AJRFulton

Things like this is my concern about buying the Z. For some reason people like to molest Japanese sports cars far more often then their European counterparts.

Another GP, and yet again Pirelli are main talking point. Pirelli, must be hating it as it's all negative publicity. I'm actually disappointed that no team had the bollocks to make a stand on principle and retire their cars on safety grounds, having lost all confidence in the tyres. Regardless of what was causing it, there was a very clear safety concern out there. It was luck there was no major incident as a result!

I use it all the time on the motorway, and never had an issue with it, it's a fairly easy one to use IMO. I've had cars with much more tedious systems. If you are sure it isn't working, take it to the dealership

I don't understand why the give the car an even fatter arse end. Anyone that put that kit on a £20k motor has more money than sense/taste.

I took my car in to get looked at, and sods law the gearbox has been absolutely fine ever since. Although I am now getting a horrid creaking from the rear suspension when I get out the car.

Set phone to visible at all times. I've had similar issues with my S2, and this solved them.

I'm 30. Work almost every god given hour as well.

I can't get out the Z if I park in a space with cars beside. Unfortunately just the way the Z is you need to open the door almost in full to get out, that usually means having to park out the way

When the team blamed Webber for the coming together with Vettel in Turkey 2010 (something I can't see for the life of me as being anything other than Vettels fault as he appeared to swerve into Webber), you knew that despite being in the lead in the championship at the time, he was never the blue eyed boy.

I keep records as the car is through the business. Have done for years. I live in rural Scotland, and working in the nuclear industry, sites I work on tend to be out of the way too. I do very little city driving. I bought the Z fully expecting to be paying a little more for fuel and what, but really the economy has surprised me. It's a stick the Z gets beaten with in the motoring press, and tbh, I don't really understand why. For what it is, basically a small GT Sports car, it really isn't that bad, and a lot better than expected.

I've did a car swap with my Brother this week, I've took his Passat estate 2.0TDI. I'm moving from Wales back to Scotland and the Z isn't really the ideal car for this. Anyway, driving the 330ml trip, I usually go to 77-78mph on the GPS, which translates to 85ish on the speedo, and set the cruise control. In the Z the trip is usually 28-32mpg (the Z seems quite sensitive to conditions, wet/cold weather seems to affect more, but I expect this is due to wide tyres and greater road resistance in the wet), however in the Passat, unloaded, it was just 36mpg. It's a good stock test and I am consistent in doing this, and have been for years. Previously I've did the trip in a Auris T180 (2.2 Diesel), and only attained ~32mpg, although the Auris d4d engine is notorious for being @*!# at fuel economy. Also did the trip in an Astra 1.7TDi, and it faired a bit better getting 42mpg, but was by a long way the least gutsy and worst to drive, then it only had half the power of the Auris, and quarter the power of the Z. Had an Audi S3 a few years ago too, and doing the same thing with setting the cruise control, 28-30mpg was the norm. My point is the Z's quoted figures of around 26mpg, are something I am regularly surpassing. Other cars with their quoted figures in the high 40's, low 50's, I'm nowhere near to in the real world. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I could of driven here at 55mph and attained 55mpg in the Passat, but that is also taking me 2hrs longer on an already long drive. In terms of an A to B cruiser, the Z really isn't that bad, considering what it is. A lot is made of the Z's poor economy, but to be honest, whilst it's not good - 6mths of ownership later, I really am not finding it as bad as feared driving at real world speeds. I was expecting low 20's, where as high 20's average is normal. The Z's thorn in the side though is urban driving, something I don't do too much, but all the other cars out perform it by lots! The Z is mid 20's, the other high 30's and 40's.

I come up and down the M6 near weekly. Some of the speed limits at these road works are completely needless IMO, especially as often there is nobody even working at night!

The black editions are nice, but at the end of the day, virtually all but a handful of base model Z's are of near the same spec. The black edition gets different coloured seats that is about it from what is obviously noticable.

I don't think I have ever seen another 370Z, except my own and the ones at the dealership. Certainly since I started considering buying one in Late October, I definitely have never seen another one, as I was aware of them. Considering I drive circa 30k a year, it does show how rare they are! Seen a few 350Z's in that time, but again, not lots.

Never had a Focus RS, but have been around an Astra and Vectra VRX. The Z maybe slightly slower in a straight line, a sensation amplified by the turbo kicking in, but I'd bet the 370Z is fair bit faster A to B. No matter what clever suspensions, diffs and drive shafts they give the Focus, it's only things that are trying to mask and compensate for it's biggest weakness; FWD. The Z is designed to be a mid size sports car. The Focus RS is a mid sized family car, that has been made fast. It's hard to compare the two as they are in quite different categories.

The 370Z is a 30K car, but it isn't far off the Cayman S, and comes better kitted out for about £25k cheaper. It's debatable if the overall base package is better, although the Cayman is dynamically a bit stronger. However the Cayman will always be a Porsche, and even throwing £50k at the Z, it is still a Nissan. No amount of money thrown at a car changes that fact. Same as if you nip into Sports and Soccer, and buy a £2 plain white Donnay Polo shirt, or go into Boss and spend £100 on something that is essentially the same thing. It's all in the badge and how it perceived. For the Z car, you'll be spending a lot more money to find a new car in a similar category that truely trumps it.

Theres a reason why a Cayman S costs £48k and a 370Z costs from £26k. Is the Cayman S a better car, I'd say most neutrals would say yes. However is the Cayman S £22k of a better car.... Hmmm. I could put a new 370Z and a half decent spec new 3 series on my driveway for the cost of a new Cayman S. Also the GT86 being included in the review is a bit bizarre, as I wouldn't say it's the same category of car to either the Cayman or 370Z. It's not a like for like comparision. Without ever having driven a GT86, I doubt I'd ever buy one due to it's meagre performance spec. In every day driving, power rules (within reason) over handling.... and the 370Z doesn't exactly handle bad! The cars handling ability is greater than the limits most drivers are willing to push on the road. Sure the GT86 might be a well balanced, and dynamically brilliant car, but I will very rarely get to experience it's potential.

I test drove a 2011 Cayman S, and a new 370z GT Edition when I was opting to buy my car in December. I opted for the 370z over the Cayman. Why, it's quite simple. The 370Z is more of an anti-car than the Cayman. They Cayman was terrific, very precise, very German.... However the 370z is everything the modern eco concious consumer doesn't want. @*!# manufacturer badge, terrible economy, terrible road noise, etc, etc. I've no doubts I could of went from A to B, or around a track quicker in a Cayman S, but the 370Z would be giving me the bigger smile, hence why I chose the 370 over the Cayman. The geeks choice would be the Cayman 9/10, it's superb, no denying it. However, it just lacks something in my eyes. It's got it all, and nobody ever like the perfect kid at school. The 370z isn't perfect, and that's why I love it.

I concur. The thing is there are obvious cases of what is tailgating and what is lane hogging, but once you tether away from the obvious then it becomes a lot more subjective and much more of a grey area. How easy would be for a police officer to say you were tailgating? I say that as somebody who got done a few years back for driving without a seatbelt, when I certainly was as my car at the time beeped constantly if I didn't have one on, simply because a police officer decided to be a bit of an arsehole to me. I drive up and down the M6 during off peak hours a lot. I'll find myself staying in the middle lane a fair bit of the time, rather than weave in and out the inner lane over taking the lorries. I might be in the middle lane for a couple of minutes without actually overtaking anything. I just do so as I'm in autopilot driving down a very quite road. Is that, or similar, middle lane hogging? What contitutes tailgating? Where is the threshold where tailgating becomes non tailgating? I know they say drive 2 seconds behind the car infront, but what if in my head I count 2 seconds as 1.5 seconds? Am I then tailgating? It's quite subjective, and open to a traffic officers opinion. Same with the roundabouts/junctions, it is easy to get into the wrong lane on an unfamiliar road. Will you be penalised for this? Where is the line between reasonable and unreasonable behaviour. I'm all for punishing intentional bad driving, but I can see a lot of innocent mistakes going punished.

How common is this gearbox problem and what is the symptoms? My car is 4mths old, and did just over 4k miles. The gearbox is crunching at times (despite the clutch being fully depressed), and at times I am starting to feel I really need to force the stick into position. It's not a constant problem, but happens occasionally. When it does occur, sometimes I miss my change now. I'm concerned about it.

Ford Ranger Although the Navara is a good pickup too.

The tyres don't need to change 'that' much. However you should be getting around 20-25 laps out a set of primes, and 15 or so laps out a set of options driven at good pace, and a bigger performance window. The tyres just now are far, far too sensitive to very small changes. A bit more durability and predictability is all I would like to see. I don't want to see tyres that don't go off, I don't want to see tyres that behave entirely predictable for all teams, but I don't want to see tyres that go off after 3 laps, and few teams can work out how they are going to respond to their car either. I wouldn't think tyres will be an issue in Monaco due to the low speed, but the current tyres in Canada, one of the very worst circuits for tyres, we'd likely be seeing 5 and 6 stops for most teams. I'm glad they are changing it, I just hope they don't change it too much the other side of the coin.

Just bad timing with the financial climate going belly up and a big engine/low mpg meaning both the private and company buyers were put off as 'incentives' dried up. Doesn't worry me at all, in fact, as others are saying, its rareity makes it even more appealing and no real regret in making the upgrade from the 350's, which are such a great driver's car, but I just wanted something as good but newer. Yeah you're probably right. However it's a relatively unknown car. You'd think one of the biggest car manufacturers on the planet, would big up both of their 2 marquee models, as it is nobody has a clue what it is. It's a mild annoyance most think it's a 350Z

I have never seen another 370z on the road. Given I do 30-40k a year, I'm surprised at that, but it is a rare car. Nissan haven't did a great job of promoting it as such, most people just think it's a 350Z with a facelift.

It's the same after nearly every race, tyres, tyres, tyres. I don't want to go back to the processional days of the early 00's, but this is the opposite extreme and is just frustrating to watch. I don't want to watch drivers tip toe around a track and not bothering to defend position because their nursing tyres. I don't want the worlds best drivers to look like they are struggling.