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Is the 350z fairly low maintenance?


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Hi all,

 

I'm thinking about buying a 350z to use as a daily driver - I can cope with the fuel bills, tyre cost, servicing etc and from what I know the reliability is pretty good.

 

The only thing that has put me off is reading a few posts about stone chips and rust...? I'll be doing about 14k a year, a lot on country roads, a lot of overtaking etc But I dont want to be left with a rusty stone chipped shed at the end of it :lol:

 

I have a Y reg Imprezza with 90k on the clock, I drive it in all conditions and only ever jet wash it twice a month and there's not one tiny bit of rust or one stone chip.

 

I also have a VX220 and the stone chip and osmosis (fiber glass's own version of rust) is terrible, I had to get a full respray after 2 years of the above driving.

 

I never got a photo of the stone chips on my VX, but this is pic is about average for every VX, mine was a lot worse after only two years: scratchs001.jpg

 

 

I can't be arsed with another car that cant stand up to a daily drive... so is the 350z a good choice for daily abuse?

 

 

Many thanks,

 

Richie

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On the face of that then sadly the 350z isnt the car for you. The paint is woefully thin and chips far too easily. However most of it it taken by the bumper, so if you budget getting it sprayed and paintshield on it, you should be good.

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Stone chips build up quickly and I don't even tailgate. mine is 5 years old now and the front bumper and bonnet really needs a respray, there are hundreds of stone chips. It has 76,000 on the clock. I would say if doing the same mileage you would want the front resprayed every 2 years before it looks shabby

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I've picked up exactly 63 stonechips on the bumper and bonnet this year. Most are between .01 and .8mm but there are 7 bigger than 1.0mm and 3 of these are over 3mm.

What you have to do is analyse how and where you drive and take a view on how much stick the Nissan paint is going to take :snack:

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I use my zed as a daily driver. Its costing me about £860 a month to run including fuel & estimated depreciation cost. So, certainly not cheap. In fact it would be cheaper for me to get a mortgage on a house next to work and live there in the week.

 

Fuel costs and depreciation are the biggest costs for me. I do about 26,000 miles a year, and im getting about 24->25mpg on super unleaded. So, its something like £20 a day on fuel alone. Depreciation will vary depending on what model & year you buy, but looking at some of the prices recently, mine has plummeted in value a lot more than I expected and what I factored into my £860 a month figure, so that monthly cost figure may be a lot more yet for me.

 

Insurance on zeds isnt cheap. You`ll find something like a Imprezza WRX will be cheaper to insure as its 4wd. Even Porsche Boxsters, BMW M3`s and even the new Skyline GTR were coming back cheaper on the insurance for me.

 

Outside of that actual servicing costs are cheap. Cost me less to service my zed then my missus`s 307 HDI cost to service. Spares will obviously cost more than "normal" cars, but you can get 2nd hand bits and even new bits cheaper via the traders on here.

 

All in all I dont think the zed is any more expensive to run than similar cars.

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Insurance on zeds isnt cheap. You`ll find something like a Imprezza WRX will be cheaper to insure as its 4wd. Even Porsche Boxsters, BMW M3`s and even the new Skyline GTR were coming back cheaper on the insurance for me

That's not my experience. I always planned on getting a turbo/ wrx impreza but found insurance was going to come out about double for the Subaru as it did for a zed, so I got the zed instead.

 

Convertible Zeds were about double the cost of a coupe insurance wise for me though, so a convertible zed would be comparable to an impreza wrx in my experience.

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Maintenance, I wouldn't say it's much dearer than my previous cars (Audi TT 225, Clio Cup).

 

Fuel; Since I bought mine (last summer), I've not reset the OBC, and it's showing an average of 27mpg, which is above the book average slightly.

 

Insurance; It's a little dearer than my TT was, but only £100 a year.

 

Road tax; Depending on the year you go for, mine is in the lower tax band (£240ish, rather than £460ish)

 

Servicing; No different to any other, in my experience. Plugs, oils, filters etc.

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