HiddenWomble

Fingers crossed for you Look for the GT package, that will have heated seats. I think only the JDM imports have things like the heated seats as options. The UK cars are all the same, GT has the extras and vanilla doesn't. Take another read through http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/77426-buyers-guide/ There are 2 guides on that page, the 2nd is just a few posts down. There is a brief overview of the different options and mentions heated seats.

Hi all, Been soaking up as much info from this forum as I can in preparation for buying a zed in December. The idea was to visit a few dealerships nearer the time so I can do a few test drives and get a feel for the car. That said I've been keeping an eye on the zeds for sale and one has just sprung up at a very tempting price that's within arms reach right now! It's a 2008 HR (dat engine ) GT with just over 100K on the clock, asking price is just under £7K as the guy has had some rough luck in work and a job change has meant a large pay cut. He sounds like a classic sufferer of zeditus so I'm confident it's been well loved while in his care (ie he's run it on premium petrol, got that question in perfectly as he thought I was talking about running cost but I was actually checking for piston damage!). That said he's not had it for long so the previous owners will have had more impact on the car than he has. It's got a new clutch so that's one less thing that will need replacing. I've just read about the paper oil gallery gasket that might have wrecked shire350Z's pride and joy so I'll also be looking at the oil pressure along with printing out http://www.350z-uk.c...6-buyers-guide/ to run through each step of those 2 buying guides. By the looks of things 15psi cold on tick over 3psi hot tick over, 50psi revved Is a massive red flag, though perhaps something that could be seen to right away for the replacement updated gaskets. A healthy zed should read 110psi cold tick over 28psi hot tick over 100 revved (taken from http://www.350z-uk.c...ure-the-answer/) It's all just random words and numbers to me at this point so please let me know how much I should take them for gospel or how much salt should be added. I'm a computer guy by trade and your typical tyre kicker when it comes to trying to spot a good car vs a bad car! Scares the bejeebers out of me knowing just how little knowledge I have, but at least I can swat up with this forum so I'm not as blind as I have been in the past. I am a bit unsure as to the actual feel of the car. I've just got nothing to compare it with. Only had front wheel drive cars with mediocre power so far so everything is going to feel completely different. Oh I did a cheap HPI check which came back with a big rack of green "we have no record of..." for all categories on www.mycarcheck.com. Did that before I picked up the phone just to check it wasn't a write off. Think I'll do an RAC or AA one with all the options. There are a few oddities, advert says 3 owners HPI says 4. He said it had been on autotrader all week but it only popped up for me over the weekend (been checking every day bar Saturday!). I think I might be able to squeeze one dealer test drive in today so I have 1 other zed to compare it to. This week is going to be manic with work, I'm based in Kent, will be hitting head office in Hampshire, then it's off up to West Yorkshire and there is a 3rd place to hit that is as yet undefined and the car is in Wales! So my cunning plan which is so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a fox, is to try and fit a test drive in between head office and Yorkshire. Seems to make sense when I'll already be half way across the country at that point. The only issue is it will give me about 30 mins of daylight left unless I can wangle and early home time. If it all goes well I could in theory buy it as early as Saturday! The pics aren't too hot, but that makes me think more newbie with a phone cam than deliberately trying to take poor pics. Seen enough pics taken from mobile phones that are not rotated properly on dating sites for that not to worry me too much. Anyway, that's a holy-wall-of-text-batman so I'll try to wrap up. I'm quite nervous about it all, not entirely sure if I'm thinking with my head. My plan of getting into a position where I have several zeds to pick from to get the best specimen seems to have gone up in smoke and I guess I'd just like some feedback from people who live and breathe zeds. http://www.autotrade...s_old&logcode=p That's the ad, the front tyres are new so no chance to check for feathering, but that sounds simple enough to fix. It's only got one key, I need to check if that is 1 key + the master, can anything be done without a master? As mentioned the clutch is new and the guy was over the moon with how much better she felt after that. What else am I missing before I see it in the flesh? If your eyes haven't glazed over by now, thanks for reading

what i don't get is how they figured out that a car that had been used by a main character in most of the films, who has since passed away before his time, is worth 30K less than a car the bad guy in just 1 film had...

After reading this I think if I were to look at a car from them I'd approach it as I would from a private seller. Take the car on it's merits as is and don't expect to have any further dealings with them after the sale. Then use any defects to haggle the price down instead of letting them BS about fixing it before pickup/delivery. So if's, and's, but's or maybe's on the HPI check either, sounds like they get their stock from the auction house as write offs!

Please don't post pics like that. I'm saving up for a zed and I'm trying to stay colour agnostic. I have a real soft spot for black and seeing such perfect curves in shiny black is not helping

Thanks all for the warm welcome Glad it's not just me that thinks the HR prices are starting to stick, thought I was going mad when I hit auto-trader again this summer! I knew about the bonnet bulge and the 2 air intakes (been reading tons ) but the single aux drive belt is new to me, so thanks for the tip! After swatting up on the 95RON and 4.5K to 5.5K rev limit before the ECU stops protecting against knocking I think buying from an enthusiast would be a very good way to avoid getting a dud. It is scary to think I might be getting a zed that's been abused for years without any way of knowing short of letting a mechanic lose on it before the sale. When I was first planning to get a nice sports car the RX-8 was the first one I looked at. But I figured I should see what else was in the same performance and price bracket first. That's when the 350Z came to light with it's muscle car like engine with solid handling to boot. Sure the RX-8 can perform well when it's kept in the power band, but I just like the idea of having, hmm, was it 90% or 95% of max torque across most of the rev range at my disposal. I do a lot of motorway miles and love having a car that can slip into a slot on the outside lane. I'm due to hit 8K in December, so hopefully sales will slow down and some of the prices will drop a little as people try to liquidate their assets to keep their own plans moving through a time when you'd be daft to buy a powerful RWD car. That said after seeing the prices this summer I am wondering if I'll have to stretch to 10K to get enough choice so I'm getting a good specimen. I put a lot of miles on my cars and never like changing car. This one will be my first upgrade by choice not by "beyond economical repair" like all my £500 specials have been so far. I've recently dug myself out of debt and as a treat started saving hard and fast for the sort of car I've always wanted. So I'm determined to hit that 8K the hard way, then maybe I'll consider a loan for a little bit extra, but I'd rather buy the car upfront so I can start pouring money into the savings account for when something expensive breaks. Too early for that right now, but while I'll probably hit a trader for a test drive when the money is in the bank I do like the idea of buying from an enthusiast, so I'll be watching the sale forum like a hawk

Edit: It's official, I now have zeditus. Here is my zed after the 250 mile trek home Hi all, Been squirrelling my money away for a year now to get my first full flavour behaviour sports car. After much research on the net of facts, figures and peoples impressions I decided to aim for the 2007 HR 350Z. The other real contenders were the RX-8 and the S2000, but I'm not a fan of convertibles and I just like the idea of the raw ugg the 350z has over the RX-8. I've got to the point now where my savings have passed the cost of the cheaper zeds so it's starting to feel more like a reality! So I've been reading up even more on what sort of things I need to know about owning a zed. So thanks all for your part in creating this forum that's chock full of great information When I did my research on prices late last year I decided about £8K would give me enough choice for a 2007 with the new HR engine. I was surprised to see that if anything prices have gone up in the last 7 months! Could the final version of the 350z be stabilizing in price, or is it just because people don't like buying powerful RWD cars in the middle of winter? Anyway, I'm just rambling now. My current car is a Mazda MX-3 (yes, a 3, not a 5) and the zed promises to more than double the power