Hey, guys. Below are a couple that I want to check out. There are more, but these are the ones sticking out more. Please check them out if you have the time and help me determine what models they are and if they are a decent price. I'm going to try to check them out this weekend.

(NOTE: according to the dealer's website, the grey and black have both had body work done. Grey - says came in with minor body damage, replaced the bumper. Black - says came in with minor body damage, replaced bumper, hood and fender. Now, body work in and of itself isn't necessarily anything to be too worried about, is it? Is there anything I should look out for? Either due to repairs or just on Zs in general?)

03 - silver
04 - grey
04 - black (on the front shot, does the gap between hood/bumper look wider on the passanger side? should that present a problem?)

Thanks in advance to anyone that can offer any kind of opinion or advice!

 

I wouldn't buy one that has had bodywork.

Especially the black one. That's terrible workmanship.

The silver one (the 2003) looks good, and 73K miles is not bad.

If you could that somewhere around $15K, that'd be cool.

Come up to Dallas, there are always good deals on 350's around here.

 

Here....

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...eadExists=true


Sewell is a very reputable dealer.

 

the two with body work dont look good
sure all it looks like is some bad workmanship but if the car looks like that who knows they might be hiding other problems
dont get either of them
as for the silver one
i bet if you keep looking you can find a better deal than that- maybe one with a little less miles
and dont be too eager to seal a deal
be patient on finding a car for the right price and with the things you want

 

Doesn't seem like too bad of a deal, but it's gotta be manual, lol. I've got a couple more saved on my home computer. I think I'm gonna be a nerd about it and make a spread sheet so I can keep up with them all and rank them. I'll update later when I find one closer to a winner. May have to up the budget a bit too.

Am I right, thinking that every model except base has LSD?

 

Yes on LSD

 

Yeah, I'm sure I can probably get a better deal than the silver one, maybe the same price with lower miles? My car is actually getting body work done at that dealership right now, so I thought I'd go check it out.

Just noticed you were in Houston as well...if you see anything that might be a good deal, be sure to let me know!

 

Awesome, thanks. Just wanted to make sure I was doing my research right.

 

Shop for a 350Z that has not been wrecked. That will solve the problem.

 

that black one even with crappy pictures you can tell it something is wrong with it.

I agree with everyone else ... don't mess with a wrecked one. There are too many 350s out there for sale used to mess around with one that has be run into something

 

Yeah, I didn't notice it at first and thought it was a good deal. Then I noticed the gap later looking back at it. Their posting on autotrader doesn't mention it at all, but I looked at it on their actual website. Oh well. The search continues. I was going to look for a bit higher priced models, but I don't think I'll be able to get what I want on the current car...maybe barely over even.

What would you guys expect to pay for an 03-04 with around 30-50,000 miles, base/enthusiast models?

Also, how important are LSD and TCS/VDC to everyone? I've done some searching around and seen that most people don't seem to car too much for the stock LSD, but it will be a while before I could justify $1500 to get a Quaife put in. Haven't read much on about the TCS/VDC yet, but would you guys recommend getting it or would you even care not having it?

 

Well if its going to be a daily driver I would go for one with traction control.

All the other options are personal preference.

I went with the touring for the leather seats. The cloth ones however IMHO are pretty nice (lot of cars have crappy cloth seats GM I am looking at you)

There are a good chunk of base drivers here on the boards. I rarely see one that will admit to wishing they had upgraded to a higher level model.

 

Yeah, it will definitely be primarily a DD, maybe a weekend warrior here and there. I did notice some base drivers saying they didn't mind it when I was reading about the LSD yesterday. I guess I don't really know what I want yet. Traction control would be a nice safety feature, but I'm trying to decide if it's something that I really need/want.

 

Buying used your going to pay less than $1000 to move up to at least an Enthusiast from a Base. For that grand, or less, you get a lot of goodies.

 

So how much would you say is fair for an 03-04 enthusiast around 30-50k miles?
And how much more to bump it up to a touring/performance to get the leather seats?

 

I would check edmunds.com for prices in your area. It can be a bit high but is a as good a ballpark as most people will give you here.

But brickyard is right on the used ones its hardly worth going base unless you really just don't want the extras.

 

Yeah, I was just starting to consider base because I'm on a tighter budget than I had originally planned on, and I'm not thinking I'm going to get as much for my car as I originally thought either. So it might just wind up being a couple months down the road so I can get the loan on the Tib down a bit. But I guess you're right, in the long run it probably is worth it to get the extra couple goodies.

And the only reason I'm asking here is because things like KBB and NADA tend to be guidelines at best sometimes, and I was wondering if real world cases were similar or actually differed a bit from what was suggested. But I guess location, demand, etc. do affect things.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

Those last two are being offered by a dealership that obviously stands in the frame damage lane at the auction with their hand up and does no recon. You can fix the panel gaps for about $200 FYI. I would be much quicker to deal with the new car franchise on their silver car.

As far as bodywork goes, I put my car back on the road after someone took a left and wiped out my front end. It has a new fender, hood, radiator core support, bumper, headlights, side skirt etc. It's okay because it's all factory parts and I was able/qualified to oversee the whole process. Inheriting an obviously low rate bodywork car is something to be concerned about.

 

Did you find a 350Z that has not been wrecked?

 

So that would be a no.