Ok so I have had my zed now for around about 8 months, during which time it was my daily driver over winter and has since become more of a weekend and sunny day-to-work car whilst my old car has been dragged back onto the road (yep, it should have been the other way round but finances didn't allow me to). I used to have the M/// coupe as my background in med school at uni as inspiration to pass my final year, it took a lot to get me there to work for exams so I promised myself when I graduated I'd get one. It got me through my exams but I was naive and it took me a year of working to be in the position to even get some assistance in buying my current zed, "settling" for my 3.0si roadster - and this still stretches my finances coupled with the rest of my lifestyle. As much as I love the M// coupe and will eventually get one and perhaps keep it forever, my Z4R makes me smile every day I drive it and for the value it is absolutely superb, as an all rounder I see it hard to beat.
I got it on 44.5k and it is now sitting at nearly 52k, and approaching inspection ll, when I drive it to work it is a 60 mile round trip of A roads which it just eats up and makes overtaking lorries along the M4 safe and a breeze
I can't say it has been faultless; the battery has died a few times as I don't trickle charge it, the boot flooded (see my threads for the strip down), and more recently the OS rear spring failed pretty massively leaving the car off the road. Body work wise it is in pretty good condition, except a small scuff on the passenger wing (tiny and only really noticeable to me) added by the previous owner, the alloys were refurbed at a top end price but not really to a good enough standard as they are starting to go again already and there is the odd mark on the leather. All these things I will sort in good time along with putting some decent rubber on if I keep the 108s.
All this aside, as everybody says on here I have to say the engine and exhaust note is so smooth, addictive and surprisingly loud for a car which before I had looked into buying I thought was a very tame car to be honest, and a car which when first came out I really really disliked. The exhaust even cackles and pops a bit on over ride which I had never noticed on youtube before I bought it 8) Economy shouldn't really be something to talk about here with it being a "sports car" but as everybody comments on, it is amazingly at sipping the petrol (V power only) when you want to on a long trip. It isn't a huge way off my brother's new slk 250cdi's economy with mixed driving, we won't mention cruising economy though between the two
It is however similar to his previous 350Z GTin many ways which i used to drive a lot and is so much cheaper to run with almost as much fun.
However after being smug with the car and with no plans to modify, this forum has slowly started to make me feel restless. A few of these pics are re-posts but surely we can't see enough pics? It might not be special or original compared to lots of the beasts on here but I love the 2-3 changes I've made, alongside the colour combo of the car. The first thing was taking the cabin side foam from the sound generator out, I cannot believe it took me so long to walk out of the house and decide to do it in all of 2 minutes after about 5 months of ownership. haha
Secondly and recently I replaced the brushed aluminium with Piano black, I think it makes the interior look SO much more modern ....
Before
After
Then the following week, bit of a repost but... the zed adopted a new lob sided look, pretty shocking case of a spring failing. Literally sounded and felt like a shotgun went off under the car whilst I was in it
So on went some eibach pro springs, which hopefully won't break!
Out with the, erm old and in with the new...
before on sport springs
after, the pics don't really seem to do it justice though
For those wondering about lowering and haven't been persuaded by other threads, then I will add to it. The ride is SO much better over bumps and holes. The handling is much tighter and steering etc feels much more precise, and gives me much more confidence in the car as a whole. Weirdly for the past few months I have also had bad judder through the brake pedal and car under braking - this has been completely solved since spring replacement. I have no idea exactly why, coincidence or not but looking at the spring it has been part failed for a while. My guess is it was upsetting the balance of the car under braking and triggering the abs or stability to kick in as the juddering and pulsing through the pedal felt electrical not mechanical if that makes sense. The only downside which I already anticipated was that I can no longer get on the drive at work, it scraped previously on the skirts every time so now there is no chance. grr
Anyway, hopefully not too boring a read and I'll keep posted on any updates as plans are festering. I've also got a few other standard bits I've bought/got with the car such as wind deflector and OEM roof cover so I might eventually get rid of these and put the funds into the mod pot.
Cheers for reading what turned out to be a mini review
I got it on 44.5k and it is now sitting at nearly 52k, and approaching inspection ll, when I drive it to work it is a 60 mile round trip of A roads which it just eats up and makes overtaking lorries along the M4 safe and a breeze
I can't say it has been faultless; the battery has died a few times as I don't trickle charge it, the boot flooded (see my threads for the strip down), and more recently the OS rear spring failed pretty massively leaving the car off the road. Body work wise it is in pretty good condition, except a small scuff on the passenger wing (tiny and only really noticeable to me) added by the previous owner, the alloys were refurbed at a top end price but not really to a good enough standard as they are starting to go again already and there is the odd mark on the leather. All these things I will sort in good time along with putting some decent rubber on if I keep the 108s. All this aside, as everybody says on here I have to say the engine and exhaust note is so smooth, addictive and surprisingly loud for a car which before I had looked into buying I thought was a very tame car to be honest, and a car which when first came out I really really disliked. The exhaust even cackles and pops a bit on over ride which I had never noticed on youtube before I bought it 8) Economy shouldn't really be something to talk about here with it being a "sports car" but as everybody comments on, it is amazingly at sipping the petrol (V power only) when you want to on a long trip. It isn't a huge way off my brother's new slk 250cdi's economy with mixed driving, we won't mention cruising economy though between the two
It is however similar to his previous 350Z GTin many ways which i used to drive a lot and is so much cheaper to run with almost as much fun. However after being smug with the car and with no plans to modify, this forum has slowly started to make me feel restless. A few of these pics are re-posts but surely we can't see enough pics? It might not be special or original compared to lots of the beasts on here but I love the 2-3 changes I've made, alongside the colour combo of the car. The first thing was taking the cabin side foam from the sound generator out, I cannot believe it took me so long to walk out of the house and decide to do it in all of 2 minutes after about 5 months of ownership. haha
Secondly and recently I replaced the brushed aluminium with Piano black, I think it makes the interior look SO much more modern ....
Before
After
Then the following week, bit of a repost but... the zed adopted a new lob sided look, pretty shocking case of a spring failing. Literally sounded and felt like a shotgun went off under the car whilst I was in it
So on went some eibach pro springs, which hopefully won't break!
Out with the, erm old and in with the new...
before on sport springs
after, the pics don't really seem to do it justice though
For those wondering about lowering and haven't been persuaded by other threads, then I will add to it. The ride is SO much better over bumps and holes. The handling is much tighter and steering etc feels much more precise, and gives me much more confidence in the car as a whole. Weirdly for the past few months I have also had bad judder through the brake pedal and car under braking - this has been completely solved since spring replacement. I have no idea exactly why, coincidence or not but looking at the spring it has been part failed for a while. My guess is it was upsetting the balance of the car under braking and triggering the abs or stability to kick in as the juddering and pulsing through the pedal felt electrical not mechanical if that makes sense. The only downside which I already anticipated was that I can no longer get on the drive at work, it scraped previously on the skirts every time so now there is no chance. grr
Anyway, hopefully not too boring a read and I'll keep posted on any updates as plans are festering. I've also got a few other standard bits I've bought/got with the car such as wind deflector and OEM roof cover so I might eventually get rid of these and put the funds into the mod pot.
Cheers for reading what turned out to be a mini review
what lowering springs did you use
Looks great 