About to buy a 2003 350z and was wondering how these cars have been holding up rust wise.

I did a search on here and found only a handful of cases concerning body rust. I've had 2 other nissans before and this and both of them held up spectacularly in the rust department even in the salt heavy winters here. Seems like Nissan has had a good grip on the rust problem starting in the mid '90s or so but just wanted to double check with you guys to see if there is anything I should keep an eye out for.

 

i have an 04 with 62k on her. no rust at all thankfully. looks like Nissan got there crap together with the 350 models and on up. There is a rubber type coating underneath the whole car, its holding up really well on mine.

hope that helps.

 

Honestly it matters where you are located and if normal wear and tear occurs such as chips on paint ( which I just got on my hatch a few months ago) that now the rush had spread from a size near a piece of rice to the size of say a finger nail in a matter f a few months . Living here in ny where climate changes more often and having cold winters that is more likely . Also I don't know where your from but my 97 240sx literally deteriorated from rust , my floor became one big hole so mid 90s nissans were not to good with rust if you ask me lol .

 

I'm from MD. Not so much concerned about wear and tear rust like paint chips and stuff like that. More concerned with deterioration like the infamous rear quarter panel rust the original Imprezas got no matter how well taken cared off they were.

 

My car has 100,000 miles on it. I just started noticing some rust forming on the drivers side door at the bottom right in the middle of the door. Nothing other than that.

 

2003 with 130k... Florida car Zero Rust issues

 

Man im glad I live in Vegas and Cali, no rust issues.

 

I have a 2003 with rust on the leading edge of the driver’s side rear wheel well. It was repaired 2 years ago; the rust is returning, only worse now. --Spike

 

I think that Nissan along with Honda have really got their act together since they first started importing cars back in the early 70's, this was when after a light rain shower rust spots would appear on every panel. I think a lot of this was down to the fact that JDM cars were never undersealed and still aren't, only cars for export get the treatment plus the quality of steel that they're using is infinitely better than that of old. I'm really happy with the way that my Z is wearing, I have no rust spots on any of the panels, It's only the underside steel components that are showing signs of rust as a lot of them are aluminium, the bottom of the bodywork is still in good condition and I live where there is a lot of inclement weather.

 

Thanks for the response guys. I picked my Z up today and she was well taken cared of. No rust anywhere and the underside looked good.

Pro-tip: Wanna know a good way to see if the car was abused? Look for tire slag under the wheel wells, cars that were tracked, burned out, dragged, autocrossed will have tire slag under the wheel wells. 99% of people don't bother to clean the wheel wells so this is a good way to see how the car was used. My car had zero tire slag

 

Another thing that I do is to run my fingers along the inner side of the lip of the rear wheel arch. If its loaded with mud & road crap its a sign that previous owners haven't really looked after it as this is usually the first place rust rears its ugly head because when this crud gets wet it takes an absolute age to dry out. Try it you'll be surprised as to how much crap falls to the ground.

 

This is certainly a vulnerable spot for at least the 2003 350Z. In my case it was only the driver side. That means it is atypical (because it was unilateral)

It is very difficult to repair this, and you can expect the rust to return within a short time.
--Spike

 

I got some pretty good rust on my passenger side here.

 

2003Z Track Model.... No Rust. Front no rock chips (3M Bra on front bumper,hood, mirrors and both front fenders)... Take care of your car and it will take of you....
Have fun with your Z, you'll love it.