rabbitstew

You do have to pull them up quite high compared to other cars in order for them to work, apparenty its a "feature" of the 350.

Unless the car is running hot, then no need to change it.

40k for an a3 which looks like some chav has got his hands on it. Whilst the RS audi`s are awesome cars, i can think of better things to spend 40k on.

Awesome! Not sure I could hit that sort of mpg tho, even if i tried. I could regularly hit 60->70mpg in my golf tdi, but the same driving in the 350z is currently hitting 26. Must try harder!

Welcome to the forum. Lots of googling and reading will tell you what you should look out for and all you need to know about the 350z.

Going from a 1.2 corsa to a 350z! Hope you have checked out the insurance!!!

Fat drivers

Im running Tescos 99 in mine.

Am getting 26mpg on my daily commute into work.. just cruising at 50->70mph for about 45miles each way. Im sure if I started freewheeling more and things like that i could etch it upto about 30mpg.

Nice!!!!!!! Looks like xmas has come early!

Very often there is nothing wrong at all with Cat D motors. I used to buy, repair and sell on accident damaged cars many years back. The main reason for Cat D cars is that the repairers which insurance companies use tend to seriously rip the insurance companies off.

As an example, my missus has a small prang in her car last year. She rolled into the back of someone at about 20mph. I priced up the replacement parts needed - bumper, radiator, 1 spotlight, and maybe a new bonnet if i couldnt repair the old one. Came to about £400 all in, including paint. But, because there was another car involved we went through the insurance company.

The Insurance company took the car to their repair shop and came back saying that her car was a boarder line write off!!!! But, they decided to repair it in the end and we got it back. I got a copy of the repair invoice from the bodyshop and they charged the insurance company £3200 for the work, and the car was only worth about £3750 or so.

Had the insurance company decided to write the car off, I would have bought it back, and for £400 got it repaired properly.

The key thing really if you buy an accident repaired car is to try and establish what was repaired / replaced and how badly damaged it was before the repair. Just because it was written off, it does not mean the car is dangerous or even been involved in a major serious accident.

I was pretty miffed that they didn't change much from the 296bhp to the 313bhp versions. Yes it's old and archaic but at the same time I have found it to be one of the most accurate sat nav's out there.

 

The TMC function is a god send and has saved me on countless occassions travelling to and from inner London. Even when there's a pile up on the M40, it has quickly registered it and diverted. I know some sat nav have failed to warn me of such occassion and sometimes are overly cautious by redirecting you when there is nothing there in the first place!

 

How did you get the TMC working? I have to admit I havent read the manual for the sat nav yet as its about an inch thick. Ive got the stereo tuned in to classic fm as I believe thats the station TMC is broadcast on. The satnav screen shows TMC on the map, in green. But, i was expecting accidents to show on the map or the road colour to change like on my tomtom traffic. ?

Mines the same! I also thought it might be a prob, but looks like its normal.

were there many options availible when the 350z was launched. Mines a 350z with GT pack, Sat Nav, Parking Sensors, Bluetooth, had the car care pack thingy done as well when bought.

 

What else was an option? Sorry to hijack. Sat nav comes under options lol

Sat Nav was optional, so was GT pack (cruise control, bose stereo, heated leather electric seats). Alezan orange seats/trim was an additional option on top of the GT pack - likewise Frosty Blue was another colour seat/trim which was optional ontop. Rays wheels were also optional, but some late cars came with them.

I thought bluetooth came as standard with the Bose (GT pack) stereo on coupe`s but they didnt fit bluetooth to roadsters.

I think the point is, that this system cost £1600 as an option when new

 

Yes it's functional, but there are £50 portable units that are better than it now.....

Jesus.... who an earth would pay £1600 for it?! I get free sat nav on my orange mobile! But then again, if the sat nav cars hold their value better, a lot of people would be encouraged to pay that extra for it new. Bit like the GT pack etc...

yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Personally i dont find the sat nav that bad. Its been accurate on the routes ive been on. Only things which anoys me about it is that it doesnt have speed cameras unlike my tomtom and its not a touch screen - the little joystick makes it slower to input addresses etc. In addition, there seems zero support for it, so you are unlikely to be able to update the maps on it.

However, plus points, it has a nice big display, clear and easy to see when your driving. The OS on it is easy enough to use to set up your addresses and preferences. The female voice on it takes some getting used to, and she always sounds surprised that there is a roundabout coming up in 300 yards. lol. You can set things like your average speeds on different types of roads, and when you turn your headlamps on the unit auto switches to night mode.

Sure, you cant put in postcodes, which seems ridiculous in this day & age, but it takes streetnames and has all the ones ive needed recently.

Personally I think those with SatNav in the dash do look better than the big cubbie hole, but I dont think I would deliberately pay extra for one, and it certainly wouldnt be a make or break for me if i was considering purchasing a car without it. Most people these days have tomtoms as they are cheap as chips, so having a built in satnav isnt as crucial as it used to be. Saying that, the satnav cars do seem to fetch a premium.

the car actually failed an ommission test when i got it mot'd as there was a tiny hole in the exhaust and the guy said he tried to do it 3 times. could they have changed the mixture?

I think your best bet is to go back and have a word with them and find out if they actually did anything.

The 5mpg would be because they had it sitting there idling, then revving it to do the emissions. If you reset the computer, then have a drive about you`ll see what normal mpg your getting.

Hang on.

If the gasket is broken, then you can just buy another gasket and replace it. They are about 3quid each. You dont need to replace the whole exhaust system.

If the exhaust was blowing through the gasket then it could cause a bit of a lumpy response, but i wouldnt have thought it would be THAT bad. But, the first thing i would do, is get the gasket replaced and see if that fixes it. If it doesnt, its only cost you 3quid for the bit and ruled that out of the equation.

What MPG is it showing on the computer and how does that compare to before the MOT. An MOT should not change anything to do with the fueling. In the oldern days with carbs, some places used to adjust the fuel mixture if the car was failing on the emissions test. But these days that doesnt happen because of ECU`s etc...

As a guide, my 313 is currently doing about 25mpg on average over a tank full which is mainly cruising to work and back with the odd spirited bit of acceleration.

I did sort of the reverse. Moved to a cheaper house then bought the zed with the difference in house value between my old house and the cheaper new one.

At least you got to have one for 8 months mate, and having seen it in the flesh the other week, it was a cracking looking motor. And, you got a good price for it from what you were saying.

Im still not sure how long I will keep mine. I think maybe 12 months and sell it summer 2012. Will see just how much the running costs affect me. Its costing 3 times what my old car did to run. Im spending around £450 just on fuel a month just getting to work & back, which is like having a 2nd mortgage. But, at the moment thats kinda ok.

Also, visit Scotland.

 

Edinburgh's great for drinking and all up and down the west coast are superb roads for driving

+1 on Edinburgh. Ive been there a few times now and its an awesome place. Im actually off there next Wednesday, although wont be taking the zed... wouldnt fit on the plane as hand luggage.

Wow, that was a risk, but I like it. I am a bit of a risk taker myself so can imagine what you were going through.

 

I almost put it on ebay the other day, but got a bit confused by the whole thing. To be honest I am getting fairly good offers from dealers, some I am getting up to about 90% of the asking price privately when p/xing with a 350z they have in stock.

 

...its just finding a 350z in the first place in the price bracket I am looking for. An extra couple of grand the market really opens up. Where I am (which is limited by house purchase and possible kiddies arriving at some point) its very hit and miss and really decent UK cars are sold within hours.

Yeah you have to be quick, and dealers prefer cash purchases to part-ex`s. Sounds like your situation is quite tight atm, so I certainly would be careful not to stretch yourself. Most people tend to look to sell their 350z and buy an Astra if they are buying a house, not the other way around! Lol.

Always a tough situation really. Do you sell the Astra and have no means of transport but the cash waiting for the 350z, do you part ex the Astra and get a low price for it? Or do you buy the 350z then try and sell the Astra privately but risk being stuck with it for months and months.

I opted for the last option when I bought my 350z. The trade in on my old car was hardly anything. So, I just put the old car on ebay and it sold for 3 times the price the dealer would have given me. On ebay you know it will fetch the "market" price, which is the price joe public think its worth. I had about 70 people watching it and it went for the price I already knew it would make from looking at previously sold listing prices. Never the less, bit nerve racking sticking your car on there for a 99p start price and worrying that someone will get it for 20quid or something.

What sort of price would postage be on the 350z system? Looking on ebay, Roadrunner in Nottingham do the scorpion system for £374 incl delivery.

Hi, welcome to the forum! Its a great atmosphere on here and loads to learn.

You will also soon get used to filling up with petrol. My local petrol station is my 2nd home these days!

a friend of mine had a incodent where a guy pull infront on him got out of the car and starter shouting and bouncing off the bonnet, my friend did the sensible thing and ran him over, told the police, they said it was self defence... WIN!

Excellent!!!!

I am quite a placid driver really these days, mainly as a result of spending so much time on the road, you tend to be a lot calmer driver and let things just go over your head rather than getting wound up. But, I still occasionally come across the odd idiot driver.

In my experience theres not much you can do really, its your word against theres. Even if they crash into you. I had some boy racer pile into the back of my car a few years back. I was stationary and had been for 2 or 3 minutes, waiting for an oncoming vehicle to pass, when this guy ploughed into the back of my car. He had got to be doing at least 60mph and it was a 30mph zone. He was braking so hard the bonnet of his car went under the back of mine. My car was totally written off. The back was destroyed, the force of the crash threw me back so hard that the drivers seat ripped out of the floor mountings. For me, I thought the damaged caused would clearly indicate the other driver was speeding. But no. The police said there was "not enough evidence" to charge him with any driving offense", and he got let off.

I was off work for 3 weeks with whiplash and injuries and darent drive for weeks afterwards. Unfortunately the insurance company said that they dont really pay much out for whiplash any more, so i ended up getting £800 or something if I remember rightly.