Ekona

So? So does everybody else. No-one becomes a teacher because they want to earn a fortune, they do it because they want to teach. I went in the opposite direction and decided that I would rather have the money, hence I stick my hands down toilets for a living

Pffft, my car's only a weekend car but it still does 10K fun miles a year, no point in owning something nice if you're too worried about the money involved to never drive the thing! I wouldn't want to use it for work though, or at least just the commute, as that would spoil the specialness of a weekend car for me. Same as when I had the Zed, loads of fun miles but zero boring ones.

A couple of questions/points then Vik: 1. How do you propose we (as a country) pay for your (as public sector workers) pension? Where should we find the £Bns from? 2. If your pension is that important to you, why not top it up with a private one instead of downing tools?

Fiat Multipla It's slightly funny looking, no arguments there, but it's Italian so it should be something different. Practical, roomy, easy to fix: If I needed something big and disposable I'd buy one in an instant.

I don't really care where he's from, he's an irritating tw@t face and that's why I usually want the other guy to win. Same reason I want Klitschko to win tomorrow night, Haye has zero class.

I don't care if it's 5 pages in already, this thread needs a poll. I'm going to add one, if for nothing else than my own curiosity. Sorry Rich to abuse your thread

My missus is an NQT in primary, and is a member of one of the unions who went on strike yesterday. She still went into work because she didn't vote for the strike. I've never been prouder of her for standing up for her own principles.

Am I b*llocks!

Or, to give you another reason why manufacturer weights are a load of rubbish (Porsche included), I had my old Zed weighed on a proper weighbridge. Full tank of fuel give or take the 10 min pootle to get there, myself @90kgs, K1 exhaust on so much lighter there than stock, all on a revup Roadster... 1860kg. Work backwards and that's still stupidly heavy. No chance in hell a normal coupe weighs anything less than 1550kg minimum. Nissan themselves claim (via here) a weight of between 1528kg and 1550kg, and I can promise you it's nearer the end of that.

Did you even read 10PS's diary?

I'm not sure why there's such a big stigma from getting financial aid from your parents tbh. My folks bought my first car for me and insured it from the ages of 17 until 21. My Dad went guarantor on my next car and it was also pretty decent of him to give me a job working for his company where I am today. Sure, I've worked pretty hard since and made the most of the opportunity, but I won't sit here and say that it's all been off my own back and I've worked in the mines since the age of 9 to afford everything. I've got amazing parents who have helped me out in life, and I don't really care who knows it or what they think of me. In all honesty if I had parents who were worth millions (mine aren't btw!) and they wanted to buy cars and houses and ponies for me, I'd snatch their hands off. I suspect most people would.

The Boxster's gone back now, but I did manage one last extended hoon in it yesterday before dropping it back: Well, it would be rude not to really! In equal measures, I'm both more impressed and more disappointed with it at the same time after having driven it further, and certainly after having my own car back and being able to do a back-to-back comparison. I'll start with the negatives first, as they're slightly harder to quantify in a way. It simply doesn't feel that special, and it should: This is a £50K car, and one by a premium manufacturer who knows sports cars better than almost any other company in the world, and yet it still felt slightly dull. Maybe it didn't help that it was a silver car with a black interior which is about as boring as you can get, but whilst there's certainly nothing wrong with the inside as such (indeed, 90% of manufacturers out there could learn a lot about the use of quality materials in a cabin from Porsche) it never gave me that little shiver you should get when sitting in a roadster. The more I think about it the more I suspect the lack of colour really doesn't help it, and I would hope that a buyer would add a row of red stitching here or a yellow seatbelt there to liven it up, but seeing as how this is only a courtesy car I guess there wasn't much sense in the dealer speccing it to daft levels. The only other downside were the brakes, which I never grew to love. Yes they're progressive, but they fade far too easily for my taste and I never felt truly comfortable in their outright stopping ability. That said, being able to dab them lightly to shift the weight forward on a section of fast flowing corners was a joy. Honestly though, that's me being picky: The brakes are still better than the stock Zed ones, although (and whisper this) I think I found the post-facelift Zed to be a more characterful place. All those Zs everywhere make it look like someone really took their time over it, whereas the Boxster just looks like it was lifted from the 911. So the positives then. Ahh yes, the positives. Sod the boring interior as it's instantly forgotten the second you open the exhaust valves and blip the throttle, especially with the roof down, as you get this gorgeously throaty bark that feels like a rather sizeable dog is just itching to get out from the rear of the car and go chase some particularly pesky tomcats. This is how to do an exhaust without adding drone or volume for the sake of it, and whilst I personally could've lived with a little more noise I appreciate that there's a limit as to how much a normal person would put up with. Porsche went for tone over volume and that's fine by me, especially as every light toe tap of the right foot gives you that aural orgasm of a flat-6 lump. Wind it right up in 2nd and 3rd and it's heaven, it really is. The engine is very similar to the revup and HR Zeds, in so far as it wants to be rung right out rather than ride the torque. It never feels especially quick until you glance down at the digital speedo and realise that you probably should back off a fraction... It pulls right through from 3K to the 7.5K redline with an ease and a smoothness that only the very best engines do, and it makes you want to do it again and again just to savour it. The car always feels like it's very much at ease regardless of whatever roads you throw at it, although much like my 911 the stiffer suspension setting is just too stiff on UK B-roads, and it can get a bit crashy. When that's the case you just push the PASM button and return to normal mode which allows the chassis to ebb and flow regardless of surface, and allows you to pick the pace back up. It's not so much Jekyll and Hyde, more bacon sandwich and 21oz T-bone: There's a time and a place for both, but you wouldn't want to live without either. As far as the drive goes, it's practically flawless. The steering wheel is chunky and well-weighted, the gear shift positive and smooth, the seating position supportive and comfortable, and the drivetrain engaging and urging. This is by some margin the best roadster I've ever driven, and it makes me remember just why I was so excited after that initial test drive in an almost identical car those few years ago, and just how I started my infatuation with Porsche and why I ended up with one on my drive. Given that there's a plethora of decent Boxsters out there for prices that compete against a new Zed, this is the benchmark that needs to be beaten and I would say that whilst there's definitely reasons to get the Nissan instead, if you don't at least drive one of these as a comparison then you're really missing out. Besides, you don't need both kidneys...

What was he then, a magic forum ninja? Only the cool kids get a warning anyway, so don't sweat it Neil

Without trying to state the bleedin' obvious again as I think most people have already done here, this thread can pretty much be summed up with one sentence: You can't afford a 350Z right now. There's a difference between able to buy a car and being able to run a car, and it looks like you can't afford to do the latter in this case.

I totally agree with you, the chassis is much better balanced on the Boxster platform than the 911. No matter how much engineering they do, having the weight over the rear wheels isn't as balanced as mid-engined. Whilst I've no doubt that the 911 would be quicker (power aside), it takes more commitment to get those extra tenths whereas I was able to be pretty much flat out in the Boxster within a few minutes. It's very confidence inspiring. If it stops raining I'll be taking it out for a blast tonight. If it ever stops raining.

Get some wheels and tyres that fit properly?

Two weeks is fine fella, probably better than I used to do on my Zed anyway! I'm almost convinced there's no issue now after hearing you say that, you'd have picked up on oil loss long before a Nissan tech after 5 mins of working on your car.

You can drive a Zed at 17 if you can find someone to insure you.

Sounds like to me they're going to clean out the intake of the oil rather than actually find out what the cause of the oil burning is. I don't actually think there is a problem y'know, as if there was you'd notice yourself when doing your weekly oil checks (you do do your weekly oil checks, don't you? ) and if it was that bad I reckon you'd have a seized engine by now. Personally I'd be cleaning the MAF with some carb cleaner, letting Nissan clean your entire intake system (including throttle body), resetting the ECU and then seeing how the car feels.

A turbocharged car will always feel like it has more oomph than an NA car, but it might not necessarily be faster. You need to use the revs on the Zed to make good progress, whereas on a TT you can rely on the torque much more.

No they didn't. All GT convertibles had buttons on both sides, but where the ones on the left on the coupe did the bluetooth controls, on the convertible they only did the radio as BT wasn't available as an option. If it doesn't have buttons on both sides of the wheel then it's not a GT car UNLESS the wheel has been replaced at some point, although why you'd do that is a different kettle of fish.

It's also quite optimistic: Having traded Jo's car in two weeks ago I know exactly what the computer should be saying for an excellent condition 2005 MR2, but on there's it's over by about £300. It's no better than a rough stab in the dark IMHO.

Anything other than a direct connection using the soldered Bose hack or a brand new head unit for an MP3 player sounds utterly appalling. Yes, the FM is better than the tape adaptor, but only in the way it'd be better to have herpes rather than syphilis.

Right, might've been more helpful to have kept everything on the one thread, but let's not dwell on that right now. So if I'm right what we've got here is this: Approx 2 months ago the car stopped and wouldn't start. Car was taken to Nissan who fixed (what did they do exactly?). Last week you had a CEL giving a fault code regarding an issue with one of the cats, this occurred along with an erratic idle. Car then broke down again whilst being driven and would not start again. Car was again taken to Nissan who diagnosed a broken earth strap and repaired (presumably). They then told you that the car was smoking heavily and using a lot of oil. Correct so far?

Define crazy amounts of oil? 1L per 500 miles? Worse?