I have had a couple of runins with the little parking spot stoppers, I keep hitting the front spoiler (aero package) but other than that no problems.

 

With 5 inches if ground clearance on the front bottom lip, the 350 is going to take some abuse. I normal try to stay back about 2 feet from the parking bumper which are 6" plus. I usually end up about 12 inches away, still hard to judge the front edge of the car.

I wanted to see the under side of the 350, a friend let me use a drive on lift, he said to go slow up onto the lift, center section of the 350Z only had 1/4" clearance, due to the long wheel base and the low setting of the car. Just becarefull when pulling into a parking spot or any major dips in the path way.

 

i have had the car for about 2 and a half weeks, and 900 miles, and i have yet to scratch the bottom, or have any problems, there are speed bumps galore ar my school, and i have a moderate incline at my house. Its low, but its not that low.



Please dont let somthing bad happen now that ive said that!!

Good Luck, you should be fine..... Many other sports cars are about one inch or so lower to the ground.... And many cars arent much more than an inch or so higher than ours...


-Josh

 

Another nice thing about the Z is the short front and rear overhangs. I have a fairly steep driveway, and my Z never scrapes; however, my friend's TransAm scrapes every time.

-D'oh!

 

You guys ever hear of active aerodynamics? Basically its a speed sensitive front dam/lip. Hooks into your ECUs speed sensor and adjusts the lip further down the faster you go, so its all the way up when your barely moving(like over speed bumps) but WAY down when your at freeway speeds where you need the least ground clearance. A customer at our shop told me about it and the setup he explained to me was a pretty compact deal,whole thing bolted behind the bumper and only weighted about 15 pounds.

 

Hey everybody, Does anybody know if the front Sub Frame will hit those concret parking bumpers? If it will then we need to be very carefull as the Sub Frame could become damaged and be a very costly part to replace. I have seen this happen in another car line.

 

Anyone scrap the bottom yet?

 

Nope no problems at all. The Z has such short overhangs it is quite nice. I took the Z on a few roads where my eclipse used to rub the nose and did not have any issues.

Gotta love it - short overhangs, tires at the corners, and turninging radius like a go kart.

 

Yes. I can barley get up my parking deck at work. Some levels I can't even go on! Everyone will definitley have problems at some point. Many times it is unavoidable, due to road or driveway conditions. You have to be very careful. Especially when you are parking, watch out for those cement blocks in front of parking spaces.

 

The best thing to do is:

DO NOT PULL ALL THE WAY UP TO PARKING BUMPERS UNTIL SOMETHING HITS!

After damaging the front bumper of my old Eclipse, I became VERY paranoid (and **** retentive) about not pulling up too far in parking spots. The Z is not a long car (especially when you compare them to all those soccer mom SUV's out now). All it takes is a little depth perception, some practice, and some patience.

 

About the only issue I have had with the ground clearance was my first oil change. My floor jack was a little too high to make it under the car easily, so I will either be taking it in to the dealership next time or finding a jack that is lower profile. Otherwise no problems at all.

 

The short overhangs are nice except where there is hump in the road or speed bumps. Drive ways would be no problem.

 

Bad link

 

little scrape due to curb on front lip at the bottom. Also, I lightly bottomed out going into a parking lot, but it sounded like muffler or cat. scrape. I looked, no harm, but looking at the bottom, the cat. converter looks like the first thing to take abuse.

 

my last car which i scraped all the time was a eagle talon this car is actully higher albeit slight
so i havvent yet but im very cautious
i know of several atms and a carvel where i cant enter with my car or garantee a scrape i also find myself parking far from the curb up front at supermarkets and such

 

I'm probably the only 350z in the nation that can't clear the transition from sidewalk to downslope going into my underground garage.

The only solution I could come up with, short of mounting bigger tires (ya, sure), was a low tech solution...

Two 2" x 10" planks each six feet long.

Procedure,
1. Drive to where front wheels begin descent. Stop
2. Get out of car and drag both ramps in front of each front tire.
3. Utter the **** word
4. Get back in the car and very slowly proceed about 12 feet to clear the transition and planks. Stop.
5. Utter the F word
6. Get out sputtering and stammering and remove both planks to the side of driveway.
7. Return to Car and click garage door opener. Proceed to parking spot.
8. Exit car. Take a deep breath. Exhale and smile at my new ride.

Use your imagination for the reverse procedure. It can be tough zeroing in on the 10" widely spaced ramps. It's sort of like braile.


Plan two...
Sell the flippin condo! I mean, Z'in IS critical to my mental health.

 

I tapped a curb at work.. not even moving fast.. just idling along.. scraped the lower center a bit. Body shop will fix it anytime I want... no big-a-deal... Figured I would wait at least a month to make sure I have the front lenght down before fixing it.. so I dont have to fix it over and over again.

Had clear m3 installed..looks better this morning.

My driveway is flat... easy to get into. Though I live on a corner and fools like to speed around it a lit.. working on a way to back into my garage so I dont have to back out.

EZ

 

Old problem, new owner. My new stock 350Z scrapes the bottom of my driveway everytime I pull in. Any easy way to raise the suspension just an inch or so to all more clearance or is there another solution?