Hi everyone,

First and foremost, I am very new to these forums; I absolutely love the fact that there are communities based solely on a car model.

So on to the topic of this post. I've always loved the design of this car, and now that I am in a position where I think (this is why I need your advice) I can afford one, the idea of buying this car is starting to grow on me.

A little about me. I'm 21, and a third year Human-Centered Computing student here in Rochester, NY. I recently started applying for co-op jobs within my field, and have been successful in landing some good ones (wohoo!). I already have two lined up for a year's worth before graduating (I just realized I sound like a low-key humble bragger ). I had planned to use the majority of the money I make to buy myself my first car. Although I do not consider myself very mechanically savvy, I've always had a big interest when it comes to cars.

Now, onto why I am unsure when it comes to buying a 350z. First and foremost, I got my license when I was 18 years old (now 21), but I only credit myself with having about a year of experience when it comes to driving (and driving two very DIFFERENT cars from the 350z; Honda Pilot and Mazda 3). I have heard in the past that this car has some serious power, and I am smart enough to doubt myself and question if this car would be "too" much for me to handle. In terms of car performance, I'm really not that interested in pushing the car's limits, and trying to be your stereotypical "teenage ***hole". I genuinely just adore the look and feel of this, and that for me is truly enough of a reason for me to buy one. However, me, only having 1 year of experience on the road, I am unsure if I would be able to handle a car like this. In terms of cost and insurance, from the money I would be making, it would be more than enough for the car and a few years worth of insurance (parents have also offered some financial aid if necessary). I know insurance is expensive, but thankfully both my parents have been accident-free for over 30 years, and putting the car under theirs will hopefully eliminate some of the cost. However, since I have limited experience with this, I am more than open to hear your opinions and advice since you are more likely to have much more expertise than I do. Lastly, like I mentioned before, I live, and go to school in Rochester, NY (house with 2 other housemates), which means that for a large part of winter, there will be snow. I have heard that these cars are OK/doable with snow tires on, but I just wanted to point out that as another factor.

In conclusion, I just thought that owning a 350z for a few years during my early to late 20's would be a cool idea. Now that I have reached a point where I feel like it's actually possible, it felt like a good time to own this car. But of course, knowing that it is in fact a powerful car, I think it's needed to ask those who have more experience with this car what they thought. So please, do not hesitate to leave a comment; any feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

You seem like a smart cookie, any car can be a missile - you don't have to "drive it like you stole it"

My youngest is 24 and drives like a old man, but would love to hit the track - i'm proud of that.

As a negative, i'm not okay with a Z in the snow, cant you buy a cheap winter beater? If not I would hold off until you can...

 

I would agree. The fact that you have doubts about yourself or your abilities is a good sign.

Does that make a Z a good first car? Ehhhhh, maybe, maybe not. Keep in mind that a Z car's maintenance will be higher than, say, a Honda Accord. Not a deal breaker, just be aware. Repairs as well. For some damm reason, parts for Z cars are just, well, "up there" vis a vis that Honda Accord I mentioned.

With that out of the way, if you like the car, get one and learn about yourself as you learn the car. Yes, I speak from experience. My first "sports car" was a Z, albeit an underpowered one (as compared to today's cars). Along with that, first track experience - Z. First driving school - Z. Cars used in my second - and lots more comprehensive - driving school - Z cars (among others).

Point is, you treat the car with respect, check your ego outside of the car before getting into it, you'll be fine.

 

Thanks for the feedback (and compliment )! I also agree that the snow being a factor makes me hesitant. In theory, I could MAYBE buy a beater, but since I am in college and live 8 hours away from home, owning two cars just doesn't seem like the best possible option. In terms of snow, can I ask why this is a big negative? I feel like streets and roads here in NY are usually cleared pretty decently, and at a pretty quick rate if I would say so myself. I'm always curious to why it's considered such a big no no for some. I would argue that only very small streets where houses are located are the only ones that are cleaned last, but in terms of danger, I feel like those are the least scary ones since you are going at a rather slow pace to begin with. Of course I could be completely wrong, but I've just always been curious.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Really appreciate it. I've heard that these cars are pretty durable in terms of issues, and I just wanted to get your opinion on that. I guess it really depends on the previous owner, but I am hoping it won't require extensive maintenance, especially since I am looking to buy models from around 75k-100k mileage, and hoping to last me a minimum of five years.

If that statement made no sense, it probably didn't. Like I mentioned, I tend to not be so mechanically gifted.

 

I wouldn't daily drive a Z in the winter. I bought a beat SUV for that

 

I'm 23 and bought my Z as my 2nd car. I live in Iowa and our winters can be hellish at times. I have 0 issues driving my car in the snow with blizzaks on them. If the snow is real bad, I throw 3 sandbags in the back for added traction. If you've ever driven a RWD car/truck before, you'll understand the do's and dont's in the snow.

Performance wise the car isn't hard to handle. I'm coming from an old 96' Dodge Dakota that I drove for the last 6 years, that thing had maybe 100hp at the wheels.. Maybe.... lol

I daily drive my Z in snow, rain, ice, and sunny days. But once again it all comes down to experience. I purchased mine in the winter, so the first thing I did was slap some blizzaks on it, and I went to an empty parking lot and started doing donuts WITH and WITHOUT TCS on.

I don't think you should have an issue with your car to be honest. As long as you respect its power, and understand it is a MACHINE, and treat it as such, you'll be fine.

Maintenance wise, the car as stated above, is up there in cost. Go to Rockauto and check out the prices for oem parts to get a general idea, labor is generally expensive for any engine work due to how compact everything is. Search on google basic maintenance costs for a 350z, and for anything major as well.

 

Im sure with snow tires you could drive any car in the snow. The problem is weather is unpredictable and the DPWs ability to clean the roads fluctuates. Anything more than 2 inches and everyone else on the road is going to look at you like that idiot who drove a sports car in the snow.

Anything more then 4 inches and your not getting where you needed to go. Based on your situation and location Subaru or basically anything awd will probably make your life a little bit easier...

Other things to think about... No back seat for your friends or co workers if you ever car pool...

It sticks out like a sore thumb, people and police all notice the car...

Parking sucks, door dings suck, people suck... Lots of times in college parking lots you dont have a choice about parking.

They are a bit of a money pit, some more than others...

Honestly if I had to choose only 1 car I would get a CRV or Rav 4... My daily driver is an Element and I would recommend that also.

Be careful up their in Rochester, my nephew used to attend Rochester state university... He was held up at gun point one night walking back to his apartment. It wasn't a good time.

 

First off, I know Rochester weather, I'm 3 hours away - you get dumped on with lake effect snow - regularly! Me thinks you got some cognitive dissonance go on there. I understand, it's a young man impairment.

You asked "In terms of snow, can I ask why this is a big negative?" so i'll give you some honesty. It's up to you how you weight the importance of it (keep your dissonance in check pls)

If you love the Z as you stated, it's no way to treat her...

A few years ago I owned it's cousin a G35 coupe, 6mt and thought i'd drive it through the winter (with snows) FAIL - (while doable, and i consider myself to be a good winter driver with zero incidents in a million years) the car was too much out of it's element. Meaning, the amount of concentration required to keep it planted was far too stressful to be enjoyable. I benched it by mid January.
Here's what i learned...
Scraping the windows, brooming snow off it, watching it warm-up in the lane made me sick.
Seeing salt and corruption eating away at it made me SICK.
I was embarrassed to see it looking like that. Snow and salt all through the interior - I was ruining it! - car guys don't do that. It's like neglecting a friend, relative or a pet kind of feeling. Keep it spotless all summer and then have it like this - NOPE, can't do it!
To build on your obvious maturity, It's about preserving/restoring nice things, not using them up. insert "Okay dad"

Anyway, aside from the emotional element, here's some facts about driving a Z in the winter...

-They're way too low for snow and you'll be plowing or off the ground in extreme cases. At minimum, it's belly and exhaust will bottom out in ice and snow
-A good set of Blizzaks, wheels, mount and balance will cost you a chunk, half the cost of a beater?
-You will get into situations where you are stranded - hopefully you're parked at home.
-Z's are known for understeer, snow and ice quadruples this.
-With a twitchy rear end, what do you think will happen in snow and ice - think about gear changes and accelerating in a turn cus you will undoubtedly have to do this.
-Most people looking to buy a Z want a clean one - not winter driven. You'll greatly decrease it's value and it's market by doing this (and you will want to sell it one day)
It's just not practical...

I'm sure people who winter drive theirs will have comments, but, they may also have plenty of winter driving experience and my not have NY conditions.

So, this is my long answer to "wait until you can get a winter beater" do with it what you will

 

I grew up in Buffalo and didn't buy my Z until moving 'south' to the DMV. And even though I know there's a small Z community in Upstate NY according to the regional forums, I myself would NEVER own this car living there. Especially just starting out in my 1st career. The roads in Buffalo had potholes that would destroy a normal car, I couldn't even imagine owning a lowered car with an aftermarket suspension.

If Rochester is anything like the rest of WNYS, "winter" begins around November and lasts right up until the Spring. So unless you're planning on buying a winter beater and storing the Z to keep it safe from unplowed roads and other idiots who can't navigate properly on snow/ice I'd wait. A used Z can get expensive for certain parts, but so far mine has held up relatively well for 12 years.

But if this is what you want, just consider everything that comes along with owning a sports car in a snowy climate with sh*tty roads. *edit* [What that guy above said about seeing your car covered in salt/ice/etc is so true. Somewhat akin to seeing someone you love in abusive relationship. Well not really, but you get the idea.]

 

Thank you all for the advice. It's really helping me more than you think. Although I still have a year to go before I can even buy the car, it's starting to look like getting a 350z as my main car while living in the Northeast Coast may not be the greatest idea. Although I will admit that I am a little bummed out about it, but I can acknowledge that it just wouldn't be convenient, especially since I am just starting out in my career as a professional. I'm sure future me will be happy about this decision, though . Now, onto deciding what I should get as my first car...

 

Godkin, you're logical, I guess your profession dictates. It'll serve you well!

And chalk one up for the good guys, I feel we've saved one from a rusted end!

As far as your first car goes, narrow down the criteria - a cheap awd (for the weather/commute), a manual (to do some learnin) and something you can keep as a future beater. THEN, save your pennies for a nice, un-modded, winter stored 350z.

- I threw that one in cus i like it on some strange level haha

 

Coming from someone that has owned snow tires for the z and a daily driver it doesn't work well in snow. Still has too much power to put down and you will have trouble everyday in the littlest store. The main issue is ground clearance. Even at stock height it's minimal.

Buy a beater if you intend to have a z and only keep it on the road in spring/summer/fall.

 

The 350Z drives poorly enough in the rain. I can't imagine how bad it'd be in the snow. I use my wife's AWD anytime there's even a hint of snow in our forecast.

 

My 350 runs with Blizzaks from November until April. Only took one sudden snowstorm while I was on a business outing to convince me - fortunately I didn't tear up the car, only some white picket fence lol. As said above, respect the car and more importantly YOUR driving abilities, and you will be fine. I've let my daughter and her husband take mine to ZDayZ the last 3 years and they are not much older than you are. Those roads are about as challenging as you can find anywhere.

 

My first sports car purchase was a Z back when I was 21 when they first came out. I was living in Colorado and at the time it was my daily driver, including through the wonderful snowy winters and I never crashed it once while living out there driving in those conditions.

If you know how to drive in the snow, the Z can be driven safely. I would obviously advise getting blizzak's around the car for winter with some steely type (cheap rims), go wide as possible front and back for the biggest grip potential for Winter. Also if you want to go really hardcore you can always stud the tires for that extra layer of safe guard.

I'd recommend a 6MT so you can manipulate the gearing for torque and engine braking as much as possible when driving in the snow to avoid tapping the brakes when it gets really dicey conditions. and a model with LSD rather then getting a one wheel wonder spin (I drove an open diff base model back when I first got my first Z in the snowy seasons, so it can be done). I used to drive from Broomfield to centennial which was about an hour each way to at worst 3 hours due to crap traffic each way on snowy days.

The point of this is it's absolutely doable, so long as you have great snow driving skills, you can generally manage in any kind of car. Just do the appropriate snow driving mods like blizzak's (with potential studs for extra grip on snow/ice) wide tires, and if you get an auto go into manual mode and engine brake as much as possible, + limited slip differential (like a performance+ model).

And the last bit of common sense applies, if it's snowing outside and you don't have to be out and about, then don't be.

Aside from that the cost of the cars are super cheap these days, but as others have said the mod scene is still a premium of a price as it ever was which is the only truly sucky part about owning a Z. The VQ is just not cheap, and finding a shop to do your tasteful mods for you competently is hard (if you don't do stuff yourself). If you can stomach that, then by all means, join the club.

Lastly, when I had my Z N/A (naturally aspirated) it was pretty reliable from what I recall. The only issue I really had was a security component issue that (think it as the NATS system) that didn't allow the car to start occasionally which took a while to troubleshoot and eventually get fixed by replacing the unit; that was the only thing that some times threatened to leave me stranded during a mountain cruise when it would act up, but I never was truly left stranded by the car.

 

I’m in Minnesota where there’s plenty of cold weather, and the average snowfall is 40+ inches. I drive the car in snow and on ice all winter. You won’t have trouble if you mount studless snow tires, front and back. The DOT here uses chemicals on the roads during the winter; I have repaired rust that developed on the car.

The 350z is not expensive to maintain. I purchased a 2003 350z when the car was new; my repair costs have been very modest.

 

*I have to respectfully disagree on "go wide as possible front and back for the biggest grip potential for Winter"

Wide tires in the snow and you be surfing - make that skiing

 

^^ You are wise and your statement is correct. Do not mount a tire wider than 225 mm for winter driving if you are on ice and in snow. For these conditions, you want a studless snow tire.

 

Haha Spike, but i will have to respectively disagree on "wise" also. Just got some experience throwing a car around in the snow, as i'm sure do you