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Prospective owner looking for advice


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I currently own a scrapyard standard 1.2 clio which is my first car and as annoying as it can be at times it hasn't let me down and gets me to and from work everyday.

I passed my test at the end of last year at the age of 24 because I decided to finish university first and towards the end of this year I will turn 25 (which makes my insurance plummet) and I'll hopefully get my first years no claims discount.

I've considered many cars for my upgrade from a clio sport to an mx5 to a TT and now a 350z. I've ran some rough quotes on insurance and they are all feasible but I like to check forums first to get an idea about how much people enjoy them, how much goes wrong, what kind of people drive them etc. I love cars and I love talking about cars so forums always seem a good place to start. The plan with whatever I get is to keep it relatively stock for the first year of owning and mainly just tidying it up and fixing any little niggles with it but no mods that would affect my insurance. In this time I also want to start getting a bit of seat time on tracks, nothing to extreme but enough to give me a feel for it.

Budget will be about 6k for the car which I've seen enough z's under this to reassure me that when the time comes it will be possible. I'm also considering learning to drift in the future with some proper lessons because its something that I've wanted to try for ages and the events look great fun.

 

Any advice for me would be great but otherwise just wanted to introduce myself with a bit of background info and say Hi! :wave:

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Welcome aboard. :welcome:

 

Re: The insurance ~ I don't think the price ever "plummets" anymore regardless of you turning 21, 25 or older. You just have to shop around nowadays to find the best deals each year using comparison websites like GoCompare etc as well as ringing the insurance companies who aren't on those sites.

 

Good luck with your Zed hunt and don't forget to try the insurance companies on here too. ;)

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Welcome aboard. :welcome:

 

Re: The insurance ~ I don't think the price ever "plummets" anymore regardless of you turning 21, 25 or older. You just have to shop around nowadays to find the best deals each year using comparison websites like GoCompare etc as well as ringing the insurance companies who aren't on those sites.

 

Good luck with your Zed hunt and don't forget to try the insurance companies on here too. ;)

From just putting in my details on a comparison site and changing my date of birth made about £4k difference to the quote, seems to have made a big difference but will defo be shopping around anyway :)

 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

 

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Welcome Chap

 

Have to agree with GM about the insurance thing, I turned 25 last year and if anything mine went up. I actually found it more expensive and difficult to insure the Z in my second year of ownership, depsite yet more NCB and no incidents. The other thing to note is quite a few insurance companies, especially the more specialist require a year minimum of experience when driving RWD before they'll even entertain the idea. I know this applies to Brentacre, Adrian flux and Chris Knott as I exhausted many avenues when I first looked

 

Your budget will get you a reasonably well looked after DE, but wont quite stretch to a HR. One thing Ill say is please try and buy from a member on here, there are some truly spectacular examples on here and you'll know its been well looked after. This forum is by far the friendliest and knowledgeable I've ever been on, its a real credit to all those on here :)

 

With all the above said, you will not regret buying a Z. Enough HP out the box and look awesome to boot. And then the modding starts ;)

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Welcome

 

With your budgwting, don't forget running costs.

You may buy a bargain Zed, but then find out it needs say a new clutch.

Factor in a new flywheel as while the cluth is getting done, to make the most of your labour cost might as well do the fly, you would need to set aside £900-£1000-ish for the job.

Other stuff is for instance brakes etc. Know your prices and budget accordingly.

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Welcome Chap

 

Have to agree with GM about the insurance thing, I turned 25 last year and if anything mine went up. I actually found it more expensive and difficult to insure the Z in my second year of ownership, depsite yet more NCB and no incidents. The other thing to note is quite a few insurance companies, especially the more specialist require a year minimum of experience when driving RWD before they'll even entertain the idea. I know this applies to Brentacre, Adrian flux and Chris Knott as I exhausted many avenues when I first looked

 

Your budget will get you a reasonably well looked after DE, but wont quite stretch to a HR. One thing Ill say is please try and buy from a member on here, there are some truly spectacular examples on here and you'll know its been well looked after. This forum is by far the friendliest and knowledgeable I've ever been on, its a real credit to all those on here :)

 

With all the above said, you will not regret buying a Z. Enough HP out the box and look awesome to boot. And then the modding starts ;)

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll make sure to ring the companies giving the quotes to make sure I can get the insurance before I find and buy a nice Zed.

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Welcome

 

With your budgwting, don't forget running costs.

You may buy a bargain Zed, but then find out it needs say a new clutch.

Factor in a new flywheel as while the cluth is getting done, to make the most of your labour cost might as well do the fly, you would need to set aside £900-£1000-ish for the job.

Other stuff is for instance brakes etc. Know your prices and budget accordingly.

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep this in mind and as suggested earlier I'll check the forum first to find something that has been cared for and looked after properly. If that fails I'll see what I can find through a dealership - i know I'll pay a little more but if that gives me a good amount of warranty then it should keep me a bit safer from nasty surprises.

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I came went from a 1.2 Clio to the Zed. You will not be disappointed by the step up!

 

Respect!!!!! :thumbs:

 

With regards to the insurance, as people have said, double & triple check before you buy. I was shocked when I got my zed that even though I was pushing 40 and had 21 years NCB & a clean license some companies wouldnt touch me and those who did wanted ridiculous money. That included the so called "specialist" companies. They gave me a variety of excuses, the main one being that I hadnt had recent experience of a high powered RWD car. Which was a load of bull as the same companies were happily quoting me a 3rd of the price to insure an M3.

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Maybe my idea of high insurance is a lot different compared to people that have been driving for a few years...

Bear in mind I'm coming from paying £1400 for a years insurance on a 1.2 shed :lol:

If it becomes unrealistic I might have to get an MX5 for a couple of years first and build up more no claims and experience in a RWD car. Once again thanks for the advice guys, thinking I will stick around on this forum regardless because everyone seems really nice :D

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buy a zed, you wont regret it. pros for me are:

 

its a handsome coupe

sounds awesome with a simple exhaust upgrade

great to steer down a country road

engine has bags of torque

nice unstressed, simple engine - no turbo plumbing to worry about - petrol goes in, power comes out.

get the GT pack with cruise control, leather seats and bose and its a very nice place for long distance cruising.

 

cons are:

an early DEdoes have a dated interior, complete with cassette deck

check closely for rusty wheelarches

traction control is quite simple, if it detects slip, it pretty much cuts all power.

coming from a 1.2 clio it'll feel like the power steering is broken and the clutch needs replacing - they don't, the controls are just really heavy.

the CD player will break and the electric windows may be tempermental.

 

but for under 6 grand, you're getting a great car with loads of character. and don't worry about rwd handling, as long as you've got decent tyres and all the wheels are pointing in the right direction, its perfectly easy to keep it on the road.

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