Major

I am seriously considering a road trip with the roadster, approximately 6 days. But I am paranoid about parking at some of the motels, dings, scratches, etc plus the thought of some one breaking into my roadster just scares the hell out of me!

Has any one have any experience using their roadster on a road trip, positive or negative?

Its such a fun car, the thought of taking my wife's infiniti is just plain boring!

Major

theSmoothDome

Take the roadster and keep the paranoia to a minimum by taking a few precautions.

1. Park at motels, restaurants, etc. where you have a line of sight to your car.

2. If possible, park in end spots so only one side of your car is exposed to door dings. Create as much space as possible between you and the next car.

3. Cover it! - I'm not sure how everyone else feels, but I always try to cover my car if I'm going to be away from it for more than an hour or so. I'm prone to believe that what people don't see, they won't mess with or maybe it's that people are scared to become caught up in the car cover as they try to rob me blind.

4. Relax. Even if something does happen, it can be fixed. - I know I can't do it, but it sounds like such good advice.

Richardew

Relax and enjoy your car. I've had 911 convertables for the past 10 years and never had anyone try to break in. I always park away from other cars if possible, or next to something nice if I have to.
rich
'03 FX 45 w/tech, Black/Brick
'96 911 C4 Cab, Iris Blue/Marble/Marble
'04 350ZR touring MT, SS/BO soon to arrive

mwest300zx

I was in Phoenix last week and was surprised to see 8 350Z's. Past trips I've never seen any and have yet to see a roadster in Phoenix. You've got to be the only roadster in Yuma.Re: your trip, you've got to use ordinary common sense (although common sense ie the least common of the senses) Like the other guys said, park where your exposure is limited. And leave the paranoia behind or it's not worth owning the car if you will be afraid to take it anywhere. By the way it's just as apt to have something happen to it close to home as on a trip. I took mine to New Hampshire for the Z convention, the only thing I did was get a bra for the trip. Averaged 72mph on trip and wanted to avoid any stone chips on front end. The bra worked, no chips or any other problems. I've owned more expensive cars and more visible cars and never had a problem. I can't wait for Spring to happen so I can take my Z for a nice drive around the counrty. I'd love to have the opportunity to try my Z out on the roads in Az., especially outside of Phoenix and Tucson. I've driven through a lot of Az. but don't believe I have ever been to Yuma.

Major

Actually my roadster was the first sold in Yuma, Aug03. The dealer has since sold two, and there is one purchased out of town.

Yuma is sort of watering hole between San Diego & Phoenix. The mountains between here & San Diego is quite scenic & has plenty of curves to make it exciting, especially coming back from SD.

The road trip I was referring to is to midwest to attend a wedding. My wife & I thought it would be fun just to take along a couple pair of levis & a toothbrush, thats about all that would fit, cause I need room for all of my detailing supplies!

Great response, all of the comments are pretty much positive!

Major

zmann

You gotta take the roadster. Have taken several road trips of two and three night stays and had no problems. If someone wants to break into a car, it doesn't matter what you drive. And like someone else has said...what can be broke can be fixed or replaced. You bought the car just for such an opportunity; and this car travels very well. You'll be surprised...and it will be the only thing you want to travel in!

Have fun!!

Chasw1269

hey zmann,

How's it do on the long road trips? Comfort - wise? I'm planning on driving to the Tail of the Dragon & was curious on whether I would have to stop a lot to stretch my old back!

bixby

iTrader: (2)

Take the Roadster. The best advice I can give is;

Stay at Public Storage where you can just drive your car in & bed down for the night. The rates are pretty cheap too.

j/k

You just can't worry about it. Lots of good advise given about parking etc. I like the idea of covering it too. I'm not sure it's much of a deterant but at least it'll protect from nicks & scratches.

Have fun!

zmann

My wife and I have driven, well, I've driven to the Smokies and back several times in the car...putting hundreds of miles on in a weekend and it does great. I've had to add lumbar to my seat back and do have an adt'l cushion for extra lower back support, but I'm just fine. It's very comfortable on the long hauls...you are going to love it.

srm

hrohawg

Question: How did you 'add lumbar' to your seat back? My only complaint on the seating in my PPW ZR is the lumbar support is lacking a little.

Thanks.

zmann

May be hard to explain, but it really is kind of simple. Your seatback unzips, as you've probably noticed. Running along the bottom of the seatback cover in the back, there is a plastic piece that locks into another to hold everything in place. There are also two pieces of stretch loops that clip into hooks on the left and right bottom corners. Be careful not to tear those. They are a little bit of trouble to unhook and hook, but they keep the seatback materials tight so they are important. It is real easy to open up the seat back cover. Once you do that, you have to remove a couple horizontal support wires for the seat back. They just pop out of place. Then, there's a lot of plastic you have to make your way through. Actually, you have to get through the plastic to get to the support wires. But what you have is access to the seatback so that you can insert additional back support foam, cushions, whatever. I currently have two memory foam type back support cushions inserted between the original seat-back foam and the support wires and bracing. This forces more support into the lower back area. Because I have leather and heated seats, it is not as easy to simply insert adt'l cushion/foam between the open end on the front side of the seat back cover and the original seat back foam. I was able to do that with the Enthusiast model I had and it actually was more effective. But the heat pad and lack of give in the leather in the Touring model just makes it nearly impossible to get a decent piece of cushion in there. Anyway, when you get the amount of support you want, and trust me I had to make multiple adjustments to get it right, you just put everything back together. This has helped tremendously in my effort to get decent back support. The newer Z's how have an additional adjustment on the seat cushion (raises and lowers the back of the cushion independent of the seat back) and I've sat in one and that make a huge difference. However, I'm stuck with the model that has only the one seat cushion adjustment (front).

I tried some of the less expensive lumber cushions from the auto stores, i.e., the $10 variety, and found that they just didn't have the support needed. I ended up buying a couple of "temper-pedic" memory foam type deals that although very expensive, I think, for what they are, really conform and support much better. However, like I said, I've got 2 currently stuffed into the back.

Let me know if you have questions. I could potentially take some digitial pics if you want to pursue and want to see how I approached it. Would like to hear from any others who have tried to resolve this problem. The one advantage this has is that you don't have cushions sitting in your seat, i.e., the support is transparent, just looks like any other seat, albeit with more of a bulge in the lumbar area...which for me is a good thing!

Scott

hrohawg

Thanks for the info. I'll look into doing this mod. I have the seat with both front and rear 'height' adjustment ***** but I still have a little ache after several hours of seat time. Maybe a little padding stuffed in there will do the trick.

Thanks.

zmann

give it a shot. you've got a bit of a head start with the adt'l adjustments. Imagine not being able to adjust the rear of the seat! I'm pushing Nissan to replace my seat with one like yours. I sat in two of the Z's with the adt'l adjustment and I know it would make a difference for me...let me know what you do that works; this is a continuing battle for me, it seems.

srm

straderp

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who thinks the lumbar support is lacking. I have the two-manual-adjust seat, and at 5'8" tall (yes, I'm short), I've been having trouble finding the sweet spot for the seat adjustment.

I also find that I get tension between my shoulderblades and in my neck a bit, despite my best efforts adjusting the steering wheel and the seat.

Of course, the fact that I'm riding with the top down when it's 35 degrees out, and I end up shivering myself to death after 45 minutes doesn't help <sly grin>

I'm glad to hear the idea on the mod to add lumbar support inside the seat because I had dreaded the thought of something visible. Where did you buy the tempur-pedic foam? The best way I've come up with to get it is to write off for my "free tempur-pedic sample" on the mattress commercial. <wink>

zmann

There is a store here in Nashville called the Relax the Back Store. I've seen similar products @ Brookstone and Sharper Image, although I tried and returned the product I bought at Sharper Image. The gel cushions and tempur-pedic "memory foam" cushions work best. I haven't heard anything from Nissan, yet (no surprise). But for the time being, the off-the-shelf solution I've come up with works pretty well. Let me know if I can be of any more help to you. Like I said...I've tried I bet a dozen cushions in as probably as many configurations. The lady at Relax the Back got to know me pretty well, and they were real good about the returns when I did purchase something that didn't work.

NAPZ

I live in NYC and took my Z on a mini road trip upstate last fall in the Catskill Mt area so much fun it was just like the commercial it was so beutiful seeing the sun setting with the top down and the great colors of fall.Spring will be just as nice. Take the Road Trip Park Carefully Have fun.