coldel

I used Horsham Developments in Newbury the other day for my Skyline, Jez knows his Nissans inside out (there were two 350z there when I turned up) - he can give you an at the wheels and at the fly readout on your BHP as well so you can see how much you are losing through the transmission. Jez will do what you ask, give great advice and didn't in any way try to up-sell anything which has happened at other garages which annoys me.

Skyline started at £1050 (compared to £275 for my VX220 and about £300 for the Zed) after a few phone calls to Sky, Flux and A-Plan ended up at around £550 with A-Plan, have to say out of the three they shaded it for customer service as well, the other two promised to call back and didn't and I had to chase. Sky were particularly bad at this unfortunately, twice I was hanging around in work after hours waiting for a call back that never came. Dan at A-Plan was very keen to get me onboard, was friendly, informative and to the point. Big thumbs up for them.

I think if we were playing big white barge Top Trumps, yours would win on most stats! Fattest. Gruntiest. Least amount of plastic interior, etc! I drove round the M25 and Dartford Sunday as well, should have thought to drop you a message damn it - maybe next time. Or the Woodman.

Always been wary of plasti dip, adhesive rubber, cant be as simple as they say it is in terms of removing. I used some on my interior panels and it looks fine, but no big risk there to be had. Wheels have lacquer, so not surprised it is pulling it away - like you say, full car sprays must be at risk?

You will get plenty of old chaps raising their caps and pipes to you Neil don't worry Or just get yourself a Skyline and have every knob head in a Fiesta ST want to race you! This! I get this often in the zed. Some bollock in a clearly inferior car (power wise) trying to crawl into my exhaust! Seemed a lot less common with the Zed, very much less common with the VX. I guess the car screams boy racer - even though it is just 2 years off being a 20 year old classic!

I had a fair few comments on the Zed, people in petrol stations commenting nicely and the like. The VX220 got no comments when out and about bizarrely, despite clearly being a rarer and more sporty looking car. The Skyline gets more attention than both of the above, I have had people asking for photos, caught people taking selfies with it outside my house and the like. It seems to evoke the 'sports car' in people, a rough looking chap who turned up to fix a door on a house opposite came over to talk to me about the Skyline, started asking about BHP and the like and I thought 'yeah whatever' then he started talking about intricate details of all types of GT-Rs, really surprised me!

You will get plenty of old chaps raising their caps and pipes to you Neil don't worry Or just get yourself a Skyline and have every knob head in a Fiesta ST want to race you!

My Macbook has a USB to HDMI cable which works fine with our 8 year old Samsung TV.

People still buy Blu Rays?!

To be honest I don't care for HD - really not that bothered. There might be the occasional CGI film where it works but do I care whilst browsing through various comedies and the like. Not really. Ours is not a smart TV either, we have Apple TV, £80 box which plays all my iTunes stuff and allows me to mirror my phone as well as play Netflix through it.

Absolutely, Netflix is all about the low cost, easy of use and ease of exit if you don't like it. It almost feels like it is free!

We have netflix, rolling monthly contract £7 a month. Worth every penny. 20 series of top gear on there, just finishing watching Derek. Our two year old loves watching Cars, Bugs Life, Toy Story and the like. Loads of past tv programmes, films are okish but you are paying SEVEN QUID a month and you can cancel with a months notice at any time. Do I want to tie myself into hundreds of pounds and a 12 month subscription with Sky, not a chance, I just don't care about TV that much.

First pic looks a bit 'Quatroporte' Looking good mate, haven't seen the car in ages, would like a spin out in it next meet...

I bought a cheap one like this for a car about 6 or 7 years back, it was crap. When I went from CD, to USB, to radio the interface appearance changed each time - in USB mode it looked like a DOS window! It did what it said it would, but the controls, speed and the rest of it was tiresome and crap. And you have some chinese lady shout some chinese 'boot up words' at you each time you turn it on!

About 12:45 today, I gave you a wave, you looked confused..!

Thats odd, its the right way up on my screen!

Had a go at plastidipping today - bought white and tested it out on a section of the dash - mighty impressed with the results actually, I quite like it! Unfortunately the iPhone photo doesn't do it justice, but think I might remove the remainder of the inner part of the dash and finish the job. Also, took out the Apexi filter and replaced with K&N, much bigger surface area and by all accounts a smoother intake.

I dont think thats entirely true, just did a google and found this, plenty of marques making increased sales year on year http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2013/11/usa-sports-car-sales-figures-october-2013-ytd.html, UK car sales are at a six year high I read on the news some time ago, households in the UK who own more than one car is increasing each year also...

Sorry, what ?? in terms of what Americans would term as sports cars! My point was that comparing sales of a small European car like the TT to a Nissan 370z in the US doesn't disprove the idea that the Nissan badge has something to do with the 370z not selling here.

Yeah but that's the US, European brands are much more likely to be stronger here. I would bet a dollar that local American sports cars outsell the 370z hugely in the US?

Maybe it is the death-throes of the two seater? You have to say that the capabilities of your average family hatchback are coming on leaps and bounds. 280bhp GTi's etc which from a performance perspective are now up with this perceived performance car - but offer practicality?

I like lots of posts on here like the exclusiveness of a car - I even had a debate with Dan on another post how when buying a car it being rare is important to my decision which seemed bizarre to some! I had a 350z, then a VX220 and now an R33 Skyline - plenty cars out there with better specs but stick my VX or R33 in a queue with a 911 and nobody is looking and enjoying the 911, in fact I have caught a number of people taking selfies of themselves in front of my R33. Not sure why the 'its a nissan' comments bother you Bronzee mate, factually thats true! The question is why hasnt the 370z sold and branding must be a factor, I wonder if it was branded something more perceived as motorsport based it would have done better, who knows. Actually, I would never buy a 370z, why? Because I had a 350z! Understand some people like Will and Colin (good name that, can always trust a Colin) migrated but actually I like to be flirtatious with cars at the moment and try different ones. I might consider a Zed again but it would either be a 240/260 or whatever comes out in about 10 years time!

Aha, happy birthday mate! My next one is 40 too!

At the end of the day, its a Nissan. There-in lies the problem I reckon. You only have to look at the Golf vs the Leon, identical cars different price points but vastly different sales figures I would guess (assuming Golf sells more!) - who wants a Seat? VW screams its marketing and heritage at you about quality which Seat can't at the moment match. Look at anything, take tyres for instance, generally people will buy Michelin, Goodyear etc - heard some great reviews for Nakang but you think anyone would buy them even if they are cheaper than a Goodyear but just as good? I don't see many people on here buying them. I can imagine there are people that buy on spec, and there are people that buy on brand. It just feels like the brand, in the recession, is just not working for them?

I get the pricing of the 370z gets you a lot of car for the money, but if your budget is £28k then it is your option, if its £40k then the car is going to struggle against Porsche and the like - how many less people are there with 40k to spend vs 28k to spend, I dont know, it might not actually be that many people different so although its cheaper people could well be investing into a more expensive brand. In terms of the 240z, yes uber rare now and desireable, but then so are many Porsches from that era, which are much more valuable than a 240z you could argue.