thought I wouldn't have time to search the forum on my phone, but I've been left alone for 10 mins while they put petrol in the car and I've found my answers. Its deffinately a retrim job so I'm budgeting £200 - £300

At the dealers now, car is good, but the drivers seat is badly worn on the upright and base bolsters, leather is knackered and the foam is shot on the seat part. Anyone know how much a repair would cost?

I've been to Bedford Evans Halshaw, the silver one is truly awfull too many faults to list, it just screams - abused, orange car is OK, drove nice, but that was the one with dirty leather, all 4 wheels had corrosion but no kerbing (I'm 90% sure that 2 had been touched up) and there was a small, but nasty dent in the pass side wing. The PDR guy had been over the car and did not even attemp to remove it, this would need filling and painting, something I wouldn't trust Nissan to do well. Also seen a 08 plate 313 at Allen Nissan Northampton, sounded glorious on startup, £18k, 4 x curbed alloys, had a front bumper repair, which was poor quality and fairly obvious, exhaust tips were very out of alignment, which makes me think - why? various door dents, too many scratches on lower panels etc ect. Oh and I wasn't allowed to test drive it, I had to 'do the deal' first to prove I was genuine! I've kind of reserved this car (£50 refundable holding fee) and will be at the dealers at 9 tomorrow morning, If I don't buy, I'll post my findings in this thread.

I'm going to have a look at this tomorrow, does anyone know it?: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p I know its a little bit overpriced, but low mileage, FNSH and its only about an hour away. Apparently the owner PX'd it for a second hand 370. I've seen 3 cars in Nissan dealerships so far and to be honest they were all a little rough, it amazes me how little attention they pay to detail - the last one had what can only be described as 'scum' on the steering wheel, gearstick and handbrake (sweaty palms?) and the drivers side mirror switch panel was loose and jumping all over the place - minor things but so easy to fix and not what you'd really expect for the best part of £13k. I think some dealers have the opinion that they don't even have to try - not good business if you ask me. This ones only been in a couple of days, apparently its been PDR'd and had 2 wheels 'refurbed' (touched up!) Its the spec I'm after so shall go with an open mind and a highly critical eye!

I've decided I'd prefer GM to Black but how rare is Alzean leather with A GM car? Is there a drought in the market at the moment? (I don't want to buy trade either) If I wanted a car with black leather I'd have a choice of some nice examples within about 50 miles, but the only GM/Alzean I've seen was 110 miles away, didn't have Rays and when I phoned the chap had decided not to sell after only having it advertised for 8 days. Patience is a virtue and all that, but if there are currently none advertised, it makes me wonder how long will I have to wait for the right one?

Does anyone have any experience of buying a similar priced car like this? The 8k deposit and £300 monthly payments are fair enough, but, say i didn't want to or couldn't cough up 15+ grand at the end of the term, what sort of position would I be in? Would I be able to leave the car with Nissan and walk away with some money?

spot on stephen, I've deeply considered yours, but can't justify the 13hr round trip

Thanks, I've been lurking for ages - soaking up information! - its a great forum! I'm finally in a position to take the plunge and can't find anything that fits the bill! Dangerously, in my frustaration, I found myself looking at 370's last night on Nissans site, weighing up finance options - until reality struck.

I've got a budget of around £12k although spending less means I can spend the extra on the car. I'm looking for either a Gunmetal or Kuro UK car with Alzean leather (these 2 criteria are essential), ideally with Rays in good condition. not too fussed about mileage but I want a car in excellent condition, with full service history including receipts - not just a stamped up book- I don't mind if its Nissan or a specialist, just would rather avoid a back street garage. Essentially I'm looking for an enthusiast owned car, something thats been loved and am not interested in buying from the trade. I will be willing to consider a car with mods, but nothing over the top such as bodykits etc (except maybe factory fit nismo) I live very close to Northampton and would be willing to travel for about 2 hours for the right car. Apart from the for sale section, I've trawled PH, Autotrader and e-bay, but nothing has jumped out as having all of the above. I have the money ready to go as I sold my last car about a month ago and have been travelling around in the works van. Sorry to be so picky, but as I no longer need a car, just want one, I can afford to wait for the right one and not compromise Many thanks Tom

Had a friend with a Mk1 V6 Clio (think it was 225Bhp as opposed to the Mk2 which was 255Bhp) and both been on track in it and followed it. Performance wise it was marginally quicker than the 182 I used to own on the straights (we're talking pulling 1 car length 20 - 120ish) but my car would reign it in on the corners. Maybe because my car allowed me to feel more confident. I did heve it well set up. Didn't drive the V6 though. As for the widowmaker reputation - he hit a puddle on the dual carriageway at 75ish Mph, rear end instantly overtook the front end and the car span down the central reservation and disintegrated into around 1500 pieces. Pretty boring inside aswell, just your basic 172 / 182 spec interior, and I've heard that they can be written off for something as minor as needing a new bumper, due to the increadibly low volume of parts manufactured and therefore inflated prices. Insane to look at, and may be a decent investment if you got a good one and looked after it, but not really for me. I'm currently on the look out for a zed