ukdavew Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 My Zed dream is on the rocks. Tried a modded-suspension (but not lowered as far as we know) RX-7 on the drive at the weekend and it didn't come anywhere close to fitting on. Grounded out and looked like it needed a good couple of inches extra clearance. I'm taking an angle grinder to the edge of the drive but it's starting to look more and more like the Zed dream isn't going to pay off. The problem is that if I spank all my cash on getting the driveway done professionally then I've not got the budget left to buy a Zed. And I'm definitely not gonna buy my dream car and leave it on the road for the hoodies to play with. So I'll do what I can but I have to say I'm pretty deflated at the moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmJak Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 if you don't mind me asking, how much were you planning to spend on the zed? could always buy a cheaper version, unless you were planning to pay rock bottom anyway. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukdavew Posted April 6, 2008 Author Share Posted April 6, 2008 My budget's probably around 14-16k...so not rock bottom but not too far from it. Trouble is we've had quotes for getting the drive done professionally and we're looking at £5k for that (cheapest reputable quote)...leaving me below the sportscar poverty line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarnie Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 I'd rather park it on the road than not have a zed at all. Its no safer 2 metres up your drive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 I'd rather park it on the road than not have a zed at all. Its no safer 2 metres up your drive +1 - mine sits in a not so reputable train station all day 5 days a week. I think I can handle the car being a little nearer the road than not have it. Is there no possiblity of a tempory solution where you or they take the drive down a few inches but possibly dont finish it and do that when funds permit?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Afraid I disagree. Had mine keyed again outside my house. Its so easy for them to just whip out a key as they're ambling past. It takes a more concerted effort to go up a drive, possibly over gates, to do it in full view of the neighbours. I take my hat off to anyone who parks a Zed on the street each night but I wouldn't do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Afraid I disagree. Had mine keyed again outside my house. Its so easy for them to just whip out a key as they're ambling past. It takes a more concerted effort to go up a drive, possibly over gates, to do it in full view of the neighbours. I take my hat off to anyone who parks a Zed on the street each night but I wouldn't do it. +1 I moved when I got the Z to a place with a garage as for me, the piece of mind having it locked up each night is priceless. Is there nowhere else you can park it, friends place, garage off the council? Failing that, what about a car cover? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 5k for drive work is expensive! My folks made a drive, extended it from holding 4 cars, now holds 11! They didn't pay that and it was lock block! What you needing done exactly? You might be able to do a lot of the labour intersive donkey work yourself! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukdavew Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 5k for drive work is expensive! My folks made a drive, extended it from holding 4 cars, now holds 11! They didn't pay that and it was lock block! What you needing done exactly? You might be able to do a lot of the labour intersive donkey work yourself! I'll post some pictures at some point. At the moment we've got a 1 car width driveway that runs along the side of the house and an ignored house-width garden. The garden is quite flat but is about 3 or 4 feet below pavement level. We want to pave the lot to gain off-street parking for the Mrs. It requires putting in a new drain along the front of the house, ripping up the existing concrete drive, putting hardcore etc down to build up the level and then paving it. We've had probably 10 different quotes and they range from £3k (from a renowned disreputable company) to 10k for Anglian Windows' subcontractors. A friend of mine bought his dream car, a Chrysler 300c and within the space of the first 10 days it had been keyed down both sides in the car park near his flat. While I've never had any problems with cars getting damaged by oiks, but ours is a bit of a rat-run that the local modded drivers have adopted as an unofficial speed-trial even though it's only 1 car wide...as such the Mrs has lost her wing mirror parked out there. I'm trying not to be defeatist and will be attacking the transition between my driveway and the pavement with an angle grinder shortly...this is where the problem is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukdavew Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 +1 I moved when I got the Z to a place with a garage as for me, the piece of mind having it locked up each night is priceless. Is there nowhere else you can park it, friends place, garage off the council? Failing that, what about a car cover? I'll be using it every day, thankfully the car park near work has the highest safety award, but near the house it's the drive or the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Where theres a will there is a way! Still think a lot of that could be tackled yourself with the right mates! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Afraid I disagree. Had mine keyed again outside my house. Its so easy for them to just whip out a key as they're ambling past. It takes a more concerted effort to go up a drive, possibly over gates, to do it in full view of the neighbours. I take my hat off to anyone who parks a Zed on the street each night but I wouldn't do it. sorry to hear this again Digsy, you must be livid and +1. Wouldn't like leaving mine on the road either. Played a big on part when we bought the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Afraid I disagree. Had mine keyed again outside my house. Its so easy for them to just whip out a key as they're ambling past. It takes a more concerted effort to go up a drive, possibly over gates, to do it in full view of the neighbours. I take my hat off to anyone who parks a Zed on the street each night but I wouldn't do it. sorry to hear this again Digsy, you must be livid Its in being sorted today. Livid is an understatement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beavis Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Afraid I disagree. Had mine keyed again outside my house. Its so easy for them to just whip out a key as they're ambling past. It takes a more concerted effort to go up a drive, possibly over gates, to do it in full view of the neighbours. I take my hat off to anyone who parks a Zed on the street each night but I wouldn't do it. sorry to hear this again Digsy, you must be livid and +1. Wouldn't like leaving mine on the road either. Played a big on part when we bought the house. +1 Feel for you Digsy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndySpak Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Afraid I disagree. Had mine keyed again outside my house. Its so easy for them to just whip out a key as they're ambling past. It takes a more concerted effort to go up a drive, possibly over gates, to do it in full view of the neighbours. I take my hat off to anyone who parks a Zed on the street each night but I wouldn't do it. Sorry to hear about that Digsy. I have a friend who lives in Wavertree and the houses in his street have no off site parking so unfortunately you have to park on the road. In the last 6 months, his A6 has been keyed, both wing mirrors have been kicked off, the aerial has been snapped off and its been broken in to. His wife's Polo has almost been deprived of a wing mirror. Its got that bad that he is looking to move house and I won't go and visit him in my Zed until he does! Seems to be particularly bad in Liverpool at the moment.... and thats before I get started on all the dog sh1t on the pavements! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Digsy Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Afraid I disagree. Had mine keyed again outside my house. Its so easy for them to just whip out a key as they're ambling past. It takes a more concerted effort to go up a drive, possibly over gates, to do it in full view of the neighbours. I take my hat off to anyone who parks a Zed on the street each night but I wouldn't do it. Sorry to hear about that Digsy. I have a friend who lives in Wavertree and the houses in his street have no off site parking so unfortunately you have to park on the road. In the last 6 months, his A6 has been keyed, both wing mirrors have been kicked off, the aerial has been snapped off and its been broken in to. His wife's Polo has almost been deprived of a wing mirror. Its got that bad that he is looking to move house and I won't go and visit him in my Zed until he does! Seems to be particularly bad in Liverpool at the moment.... and thats before I get started on all the dog sh1t on the pavements! Wavertree's a nightmare TBH. The best thing your pal could do is move. Its nowhere near as bad as that here (touches something wooden quickly) but I'm near a station and big gangs of kids get off the train and have to walk by the house to get anywhere. I'm thinking of renting a garage and keeping it there as I'm hardly using it at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 hire a mercenary, it'll be cheaper and more gratifying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cool Hand Luke Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Dont give up on the Z idea Dave! Like Stew says, maybe you could do a lot of the labour work yourself and save some money that way. Also, is there any way you can get a Zed out on a test drive to try it on the current drive or have someone come round with their Z? I know you tried a Mazda on the drive but ideally you want to compare like for like - if you're thinking of a Z then its worth trying a Z on the drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukdavew Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 Dont give up on the Z idea Dave! Like Stew says, maybe you could do a lot of the labour work yourself and save some money that way. Also, is there any way you can get a Zed out on a test drive to try it on the current drive or have someone come round with their Z? I know you tried a Mazda on the drive but ideally you want to compare like for like - if you're thinking of a Z then its worth trying a Z on the drive. I'm definitely not giving up. In stock form the Rx-7 is 1cm lower than the Zed at least at the lowest point and I've no way of knowing till I try with a Zed. Here's some pics I took this evening to show the challenge I've got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Hmm, I see the problem now. Its not the drop that does it, its compounded by the raise from the road up and then down that does it. Will be hard to erradicate that without building the driveway flat or trying to level the path to road hight and hence you go straight down the drive rather than up the path and down the drive, if that makes sense? I have a mate which has a ramp down to his parking which is way steeper than that and I'm ok, its the fact it raises before it drops Can also see how it would cost so much to level now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 This is what we did years ago to get even old cars over the top,our drive looks a lot steeper but there is no way I am testing my Z through those posts Try experimenting with ramps at the top.Those scrapes are actually clean drive through the muck done with a pressire washer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobD7 Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Really sorry to hear this, my worst nightmare and something that I'm worried big style about for my own car when it arrives. My drive is steeper that yours but goes pretty flat at the top quickly so part of the car is down the drive and part on the flat. My Merc at the mo doesn't clear it by much. Does anyone know what the lowest point is on the 350? Although I'm not sure how much that will help unless I suppose I work out the lowest point on the Merc and compare but then I imagine wheel base etc comes into it... Would never want to leave on the road, not when there is a garage waiting for the car at the bottom of the drive!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukdavew Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 Really sorry to hear this, my worst nightmare and something that I'm worried big style about for my own car when it arrives. My drive is steeper that yours but goes pretty flat at the top quickly so part of the car is down the drive and part on the flat. My Merc at the mo doesn't clear it by much. Does anyone know what the lowest point is on the 350? Although I'm not sure how much that will help unless I suppose I work out the lowest point on the Merc and compare but then I imagine wheel base etc comes into it... Would never want to leave on the road, not when there is a garage waiting for the car at the bottom of the drive!! Someone posted a pic of the underneath of a car a while back when I asked. From eyeballing a Zed at the local dealer recently I think it's slightly ahead of the rear wheels although it looked relatively flat on the underside to me (unlike the RX-7 where the exhaust is pretty low slung beyond all the other gubbins...oh yeah I'm that technical) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukdavew Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 Here it is...Stez posted it when I asked if anyone had pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzee Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Perhaps you could leave your other car somewhere for a couple of days, and have a go at the concrete yourself. It looks like it just needs to be smoothed out and flattened if that makes sense. Had the same issue a couple of years back when the developers re-did my road, nothing a bit of ingenuity can't do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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