Do what makes YOU happy. But I would keep the civic and be car craving for 4 more years.

I would have loved to have a Civic in College.
Walking everywhere sucks..

I got mad respect for you dude......

If you have Crappy or No Credit you will get a horrible Rate on your Purchase. A 20K car with taxes/titles/etc will run you about $550 per month on 60 Months through some place like HSBC.

At your age and being a Male, You insurance will Likley match your Payment, or come close.

Oil, Tires and other maint items will cost a lot for the Z. I would put back no less than $100 per month to cover these expenses.

So, I would Say, Prepare to Pay $1,200 Per month +Fuel Costs for the Car Alone.

Or Save 1/4 that Money each month and buy a Brand New Z with a better Rate when you Graduate as a reward for having a 4.0

hey go for it u only live once. so make the payments, work hard and and play even harder.. i did it. 2005 ppw P.S dont lease, buy the f**ker

mommy and daddy didnt buy my Z

Horrible idea to get a Z at this point man.

You will need a cosigner, you wont be able to lease. Your car will get beat up in a college town

I got my Z my last year of college, But now I have to work atleast so many hours each week which really sucks.

Somone hit my front bumper within the first 4 months of having it and took off.
Keep the civic, cheap car, cheap insurance. An 18 year with a Z = Absolute insurance rape.

Also if you have never had your own insurance and have no credit the insurance will be higher, if your mother's credit is bad its the same way.

I know how you feel if you want a cheaper but fast car, get a 240sx and thrown an sr20 in it you will love it its what got me through college. Hell I am going to get another sometime soon.

leasing requires WAY better credit than a purchase
AND
You are only allowed ( by most banks ) to make payment of 20% of your gross monthly income. In your case that is $360. Still possible, but tough to find that deal.

The first thing I did (when I got the chance) when I turned 18, was got a loan, traded in my perfectly good, gas efficient, fun, five seater mazda 3, and bought a brand new '06 PPW Base model Z. I make $1300 per month, and $500 of that goes towards my car payment. Gas is brutal, although I probably drive more than most, and I probably spend about $500 a month on gas. That leaves me with $300 a month to do what I want with. Not very much being a kid and wanting to have fun all the time. It could be, but there are other expenses. I'm lucky enough not to have to pay for my insurance (which is ridiculous), but I'm not as lucky when it comes to paying for tires. The steel braids were showing on my stock tires last week, and I couldn't even afford to purchase the cheapest tires available, unless I financed them (yay, more debt...). Instead I had to settle for used tires, which I got a good deal on but also maxed out my credit card purchasing. And because I had to be cheap, the tire shop that mounted my wheels ended up putting my two rear wheels on the right side of my car, and the two front wheels on the left side. By the time I realized what was happening, and three people on the freeway telling me my wheel was wobbling and looked like it was about to fall off, I couldn't turn around and go back. So I had to drive to the nearest tire shop and pay them even more money to just switch two of the wheels.
That's just one problem of many you could have. You make more than I do but you say you have to pay for insurance. It sounds like you'd be in a similar position to me after insurance payments. I just wanted to mention that this car eats a LOT of money, before I told you how I felt about buying it, which is basically this: I don't regret buying this car. Driving is something I am extremely passionate about. If I could go back, I probably would have waited to buy this car, and kept my Mazda 3. I would never get rid of it now that I have it, but being young I wasn't mature enough to really think this through. Don't get me wrong, I thought about the expenses and thought I could pay for them all. But they hit you hard and fast, and lot harder and faster than I ever would have expected, and now I'm paying for that. It's not easy but it's worth it to me (now that I own the car). Had I not bought it already I probably wouldn't have found it worth the trouble to buy it immediately, if I could have really understood what it would take. So, think it through as thoroughly as you can, figure out whether you can really afford it and what kind of tax it will have on your personal life, and then make your decision. I'm sure your civic gets amazing gas mileage, and just putting the money away that you save on gas could make a huge difference towards paying for the z. And if you were to compare the price of tires every time you need to change tires, subtract the price of your tires from the price of tires for the Z every time you change them, and put that away too. And keep in mind you have the luxury of rotating your wheels/tires, if you have a Z and your tires are bald, you need to buy new tires, you can't just switch them and hold out till all four are bald. It's an amazing car and honestly I am extremely happy to be a Z owner, even if I am a broke Z owner, every time I go to get in my car it makes me happy :).

That was a big long post and I kind of confused myself writing it, haha, so if it doesn't make sense, I apologize just try and get what you can from it.
-Max

I agree.. I bought mine the last semester of college... and it's still expensive.. Gas prices.. Brakes.. Everything is more money on a sports car..

don't spend all your money on a fancy car. it's not worth it in the long run, especially since you won't be able to afford sufficient insurance.

the 350Z is not a great car for a college student IMO... I got the Z right as I was graduating college

Im in college right now, but Im 23. I work part time and my gross is 1700. (Operations Supervisor for UPS). I donno, I make it work just fine. (and I still stuff 20% pre-tax into 401k). Bottom line: If you are financially able to, go for it.

"Gas prices.. Brakes.. Everything is more money on a sports car.."

So you pay 10 more cents a gallon for premium. Whoop-Di-Doo! And to my knowlege Hawk pads are the same price as they were for my old Scion TC.

What makes it more money is when you mod it....which you dont need to do right away... get used to the car since your only 18.

But I dont know the whole story here. I wouldnt reccomend getting a brand new one. I financed a 2004 for a little under 20k (Car had 22k on the powerplant). Id reccomend doing that if you can. Also, stay away from the 2003's as some of them had issues.

Cheers and maybe we'll see you in a Z.

Thats what I did. It sucks, but worth it when you graduate and make real money to afford the car. My integra has all kinds of dings from college. Trust me, people could give a sh!t about your car.

Well, generally I think it's closer to twenty cents extra for premium, and on top of that you're filling up more often and with one and a half times to twice as many gallons. Going from a ten or eleven gallon tank to a twenty gallon tank is a big leap. Here's an example:
10 gallon tank at 2.50 per gallon.
$25 per fillup, right?
20 gallon tank at 2.70 per gallon
$54 per fillup
On top of paying more every time you fill up, I'll bet you a years supply of gas you'll be filling up a lot more often ;). I'd say about one and a half to two times as much. So let's say you fill up once a week with the ten gallon car, that's $1300 a year, because a honda civic gets much much better gas mileage than our Z's do. If you fill up one and a half times a week with the 20 gallon tank that takes premium and eats it fast, that's $4212 in a year. Are you saying that that is not a big difference? That's kind of drastic I suppose, I used that example because that's basically how it is for me, I drive a lot, but it's all ratios and even if you scale it down it's still a fairly large number that you're spending extra per year.
-Max

$.20 a gallon on 20 gallons=$4 . Resist the urge for that bigmac.

If you must have a new car, Look at the SE-R SpecV, GTI, MiniC, MazdaSpeed 3 or the like. Much less to insure and maintain, and probably cheaper.

You need to look at the gas mileage of the vehicle as well. I commute about 40 miles each way to work every day, mostly highway, but during rush hour. The Z was costing me close to $120 per week (this was over the summer while gas was over $3/gal.) I picked up a 1995 Geo Prism (Toyota Corolla clone), getting about 32-34 mpg while only needing the 87 octane cheap gas. Paying around $30-35 per week in gas. Makes a huge difference.

If you think you can afford it....then by all means enjoy life. Its really not as bad as everyone is making it out to be. My 2 Z's and G35 coupe have been nothing but reliable. I get pretty decent gas mileage and maintenance is not bad at all(just keep an eye on your oil levels every now and then).

Most people probably just don't want you to have a Z bc your soo young and they didn't have cars like that at your age. I didn't either but I would've if I could've. I'm willing to bet there will be plenty of students that will drive Z's on your campus. Its not exactly a new car anymore and isn't terribly expensive as a used car.

The only real reasons I can give you to not get the car is the fact that you can't fit more than one person in it. Its the most annoying thing in the world at such a great time in your life. For that reason alone, I would keep the Civic....oh and the way insurance companies are gonna rape you for being so young. Good luck

Hold off on the Z would be my advice. Insurance is gonna rape you as many others said. You will have plenty of time to have a nicer car. Who knows... you may like something else by the time you are ready.

How the hell do you make 1800$ doing part time in high school? What do you do?