Dave_McC

anyone - someone must have a jap spec head unit they've ripped out? Ta Dave

Any reason why nobody's mentioned the Kenwood 7200? I've been about getting one for a while, but the price keeps falling so I'm still hanging on. Built in sat nav and ipod control, and bluetooth add on box sorts out the phone. Mapping is on SD card and you can add speed camera database as well. Not really had much more of a look yet - price now is about £750 off internet. Dave

I'm thinking about getting rid of the crappy Bose head unit in my roadster, and replacing it with a Kenwood 7200 with the bluetooth - but I'm a bit concerned whether the reflections with the roof down will mean I can't read the screen - has anyone got a Kenwood multimedia unit in a roadster who can comment? Thanks Dave

Anyone got a knackered head unit - preferably Bose. I only want it for the front panel to make up a disguise dummy panel to put over a decent double DIN aftermarket head unit - so I don't want to pay very much! Cheers Dave

Chesterfield Would I guess rightly that the tardis feature is to open the roof only to the point the cover raises and then stow luggage where the roof would normally fold into? Hadn't thought of doing that - smart. I bought a roadster in November - can't compare to a coupe as I never drove one - I wanted a roadster (and I'm a bloke ). Agree it doesn't look nearly as good roof up, but you only need a nice day with the roof down to love it. Yes you get a lot of looks - which for me is a bit of a downside - but I love the feeling of the wind in the hair and in the Z the noise of the exhaust. I certainly don't regret my decision. Dave

I'll second Kuro - sold my classic scooby for the z in November last year. I do miss the sheer punch of the scooby - mine ran 260bhp and with the 4wd you could hoon everywhere. I do find I've backed off a bit since getting the z, but it's definitely still a fun car to drive and it's nice not to have to wait til 3500rpm before anything much happens. My worst bill on the scooby was £1700 - and that wasn't from a main stealer. It did include new (uprated) clutch, new front disks and pads and a service, but the z shouldn't cost anything like the scooby to run (other than the fuel consumption which I'm averaging 23mpg compared to about 26 for the scooby - though that did drop into the teens when back road blasting . Dave

Quick update for anyone thinking of doing this. I bought a spare windscreen mount off ebay for £10 incl p&p and cut the windscreen cup bit off it flush with the rear of the bit that connects to the Go (it's actually metal not plastic as I thought till I tried cutting it!). With the stub bit of the mounting connected to the Go, it fits very neatly into the cubby and naturally sits at a good angle for viewing, and the cubby door still shuts (only just though). Next stage will be to hook up a switched live feed into the cubby so it's always got power when the ignition's on. Another thought I had tonight - the standard factory nav set up presumably feeds the sound through the stereo, and as the stereo's the same I assume there must be a line in on the back of it which "mixes" the line in with whatever's playing at the time. The Go mount has an audiio out jack - you can see where this is going.....? Anyone know where the nav line in is on the stereo? Dave

Question for anyone who's had the centre console out - is there any spare space behind the upper cubby hole? I need to make a hole in the back of the cubby to poke about 1 cm of the mount for my Tom Tom through so it will fit and allow the cubby door to be shut. I've looked at the threads about removing the centre console, and there's definitely something behind the cubby but it's impossible to tell how much spare space there is. Also, anyone know how much a new cubby assembly is for a 2005 car - want to keep the original unmolested so I can put the car back to standard when I come to sell. Many thanks Dave

John I thought the TT had a microphone built in - but they recommend the remote mic for better sound. Have yet to try the bluetooth other than playing with it on the living room floor! Is there any space behind the dash cubby - ie could I cut out a hole in the rear of the cubby for the mount to poke through the back? The only other alternative is to cannibalise the mount completely removing the jack connectors (there's 5 of them) from the mount so I can cut the mount off nearer to the TT unit itself - effectively leave just enough of the mount so it will clip into the TT unit, but no more. Can't believe nobody else has tried this?? Dave

Bought myself a Tom Tom Go in the sales as I decided I couldn't justify the expense of a dedicated sat nav / head unit setup. The TT fits easily in the cubby above the radio, and I was thinking of hardwiring the power lead. The only way this appears possible is to use the home dock and cut off the USB lead - with the standard windscreen mount connector (if I cut it off from the windscreen sucker part) will protrude too far from the back of the unit to fit in the cubby. Has anyone else done this, and if so how did you do it - any pics? Thanks Dave

Roof down yesterday driving round to Basingstoke - was a bit cold though... Can't make my mind up at the moment whether to replace head unit or not. I love the look of the new Pioneer hard disk based double DIN unit - but OMG the price - £2k:scare:. Dave

Monkfish wouldn't waste your time looking for it if I were you - utter carp! Piccies will follow when I get a chance - hardly been at home since I got her, and it's getting dirty rather fast so will need a wash before I take any piccies. Dave

and had the roof down saturday and sunday. Nice run from East Grinstead to Basingstoke to Winchester and then back again on sunday, savouring the lovely noise it makes . Initial observations are that it's not nearly as quick as my old impreza turbo (which admittedly was chipped), but I suspect it's a bit deceptive as there's no turbo kick in the back. However, it's a lot more comfortable and civilised, and the roof drops . I'm underwhelmed by the Bose stereo. The Audiopilot function was switched on, and this seems to crudely increase and decrease the volume based on its idea of background noise. Also, in silent bits on a CD (eg between tracks) it appears to jack the volume up as there is very noticeable "noise" from the speakers. Need to get some more miles covered.... Dave

Neo That's what I'm worried about. Tried using my laptop outside a couple of times and it's useless. But Nissan offer the satnav on the roadster as an option, so guessing at least their screen must be visible, but don't know how good the anti-reflective coating and contrast is on the alpine screen. My other concern is fitting an expensive stereo in a car with a cloth roof . At least the insurance I've just taken out has £1k stereo cover as standard. Dave

Believe the Rays were only standard on the facelift cars - post June 06. Don't know what the list price would have been when it was new - but think it was near £30k. The guy who owned it is apparently a serial new car buyer, and had order a Cayman by the time the 350 was delivered - dealer said the guy had to pay them £3k to take the car off his hands to clear the finance . The new one lists at £30,495 and plus the metallic is almost £31k. Had all the info on drivethedeal with me for a £950 discount to try to get the dealer to match it, but never even had the discussion as I ended up buying the secondhand one anyway. Dave

Haven't even got the car yet (GT roadster, which I pick up on saturday), but have plans to instal a double DIN stereo to replace the standard BOSE to give ipod connection and sat nav, and thinking about the alpine w200i with, in due course, the sat nav unit hooked up to it. Question is, in a convertible, will I be able to see the screen or will the reflection be too much? Thanks Dave

Went to the main dealer on saturday intending to put a depost down for a new roadster, until I saw a used one on the forecourt at a price I couldn't refuse. 06 reg, registerd end of April 06 and only done 3,800 miles and finished in gun metal, they only wanted £26k for it, and then dropped that to £25k. It's got the Rays as well - the only thing it hasn't got is the alezan interior which I fancied, but that and the facelift changes weren't enough to justify spending another £6k on a new one. It's also got the lighter clutch from the later version - apparently Nissan started fitting this before the facelift came through in June. Can't wait til this saturday - though it's bound to rain all weekend . Best bit is the insurance is less than I was paying on my impreza turbo which was only worth £5k - go figure. Dave

Nana Moon Have to say I love that install. How do you find running the sat nav through the kenwood - is the display high enough up in the dash to be usable whilst driving without having to take your eyes too far off the road? Cheers Dave

Matt From what I can work out, Alpine are due to release a bluetooth module any time now which will work with all the recent AiNet head units, and price seems to be £200. However, I know you can get an adaptor to maintain the audio steering wheel controls, but haven't seen any info on maintaining the phone steering wheel controls - so guessing this is currently not possible. Won't bother me as I'm planning on getting a roadster which doesn't come with phone anyway. Dave

I'm continuing to lurk round here while I make my mind up about getting a Z, but was wondering what people think about the Nissan Birdview sat nav compared to Alpine. Been looking at some car audio websites, and I could get a very smart looking Alpine W200 head unit (double DIN unit, touch screen, plays MP3 and WMA and most importantly will control an iPod) and the Alpine sat nav control box (N099 I think it is) for £1,300 - that's only 100 notes more than Nissan want for Birdview and will give me a much better head unit. Has anyone used both nissan and alpine sat navs - thoughts...??? Ta Dave

May have found the answer - although still confused. Found that some pics appear fine, but some just show the box with the pic source file name. Just switched off the firewall ad blocker, and I now get a box as before but with a thumbnail of the pic in it, which I can click on to view - assume this is normal? Strange thing is why some pics appear this way, whilst others just appear as pics (ie without the box and ref to the filename) and are not affected by the ad blocker. Oh well, at least I can see the pics now, although having just seen the pics of the bonnet on the new US version I wish I hadn't. Dave

Mmm - not a work PC. Pics in peoples signatures appear, as do avatars. But linked pics don't appear. Strange.

Yep - logged in.

Maybe a daft question, but where threads have a picture I'm just seeing a box with "filename.jpg" in the top line and number of times viewed underneath - why can't I see the pic?? Thanks Dave

Hi all. I've been lurking on here for a while picking up info - I love the 350z and am set on getting a roadster. How much real world difference is there between the 2005 and 2006 engines - I have a brochure for each, and both have a power and torque graph. The new spec engine appears to have a much broader spread of torque, which should make it a much more relaxed drive. However, nether torque graph has a scale on it so the graphs may be deceptive. Has anyone owned / driven both and can comment? The devil says order a new one and what the hell - you only live once. But that will cost quite a bit on credit, and there are one year old sub 10k mile examples on the nissan website for £25k or £26k - which will be a saving of £6k because I WILL spec satnav, alezan seats and metallic pushing the price up to £32k. Also, has anyone got any experience of www.drivethedeal.com - they've been recommended by Honest John on numerous occasions, and can do a brand new one at almost £1k off list - local main dealer won't even talk discounts. Cheers Dave