Sorry if this has been covered in another thread. I just wanted to ask some real owners of Z's about the maintenance and reliability of a z. Im 19 years old and highly interested in purchasing a z, I have $7000 as a down payment and my parents are co- signing so I got a really good interest rate. Also I already talked to my insurance and the quote they gave me was good. So basically all I'm worried about now, knowing I can afford the payment and insurance, is the maintenance. I'll have 500$ in the bank for worse case scenario and I'm putting away 15$ a week for maintenance and other stuff. If fellow z owners could tell me there thoughts on my situation and if they think I can afford it comfortably would be awesome. Btw I make 190$ a week on average so I'll have about 100$ a week for gas and everything else. Thanks for the help!

 

if you have to come on a forum and ask if you can afford it.... you cant

 

There is no more maintenance than any other car I have owned. It's up to you if you think you can afford to take care of it on ~$760 a month.

 

Does buying this car mean you have to live with them till it's paid off? General rule trans should be no more than 25% of income assuming you want to become independent.

 

If you need to finance the car you cant afford it. Find a car for $5000 that will get you to work and school and not require all your money. Dropping your whole savings on a car is not smart.

 

Lol I knew somebody was going to say this, I disagree. I've never owned any type of Nissan, therefore I don't know there reliability or average cost of maintenance.

 

I see your point and my dad advised me of this, but I'm saving 500$ out of the 7000$ for a worse case scenario fund, and also putting 15$ a week away to add to that. Not all my savings, and I was strictly saving for a car specifically, nothing else

 

If you've done any research at all, it would tell you that Nissans are generally very reliable vehicles. But you're buying a high performance RWD sports car with the Z, and it'll most likely need some work depending on the year and mileage. There's also the owner factor: learning to drive a powerful RWD sports car means the chances for a big accident go up exponentially. Brakes, clutch and tire wear over time so be ready for that as well.

 

Alright well props to you for saving up money its rare that anyone at any age is able to save up and pay cash for the things they want. So good on you for that.

Secondly check out the big brains on dad, he is a smart ****.

But I have never had a car payment which actually ended up hurting me later on in life with my credit score and buying a house so here is my suggestion. Buy a car for not much more then whatever you have in cash and finance half. Then keep yourself $3500 in the bank for things you need and life in general, and that $60 a month you planned to save for maintenance put towards the principal of your loan. Once the car is paid off hopefully you will still have some savings and you can go celibate with someone special... (only 1 because thats all that fits so tell her to leave her kids at home)

 

I think you'll be okay man... your young and don't have very many expenses, besides these cars are generally pretty reliable.

 

Few things you should take note.
Gas.. This car is a drinker. Expect it to drink almost twice as much compared to a usual Honda Civic.
Tyres.. 18" tyres arent cheap, and if you went for those with 19 or 20", tyres are of a concern. Depends on your choice of tyres, I'm on PSS and its costly to replace, it will cost 3 times of what you have for your safety net amount to replace them.
Its a high performance car, you cant save on tyres.

 

OP you make $190 a week. Buy a high mpg beater and save up. Don't you have long term goals in life? Houses in CA aren't cheap.

 

"500 saved for for worse case scenario"

500 will barely cover a replacement headlights let alone "worse case scenario" if you have to ask, you cant afford it.

Stay in your budget and live within your financial means. You cant afford a 360z. Fact. Dont try.

 

The 350 is a very reliable car, the 07-08 being the most, but they will likely cost a good amount more. It really all depends on your situation. It sounds like you don't currently have any debt or living expenses. But if you want to be independent that's probably not gonna happen for a while if you start any sort of significant car payement so young. The biggest issue I would worry about would be being so young and driving a pretty powerful rwd sports car with likely very limited experience. Maintenance is pretty cheap on the car as long as nothing catastrophic happens, and even cheaper if you do it yourself.

If you do end up going through with a 350 I strongly suggest attending autocross or drift events so you learn how to handle the car in a relatively controlled environment. Though doing these things cost money itself and by pushing the car you increase the likelihood of something breaking so it's a catch 22. Overall though as long as you drive safe, aware, and not too fast for conditions you should be OK. Just know that if something starts to go south while driving in a car like this you're probably not going to recover from it and total the car.

If I were you I would go with a 240 or something. They can be had for cheaper, still pretty reliable, still fun, easily tunable, and a good rwd car to learn on and learn to fix yourself.

I'm making a lot of assumptions here, so take from it what you will.

Also, you're going to get around 17 mpg city and 20ish highway.

 

Would 1000$ safety net be better? What's the worst thing that has happened to your z that you had to fix

 

Worse thing..... depends how bad you want to know....

Of course itll be better with with only saving 15 bucks a month, thats hardly enought to prepare for something to happen.


I just upgraded my base head lights to depo with sti swap, a "cheap" way of doing things and it ran me around 1000 for the set up. Oem 06 head lights are 1300 for the set. Tires runs me on average 750 for a set of 18s+100 to mount and balance.

Gas alone in my week end toy is 50 a week, and thats with light driving. My tranny has a grind and thats gonna be around 2k for a new tranny when i feel its time.

Again, you cant afford it. Been there done that. But as i was once told, "some people just need to experience first hand because no matter what, they wont believe you. That why when you tell someone that its wet paint, 9/10 will touch to double check."

 

All of your examples for "maintenance" are elective. Overall the car does not experience any real issues that are absolute must fixes. Your tranny you could probably change the fluid every 30k miles and be fine for the rest of the cars life.

I mean he shouldn't think he's going to have the money to tune the car, but if he keeps it stock he won't incur any extra expenses other than tires, oil, and brakes. Also when you first buy a used car it's typically a good idea to change oil, coolant, and transmission fluid so you know it's been done and know what's in it.

Edit: also I want to be clear that in no way do I think you should get a 350 unless you can get one in decent condition for 5k, or have a very low monthly payment, sub 100$ a month with a good 2k in the bank constantly just in case. I just think it's pointless to give useless examples.

 

He clearly state he plans to save 500 for "worse case scenario".... not save 500 for maintaining the car...

 

The 500 or 1000 that I save is not for things like oil changes, fluid changes, or other little maintenance costs, probably not even tires. Just major things that happen that need to be fixed. Like I said I make 190$ a week and all of my bills come out to 90$. So that leaves 100$ for the little maintenance costs and gas and other stuff.

 

Yeah the monthly car payment that I was quoted came out to 120 because I'm only financing 7k and I'm looking for a z around $12k.