Did you go north of the Daintree? Cape Tribulation is a world treasure. A rented Vitara is in order north of there. Too bad I can't get Barrimundi at home!

 

I drove my Z from Seattle to Phoenix and back. 2 week vacation. It was roughly 22 hours of straight drivin each way. I drove straight through each way. It wasn't too bad. You find ways to get comfortable. I was all by my fuggin self too. I lived to tell the story.

 

lol look at it this way, if you take the Z, it's a good excuse for you to tell your girlfriend not to take too much of her crap with her since you don't got very much room in the trunk =D

 

are you serious? you drove 22 straight hours!? you are a trooper my friend

 

Hmm, ive done 20-22 hours straight 4 times, twice alone twice with my little brother. The two times with my brother he didnt drive since he wasnt of legal age. I would NOT want to drive more then 24 hours without stopping and laying down to stretch over night. Getting sleepy really isnt an issue with me.

The only thing I can say is, find an energy drink you love and get a bag of beef jerky and youre set. I stopped roughly every 4-5 hours for gas/bathroom and to stretch, you can easily do 400 in one tank.

 

Ah wouldn't that car cover take up as much room as your clothes for a long trip?

 

I have A/C for cooling in my car...

 

Nice input guys! I really appreciate it! I cant wait to go through the mountains. This will be my longest roadtrip though. I used to take 4 hour rides down to Iowa to see a friend in my Jeep Wrangler. That sucked...the Jeep is definitly NOT a roadtrip car lol

 

The longest road trip i ever took in my Z was ~200 miles from central jersey to Rockville, MD. Even with traffic that stretched it to 5 hours, i still managed 26mpg with the AC blasting. I felt fine driving, although the traffic did aggravate me a bit.

 

Heres my roadtrip im going on in a coupe weeks:

miami -> charleston, SC -> Pittsburgh PA -> Boston

 

I just roll it tight. 24"x28" once rolled the size of a gym bag.

Plus I have a secret compartment if I need the extra room.



I always have enough room. I think it depends on how you pack. Even with my golf bag, I still have enough room for everything. I think I learned this when I was a boy scout and did a lot of backpacking.

OK, So I went out and took a few quick pictures so you guys could see how much room it takes up. It actually rolls up to under 15" x 20". I'm thinking about getting a 20" bag for it now at Walmart for $7 to put it in as well. I think it's well worth it to protect in from sun, sap, and bird s#!t:











You could even put it under the strut bar as that area is difficult to pack with most items anyways. When the trunk gets really tight I just open it up and lay it across everything on top. That does two things: 1) Hides my other cargo and make room for more bulky items.

Hopefully, that gives you guys an idea of what you can pack in a Z. I get a lot of stuff in there. I'm thinking about 25 grocery bags could make it easily. If packed in the plastic bags, maybe 30 or more.

You couldn't move your household but, you could rent a truck with a trailer and go anywhere with all your stuff. Lol.

Sorry for the long post but, I think it was worth doing and writing up for those interested. ;-)

 

Z Driver,
Yes, good post. Looks like that compartment is where the subwoofer is on the Touring+. For those that have that spot blank or those with the Bose system that would dump their subwoofer = how did you do it, what did you use, easy/hard to do? Inquiring traveling minds want to know.

 

Atlanta to Fort Smith AR, 2 stops for gas, i dont use crusie so my ankle hurt, but that was it

 

I second that! My other vehicle is a Wrangler. Gets horrible gas mileage, wind noise is making me deaf, and no cruise on mine so it's a real PITA.

The Z is like a limo compared to that.

//but then again, the Z is worthless in Moab.

 

In response to your question I1der:

1) Take out the factory glovebox. - Takes 5 mins.
2) Take off the top rear panel. There are come clips just go slow.
3) Then the rear panel will come off.
4) Under that is the Subwoofer bracket that comes with the car whether
or not you have the upgraded system. Get rid of that. You can build a
better enclosure elsewhere if you need to.
5) Put everything back together.
6) Trim the top clips on your new storage compartment door and replace
with velcro or snaps. Velcro worked great for me.
7) Go to Store and buy automotive carpet $10 and 3M adhesive.
8) Trim carpet and place in new compartment. You do not need to use 3M
adhesive if you do not want to. I did on the rear right to hide some bkts
and just a little on the front edge to keep it tacked down. All easily
replaced or put back to stock if need be later.

That's it. Here it is finished ... outside it doesn't look different from stock:



Inside you'll see you just added about 3-4 cubic feet of storage:



There is a lot more room in there than you think. You could do the same to the other side. However I like the access the way it is for smaller items. You could do the compartment behind the driver seat and turn it into another glovebox with parts from the factory. However, that will run you ~$300 the last time I priced it and it would hold as much stuff as you can see.

 

You guys need to upgrade.

Sell you Jeep buy a Pathfinder and pocket the cash.

Yeah I know it's not a wrangler. But, it's almost as good off-road and you can tow 5500lbs. Pick up one of these babies for $11K or so:



Then you can tow your 350Z to base camp and run the trails/off road with your Pathfinder. People underestimate the Pathfinder. The VQ engine in it is the reason I bought my Z. My sister in law calls it the the 4WD Caddy. It has a lot of nice features. I have owned Jeeps before and this will take me to 100% of the places I go. I choose a path around the rock pile however ... Not that she wouldn't do it. I just don't see the need. When stuff breaks on the rock pile it's tough to get out. That's an old story and after you break stuff on the rocks a few times you'll understand.

Just so you don't think I'm BSing:



Hopefully, I didn't take us too far off topic. After all it's a NISSAN

 

Overall comfort isn't too bad for me for the 1st hour or 2. After that, I cannot find a comfortable seating position. I have leather seating btw.
On the positive side, good gas mileage and decent cargo space make it more than acceptable IMO.

 

Just over a week ago I completed my trip from Sierra Vista, AZ (an hour south of Tucson) to Columbia, SC. Over 2,000 miles! It wasn't so bad after taking breaks every four hours. Surprisingly enough, at a constant 85 mph I skweezed 578 miles from fill-up to the almost empty. It said that there were 22 mile left that I could have driven. I suffered no back pain or limb fatgue. There's just some bad roads and terrible drives out there that discomforted my trip. In the middle of June I'll be making the from Columbia, SC to Houston and I can't wait.

 

578 + the 22 left = 600 miles until the dte goes --.-- . Normally when the computer blinks --.-- you still have 1.5 - 2 gallons left. Assuming the worst (being 1.5 gallons left) you are saying you could have gone 600 miles on 18.5 gallons. That is about 32.5 mpg at a constant 85 mph.!

As the peak economy speed in the Z seems to be at just under 60 mph, the indication is that you have the most effecint Z on the planet. That would be wonderful, but I think you meant 478 miles instead of 578 miles. That still would be good milage at that speed for the Z, about 27 mpg. for the enire tank

 

drove 10 hours from north AL to Daytona. wasnt too bad.. kinda went by fast, but i was happy to stretch!


note to self: take alot of potty breaks