350zroadster

iTrader: (1)

Not trying to start a fight here, well, okay I am.

Quarter miler: If you really wanted a quarter mile car, you’re better off getting a civic si and put in a turbo. Evo and STi are cheaper and have significantly faster quarter mile thanks to the turbo and AWD. A lot of work would have to be put in to beat these cars in their stock form.

Track: The stiff chassis, balanced weight, and torquey engine makes it fun to toss around on the track. But the 350Z shares platform with a SUV and it shows. Weighing in at more than one and a half ton, weight that can’t be shaved off since it’s on the frame. This weight penalty shows in acceleration, track performance, and brakes cooking off. Without modification, the Z can’t pass the S2000 on the track.

HP/TQ monster: As great an engine the VQ35DE is, it is not bullet proof. The aluminum parts and weak rods are the achilles’ heel of this large displacement engine. It can’t stand the kind of boost that Skyline GT-R and Supra can have for breakfast. Internals would have to be changed to tap the potential of this engine.

Luxury Touring: For a car that starts at $26, (trim doesn’t affect the interior) the Z looks really nice. But the interior contains lots of plastic and build quality isn’t top notch. It certainly isn’t a Acura/Infiniti/Lexus. Compared to Touring trim, equipped with leather, Acura/Infiniti/Lexus offer cheaper cars with nicer interior with better build.

Basement Bargain: Not that $26k is a bargain, well maybe for some people, but definitely get a lot of bang for the buck. A 3.5L 24 valve 6 cylinder engine with 2 seater used to cost more than $40k a year ago. But Dodge SRT- 4 is a cheaper vehicle and have more hp/tq than the Z.

Tree-saving mobile: VQ35DE received the LEV designation but the 20/26 MPG doesn’t buy the hippie tree-hugger’s vote. Some “SUV” have better fuel economy.


So what’s my point? Well this is my fan letter to the Z and about how even though it doesn’t rank first, it is still awesome it is in every catagory. It’s an all inclusive package deal and doesn’t have a significant weak point. If I had to buy one car, it would be the Z.

/me puts away pompoms

Oh, but wait, there is one factor the Z excel at, the subjective bling-bling factor. IMO, you have to pay more than $50k to have a car that looks better than the Z, and not many at that. Chicks love it, Guys drool on it, it just oozes sex.

del105

iTrader: (4)

I can't think of a better car for the money.

Blue04

EXACTLY. Not one thing you mentioned above that paragraph matters to me. I want one because "it just oozes sex". Very well put. It's fast ENOUGH, the interior looks good ENOUGH, and the handling is good ENOUGH. But when I drive by someone they can't feel any of that, they'll just see the "oozing of sex" part. At 35, if I drive by in a Neon (cuz that's what it is), EVO or STi I'll look like a joke. Those are kids cars...

Juztin

iTrader: (9)

Any car in existance can become a quater mile monster, just a matterof how deep your pockets are...

With that said, the Z is in a league of it's own with attractive ness, it definately oozes a lot of things as well as attracts them insanely gorgeous women

drew703

iTrader: (1)

First off I definitely don't see the point of coming on this forum and typing out that long of post on trying to explain why the Z isnt first-rate on a freakin Z Forum! And next, you need to get some of your facts straight...

Um, unless you intended that to mean something BESIDES what you wrote word for word, thats real wrong. Yes the SRT-4 is cheaper, but its power isnt up there with a Z.
So get your numbers right before you come on here and post something like this.

2003 SRT-4:
215HP, 245lbs TQ


2003 350Z:
287HP, 274lbs TQ.

And as for quarter miler...thats completely irrelevant if you mod the hell out of a car. I've seen civics that have beaten Vipers, and even Lamborghini's in a quarter mile because they've been so heavily modded. So you could technically go on a Viper or Lamborghini forum and try to explain how "their" cars aren't top-notch either right??

This car isn't a luxury car - its a sports car. Even if you get a Acura/Lexus car, okay you might get a nicer interior...but the Z will be far ahead in handling and speed. Infiniti offers their "version" of the luxurious Z...its called a G35 Coupe.

Eh, ive written enough for now, there will be plenty of other members who will handle the rest of this thread... lol



-drew

'03 DB Performance

drew703

iTrader: (1)

350zroadster:

Do you actually even own a Z?
Or have you even driven one?

I'm guessing not considering you said

"If I had to buy one car, it would be the Z"

interesting you can make a post like this without having one...I think your opinion would change if you had one.



-drew

'03 DB Performance

350zSpeedRacer

You know, starting threads up to pick a fight is against the rules, here. But I'm so morbidly curious to see more responses, I'm going to leave this open, for now.

My question--what was the REAL point of coming on a Z board and saying it's lacking in every area?

Subbacultcha

To make himself feel better since he doesn't have one.

celiboy

Umm, no one is forcing you to buy a Z.

Yes you could make a Civic into a 10 sec. 1/4 mile car....but ultimately you will still have a Civic my friend.

drew703

iTrader: (1)

I'll go ahead and second that



Lol, i also like the way 350zSpeedRacer phrased it :

"But I'm so morbidly curious to see more responses, I'm going to leave this open, for now."

I'm glad, cause I'm looking forward to the responses as well...

-drew

'03 DB Performance

WashUJon

This is really interesting.

Let me go through some points:

"Quarter miler: If you really wanted a quarter mile car, you’re better off getting a civic si and put in a turbo. Evo and STi are cheaper and have significantly faster quarter mile thanks to the turbo and AWD. A lot of work would have to be put in to beat these cars in their stock form."

What makes you think a modified Civic would be better than a Z? Even turbo Civics aren't getting much faster than Zs in the 1/4 and they have to overcome the FWD problem. Not to mention that it takes a lot of work to get a Civic even just as fast as a Z in the 1/4. Then there's the new car factor. Modify a Civic with forced induction and kiss the warranty goodbye. The Z is a 14 second flat car out of the box AND its RWD.

Now, have you had any experience with AWD cars and drag racing? Drag racing puts enormous strains on AWD transmissions. I know this because I used to own an AWD car and raced it often. The Evo and STi will both fry gearboxes if you pound on them pretty hard at the 1/4 mile track, trust me. AWD puts a lot of strain on a transmission because there's very little wheel slippage, not to mention the cars have to be launched at high RPM to get the max benefit. Also, notice that the Evo and STi don't have super fast trap speeds. They get GREAT ETs, but they start to lose steam as they get going. That's universally true of AWD turbo cars (I had one).

"Track: The stiff chassis, balanced weight, and torquey engine makes it fun to toss around on the track. But the 350Z shares platform with a SUV and it shows. Weighing in at more than one and a half ton, weight that can’t be shaved off since it’s on the frame. This weight penalty shows in acceleration, track performance, and brakes cooking off. Without modification, the Z can’t pass the S2000 on the track."

I think you'll be surprised once people setup suspensions more and more and, believe it or not, the Z gets very comparable track times (from both magazines and owners with experience).

The fact that the SUV shares SOME underpinnings with the 350Z and other cars is a downfall of the SUV and not the Z. The Z is solid as a ROCK and that only helps at the track. At 3200 pounds, its not nearly as heavy as many other cars I could mention.

"HP/TQ monster: As great an engine the VQ35DE is, it is not bullet proof. The aluminum parts and weak rods are the achilles’ heel of this large displacement engine. It can’t stand the kind of boost that Skyline GT-R and Supra can have for breakfast. Internals would have to be changed to tap the potential of this engine."

What's so bad about this? The engine, while running with normal aspiration, is lighter for using aluminum. If someone wants to force massive boost into the engine, they can change the internals. That's massive money no matter what, so what's the issue? Z's with stock internals are running on 7psi of boost with superchargers and turbokits now and they're making plenty of power. Anyone who wants to go higher in boost can pay for it.

"Luxury Touring: For a car that starts at $26, (trim doesn’t affect the interior) the Z looks really nice. But the interior contains lots of plastic and build quality isn’t top notch. It certainly isn’t a Acura/Infiniti/Lexus. Compared to Touring trim, equipped with leather, Acura/Infiniti/Lexus offer cheaper cars with nicer interior with better build."

Acura/Infiniti/Lexus offer cheaper cars with nicer interiors, possibly better build quality (very questionable with the cheaper cars), and a lot less performance. The whole opinion here is purely subjective, of course, but you can't argue that the cheaper cars offered by the other 3 companies you mentioned haven't even close the performance of the Z. Furthermore, Nissan isn't competing with the luxury manufacturers. They deliberately tone down their cars, since that would steal from their own luxury manufacturer: Infiniti. In any case none of the 3 companies you mentioned have cars in the same CLASS as the Z for cheaper pricing.

In any case, I think the build quality and quality of parts in my Z is pretty darn good. That's my opinion as an owner.

"Basement Bargain: Not that $26k is a bargain, well maybe for some people, but definitely get a lot of bang for the buck. A 3.5L 24 valve 6 cylinder engine with 2 seater used to cost more than $40k a year ago. But Dodge SRT- 4 is a cheaper vehicle and have more hp/tq than the Z."

If you think that Dodge will be even close to the quality as the Z and that Dodge will perform better at the track than the Z, you're sadly mistaken. That Dodge may get similar 1/4 mile times, but that's where the similarities end.

A friend of mine worked on the robots at the Neon plant and he was shocked at how horrible the build quality was with those cars. Neons are known to be garbage by everyone in the industry. A turbo Neon is a perfumed pig. What a great comparison to a 2 seat, RWD, sports car built by a company with a much greater reputation for quality manufacturing (see JD Powers even).

"Tree-saving mobile: VQ35DE received the LEV designation but the 20/26 MPG doesn’t buy the hippie tree-hugger’s vote. Some “SUV” have better fuel economy."

First of all, since when are sports cars about fuel economy? In any case, the fact that the VQ35DE obtained LEV status is remarkable, considering its performance. The fuel economy that I've personally seen with my own Z has been better than expected, considering the performance of the car. I've seen 19 mpg in the city no matter how hard I drive the car, consistently, even with an average mph of 20 (all city driving with stop-and-go). On highway trips, the car easily gets to 29-30 mpg. That's very acceptible to me.

What SUVs do better than that with equivilant engine performance?

What other brand new 2 seat, RWD sports car with so much power can you buy for under 30k?

wren57

iTrader: (34)

OK, so the Z is no master of any one category (other than looks mmm sex), but isn't that the point of a good car? Sure it can be beat in any single department by another car of comparable price, but the Z is very good in EVERY category, not just excellent in one and poor in the other. This fact makes it perfect for modding, to be able to make it the best in any category, while still remaining near best in all the others... the Z is good because it is well rounded, and won't get old... the EVO or STi are quick, but do you really want to drive a Subaru or Mitsubishi everywhere? Have you seen the build/interior quality of those... not to mention they look cheap and boy-racerish...

celiboy

Acura's build quality is not so great lately....the 3.2 TL has had a tonne of problems with the tranny.

neo4mni

Sorry but this is a classic example of a bad argument against a single car being master of all...

Show me a car that is the best at each individual characteristics (e.g. stats, build quality, price...)

There is no such car even a Ferrari or Lambo can be beaten in any of those categories you mentioned.

Am I happy with my Z? Hell ya, for the price I paid, just like someone once said...

it is artwork to look at (hell I stare at it at night after dinner)...

fun to drive (I've racked up 13K miles in 9 months!!!)...

DEFINITELY oozes sex (watch how many women will stare/oogle/talk to you)...

and can be modded to anything you have $$$ for...

WashUJon

Amen.

Jason Bourne

I think you guys are giving the original poster too much of a hard time. I think it is interesting to debate whether the Z is a jack-of-all-trades or a world-beater in one category.

My perspective is that you are wrong on the track (road course) front. The only reason I bought this car was for road course lap times. I don't care how it looks, what kind of fuel mileage it gets, how fast it is on a drag strip, how luxurious it is, etc... I just want to get around Watkins Glen as quickly as possible. From that perspective I ask, is there a better *new* car that you can get for $28K than the 350Z? The answer IMO is no:
- S2000 - convertible, not allowed on tracks in the NE by reputable organizations and I would not want to drive a convertible on a track
- Evo of WRX STi - Aside from the fact that they were not available when i got my Z, their high CG and seating position make them better dirt road cars than track cars. AWD unneccessary on track and adds weight
- Something like a Neon SRT-4 with $10K of mods - Doesn't really fit my price category because the money spent on mods is lost on resale but even if it were, driving a FWD car on track is just painful. I'd rather avoid it, even if it ca be made to be fast
- Used E36 M3 - This was my other option when choosing my car. Ultimately I couldn't find a clean late model M3 that seemed like it would have as much trouble-free life ahead of it as a brand new 350Z.

So ultimately it depends on what you want, but for me, as track car and only car, the 350Z made the most sense. And I'm happily turning very quick lap times with trouble-free reliability (although I'm still sorting out the brakes).

Jason

Btooth

I dont have one either

cept the only thing thats gonna make me feel better is getting one!!!!!

stevew

This morning a guy in a big,fat SUV decides to race me onto the freeway. He pulls into the on-ramp HOV lane, just him riding, and blasts right through the red light meter onto the freeway, leaving me back at the red light. Of course it's ironic, since I didn't know it was a race!

I bet he feels real good having dusted a 350Z. Probably composing an message for our forum now.

toykilla

iTrader: (1)

quote: If I had to buy one car, it would be the Z.

i think everyone may be missing the message here... this is one of his final comments and i couldnt agree more.... there is no other car in the z's price range 25-40k that i would even consider purchasing right now.

it isnt the quickest, it isnt the fastest, it doesnt handle the best, the interior is beautiful but not the highest quality, it isnt the lightest..

it does have a good balance of everything though and IMO looks the best out of any car in that price range and even most of the cars costing 2-3 times as much.

so, my conclusion is: If I had to buy a car, it would be a Z (again).

cyberz350

iTrader: (3)

Juztin has a point, you can make anything quick if you got the cash. For example, gut a crx, drop an engine here, turbo charge this, and I'm sure that crx will kick azz on the 1/4. On the other hand, there is no amount of money in the world, no body kit flashy enough, no paint job glossy enough, that can make this



look as good as this