Man on Man, falling out of love with my 03 track Z hurts so much, but all of these issues, Tire Feathering, MT Tranmission problems, crappy cracking paint, Rattles and noises. And add to that Nissans (non)responsivenes to taking proper care of their "Flagship" automobile. What's a guy to do? I guess its Corvette time. Can't be any worse.

 

Hold out for a few months and buy an '05!

 

What will make the 05's any different than the 03's, and 04's?

 

kinda like falling out of love with a stripper, once you get up close and personal you realize it is loose and made of cheap plastic, and after a few miles it starts making funny noises

 

I've got a 2004.5 ( I think .5 beacuse I have knee pads) and don't have any of the 2003 problems after 4000+ miles. You should be safe with a 2004.5 or 2005. Also I heard vette's don't have good reliability either...

 

coming from a guy that lemon lawed a chevy a few years ago...yes, it could be worse. much worse. trust me on this one.

where is your paint cracking btw?

 

I guess its Corvette time. Can't be any worse. You beat me to the post!
Yes, mydogscool, it could be worse, much worse.

BTW, what is the built date on your '03? Mine is 05/03 (obviously a late build) and I have had NO problems.

 

My paint is not peeling or cracking yet, but feathers terribly. I have build date 02/03 vinxxxxxx249. There and pictures and stories of other owners recently posted in the repair section, a good section to keep an eye on for potential shared problems.

 

what about getting some coilovers. problem solved.

 

Tien Flex's? Does that tuly eliminate feathering? What about springs?

 

I still love my Z. I think i actually love it more than i did when i first got it.

 

The new vette will cost about twice as much as the Z, so its problems will seem twice as bad.

 

best joke i've heard all week

 

If you want a Vette get a C5 and let GM work out the bugs on the C6.

 

Have you tried different dealers? As with most automobile manufacturers, the dealer makes all the difference. A good dealer should be able to iron out some of the rattles/squeaks and tranny problems.

As for the feathering, I have personally come to the conclusion that we are screwed. Every year we've gotta blow $4-500 on new front tires. Not the end of the world, but I agree it sucks. After the tire feathering, I won't be recommending nissan anymore..but I strongly suspect that GM and other brands would hang you out to dry as well. It's always about the mighty buck.

As for other brands looking after their patrons...I don't think many do a good job. BMW treats you like crap. Honda treated me like crap (even w/their flagship the S2k). Benz treats everyone like crap. :-) I had good luck w/Infiniti, but when you go to trade in...lol...they treat you worse than crap. So go figure. In the end my conclusion is that few if any dealers can actually service cars properly - I think cars are becoming too complicated.

NzZ

 

Not me, but I plan to only put on less 7,500 miles a year.

 

That's the same mileage I put on my car...it has 5k right now and the tires are irritating. I'm gonna have to replace them every 7k, I can tell already. ;-) Hopefully yours feather slower or your ears aren't as sensitive.

NzZ

 

I feel the same, I'm dreading the battle ahead of me to get my transmission replaced under warranty! Thinking about saying F*CK IT and trading it in.

 

But what can we tade it in for that is as good looking, at least as powerful, handles well, is RWD, has no major, and under 40K????
That new Lotus Elise is a bit to radical, but does look and sound like a sweet ride, but I can see problems witten all over that, with a Lotus tuned Toyota motor. That Sti is well,,,,just BFU.

 

I know exactly how you feel. I love my car, and I thought I was one of the lucky 03 owners as I had only minor problems for over 12k miles. But over the past month or so, my tires have been starting to feather. Now my 3rd and 5th gears are grinding. The worst part is that the dealer supposedly can't reproduce the grinding, but it happened again on the drive home.

Now my right rear brake caliper has gotten slightly loose and is making banging noises. And on top of all of this are minor issues like the premature wear of my cloth drivers seat and the fact that the entire drivers seat moves around a little when taking turns and window grease. Oh yeah, did I mention that the car makes a horrible whining noise at 70 mph exactly, and then any speed over 80.

Why oh why can't my Z be more reliable????