JetSet

Yeah, my step daughter had one, when she was D/Q'd for Drink Driving I had the use of it for 9 months. I'm 6ft exactly and found it to be a little uncomfortable and certainly wouldn't fancy doing a long journey in one. The great thing about them is the reliability, she did 75k in hers from new and only had it serviced a couple of times, they just run and run. MPG was pretty good on her 1.8 model, somewhere in the region of 34mpg from what I remember. Hold their value extremely well too, she put it in Motor Mart and had people fighting over it, we must have had 20 calls about it. Pete

Thanks for the info, I'm just up the road from you in the Buckley area. Pete

I've been driving since 1966 and have only been done for speeding once way back in 1991 (80 in a 60 zone) . I have had a couple of other points offences, in 1967 for due care and attention on a scooter and in 1972 for parking on zig zags. Three other non endorsable fines, 2 for no parking lights and one for failing to display my tax disc, all in the 60's. I rigidly stick to the speed limits these days, learned to be patient, drive defensively and don't carry a mobile in the car. North Wales is a bad area to live if you're an habitual speeder, lots of unmarked cars, marked cars and bikes lurking in hidden places, mobile "Stay alive" cameras and of course fixed cameras. Keeping my license and keeping it clean is very important to me. It's a lot more important than arriving a few minutes earlier. I saw a sticker in a car once that really summed it up "What's your rush, everyone gets their day to die" Pete

First Zed I've seen in a while, This one was queueing up for fuel at ASDA, Queensferry, North Wales this afternoon, 09 Plate. Pete

Over the years I'd estimate I've driven 70k miles in The US and the differences are vast. Freeways close to city centres are the worst as the extremely dangerous practice of undertaking is allowed, I just get into lane 2 and stick there till I need to turn off. Sticking in Lane 1 is hazardous as sometimes the lane just ends suddenly. Road safety in The US is still in the stone age compared to here, most states still allow mobile phone use some even allow texting. Seat belt usage is compulsory but in some states like Colorado the Cops can't pull you for it unless you're speeding. Crash Helmets seem to be optional for bikers. Outside of the cities the freeway lanes are separated in many places by medians not barriers. The problem here is that the medians are U shaped so if you have a blowout there's a good chance you'll go into it and roll. Anyone who's been to The US in the summer will have noticed the huge number of shredded tyres littering the roadside so you can assume that blowouts are fairly common. Driving at night can be frightening, due to wildlife crossing the road, most people will hit at least one deer at some stage. Add to that that the US driving test is nowhere near as stringent as The UK test and you can drive at 14/15/16 depending where you live so it's understandable why the death rate is double that of The UK. Americans take tailgating to a level of insanity unseen in The UK. Courtesy is pretty well non existant at junctions, etc, you just have to wait until there's a gap as nobody ever waves you out. America is also pedestrian unfriendly, you have be on your toes when you use one of their crossings as traffic can filter right on red lights and quite often they just swerve around you. Bad driving is something you see every day there....but surprisingly speeding or at least excessive speeding is something that's nowhere near as common as it is here. Don't know why that is, I don't think they have many speed cameras, maybe its a legacy of the old blanket 55mph limit that lasted for many years. Pete

Upmarket Boy Racers car. I might have considered one if I'd have been 30 years younger though Pete

Username--------++------YEAR----++-------Miles SpursMadDave...............54................. 82k bodyboarder................. 57................. 19k 350 Russ.......................52..................54k Friddela.........................04.................101k Clarkie34.......................06...................23k Ian.............................. 03...................35k ChrisJones6699.............. 04................. .67k MacW.......................... 54................. .89k bigbramble.................... 05...................37k doogyrev...................... 07.................. 33k Wasso.......................... 06...................42k James B........................ 53.................. 83k craigo........................... 05...................25k Beavis........................... 05...................17k CaptainSensible............... 06...................47k Watshot........................ 57 ..................3k Zugara.......................... 07.................. 17k Stretch..........................04....................45k Andlid............................ 03.................. 42k Goldcrest Four.................06....................7k Neilp..............................06...................23k Jay................................03...................43k Richt..............................56...................16k Daveparkin......................57...................14k RichIOW.........................07....................29k DontPanic.......................54....................73k JetSet............................55.....................8k

O.K, some answers..I was doing approx 70 in lane 2 on a 4 lane interstate when it happened. One thing I've noticed is that in The U.S. you quite often see stretches of road that have had the surface scraped off awaiting repair. Well, about 2 miles before the blowout I went over one of these roads and I noticed the car was sliding about a lot so I reduced my speed, once I got onto normal road everything seemed O.K....I realize now that it must have been under inflated. After the blowout I just lifted off and steered it onto the hard shoulder, luckily right under a bridge and was able to get the car behind a handily placed barrier. As far as the rental goes the conversation went something like this..."Sorry, but we don't have a compact, but we'll upgrade you for free" ..."How do you fancy a Hummer?" "Have you got anything a bit smaller", I asked "Well, we've got plenty of SUV's", No I said, something a bit smaller than that. Well, he said we have a Mitsubishi Eclipse, it's that one out there. I took one look and said yes. Actually, I quite liked the car, it was comfortable, easy to drive (an auto) , just a bit tight on luggage space. BTW, The next time I visited The States, once again there were no compacts available and I finished up with a free upgrade to a Ford Explorer SUV Pete

Unfortunately, these are only available in LHD but I managed to get my hands on one on a recent trip to The U.S.A. I'd actually booked a compact but this was all the rental company had Here she is at a rest stop in Wyoming. Off roading in Utah. Back in Denver and the car is looking a bit sad with the space saver wheel Here's why I had to use the space saver. A total blowout at 70 on a freeway, nasty Actually, not a bad car at all. Quite comfy and the build quality was reasonable. This one had the 3.8 engine with about 240 hp but after driving a zed it felt a bit sluggish. Pete

O.K, You can put me down for all day Sunday and I'll be bringing my wife. Seeing as I live about 20 miles away I won't be needing The Hotel. My vehicle is a Silver 350Z on a 55 plate. If you need any more info then give me a shout. Cheers, Pete

Thanks for the welcome. I've lived in Northop Hall since 1961 although I'm on the "wrong" side of the A55, Pinfold Lane to be exact. I'm hoping to make the Wales meet, probably the Sunday but I need to discuss it with "The Boss" first Cheers Pete

Back in Jan 2006 I popped round to The Nissan dealer in Chester to enquire how long the waiting list was. 3 to 4 months he told me then pointed me in the direction of the showroom where they had 2 second hand ones for sale. They were both Silver, had about 10k on the clock. Neither of them had plates on but he told me they were 04 models. The price was good, too good to be true really and he offered me a reasonable trade in deal (or so I thought). I went home to think about it and after discussing it with the wife decided to go for it. I phoned them back for more information and then the salesman dropped a bombshell. He told me they were both Jap imports and were actually 03 models, what a waste of my time. This company are no longer Nissan main dealers BTW. I didn't bother again until I got the urge 12 months later and bought an unused 12 month old showroom zed after taking it out for a brief test drive. The new dealer in Chester had over 20 new 350's on sale at a knock down price just before the 370 came out. By the time I got there all they had left were roadsters and even though I took one of them out for a quick drive I didn't really fancy one. Pete

Sounds interesting. Should be able to make one day. Pete

Somewhere near Buckley, Flintshire Pete

Just before I bought my Zed I made a shortlist of probables and a longer list of possibles. I included the Evo in the longer list. I researched it for about half an hour and that was enough to convince me that it was a very bad idea. Running costs weren't really a problem as I only do 2-3k a year but depreciation was. From new, these things drop in value like a lead balloon and at that time, late 2006 the zed held its value incredibly well. Then there's the image , it's just really a very fast boy racers car and I've heard that it attracts lots of attention from the law. You'll probably get a lot of admiring glances from young lads in their Novas and Saxos but that's about it. Add to that that it's an ugly brute that looks 15 years out of date Pete

Yeah, you're right its a 2005 model. The salesman told me that it had spent its entire life in the showroom and they only decided to sell it about a week before I bought it. I did get a 4k discount and a pretty good price for the low mileage T-Sport I traded in so I can't really complain Pete

Thanks for the welcome. I don't use the car that often, only 8,100 miles in 3 and a half years, still on original tyres, etc. Unfortunately, the lack of use, sometimes for weeks on end, has lead to a few problems like pitted brake discs and I had to replace the battery not long ago. Pete

A friend of mine has a purple one on an M plate, 1993, I think. He bought it new had it chipped but retired it about 5 years ago with 40k on the clock. He keeps it stored, insured and in running order, reckons it's worth a fair bit and will go up in value considerably over the years. Pete

I've owned some interesting cars over the years. I had a renault engined Lotus Europa in 1972 and a Triumph GT6 in 1975. I've also owned an X1/9 rot box, 2 XR3i's, 2 Capri 2.8's, a Toyota Celica T Sport and a chipped Escort RS Turbo which I kept for 11 years. I've also owned some mediocre machinery too, like a Daewoo Lanos and 3 Datsun Cherrys, not to mention the 1100 Renault Clio I have now. . The GT6 was really unusual in that it was a full spec US model that had been converted to RHD due to the GT6 failing US safety standards for side impacts. To add to that, My wife had an imported MR2 Turbo with a full body kit,a real head turner and after that a 180HP TT and one of the last MG ZR's. Pete

My wife has a 2008 Z4 and I guess I probably drive it more than my zed. As one of the previous posters said they are nowhere near as comfortable, especially if you're over 6 feet tall. Other than that they're a nice car but we've had it back to the dealers for several irritating faults to be fixed. The main problem is that the alloys corrode like nothing I've ever seen before, especially on the inside and if you kerb one of them then corrosion spreads like wildfire. Hers is the 2.0 150hp version so there's no comparison performance wise but it's reasonably cheap to run. Pete

Just joined up I've got a 2006 registered 350Z that I've had since Feb 2007. What I've never figured out is why the dealer I bought it from registered the vehicle in January 2006 and then left it on display in their showroom for a year. It only had 49 miles on the clock, apparently only 2 other people had test driven it before I snapped it up. So far I've only clocked up 8k miles as I own a cheapo runabout as well. No problems to speak of so far and definitely the best car I've ever owned. Pete