Hey, i'm in a bit of a dilenma here.. I got a 03' SB enthusiast, BUT the only problem is... it's an auto -_-. I'm tired of it sadly, and wanna change to a manual. The thing is, i'm a bit tite on the $$, and therefore if i switch to manual, i'd prolly have to get a baseline model to break even. The car's got 10.2k miles and i think dealership will only give me around 27k. I dunno, enthusiast is nice as well. So i guess what i'm really asking is, how much better is enthusiast than the baseline except for the cruise control, TCS, and HID? I've also tried to look at the used cars around the area.. only thing is most of them is touring and tracking with very little milage ><. They're like hel!a expensive. So what should i do?

P.S. - autos arn't nearly as fun as manuals .. stupid mistake on my part.

 

Think again... I got my 2004 enthusiast for that. BRAND NEW.

 

how much was it with tax and everything chris? One of the dealerships said there'd be a $4k difference if i traded for a new base line. I guess i could always try the other dealership sometime this week tho.

 

You will not get $27K for your Enthusiast with 10K miles.

MSRP for a new one is $28,350.

You're lucky if you get more than $24K, maybe less.

Sorry, but you gotta face reality.

 

You will lose $4-6K if you decide to trade you car in.

Any dealer will be happy to take your car and add the difference to the new car, hence higher payments, ect.

GL, your best bet is to keep the car a year or more and try and break even or sell it private party.

 

ah well, preciate the infos. ~

 

TTL included the price ended up being just over 29k

 

I'd tuff it out for a year or two and trade it in. Life is a learning curve. No big deal, don't beat yourself up over it. Enjoy the car for a while and trade up. I love my 6 speed and never had a thought about the manual, but there are times in LA or Bay area traffic that i'd love to stick in in D.

 

You have to live with the error you make or pay $ to change as others stated above. My suggestion is do your research next time before purchasing a car or modding it.

 

BTW: Automatics are awesome for daily driven cars, IMO. I come from a city where traffic is the devil. And also, noone knows how to drive in traffic. SLow down and speed up ways that only an auto can do smoothly like go 2 mph for 5 seconds and slam on the brakes really hard. I am going all of a sudden the car in front of me slams on his brakes and i have to throw clutch in and slam on brakes, the minute I stop he goes again. That drives me INSANE, but if my z were auto traffic wouldnt bother me at all.

 

I drove my Manual into Toronto this weekend and traffic (unexplicably) was BRUTAL! Don't underestimate the convenience of an automatic.

I'd say, save your money for the next year or two and wait for the depreciation to be not so bad and then get something else (another Z) then!

 

First of all, there is no way you would get anywhere close to 27K for your car from a dealer. Maybe from a private party cause theres a sucker born every minute right?

Second, from my limited understanding, the biggest jump in the 5 different models of the Z is from the Base to the Enthusiast. That is, in terms of little things here and there. On base, there is no Xenon option, front chin spoiler, rear underbody diffusers, rear spoiler, navigation, homelink, cruise control, auto dimming mirror, heated seats and other misc. options. But one thing the base doesnt have is an automatic also so I guess thats what you are looking for. A lot of these things can be added aftermarket, but if I were you, I would stick it out for a while or find a private party to sell your car to if you absolutely have to get the manual. Just my 2 cents on the matter. Hope it helps.