tracklover

Hi all,

I am new to the forum and I am currently thinking to become a proud owner of 350Z. But there are several things concerns me.

* high mileage, over the last 7 years by the second driver, it's been driven 170k miles (on top of 25K from the first owner).
* exhaust pipe is really black: I check the inside of the exhaust pipe with my finger and it's completely black.
* the rear bumper has a very weird mark of license plate, see picture. (The front bumper appears to be in a small bent or collision, but at least it's expandable)





Anyone have any comment on the 3 issues? Thank you.

winchman

Can you see if there are matching holes in the aluminum bumper itself? Maybe he had some sort of bike rack mounted there.

tracklover

Thanks for the input. For those two dots, when viewing in person closely, I saw that it looks like screws. So I think it's all the way to the aluminum bumper. But if it's a bike rack, usually it should be in the right center.

Also, the size and the "screw" position matches exactly to the actual license plate in the area that I grayed out.

Is there any scenario that a car would need two rear license plates? I know in some counties they do, but according to carfax, it only has record in US.

che69velle

The exhaust means its probably carboned up from being driven like an old lady, as for the license plate holes it was probably bumped by a lowered civic or something to get that imprint.

If the price is right grab it, get a set of aftermarket bumpers that look good and a exhaust kit. Put some fuel system cleaner and octane booster in it and blow the carbon out of it with some spirited driving. Then the bug will hit you and mods will continue and track days will be visited.

Pacific raceways in Seattle maybe. And maybe you'll meet a certain z on the track

tracklover

Thanks che69velle. The explanation of being bumped makes great sense. Mystery solved. Thank you, sir.

Your car look cool, I like the engine hood and the spoiler.

So, now the last concern, it's about to hit 200k miles. After some research online, it doesn't seem people are optimistic about 350Z running much further than 200k miles. But you guess it right, I am buying it primarily for track day, not as daily driver (though I want to drive it around on a sunny day though, like that we have that many sunny days in seattle. :-) )

It's a 35th Anniversary edition, any thought of how much would be good to get it?

Thanks again.

che69velle

What year?
What trim?
As for the 200k, if you get the car cheap its easy to justify a built long block from Z1 or mvp or one of the others. What is the current asking price? If its intended for track use the bumper marks don't really matter, just act like they do to get the price lower.

tracklover

I thought the 35th anniversary by itself is a trim, no?

It's a 2005 Anniversary, 6MT, Touring trim according to the carfax. Neither me nor the dealer knows much about this car (I originally think of getting an MR2.) But the wheel measured 19''.

Currently at 7k for the car (tax and doc aren't included).

superlim9

These issues are quite minimal... all though can i ask why your looking at one for 7K that has 200k miles?

If its an Anniversary pack and a 6 speed then it has the Rev-up engine, get it checked for oil consumption.

Get the thing on a lift and check out all the bushings front/rear Especially the compression arms and the rear diff. 200k miles will probably need more than a few replaced. There shouldn't be much rust either as they don't use chemicals on the road very often.

And like the other guys posted... run some premium fuel through it with systems cleaner and/or octane boost and go for a spirited drive... but in all honesty how long would the original exhaust stay on it?

The is a huge z/g following in the PNW... my club alone has over 200 members (only about 50 ever show up at one time though) . But I just moved back east after 7 years over there... now mine is in storage :-(





the program at Pacific is good but the summer days aren't really worth the $500, the winter days are good but just wet... the program down at the ridge is better! the ridge is also a faster track.

tracklover

Thanks for your input, superlim9.

As I mentioned earlier, I originally was looking into Toyota MR2 and also the old Nissan 300zx a little bit. And just started to look into 350Z and not very familiar with the market. And in Seattle's ads, almost all decent 350Z I can find are above $10k . But luckily it doesn't seem that the 350Z is hard to find and there are plenty out there. Though my budget is around 9k and I should be able to spend a little bit more on some small tuning next year. I would like to buy one now given that it's winter and sport cars should be a little bit cheaper at this moment.

What do you think?

BTW, I just moved from east to Seattle last year. :-)

KornerCarver

iTrader: (2)

Also check to be certain that it has Brembo brakes. All 35th Anniversary models came with Brembos. Since the dealer says it is a 35th Anniversary Touring edition, I suspect it is just a Touring model.

che69velle

All those are good options, you could probably get a bug eye wrx in that budget or a mustang. I'm biased now though to the 350z. Its like a go kart, and is more comfortable than an mr2/sw20. That price is a good deal, have you drove the car yet? Driving it will make your mind up, as I didn't know I wanted a z until I drove mine for the first time. I was looking at evo's and sti's. Plus the z is multi purpose, you can go to autox, drift, track days and car shows. The car is that versatile. If you go forced induction like mine you could take it to drags and speed runs.

tracklover

Thanks.

The autocheck says

Model: 350Z 35th
Class: Sport Car -- Touring

However, I couldn't see "Brembos" logo on the brake. Is there other thing I can tell a touring from a anniversary? The wiki says the anniversary have a special Z badge, but for all the 350Z online, the badges look all the same to me.

Hi che69velle, I test drove it yesterday but it was raining heavily and I didn't drive too hard cuz the road had water everywhere.

Though I couldn't feel that much acceleration, unlike the 350Z I drove several months ago, which was a 2006 one. But again it could be because it was raining and I didn't dare to give too much throttle, I will go back to the dealership tomorrow, it seems it would be a sunny day.

My07350z

Have you thought about aiming for a 2007-8 Z? Thats when they started throwing in the HE engine and they are pretty much regarded as the best 350z due to the more power and better engine. of course, some of this is bias due to me owning an 07 and some people like the older ones better.

che69velle

There's a few z's on south tacoma way worth checking out and there is a sweet g35 at gt auto sales that's tuned up. They also have a daytona blue roadster 07

tracklover

Hi My07350z,

Thanks. I haven't really looked into the later models, but I think they should be more expensive than the 03~05, right. Thus it might be too much beyond my budget.

Yes, I will keep looking. As for the G35 in gt auto sale. The only one I can find is a automatic. I am still more into MT. Not sure for track, but for driving around on weekend, still think manual is more fun. And that one is asking 16K.

My07350z

you would be right, they will definitely be more expensive but it wouldnt hurt to keep it on your radar in case a cheap one came up.

tracklover

Oh sure. Since 350Z doesn't have a wide year range (unlike MR2 has 3 marks across 3 decades), thus when searching, I don't specify year range for 350Z, I pretty much only search 350Z with MT.

After reading more in this forum, I learned that the vin number doesn't really have the information of trim. so whatever the autocheck tells me about the trim might not be accurate. Plus the fact that I couldn't see any logo of Brembo on the brake, I start to believe it's a touring, not an anniversary edition. Sorry for the confusion.

superlim9

I only saw one pic of the Back bumper... stupid work network... Can you post a side shot to see the brakes, if you have one?

You can look-up to get a trim through the recall site

also can read this thread - https://my350z.com/forum/buying-leas...0z-models.html

Basically you call tell the difference by the wheels, brakes, headlights, and steering wheel/gauge cluster and seats.. but there have been instances where someone will mod all the uper model parts... seen several Nismo's down graded and a bunch of base models upgraded

Only the 2005 Anniversary pack (6spd) had the rev-up engine... so if you've got a 7k redline.. then it is an anniversary

tracklover

Thanks, superlim9.

If by recall site, you referred to http://www.nissanusa.com/recalls-vin#/result
Then yes, it says it's a touring.

Before your reply, I also read the link you just shared, and it has a seat heating button on the central panel close to the shifter, which is a sign of touring, but the link doesn't mention anniversary edition.

Also several pics.










It's hard to tell from the picture though, at least for me.

Also, I looked it up in KBB, and found that the price between touring and anniversary for the same condition are huge, it's about 2K different!!!

The dealer listed it as anniversary edition, that's why i originally confused.

superlim9

Not an anniversary pack... just a touring... those are base brakes... and 6600 rpm redline = non rev-up.. but no BOSE so that's weird.