New user and owner here. So far so good! I wanted to share my experiences and thoughts so far with my 13' 370Z I just picked up a couple of days ago.
My background
I had been out of the sports car game for a good 5 years. Marriage, responsibilities, bills, blah blah blah, forced me to sell my previous love, my Porsche Cayman S and enter a dry spell of fun driving. My Ford Expedition was my ride and it's not fun to say the least nor is the 11mpg daily driver toll it takes. Finally I talked the boss into realization that I needed a new ride as a daily driver. I had been holding out to maybe jump back into the Porsche game, but my wallet and wife just have other ideas.
The Search
So I boiled it down to 3 rides, the 370Z, Dodge Challenger, and S2000. Ultimately I choose the Z based on I'm more of a track racer then a straight line enthusiast and as much as I like the Honda they are just too old for the money. So Z it is. The search began.
After doing my research on years, changes, options I concluded what I wanted was a low miles 2013-2017 Touring w/sport , 6mt, navigation preferably in gun metal or navy. Then the searches started. Using the various car selling sites I soon realized that to find exactly what I wanted was going to take a while. After 3 weeks of looking only 2 cars nationwide that I found even matched my requirements, but none in the colors I wanted. Add to that I'm a pretty impatient person. So I started lighting up on the color requirements. At the time black and red were the colors of cars I was seeing for sale. At first I was stead fast against the red color as is my wife. But as I looked around and watched more YouTube videos on the car and seeing it in red it grew on me.
Ultimately I pulled the trigger on a red one that fit the bill, 2013 Red Touring w/sport, nav, 24k miles at a dealership in Arkansas of all places. Buying a car sight unseen is always a little stressful for me, but I did well with buying my Cayman unseen and hoped for the best and made the deal.
I debated back and forth on shipping or flying out and driving back. I'm in Miami, so it's a trek. Prices were around $800 for ship. Flight I paid in points, and have family in North Carolina ultimately I did that route. Flew out and drove it back.
Picking up and Go!
Flew into NW Arkansas and was picked up by the sales man. Paperwork had been signed already and after a few more signatures I was ready to go. Plan was to immediately head east 8hrs and make it to Nashville TN. Then proceed next morning 5 hrs to Asheville NC where I would chill and test out the new ride in the twistys of the Blue Ridge. After 2 days it was a 12 hour day down to Miami. That was rough to say the least.
Impressions of the Car
The car is fun for sure. The long stretches of highway gave me time to learn all it's features and set up the systems the way I wanted. Can't say hours on end was the most comfortable ride, but then again not much would be.
I do have some nit-picks on some things and constantly find my self comparing the Z to the Cayman which isn't all together fair to the Z. Most were well known from my research into the car so I wasn't surprised by it. The biggest "features" I would say would be:
- Road Noise
- Vague Transmission
- No auditory bliss from the VQ
- Lack of trunk space and place to put your phone
But anyways, that's just picking on things. The car is fun, looks the part, and is a good base for future mods and tinkering. Something I was hesitant to do with the Cayman. Looking forward to enjoying this ride.
Highlights of the Trip
Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway at 7:00am, empty and 62 degrees out.Then heading down route 151 of the parkway which is like a mini-tail of the dragon. A blast of a road that always puts a smile on my face.
Then coming to the end of the twistys on 151 and hitting the brakes. There was an ambulance, police car, and salvage truck and small group of people. The car was being pulled up on the flat bed. The young man walked up and asked if I wanted to buy any Nismo parts. Turns out he had just totaled his Nismo on the bends of 151. I declined and that sobered me up pretty quick and I drove nice and easy on the way out.
PS, Waze saved my butt more times than I can count when it came to the authorities. On a long road trip it's a life saver.
Thanks for reading this long rambling post!