ukdavew

Went yesterday, it was about 3 degrees and pissing down...not a good show (from my perspective)

*sigh* That'd do nice...the closer my bonus comes the more excited I'm getting Anyone wanna buy a diesel SEAT Altea so I can buy one of these from a Forum member on a private sale?

Seriously guys, some colourblind driver is gonna get one helluva bargain

Doesn't the front lip stick out a bit more though? If ukdavew has a sloping drive then that might be a problem? But you're right though, I've never really checked to see if the Nismo kit actually changes the overall dimensions of the car. I suppose the most likely part that would change would be the side skirts? My drive slops downwards as you look at it from the road and has a drop kerb etc, so what is key is the clearance between the wheels rather than the clearance at the front & rear. My mate's got a JDM RX-7 which is supposed to be slightly lower than a Zed that we're gonna try sticking on the drive before we go up to Donnington at the weekend.

Nice looking motor...some lovely private sales coming up this week. I can hear the clock ticking for my impending purchase...shame I've gotta chop mine in so it'll be a trade job

I may take you up on that at some point soon when I'm looking for someone to try fitting a zed on my adjusted driveway (I'll pay for services rendered in the currency of super unleaded)

Went along to my nearest Nissan dealer to have a squint at their Zeds over the weekend. Primarily I wanted to eyeball the ground clearance and see what sort of challenge I was setting myself up for. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised, I still think there's bugger all chance it'll fit on without work but it doesn't seem impossible. They had an 04 plate GT in blue which I had my first sit in. Having sat in the S2000 before I was expecting quite a cramped environment but I was pleasantly surprised to find the seat extremely comfortable and feeling plenty of room around me. Also the boot was much bigger than I'd heard tale of, ok it's obstructed but there's loads of space back there. Anyway it's just made me want one more now and I think the GT spec or equivalent is the one for me. This one was up for £17999 with about 27k on the clock, so it's a good few grand out of my budget. The guy also mentioned that Wessex don't deal with imports at all, won't supply or service them. Does anyone know if this is true? Or just a salesman trying to push the reason for buying a UK car? I doubt his word somewhat as he was telling me how difficult it is to get parts for the JDM cars *cough*.

I certainly would agree that very few beemers turn heads the way the 350z does.

All I can say is I hope there are more like this about in 2 months time when my bonus comes in...oh yeah and that the pesky driveway issue is resolved by then

Crapola, that's gut-wrenching...glad you're ok.

Lovely job...just in time for my new laptop

That was my logic too Just looking at the Zed and the Altea while the wheelbase is similar (Zed is 8cm longer) the 350 is markedly lower. I'm gonna investigate this weekend to see what is touching on the Altea as the clearance elsewhere seems good on the bodywork...and the fact it's coming from the passenger-side would seem to point the finger at the exhaust.

It's something between the wheels that's likely to ground. The house is lower than street level by a few feet so the drive goes down.

There's definitely industrial machinery in my future, I'm just trying to work out how drastic. When I came to the forum I was pretty determined but seeing all the zed-love here I must own one! (subject to testdrive of course )

That's my concern, I have a long narrow drive so I don't have that option.

Guys, Time is ticking away towards the arrival of my bonus and the (hopeful) Zed purchase As I've mentioned before the biggest concern I have is ground clearance coming onto the drive of my house. The drive is angle downwards fairly sharply and I'm worried that the centre of the car will ground out. My current and last cars (Seat Altea and Alfa 156) both ground slightly to one side...so I know I'm going to have to do some work to try and make this possible. Does anyone have any detailed pictures of the underneath of a zed, (something like a front view with the bumper off would be awesome) so that I can see which components are the lowest and thus likely to ground out? If anyone has dimensions or anything that would be ideal. I'd really appreciate any help, this is the main hurdle (pun intended) to me getting a Zed!

As it happens I'll be there with a mate, I'll try and make sure to come over and say Hi

I must know too many mockneys...my first expectation seeing the title of the thread was that this would be about how great LED rear lights are

but check what quotes you are getting on a specific car before you commit to buying it Definitely will do so. Lots of useful tips here...I was testing myself on Autotrader yesterday running through the pages of cars in my planned price range and giving myself a running commentary... "Japanese front and rear bumpers...JDM" "Indicator stalk's on wrong side...JDM" etc. I'll definitely get some quotes. Directline who I've been with forever want £426 for a UK 350z (about £14.5k value, so an 03). I've not tried for a JDM yet as I can't do it online and it means speaking to an insurance troll.

Friend of mine bought himself a Chrysler 300C as he wanted a change from his 200SX, within first two weeks it had been keyed down both sides front to back...bring back the birch I say.

Welcome! I'm a fellow newbie and wannabe-owner, I hope not to be in a bidding war with you over any cars

Awesome...I'm tremendously jealous!

Hi Panos, welcome from a fellow newbie!

I can see that being a killer, I'd definitely be in the UK club if that's the case when it comes time to buy.

Thanks chaps, I did read the "difference" thread and it seemed there were lots of things, I just wasn't 100% sure of the things which might be standard on a JDM but an option over here. Not that I'm anti-JDM, I just want to know what I'm looking at. While most of the Pistonhead ads looks pretty honest there's an awful lot on Autotrader where it appears to be JDM but isn't mentioned at all. I think I need to do a lot more research to understand the pros and cons of JDM ...oh and wait for my bonus to clear