rabbitstew

welcome!!!

My old neighbour works for a large bodyshop chain and he was telling me all about this. They allow 10% scrapage value on the car, so if their estimate for repair is higher than the book price minus 10% then its an automatic right off. And judging by the prices they quote insurance companies for their work loads of cars get written off when they could be repaired cheaply. My missus had a prang the other year, just a low speed nudge into the back of another car at a roundabout. Damage to her car was bonnet had a slight dent in it, front bumper had a scuff on it, and the radiator was split. I priced up the cost of bits + paint and I could have fixed it for about 300->400quid. But, cos we had to sort the other car out, she went through her insurance. The bodyshop`s invoice to the insurance company came in at £3200 on a car which was only worth £4000. And the quality of the work the bodyshop did was just shocking. So as someone else on here said, just cos its a bodyshop repairing it doesnt mean its going to be better than a private person could do.

The seller is lying. There is no way thats the face lift model. The bonnet does not have the big bulge in it, and the front orange bits in the bumper on that one are sloped, whereas on the facelift they are straight down. It was first registered in 2004 / 2005, so if its got the 313 engine in it, id be very supprised.

Welcome to the forum, its certainly the right place to learn about zeds and workout what you want, so when you come to buy one you`ll know more than the garage selling it! As the others have said 300bhp RWD is a bit scary for a start. Ive always had FWD cars, some very quick ones at that, and so getting into a RWD car was err.... intersting! Luckily im still taking it steady, but did have a scare the other day trying to come out of a side road quickly when the back end just spun out like mad!!!

Nope... that sounds about right.. Post 06 motors are the wrong side of £460 a year! tell me about it... mines an 07.

Depends on colour, condition etc. But looking on Autotrader & Ebay people seem to be asking around the £10->10.5k mark for that year & mileage.

lol! I remember picking mine up, putting nearly £80 in the tank, then getting home and wondering why the fuel gauge was already down to 1/4 left! Speaking of taking the train to get a car, make sure you are careful what you say whilst on the train. I was on the kings cross to Edinburgh train the other week and the guy opposite me was on the phone to his mate. I couldnt help but over hear him as he told his mate that he was off to pick up a Audi and that the car was costing him 5k cash. Had I been a bit more dodgy than I am, I could have mugged the guy knowing he more than likely had 5k in his back pocket!

The key thing with any accident damaged repair is who repaired it. If it was a reputable bodyshop and you have pictures / invoices to back up that it was repaired properly then that gives you piece of mind. On the other hand, if may have been bought from a salvage auction by Bob the Bodge and repaired on his driveway using a combination of 2nd hand parts he bought off ebay on the cheap and no-more-nails. Believe me, ive seen it done. Ive seen some really shocking repairs people have done. Resale value, well from what ive seen your looking at about 25% lower than normal price because of the CAT D. A lot of people like them because from the outside noone knows its accident repaired, so you get a nice looking car for less cash. Likewise, when resale time comes, you just have to factor in that you`ll get less for the car then a non accident repaired one, but the actual depreciation of the car will be the same at the end of the day. CAT D wouldnt put me off, in fact I used to buy, repair and then sell accident repaired cars a few moons ago and had some lovely bargains. If your in doubt, get an RAC or AA type inspection to look around the car and see that its all straight and there are no hidden supprises.

Not being funny but id seriously consider getting a different car, like an old scooby wrx, you can get 400bhp out of them for a lot lot less than it will cost you to modify the 350z to get that, unfortunately. Loads of my mates are into them, one has a 1998 one which has about 300bhp and its cost him about 2k all in - including buying the car!!!!! His mate has one pushing out over 750bhp (dyno tested) and he built it in his garden shed. Did 30->130mph in 6.5seconds! I dont know what it cost, but im guessing it was a lot less than my 350 cost!

I feel for you mate, problems like this are a right pain. Mines an 07 and it does whine and rattle when you first start it up - which tend to vanish as soon as you put the foot on the clutch. To me the noise my car makes sounds like the clutch thrust bearing, but from what I gather they all do that. Same as the "hard to get in 2nd gear when cold" thing, which my car also does. I`ll try and see if mine whines when driving from cold at 50mph... its a bit hard to tell now because I cant hear anything over the K1 exhaust tho. One thing you may have to end up doing is to leave it with the dealer over night so they can test it first thing in the morning when cold. It does seem strange that it went when they changed the diff oil, so that sort of points towards it being something connected with that.

Depends on what you want. A 350z with a supercharger would be miles quicker than the 370z, but then maybe you have your heart set on the 370z, in which case id spend as little as I can on the 350z as you`ll just loose money when you come to sell or part ex the 350z for the 370z. Personally I just dont like the look of the 370, so if i was planning to keep my 350z for a long time and had money to burn id be opt`ing for the supercharger.

I always leave mine on. Set it at about 20 or 21 degrees and leave it all on auto. Unless I have the roof down, in which case i turn it off as i dont want to try and air con the whole planet!

hmmmm out of interest, ive just looked on autotrader within 100mile radius of my postcode, looking at the prices, my car (at a dealer) is worth about 2000 -> 2500quid MORE than I paid for it earlier in the year! Thats just going on the asking prices, as i dont know what the "sold" prices are. Guess it must be the summer increase in value which roadsters have or something!

Ive used this stuff before on my missus`s old car and it certainly did the trick, worked no problem at all, nice and ice cold. Saved about 60quid on what the local garage wanted.

Welcome! I think you`ll find the zed seriously slow compared to the EVO. And I know you think you`ll keep it stock, but you wont. Im the same... you think.. i`ll just slip on a different exhaust... then its air filters... then you start eyeing up a super charger...... and before you know it, you may as well just have kept the EVO in the first place!!! Running cost wise, depends on how you drive it etc. I use mine for work every day and I get about 24->25mpg out of it. It costs me about £20 a day in fuel. Mines 2007 so road tax is £440 a year. Servicing is cheap as I can do that myself. Other than that insurance will vary. Cheapest I found was about the £700 mark, which came in at £200 more than an M3 or a Porsche Boxter, but was about £200 cheaper than a 2006 EVO. (im nearly 40, been driving for 20 years, have 18 years ncb).

Not another orange one??!?!! Only joking!!! Welcome to the forum!!!!!

Welcome to the forums! Looks like a nice buy. Very clean, good colour, GT Spec, got the rays wheels. Am I right in thinking thats the older model, i.e. not the 313 engine`d one - bonnet looks like its not got the bulge in it. Looks like a good price for a nice car, so well done!

Would not look forward to getting those bits of rubber off from under your wheel arches after doing that! Looks fun tho!

http://www.dwyb.co.uk/ May say here somewhere.

I look forward to all this hassle when I come to sell mine eventually. When I bought mine a few months back I really struggled to find one! On auto trader it came up with about 4 roadsters in the whole country, one of which was snapped up and sold within hours. In the end I had to travel about 80miles to get the one I bought. Of the 2 I looked at, the sellers refused to drop the price even a penny, so I had to pay full price. But, being the pessimist I am, I expect when I come to sell it, I will virtually have to give it away and make a huge loss. Big engined cars may be less popular now. I know I certainly see virtually no zeds on the road around my way, and very rarely see any m3`s or anything like that. Maybe its the cost of servicing, taxing and running puts some people off? But then again there must be plenty of people out there like me who isnt bothered about this and is happy to run a car like a zed on a daily basis? I do see plenty of rx8`s, z4`s and litterally hundreds of porsche boxters most days however and surely they cost similar to run? Good luck with the sale!

Dark blue 350 coupe, private place K*PLN just spotted about 5pm on a6 heading into Finedon, Northamptonshire. Nice clean looking car. I was in the missus car so didnt bother flashing.

Happy Birthday!!!!

How it works is that they know that the new car is up for (say) 20k, they would prob drop that to 17 for cash. So, if you want it, rather than they say what they will give you for your car, they will just give you a package price. i.e. we will take your car + 10k. Makes it sound like they are giving you more for your car. Its all a much about nothing really, ive had the same with dealers and just haggle regardless. Doesnt matter to me if they give me more for my car or just knock cash of the new car, all adds up to the same. At least they are offering you a test drive. I went to buy a brand new car 3 years back and Seat did not even have the car I wanted avaliable for a test drive, and had no idea when they would. Peugeot was the same. Ford, Renault and the others all were more than happy to give me a test drive in the car i wanted there & then. Makes you wonder how they ever sell cars. Seat in particular offered me a test drive in some 3 cylinder 1.4 grannie version Leon thinking that would help me in deciding whether or not to buy the cupra! wtf?!

Wouldnt worry too much about the fuel. Ive a car in my garage which had the same fuel in it for at least 5 years, and i started it up last year and drove it without any problems. If in doubt tho, just fill it up with super and it should all mix about nicely. Cleaning the plugs and making sure the air filters are not full of rubbish should also help. Zeds tend to need a lot of battery power to turn over, so you may have to jump it if it doesnt fire straight away.

A dead rabbit. Didnt go down well with the missus, but went down well for the family when i put it in the stew......