300zx .... Good? Bad ?

[ctjet]

please elaborate. serious question, have you ever owned a zed? how can they be "very very very bad" when the z32 was named in the top 10 cars list for every year it was sold? how can they be bad when they are still included in the 20 greatest cars of the last 20 years? how can they be bad when they're still considered the best used sports car under $15,000 by drive? maybe you just had a bad experience with a lemon but i can assure you, they're not "very very very bad".

indeed i shall

A very good friend of mine, Shawn, owned an extremely nice 300 several years back. Got it at a good price, with low km's and looked very clean. So my experience stems from him and his fellow 300ZX's that I met.

You point about it being a great car "new" is completely invalid as anybody who's buying this car is buying a 15yo (or more!) hand me down. The reason this car is very bad is because in it doesn't age very well. Compared to other imports of the same era they seem to be more prone to parts failing, consistently.

For some reason, they also seem to be very expensive to fix, not to the point of a GTO, but still very expensive considering the alternatives.

It MAY have been a nice car, but in my opinion it is no longer is a viable option when choosing an import in todays market.

[ed300zx]

You point about it being a great car "new" is completely invalid as anybody who's buying this car is buying a 15yo (or more!) hand me down.

just a little correction 1989–2000....so a 8-19 year old hand me down....just a side note.... 11 years of producing the same model isnt too bad i guess

For some reason, they also seem to be very expensive to fix, not to the point of a GTO, but still very expensive considering the alternatives.

yes they are....the tt is not a car for everyday use, even though people use them that way...myself included...they are more of a hobby car...a sports car on the side if that makes sense? i didnt explaint hat well lol

for a first and everyday car there are so many better and new cars you could get.....

[Tyranus]

Dont buy a 300 for a 1st car

[ctjet]

they were still making 300's in 2000?!

... joises

[Tyranus]

they were still making 300's in 2000?!

... joises

Yep the 2K spec is the most highly sought after model in AUS but its only availbe as personal import (At the moment).

[zductiv]

Agreed with 90% of the people in here. Z's are crap. Engine out job for spark plug removal and such. Only easy thing to do is change the turbos because Nissan just used crazy glue so you just give em a twist and they pop right off.

Errrr...

The biggest problem with Z's is they are cheap nowadays, so every boy and his corolla can afford one, but they have no idea what they are getting into. Australian delivered Z's (read: non turbo) were fetching close to 100k new. These cars were aimed at the corvette and similar market. They require more money than your mum's excel will for maintenance. The problem is because of their cheap prices nowadays, they are falling into the hands of cheap owners who don't spend the money to keep them running well, and the next person down the line inherits the problems.

FWIW, I have Defi gauge setup in mine, and my water temps haven't gotten over 83C under any conditions. 40 degree days, 10 runs @ the drags in a day, no problems. This overheating "problem" is just another offshoot from "cheap" owners owning "cheap" Z's.

For those of you saying Z's handle like boats, ROFL. Go and have a look at the slalom results for the era in which the Z was created and you will see it has one of the best results. I guess aging HICAS systems could lend towards that theory, and the HICAS system is fairly complicated, but IIRC the skyline also has HICAS? Maintenance, or elimination isn't a hard choice now is it.

Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm it wouldn't you say?

Edited March 12, 2008 by zductiv

[geraus]

Problems = Money! My freind has one... Gearbox problems had to reco his! cost him 2k over...

[Chad_]

DONT GET ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ed300zx]

DONT GET ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what would you know chad...you have never owned a 300zx.......ohh wait what lol

[Rav]

All i can say 300zx's even if they are stock they have there fare share of problems, And the engine cant handle to much power they give way easy,

[hot300zx]

Just my opinion dude, no need to explode. I don't find the diablo particularly attractive either, not compared to some of the other cars within a similar price range. Besides, there's no way you could ever convince me the ass end of a Zed is good looking. I keep watching ebay for someone to bring out some nice altezza lights, but so far the only ones I've seen aren't much of an improvement.

altezza lights lmao

Edited March 12, 2008 by hot300zx

[ed300zx]

All i can say 300zx's even if they are stock they have there fare share of problems, And the engine cant handle to much power they give way easy,

hahaha lmao....the vg30dett is one of the strongest jap engines around...just look after it...like any other engine

Edited March 12, 2008 by ed300zx

[PIG747]

damn, you guys are funny sissies. We say a few things on our forum about the 300zx, and now i think your whole forum has migrated to SAU. And why wouldnt you since its a better forum with much better and reliable cars. Now all you guys need to do is sell your crappy 300zx's and buy some nice skylines, preferbly GTR's. R34 V-Spec yummmm

[HYPA33]

they are strong if you can keep it cool. buy 200sx

[MAFIOSO]

damn, you guys are funny sissies. We say a few things on our forum about the 300zx, and now i think your whole forum has migrated to SAU. And why wouldnt you since its a better forum with much better and reliable cars. Now all you guys need to do is sell your crappy 300zx's and buy some nice skylines, preferbly GTR's. R34 V-Spec yummmm

no thanks, i'd miss having torque.

havent come accross a skyline gts-t or GTR otherwise, that has pulled away from me yet. no lie although i know you wont believe it, i bet the owners of the skylines didnt want to either.

[Jackman GTS4]

Im struggling to keep count of how many times i have seen the phrase "my friend said"

If you dont definitively know the answer to the question based on your EXPERIENCE since that was the original question - then dont post.

And yes it was not the wisest choice to ask about a 300 on a Skyline forum - this is what you get..

I have personally driven both and I own a 33 GTS4 SII and have driven a TT Z on many occasions.

Personally i think the Skyline really does outhandle the Z but cannot beat it for being an awesome cruiser and for a girl thats all she would really be looking for.

Just my 2cents.

-Jack

[hot300zx]

damn, you guys are funny sissies. We say a few things on our forum about the 300zx, and now i think your whole forum has migrated to SAU. And why wouldnt you since its a better forum with much better and reliable cars.

just adding some intelligence on here

[LOWESTR32]

excels good? bad? go home 300 owners or are u sick of ur forums asking please help.people should know by now u cant change other people minds when there all ready made. 300 owners keep saying that there are heaps of crap ones out there just buy a good one.well isnt that tellin the answer there

[Chad_]

if she has to get one make it NA, they are labor intensive to work on from what i have been told by a mate who has one, a celica would probably be cheaper to run, maintain etc.

agreed, if you dont intend to work on the zed yourself seriously dont bother getting one...unless you are rich and can pay zed specialists the money why not lol...

celica ftw

Tight engine bay makes them very hard to work on, part availability is fine as the na ones were Aus delivered, part prices are same as skylines more or less. Maintenance is same as other performance cars as well (every 5K and synthetic oils), very nice to cruise in but not to special on petrol... small turbo’s mean they come on very easily and start eating fuel...

when i first got my zed i knew nothing about them, it was a nightmare to look at the engine bay coz i knew nothing about them. started reading heaps up on em and started doing my own work on my zed. knock on wood till now after 2 and a half years not one mechanic has touched my zed...and i have done many things on my zed including mods, maintenance work, transmission work etc. no there was no problems, i was blinging up my engine bay and pretty much pulled the engine apart for the job...

as for the fuel...well if your car is drinking too much then obviously aint running the way it should...either ur o2 sensors are gone or u have another problem like vac leak etc...if all is good and still drinking well get a proper tune....

theyre quite heavy and thirsty. if she runs into any mechanical issues, its gonna cost more than you think, mostly coz they are impossible to work on. every second thing is almost a motor-out type of job.

and theyre definately not cheap to get power out of. but if you do get a reliable one, and mod it with decent $$$, they go very well. although another thing to watch out for is the autos. problematic, and expensive.

and another thing. the 89 model isnt the one you'd want. there were some issues addressed in the later models. ideally 94, but at least a 91-92.

1. they weigh relativly close with other jap cars...pretty much same as the supra...about 1500kg for the 4 seater ones.

2. they not impossible to work on, if its hard to work on then u obviously dont know wtf u doing...dont touch it...

3. the only motor out job is to change the turbos....if you have turbos in good condition well then u would need to pull the engine out...

4. they are surprisingly CHEAP to get power out of. if your zed is running the way a zed SHOULD then all you need is a cat back, mbc, and tune boost to 12psi and your hitting somewhat 220kw @ wheels. whats that like $1000 ??? ...next step, ebc, larger smic's, full exhaust, tune to 16-17psi and you hitting somewhat 250kw @ wheels. roughly $2000 ??? ....show me any skyline you've spent that little money on and got those results?

5. ive got an auto. and ive got a shift kit. ive also got a nice external cooler fitted for it. and i dont drive like a bitch. i havnt had a hiccup

From what I have been told Z32's have brake hosing problems, they leak brake fluid.

The engine bay is very tight to work with, like installing pods and intercoolers, getting air flow, I found everything to be quite compact, the car is quite heavy and can drink a bit of fuel

But see how you go. If you want speak to David Linsay at Z-Shop in Glen Iris. He's the king of Z's... Tuning / maintance / information.

i have never ever heard of any z32 leaking break fluid. unless obviously the break hose is split ...

your accusation is wrong dude. the pod, intercoolers etc are not in the engine bay what do these things have to do with the engine bay being cramped?... again they aint heavy, they are just as heavy as a supra etc...

don't the z32 have a problem with overheating??because of the design of the front end they tend to overheat on long drives, more so in summer

ive owned my car for more than 2 years and driven in the most hottest days our summers have reached and i havnt had a hiccup. obviously if your cooling system is not up to scratch in any car it will give u problems.

^^ I think cuz the fact that the Z32 engine bay is so compact, its hard to get air flow / allow the air to circulate...

this is not because the engine is compact, but rather because people go installing large fmic's not the right way. installing a fmic req installation of a nice air guide to still allow the air to adequatly pass thru the cooler core and thru the radiator....many people dont do this and wonder why there temp rises...

Go have a look at a 300ZX engine bay...

my engine bay: ....pretty sexy uh

If she wants one, then i rekon she should get one. If she isnt happy with it, then she can sell it

agreed, although i honestly dont think she should get one unless she doesnt mind getting her hands a lil dirty instead of taking it to people who will rip her off for repairs or fix ups that she has no idea about. as most mechanics do...if she has someone in the know then why not.

my mate had one ran pretty good didnt have no problem at all i want one they look awsome but i heard from jeaps of ppl that they give heaps of problems and as ppl said the engine bay is hard to work on,, but would u gf do anything to the car as in engine mods if not let her buy one gl

ye the people you hear the problems off are those who dont know jak about the zeds and do things incorrectly. or those who dont maintain there cars properly.

If its the Z32 v6 tt then its not a wise car to get especially for a first car.

They are easy to extract power from but are rather fragile and are prone to water leaking problems, and most problems they do have requires engine removal.

And from my experience they tend to suffer alot of detonation once thrashed due to poor engine/intercooling. just my 2 cents

water leaking problems = poor maintained coolant system.

engine removal = nothing needs engine removal unless your doing turbos, nothing else.

detonation = poorly tuned. and i have heard of alot of cases where people just chuck in a boost controller and just upp the boost...like wtf...

It literally handles like a boat... if you want proof, get one out sideways and see if you can catch it and hold it out there like a skyline, silvia or any other well balanced car. Unless you're prepared to throw money at it, there are far more economically sound and stylishly similar cars available. Most of the cheap ones are shitty old 1989 and 1990 bashers.... and you'd expect to pay top dollar for a well looked after aussie spec or SEVS import.

The only thing its got going for it is a progressive styling, and a low centre of gravity.

handles like a boat? wow thats a first ive heard about the zed. personally i do hill runs pretty much or almost every week. the zed was actually built a circuit car so i dont see where u coming from. its not a drift machine if thats what ur trying to get at. i dont think i would dare do hill runs so much if it handled like a boat :| ....maybe talk to john from uas about zeds and handling. he came first in the nissan nationals, im sure he will give you a great lesson

my mate had to call his parents to come get him because he ran out of fuel on the car, wouldnt want that to happen to ur gf, not reliable on fuel, look at 4dr skylines for ur gf if she interested none turbo of course.

i dont know whats funnier , ur mate getting his parents out to get him fuel or a 4 door skyline

Your getting a bit ahead of yourself now mate. R32's do not overheat like 300zx do. Atleast be honest about it, and dont give us gospel truth which we all know isnt known for its truthfulness. 300zx cars are 80% more prone to overheating due to its compact engine bay although you can get around this by making sure you get a nice big rad to replace the little one the car comes with, especially if you have a Z thats modified. Also they are heavy cars, but in saying that so is the supra, 3000GT, and GTR's including the R35 having 300kgs on the Z. But i think they do handle really well and the V6 engine configuration gives it much better weight distrabution then our inline engines. But we got AWD BABY!!

dude i think ur the one getting a bit ahead of urself. 80% more prone to overheat? no as i explained before these things overheat because people go doing things which aint the right thing to do like installing a fmic without a air guide. personally i chose to stick with smic's but i have trust large smic's. i have driven in the most hottest days our summers bring and i have never had a hiccup with temperature. again if they have problems with temps then there cooling system is not up to scratch. oh and i have a stock radiator...

Problems = Money! My freind has one... Gearbox problems had to reco his! cost him 2k over...

they dont have gearbox problems. but yes if any gearbox blew on any car it would cost them that much to rebuild it

All i can say 300zx's even if they are stock they have there fare share of problems, And the engine cant handle to much power they give way easy,

how much power is not much? majority of z32 owners on the aus300zx website with twin turbos are running 220kw @ wheels all the way up to around 500-600 i think... stock engine many people are running up around the 270kw @ wheels figure...

damn, you guys are funny sissies. We say a few things on our forum about the 300zx, and now i think your whole forum has migrated to SAU. And why wouldnt you since its a better forum with much better and reliable cars. Now all you guys need to do is sell your crappy 300zx's and buy some nice skylines, preferbly GTR's. R34 V-Spec yummmm

ive been on the forum for a bit. i like to go cruising with other cars as im not biased. i like all the other sports cars and i appreciated the work put in each individuals car...

Im struggling to keep count of how many times i have seen the phrase "my friend said"

If you dont definitively know the answer to the question based on your EXPERIENCE since that was the original question - then dont post.

ye i guess this is why the zeds have a bad rep...its people that just say ye i heard or my friend said. but i guess its good in a way, this way they are not every 2nd car u see on the road

excels good? bad? go home 300 owners or are u sick of ur forums asking please help.people should know by now u cant change other people minds when there all ready made. 300 owners keep saying that there are heaps of crap ones out there just buy a good one.well isnt that tellin the answer there

slow down man. if you read the posts made in this thread you would realise that the ones out there that are crap are the ones that had shit owners before....any well maintained zed on the aus300 forum for sale would be worth every penny.

apart from all that, im not comparing the skylines to the zed or anything i was just replying to the posts above. personally i love the skylines but i would only ever own a r32 gtr. that was wat i was actually in the market for before i bought my zed. but i came accross this one and just couldnt pass on it. and i havnt regretted it one bit. i love it. yes its a bitch to work on, and things do take longer than usual to get things done, but if you read alot about what needs to be done everything is just like any other engine. there are alot of things you can cencel out from the engine bay to make it look heaps cleaner including the aiv's, prvr, egr system, etc....

i honestly think that she shouldnt get a tt zed for her first car though. an n/a yes but not a tt. not that a tt has more problems, but if shes scared about ever having the engine out for any jobs well an n/a wouldnt need to because they dont have turbos...unless offcoarse the engine dies...

[Munkyb0y]

lol wtf has happened in here? everyone got all defensive about their cars.

skyline drivers are never gonna give an accurate account of zeds, and vice versa. mostly from lack of knowledge. and in some cases, as proven in this thread, pure stupidity.

coz u know, they run out of fuel and shit

personally, i love tt zeds. if i had spare funds, i'd buy one right now, and keep the skyline of course

turbo nissans are sekks. that is all.

Edited March 12, 2008 by Munkyb0y