September 04 delivery

Totally perfect....


Paul

 

I have an '04 Roadster purchased in 2/04, built on 12/03.

No problems whatsoever....!

I love the car. It still puts a smile on my face after 15k miles.

 

'04 ZR w/ March/'04 build date. Almost 8k miles now w/no real problems, except a slight rub of trunk lid against tonneau after a full day at the ofc in 90+ degree full sun (& I've got a super black), and an annoying mystery whistle at the right mirror with the top down and below 70 degrees outside. To me, those are more annoyances than real problems, but I did post about both of them.

As some have said, any car can be a lemon (I think Toyotas are boring, but they're also VERY reliable overall. Still, I had a good friend who had a year of horrible trouble and all kinds of problems with a brand new '02 Celica GT).

However, also bear in mind that on forums like this, most (not all) people start threads most often (no, not always) to either bragg or b*%ch, me included. You did exactly the right thing by asking who DIDN'T have any problems, apparently b/c you realized, correctly, that people on this forum are very helpful and are generally good about responding to requests for information, but you won't see many threads entitled "Another day of problem-free driving in my Z ". It's just human nature. You usually won't hear about all that's going RIGHT for those w/o probs.; remember that a minority few even join an internet forum about their car precisely because they have had problems (hence some members who have posted here only 2 or 3 times within the past year, all about tire feathering).

Bottom line, your odds are pretty good w/an '05. Nissan's got very good reliability overall, except in the cheapest models (Frontier and Sentra), and Consumer Reports found the 350Z to have above average reliability in the very first year after launch, before they had a chance to get any bugs out. I've owned five Nissans, and have known friends to get 200k out of one w/o any service except for oil and transmission fluid changes. The only BAD problem I, or any of the people I've known have had, was with defective black paint (and even knowing that, I still bought a black Z). Good luck w/whatever you decide!

 

Darth,

I agree mostly with what you have said. However, there are some caveats.

Asking for people that have not had problems is definitely a way to try and get the responses about the problem free driving people are experiencing. However, it doesn't give a real perspective of the ratio of people with problems vs those that don't. I don't believe that is truly possible in this type of environment.

A lot of people that have had problems with their Z's are probably not browsing these forums much any more. I am one of the few that still keeps visiting fairly often.

As other's have said, most of the kinks are probably worked out by now. Compile information from threads like this one and the problem threads and make a decision from there.

The problem threads like this have is they can give on a candy-coated view of the situation, just as much as the problem thread can taint one's view.

I, for one, had several "major" problems. 2 failed transmissions with a 3rd on the way out, 3 sets of tires, all the various window problems, paint on the plastic pieces that didn't match the rest of the car. In the end, Nissan bought the car back.

That said, most of these issues appear to be resolved now.

D

PS

s0nz, seriously, do you really need to have such a long sig?

 

Heh heh. I was thinking the same thing. One line of actual post and 50 lines of sig.

 

04 purchased in February - not one problem thus far! Love it - very smooth at 115 - difficult to keep it below 80 on the open road - often find myself at 90 to 100 if passing (and surprised - very smooth!)

 

2005 SS Enthusiast, 134 problem free miles!

My only problem is I keep finding excuses to drive now, and always take the long route.

 

2003 Performance bought in 12-02 (built in 10-02) with 17000 miles. Only issue has been minor tire feathering which was fixed (so far at least) with one trip to the dealer.

Not a single rattle, drives & shifts as on a rail, & goes like a bat out of hell!

 

20984 , no problems except grease streaks on windows other than that perfecto

 

8500 miles with 15 autocrosses and two track days with no problems.

Keep in mind there are 60,000 Z owners out there, this isn't a very big sampling.. not enough IMO to make a decision on whether or not to buy the car.

 

no problems yet, built july 04 2800 miles... not enough mileage to really determine. To answer one of your questions they still are having issues with the tire feathering. I think that it is a caster problem which allows for excessive flex in the tire tread. Mazda Rx-7's had this issue, and I had one of those as well... Not that big of a deal as they have been pretty reasonable in fixing. I am totally happy with the purchase. Another thing to reconsider is the resale value of the car. After 5 years money magazine values this car at 51%, that's almost 15000 when paid off. Can't complain about that at all. It was the best in it's class!!

 

9,000 miles of hard driving (like the Z should be driven) and only minor grease streaks @ 3,500 miles. No other problems. I have an '03.

 

A 2004.5 here with 4,000 miles and no problems. Much, much less of a headache than the RX-8 I traded in for it. Totally happy with the purchase and would buy another 350Z or maybe a G35.

 

At first i thought i don't have any issues with my Z but now with 16000 miles on it the seat starts to fray... so i guess now i have a problem.

 

I have a 2005 Z with 134 miles, already have a weird noise with car in neutral and clutch out, also second gear has grinded twice even with granny shifting.

 

I have a 350Z built 11/02, delivered 4/03. Tire feathering was a problem and the dealership replaced those free of charge. The window streaking is beginning to disappear as I have about 12,000 miles on the car. The bottom line is would I buy another and the answer is an absolute yes. Love the car.

 

When my car was new the clutch was VERY VERY tight! and I seemed to have LOTS of problems shifting - at about 3000 miles it started to loosen up. 8500 miles now and shifts beautiful!

 

i have an 03 enthusiast built in april of 2003. I have 10500 miles so far and no problems. I keep checking for the tire feathering but have not seen any signs.

 

04.5 Touring ZR with 4500 problem free miles. Gotta love it!

 

I purchased my car is June of 2003, currently I have 16,445 miles. No problems to date...