Hello everyone today i went to have a look at a 300zx N/A manual with 128 thoursand km's at a dealer which wanted $8000 i liked the look and comfort of the car. But i do wonder about the reliability of these cars as everyone i read on the interent says that you need deep pockets to own one what is your opinion? If i do regular oil changes etc will it help or are these cars bound to constantly break?
If he doesn't have a list of maintenance then leave that one and search for another. These cars are for the most part celebrating their 20th birthdays this year. And they're sports cars. What else can you expect than for things to start failing? They're almost antiques
Being such an old car (in many cases) they are prone to having the need for ongoing maintenance. Also being a sports car - they are prone to having previous douchebag owners who think burn-outs and overboosting are "fully hectik!" Alas, they are not. (much....) Maintenance can be anything from the 100k service (which you should do on the one your looking at, as often the km are wound back), to realising the shocks are leaking, electrics are getting old and brittle, etc etc. Due to the cars original starting price... OEM parts can be quite expensive. Regular maintenance will help - I check mine weekly for things "going wrong" as preventative measures are infinitely better than getting a tow. However in most cases, yes, deep pockets are helpful. The most helpful thing is educating yourself on the easier to fix issues, reading the tech section and devoting time to getting your car to the point where you dont have to worry about reliability. (as much). Also find yourself a GOOD mechanic who has previous knowledge about the car - this will also save time and wont get some jackass with limited experience trying to work his head around your ride (treating it like a guinea pig in the mean time).
Yea i should have asked for service history but will if i go again to see it. What goes wrong with the N/A 300zx's generally (engine wise)?
Nothing If properly maintained like you said, oils at the proper times and 100k services done at the time times etc nothing should go wrong about from normal aging things with any other car of this age, I've had mine for 2 years now nothing gone wrong but a heater core and clutch so its cost me like $500 in total for a new clutch after I got it and nothing for the heater core cause I bypassed it, I had more trouble with my VL commodore than this.
Shithouse. But we love em. But on a serious note, they are reliable if regular maintenance is done...if not, they can be absolute ***** to keep on the road for any serious ammount of time.
shithouse compared to a standard commo-whore. fantastic compared to a B16 rotary well all rotary's lol. suggest like stated check the books and make sure its serviced regularly and if thats an aus spec, i highly suggest you move on cause the clock has been would massively kindest regards. rod.
Paper trail is highly desireable. Very few sellers seem to offer a mechanical report when selling these cars. Dig your heels in & insist on seeing whatever service history is available. Read it carefully. Look for gaps, sometimes the absence of info is info in itself. I'm still picking through the half full shoe box of paperwork that came with my Z, I had a shit fit when I found some receipts from Ultra Tune for engine oil changes in 2004 @ $58.00 total including oil, filter, labour & GST! ( What did they use, sewing machine oil ?? ) Try not to fall in love with the car you are inspecting, easier said than done. Read the paperwork first, then drive it. Just like I did... NOT ! There are no absolute answers, you need to look at as many as possible before committing to THE ONE. Hope this helps.
The car should cost 15-20k. Deduct your purchase price from the first years maintenance cost if the purchase price is less than 15-20k.
Yeah, potentially Shisenhausen You need to be prepared to roll the sleeves up & get filthy at times. Not to mention slithering along on your back like a demented snake if you don't have access to a hoist. Sidetrack, how are you going with your curly fuel leak ? I've been waiting for someone to ask where they can buy curly fuel, how much faster will curly fuel make them go, will it damage their engine etc.
Good call. My research showed that I should be paying approx $15,000 for a relatively hassle free car down to $10,000 for one which needed mucho TLC Body work has to be considered too. I had a panel beater with me when I made my 2nd inspection. His observations enabled me to knock the seller down by $1,000
I've had my NA for over 12 months and havent had a thing go wrong yet... The dealer will not know if its had the 100k service nor will they know if its had a the plenum done...its almost a kodak moment when they look at you when you ask them.... make sure you get a paper trail! you gota know what the previous owner did with it... either looked after it or flogged it to death... and do a tesst drive also if you can you'll know straight up if it starts well first go...none of this warming up crap they try and pull on you...
i have found the NA to be a very reliable and strong vehicle , i have had mine for a few years with absolutely no problems , what's more by the look of the filters ect when i purchased this one the servicing hadn't been done for years but it doesn't seem to have had any bad effect on it, Nissan have built a strong reliable car here me thinks.
I wonder about the reliability of an Excel, or a Corolla, or a BMW, or a..... you get the point? ALL cars can and will break down. Go in with eyes wide open. THis is a 20 year old car and you never know how well the last owner has looked after it. Deep pockets? That IS true. But not due to the reliability, as as stated, its no better or worse than any other car... its because they are hard to work on, thats all.
OK thanks people for your answers i'm going on monday again to have a BETTER look at it and ask for service records.
My NA was uber-reliable as well... a couple of little issues here and there but nothing that any other 20yo sports car wouldnt have... Having said that dont buy a shit heap and expect minimal maintinence costs, i bought a pretty good car which hadn't been flogged to death. Best thing to look for is something stock with a good maintinence history...
also recommend you look in the tech section as there is a "zed check list" which is AWESOME If you dont feel condifent with that, then either get an RAC inspection pre sale, or get someone like Tom (aka "Perth Zed Performance" (forum name ZRATED)) to do a Mechanical inspection for you
It's been a long time since the average well-maintained Zed was worth anything like that. If you can't find a mint Aus-Spec NA for $10K max these days you aren't looking hard enough. Just do your research, save up a couple thousand bucks as a contingency plan and you should be fine. In the four years I owned mine I had to recondition a master cylinder which gave out... that was the only niggle. In that time I put 100,000 k's on her. The rest was spent on preventative maintenance, servicing and tyres and even that wasn't an extraordinary amount. I guess it's all relative, the Zed will cost more to maintain/insure than a brand new car in the $10-20K bracket, but you'd expect that when you're comparing sports cars to shopping trolleys.
Ive had my NA for 7 years and put over 200,00km on it, so I know how tuff the NA is. Best off getting a proper inspection by a reputable mechanic (ie not the yards mechanics and definitely not a Nissan service centre!) and have the compression/mechanicals/suspension/crash damage checked, also get the ecu checked for error codes. Put aside around $1500 (ie get it knocked off the purchase price) and get the 100,000km service done unless there is concrete evidence that it has been performed already. The NA is not too bad for maintenance costs, a lot cheaper if you do basic maintenance work yourself. There is only one expensive service as mentioned above. The only other thing I can think of is check the rear wing for corrosion/bubbles/lumps if it has the factory one on it still. This is where the zed can have problems with rust.
