goatboy

Just in case anyone had looked on here and seen you needed to take off your strut brace to change your spark plugs I can confirm you don't! The only thing that is a bit tricky with the Strut brace on is getting the engine cover off, but you can get at all the nuts and bolts with a swan neck spanner and slide the cover out no problem (maybe different if you have a plenum spacer though). Access to the plugs is a bit fiddly but with a selection of extension bars and universal joints you can manage it no problem. I took off some brackets that hold the various wiring looms in place to give slightly better access (3 brackets on each side I think held on with 10mm bolts) but otherwise they went in no problems and nothing else needed to be removed. Took about 1.5 hours (which is a long time to change some spark plugs I know!) but probably doable in less than an hour once you know what you are doing. Saved me £160 in labour charges my local dealer quoted for the job

After searching around here for a recomendation of where to get a P3 service in the West London area I didn't come up with much. WLMG were my local dealers but a P3 service there with coolant change was £420 and wouldn't do a P3 service on a Saturday as it took too long apparently!!! Unfortunately all the other dealers to me were also WLMG so quoted the same price So I widened my search and came up with Bishops Nissan in Guildford which is only a 30 min drive for me, a quick call to them, and a quote of £360 ish saw me booked in for the next Saturday (it was only Tuesday when I booked). Dropped the car off with them at 8:30 on Saturday and they encouraged me to have a look around the 370z which was sitting in their showroom which I happily did (bit small inside aren't they!). My car was immediately taken in to be worked on. Advised by them I took a lovely scenic 15 minute walk into town along the river for some breakfast and a spot of shopping. By 10:45 I got a call to say the car was ready. They advised about clicky drive shafts, gave some useful advice on how to fix it (without any sort of hard sell) but otherwise all was good. I cheekily asked if they gave any discount for owners club members to which he replied no, but then gave me 10% off labour costs anyway He talked me through all the check sheets, gave me a nice little folder thing for my receipt and off I went. They had given the car a quick wash and hoover too. (which was good as it was filthy) All in all I was very impressed, great service, good price, and easy to get to for me (in fact probably takes me less time to get there than it does to my local dealer because of the easy route and lack of traffic). They also saved me £80 compared to WLMG. Maybe all Nissan dealers are this good but its a revelation compared to the Mitsubishi and Vauxhall dealers I am used too! If anyone in West London or surrounding area was looking for some where to get there Zed serviced I would recommend them without hesitation

going south... about 16:30 ish?

Hello to the gunmetal and the black Zeds who overtook me on the M40 around junction 11 today I kept up with you for a little bit were you together? I was the chap in the azure...

4 hours! how much was just the bumper if you don't mind me asking?

Hmmm... looks like no one has done it then. I've been quoted £400 from ventureshield but that a lot of resprays to the bumper Maybe i should just have a go at this! How hard can it be!

I managed to get him down £500 and hes kindly putting on 6 months tax. Very impressed with overall condition, a first being both doors dent free, every other 350z i viewed had a few dents in those huge doors. The front unfortunatly has few stones chips, all 350z's really do suffer with this dont they! Or is it just a case of the ones ive viewed have suffered quite bad. What azure did you put a deposit down on goatboy? spec, price?..... This one http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1205028.htm Its a little more money than yours and the service history isn't so good but the car is spotless, no dents in the doors or stone chips on the front! I also realised I knew the guy selling it when I rang up, which is a plus... Its only about 10 miles away from where you got yours from! Roll on Friday

I spoke to the guy selling that on Friday night. Seemed like a good guy and it sounded like a good car too! Good price too. I also put a deposit on an Azure this weekend

Has anyone ever tried anything like http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Nissan-350Z-2003-04-05-Clear-Bra-Protection-for-Bumper_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286Q2em63Q2el1177QQhashZitem20ac5a2575QQitemZ140330542453QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories or http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2003-2005-NISSAN-350Z-350-Z-3M-PAINT-PROTECTION-FILM_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286Q2em63Q2el1177QQhashZitem5630c10eb3QQitemZ370185146035QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories Maybe worth a go for the price? I'm picking up my Azure coupe on Friday and its virtually chip less, I thought this might be a cheap way to protect the bumper. Loads better than the £400ish from paintshield...

Cheers guys

Hmm the uk car I looked at just had that same switch?

Right then, so I'm off to have a second look at an import in the morning. One thing crossed my mind though how can I tell if it has VDC (i think thats the right acronym, but I mean full stability control) rather than just basic traction control. I know VDC only came on S cars but if I don't know what the model is, is there any other way to tell? one of the reasons I want a Zed is for clever computer trickery helping on the road! Cheers all.

Cheers all. I may just have another look at both at the weekend and make a decision. Looking forward to being a Zed owner

Yeah I'm not sure about the warranty, its an AA one but I would have to read the small print. If its any good then its worth a few hundred quid. The Import does have Brembos and GT4 wheels by the way! I'm actually struggling to find one at a dealer for that kind of price with lowish mileage and is not a million miles away from me in West London, loads of private sales for less cash but not many where I can trade in my mitsubishi colt...

yep saw that, problem is I have another car I was hoping to trade in. not very keen on the spoiler either

So I've sold one of my cars so my hunt for a 350z has stepped up a gear and I'm looking to buy in the next week or 2. At the moment of seen 2 2005 cars, both similar spec, but one a UK car and one a fresh import. Import has slightly lower miles (25K ish) and looks faultless comes with a 3 year warranty for £13,995 and a fair bit of room for movement I think. The UK car has about 6k more miles, only a 6 month warranty, but is the same price with a bit less scope for haggling I think. I like the JDM car, and the 3 year warranty is very tempting, but can't help but think its a smidge over priced and will be more painful to sell on. Am I right? I don't intend to do a lot of mods (ATM) but you never know, so the JDM may be better for that I guess?

In my hunt for a Z I am having similar issues. One dealer (not nissan) has loads of them advertised all over the web, autotrader, pistonheads, ebay and their own site. When I ring them up they actually only have one in stock, when I ask if I come come and have a look and maybe a test drive I'm told they are far too busy on a Saturday to arrange a test drive and I can't test drive a car unless I am about to buy it. I then asked them if they are likely to get anymore in and they basically said because they sold 15 cars a week (is that a lot?) They couldn't possibly know what they were going to have in next, and by all accounts told to leave them alone. WTF? I wouldn't buy a car from them now even if they had the best bargain I had ever seen, just not a smart way to do buisness. Nissan dealer also didn't ring me back as promised. The one salesman who has really been helpful is now actually much more likely to get a sale out of me...

It does look good, if not very subtle. GF is threatening not to go in an orange car, can't decide if thats a good or a bad thing though

Cheers all, I think this is what I wanted to hear! Driving like an idiot in bad weather is just, well, idiotic anyway. but its nice to have some electrons to help you if you do get it wrong. Whats the difference between VDC and traction by the way? (pressume traction stops you spinning the wheels and VDC helps control a slide, braking independant wheels and all that good stuff). Search won't let me search for 3 letters only

Right I'm considering my move to a Z coming from a VX220. One of the reasons I am thinking about the change is the fact I am a rubbish driver and the way a VX220 works in the wet. I haven't had any moments on the road but doing some driver training I know I can loose the backend of the VX very easily, therefore I'm always pretty careful to the point of I don't get much enjoyment from the car when the rain starts... Now I know the 350z is a big power RWD car so has to be treated with respect in the wet (or the dry for that matter), but how good is the traction control? there seems to be quite a few folk on here slipping into kurbs and doing damage at low speeds. Do they have traction off or do they not confess what they were really doing? I would expect the computer to be catching low speed incidents? Or is it not actually very good? On the test drive I went on the other day the traction kicked in coming off a roundabout so it must work to some extent? Any thoughts?

Current VX owner here! Seriously thinking about selling up and selling the shed too (not that it actually is a shed though) and getting a Z. I just don't get to drive the VX like it deserves to be driven, or have enough time for 2 cars. The joys of living in London Only owned it a year though and spent loads of money getting it how I wanted it

I'm after a 350z, UK spec ideally but open to all ideas. Now here is the tricky part, I've got a Mitsubishi colt CZT, and a VX220 I have to sell first so if anybody is interested in part exchanging for a more sensible colt, or a more raw VX220 then let me know! Oh and I'm in West London... Overall budget is up to £14K...

Is it rude to ask how much you paid? (I'm looking myself you see...)

Link? I think I like the orange colour, but I know the GF doesn't Black does look good but its the whole problem of keeping it clean... Azure? Blue looks amazing in pics but I've never seen one in the flesh. But to be honest I'll settle for whichever colour is on the best car I can find They all look good!

I can never understand this. There used to be a guy on my street who had badged up his Jag XKR with Aston martin badges and an Aston grill, and another I regularly saw who had badged up his bright yellow Supra with Ferrari badges. I wouldn't mind so much but they are both actually really nice, respectable cars with normal badges on, now they just look like trash... ah well, there is no accounting for taste.