I was just thinking when was the first time I saw the 350z? I can remember way back when, I was looking up tech tips for my z32 and I found a link that took me to freshalloy.com, forums. I became hip to the new 350z concept that was to be unvailed at the Detroit car show in January of 2001, this was about October.
The day I first layed eyes on this beauty, and I've never been quite right since then, is a few days before the car show. Someone posted the concept pics on freshalloy.com before anybody else had. That Sonic Orange color was the sh#t! That's why I kept faith in Lemans Sunset,hoping it would do the concept color justice, and it has. I still give my props to freshalloy.com for that one. Who ever got those pics is still my hero. I can still remember how innocent I was back then, before I became consumed with this obsession called the 350z. I think those early freshalloy.com days were my fondest memories. It seemed like a dream back then. I still wish the production z had maintained the wider flares and led turn signals of the concept z. Who recalls the inceptual issue of sport z magazine with the covered 350z on the cover......man those were the days.

Well my fellow z enthusiasts, our journey together is coming near its end, only about 5 weeks for me (fingers crossed). I have not posted much in the past, but I have enjoyed reading your posts since this forum began. I will soon have my life back, and will be too busy cruising and waxing (zaino) and picking up the ladies to be on my computer, I figure it needs a break right about now. But, I'd really like to know when many of you first fell in love with the z, or hated and then loved the z.

Peace,

 

i was doing some searchin on the z32 and came across zcar... then i saw 350z and i think i saw some pictures and was just hooked there... now here....

 

I saw the concept at the 2001 L.A. Autoshow and the preproduction at the 2002 L.A. Autoshow.

 

I was at work when a friend of mine who had purchased an Altima the weekend before says, "I saw your future car". I was like yeah right let me see it. He pulled out a flier he was given in a packet by his dealer. When I first saw it I was like WOW!!! I know this car will be out of my price range thinking it had to be atleast 40-45k. He said no it starts around 28k. I nearly passed out. To make a long story short. I ordered the following weekend. Chrome silver was and is my favorite from that moment on.

 

Two years ago I heard they were going to bring it back, and was happy but knew I could never afford one. Then I saw the preproduction car at an autoshow clip on edmunds.com and was like wow! I know I will definately never be able to afford one. In May I took my Xterra into the dealership for an oil change and was checking out the 02 Altima for my wife, started talking to a salesman and saw a brochure found out it would be less then $30k and 3 days later my wife became the owner of an Xterra and I ordered a 350z.

 

Discovered it on Edmunds.com ....in January of this year...the same week as the Pre-Order Program was announced. I immediately fell in love with it. It was perfect...had the power i was looking for, and looks which i loved from every angle. When I learned that I could buy....not just buy...but pre-order this beautiful machine for 30K loaded nicely....I was at a Nissan Dealer that week.

the excitement grows,
-Andrew

 

I saw it over a year and a half ago, in person, for the first time. I was at the atlanta car show. It was the lemans color, and beautiful. I went home and immediately put down a deposit. Man its been a long wait. This last month seems like nothing.

 

Oh ya, ya I was at an airport on my way home from a business trip Spring of 2001 I think. I was in one of those convenient stores with all the mags. I looked over at the auto mag section and there it was on that Road & Track issue with the Lemans Sunset concept car on the cover. I just about sh-t my pants right then and there. I had no prior knowledge that Nissan was working on this. Just floored me. I bought it and saved the article for the plane. What a great ride that was.

Hmmm, I think it was Road & Track. I still have the R&T from last fall with the silver show car on the cover though. Hey, what the hell happened to that other mag I had???? Oh No!!

 

my girlfriend was having her xterra's oil changed at the dealer and the guy there started talking to me and tried to get me to buy a maxima (great car if thats your kinda thing) but i told him he didnt have anything i wanted...he asked what i was looking for in a new car so i told him rear wheel drive,300hp,not american,two seater type..that was feb 3rd...i ordered 10 days later

 

I saw the Z first in R&T when Sam Mitani drove it in Japan and showed a pic of the mostly production Z. He drove a mule with all the chassis pieces and reported the Z is coming back! I was surfing the Nissan site in Feb when my wife came into the room and said , do you like that? I said yes, I had seen it a couple of times when I went to their site. She said Brian, he cuts our hair and has a used car dealer permit or whatever, told her I should order one and sell for a profit if I didn't like/fit in it . She asked me if I really wanted it, I had just rejected an M3 or 330iC for an RSX-S 2mos. earlier.

I told her it would be about $10K more and she said , so what you keep cars a long time why not get what you want? Two days later, I preordered the car for MSRP at our local dealer. Best decision I've made car-wise since I bought my MR2T IN 1990. I got the equipment I wanted on the Z and the performance is better than the 330 or RSX-S and close to the M3.

Boomer
BR/FR/AT

 

I first saw the concept (2001) in a car magazine and was not too thrilled with it with that ugly huge gaping grille in front, and 260hp was not that great. Then some time later I was on the Internet and an ad for the new Z popped up. I NEVER click on those things, but I wanted to see how the car turned out, and I visited the nissandriven site. I was hooked: days later I was still reading every bit of info about it on all the message boards, until my wife said, "order it!". I wasn't even looking for a car, but it didn't take too much convincing. I put in a preorder the next day.

 

1st saw the car at the Detroit Autoshow in 1999 as the orginal concept car. Always been a fan of the Z, I immediately thought of the 240 by looking at the concept car.

In early 2001 when the 2nd gen concept car was being printed in magazines I started to really fall in love with it as it began to combine the 240 and z32 more.

In December 2001 I read an article in Road & Trackon an airplane trip to San Fransico on the 350Z pre-production car and was inspired like no other.

Late January early Febraury 2002 I saw the show Z at the Cleveland Auto Show and by that point was all but drooling.

Finally ordered mine May 17, 2002.

 

December '01, leafing through an auto mag waiting to get my hair cut. Can't remember which mag it was, but the car looked so hot I couldn't get it out of my head. When I got home, went to the nissan website, and learned all I could. After a week after the preorders started, my incredible frugality (sounds so much better than cheap) was finally beaten by my desire to have such a fantastic looking car, and I ordered. Hadn't seen it in person, STILL HAVEN'T SEEN IT IN PERSON.

Soon, very soon...

Dave

 

The cover story in an issue of Road & Track last winter was the last straw. Kept in on and end table and kept re-reading and enjoying the pictures for months. Sam Mitani is one of the few auto journalist who is usually right on and the article was very positive.

 

I heard it was on display at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art (near the Nissan Design Studio). It was a free showing of Nissan's design work, so I went down there one saturday. Kinda sad, I was the only person there.
This was the orange concept version that was very close to what we're getting, not the really early one. I think this was in July of last year. Anyway, I really loved the car (obviously). That car had 20" wheels which were really spectacular, the center mounted exhaust pipe (which I still think looked awesome), and a much more stylized interior.
I knew they would tone it down some for the production version, but I'm content with what it's become.

 

i saw it at the detroit auto show. Thuoght it looked great. When i went to the chicago auto show, i knew i had to have it. The rest they say is history.

 

I saw the concept last year at the New York Auto Show. Didn't even pay it any mind; I took one picture and moved on.

 

Read about it at Zcar december 00 or jan 01 and saw it was going to be in Detroit. Since I fly free, my wife and I went to see it, I fell in love, and placed a deposit the next week at Courtesy Nissan in Dallas, since the atlanta dealers were useless. When they announced the pre-order a year later, I was number 4 at courtesy, but found a dealer in NC that gave me a discount, so I am buying it from them instead.

 

I've been closely following the evolution of the new Z since it was first announced in 1998. At the 1999 NYIAS, there was a mediocre concept car, which looked more like a 240Z than anything, and I had a hard time convincing myself then that I really liked it. (Plus, they were talking about putting a four-banger in it... ugh.)

In 2001, they had the Sonic Orange concept version at the NYIAS, which was MUCH better, but still had room for improvement. I remember then, the guy on the dias saying that the car was 90% done (just don't expect the 20" rims).

Then this year I saw the final almost-done pre-prodution this-is-not-production-but-REALLY-close version at the 2002 NYIAS. It was like a religious experience. Note to all: the hot girls at the auto show like a guy who's sensitive about his car...

A few weeks ago, I actually saw the Z up close at the NNA offices in NJ. It looks SO much better in person than it does in pictures.

I'm 1st in line at my dealership to get my Z, so hopefully I'll be getting mine soon. I'm committed to ensuring that the first Z I sit in will be mine (call me superstitious if you want...), and I can't wait to get the call from my dealer so I can call work and tell them I have ebola and won't be making it to work for a few months...

 

the first time i had any knowledge of the 350 was from a magazine, motortrend i think. I was at the Doctor's office and inside the magazine there was a story about the return of the Z and the only picture that had been released at the time was a sketch of the rear-left light. a little while later i was lookin at pictures from the autoshow and there it was the ugliest thing I had ever seen. i thought know way the Z is that ugly. i was really dumbfounded by how ugly it was. then when the newest concept came out it was like a 180 degree turn. I was absolutely in love. i went to nissandriven.com and signed up for their newsletter dealy. a month after the pre-order began i had by deposit down and started counting down the days