Hi one and all - just looking for a bit of advice - thinking of buying my first 300ZX - non turbo, 5 speed, 130 on the clock - need an HONEST UNBIASED opinion. Will I regret my purchase? Anything I should be looking for specifically? Any tips you can give me? Thaks. BJ
Welcome to the Forum. You will NEVER REGRET A ZED As long as you have someone from the forum check it out throughly you wont go wrong. Especially with an NA. Best advice i can give is ask for help before you purchase. The Z is a car that you'll never want to get over. Within a couple of months you'll be wanting a TT Welcome and enjoy/ Fate
Get a TT if yr age & budget permits :zlove: Otherwise it depends on condition v price. Also, Aus-spec 2+2 manuals are usually more sought after and easier/cheaper to insure.
Agree with Fate & K-Zed but if your budget does not extend to a TT then you still won't be disspointed with the NA it more than holds it's own! (And you won't get blown turbos):LOL:
Get someone to inspect it for you ... plenty of us who can do this for you Please DONT buy without getting it looked over by an experienced fellow member. Also watch price as NA's are chaper than TT. How much are they asking?
NA TT what the !! Thanks for all your comments - but what the hell is NA or a TT - I'm assuming TT is targa Top ???? The vehicle in question can be found in a yard at Nerang. There's a pic of it on trading post - car yard wants 14000 - claims he has put new exhaust through, new front tyres, new front struts, no marks, rust or dents. Anyone down that way that might want to have a bo peek ?
NA = 'Normally aspirated' = non-turbo fuel injected TT = 'Twin-turbo' If you're on your "P's" still, then you may be better off just looking at non-turbo Zeds. The twin turbocharged cars will generally exceed the allowable power limits for P-plate drivers in most states. Have a look in the Tech section (button "Technical/Buy a Zed" above) for a guide to what to look for when considering buying a Zed. So far as regretting buying a Zed... if you can find a good one (and they are around - look in the "For Sale" section of this forum) I don't think there is anyone on this forum who regrets their purchase. The car is a superior sports classic, even tho most of the affordable one are now 15 years old, and are much better value for money than a 15 year old "Falcadore". They may have hotter performance than the ordinary run of the mill car, but they also have much better road dynamics which may get you OUT of trouble if the need arises. Driven sensibly, they're no more dangerous than any other car.
Re: NA TT what the !! You can pay $10K for a shitty 300 or $16-18 for an absolutely mint one with lots of $$$ spent. Get a loan if you need to and get the mint one, or just wait until youve got the money. Then you wont regret your purchase.
Nerang is K-Zed country (Rob Armour) who if you contact him, might inspect it for you... He may even already know of the car... Rob can be relied upon to give sound advice Contact Rob by email...
Hi dude. Get someone from the forum to help- inspect before you buy anything. QLD members, give this guy a hand.
Re: Rob Thanks for that - I have just emailed Rob. If anyone else out there from Queensland knows of a good one for sale - let me know before next friday. I'm cashed up - to a point anyway ($14000) or thereabouts - manual - NA - straight - mod k's. Thanks everyone else for your replies as well. BTW - I'm from Mackay
na or tt None really - ok, maybe some - I've heard of problems with turbo's (my mate had one), fuel economy (especially with cost of fuel these days), and to be honest - I don't really believe I need a turbo machine.
Mate ignore the TT fanatics... ...Ive had my NA for 4 years now and still love it, and now fuel prices are getting so high Im even more happy I dont have a tt. I think a good start for you will be to obtain all the relevent info off the ID plates under the bonnet so you can check on here if it is the year model they are claiming(Ive seen several cases of wrong year model advertised on the vehicle, a member should be able to verify that for you). Second, how many kms does it actually have? as the car requires a major service every 100,000kms, which will cost at least $1500. So if it has had the service make sure they actually can provide all reciepts otherwise assume that it has not been done and factor that into the purchase cost. Lastly, not quite as important but I think worth considering, what suspension components were replaced, and replaced with what?. If it was not replaced with genuine Nissan or better, also factor that into the purchase price as suspension is a very important part of the zed setup and anything inferior is going to either ruin the handling or fail prematurely, it is a sports car after all!. Note: shocks from "monroe" or "Pedders" are inferior, though bushes from pedders should be OK.
Beware of at least one QLD business Since you are in QLD , and as the place I bought my car from was in that state, I'll repeat my experience with using them. most of this was in a post of the 11th of August 1]My car [ '90 ] was purchased in japan by an australian national prior to the publishing of the new regs in the commonwealth gazzette. 2] I paid those people, who managed the purchase of the vehicle and its transport here to OZ, in full in June 2005 [ approx $8000]. 2] The car was placed on a transport in July and arrived here in july, with my name on the import papers using the "old" 15 yearsold laws. 3] I paid the same people to broker/arrange the compliancing [ Aprox $1500]. 4] I then directly paid a national car transport company to transport it from their interstate depot, to my front door [ About $650 and 5 days]. 5] It is clear from a prelim rego inspection that i have all the paperwork [ import, reciept, engineers report etc] to get the car registered once it can be passed as roadworthy. so far so good Thumbs Up, Z Love I damn well love the damn thing on sight even with the damage. Z Love On the other hand, the bad stuff is that it arrived at my door with an extra 22,000Kms on it, a ripped open resonator, 4 totally shot tyres, a completely flat battery, a shot rear shock, and the advertised and pictured front aftermarket spoiler lip in 3 pieces on the back seat, exposing a standard lip with 2 rather promiment holes cut in it, the rear spoiler [ described as "lifting" in the advertisment - actually has both rear bolt holes of the hatch totally absent, due to rust and the resultant 3" diameter 1/2 circle rust gaps ? Obviously it has no chance of getting registered in a hurry. the "importer" says that it may have been a clerical error in translation that moved the advertised 85,000Km on to 107,000KMs and says "opps - sorry" re that, and that the car was fine re battery and exhaust when it was delivered by them to the transporter - gave no idea re the front spolier or re the rear rust, the transport company says "prove it was us" re the exhaust and battery. Since i could not start the car when it was delivered, how can i prove that the damage was done after delivery to them, but before delivery to me ? answer is - I cannot The "importer" now says that I should still be able to sell it for more than what I paid for it [ about ($9,500), but offered to buy it back from me [ minus what I paid for transport], I replied "please do" a week ago [now almost 3], and have heard ziltch since. Perhaps this is an honest business , and they are just doing the best they can, and we have BOTH been had, and/or this is just one of those deals where nothing go right for anyone. add to that I now discover extensive rust in the under surface of the panel under the passenger door. As this business seems to also operate in new zealand, I am considering puting this post up on the NZ 300 site as well. It seems that the only thing to do is to try to take the F^%%#%#5ers to court to get my money back. Such is life. if anyone would like to have the website of the importer/business, just PM me. cheers
but gazza and bj ...also bear in mind that whatever the speedo reading, you can be certain that the speedo has been wound back in japan, if a direct import ..!!!
