[INTRODUCTION]
Hi All. My name is Ronnie and I'm a Zedaholic.
I'll be receiving my 2nd 370Z in a year - which is a 40th Quartz 370Z - by the end of the month (April) along with a few bits and pieces that I have ordered from the US for it. Before I begin, I thought I'd give you a 'not-very-brief' run-down of my Zedventure so far...
My Zediction began nearly a year and a half ago in January 2009. I was finally sick of my then beloved S15 Aero and decided to jump onto the Z bandwagon by purchasing an '09 350Z Roadster Track. Around this time they were having a clearance of the 350Z's in preparation for the May launch of the 370Z so the $65,000AU price tag was a steal. Over the next few months I really got to enjoy the open-top driving and to also detest the shite clutch of the 350. By the time the 370Z started going on show Down-under, I was at a point where I was sick and tired of clutch issues (leaking master cyclinder) and could not convince myself anymore that the 370Z was an 'ugly' car.
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At the start of April 09 I contacted a friend of mine at my local Nissan dealership and decided to trade up, with only a minimal loss of around $4,000 on my 350Z and a $9,000 difference. I was given the opportunity to get their dealer model which was about to be delivered (even though black wasn't my first preference), and I took it mainly for the sake of being exclusive for a few weeks (as the launch of the 370Z in Australia was around May'ish).
My April 21st 09 registered 370Z AT7 was awesome! The difference between the 350Z was like night and day - especially now that I had gone with the 7AT. Over the last year, I have loved every moment of driving the Z, meeting my fellow Z-mates for cruises and getting gauked at by passer-bys.
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Around February though, I was started to get a little upset with a few things. It seems that my hesitant decision of getting a black car was starting to get justified by the amount of sand-blasting, chips, swirls and other blemishes the paint was getting. I could even put a 'dent' in the rear paint with slight pressure of my fingernail! Fortunately as luck would have it, these worries we soon to be replaced with other ones...
On March 6th, Melbourne was host to an epic storm with many suburbs flooding and hail stones the size of tennis balls. My wife and I were at a shopping mall when the worst part of the storm hit and we decided to leave the moment that the freak hail storm subsided. The rain was still very heavy and several parts of the road we were travelling on had deep puddles. Driving in the right-most lane, I saw a shallow puddle ahead and decided to accelerate through it to, chuckling as I created a huge wave that buffetted the car next to me. Ahead of us I saw (what I thought was) another shallow puddle. I recall asking my wife - with a smirk on my face - if I should go through it, to which she replied "Don't You Dare!". As all of you with partners will agree, when your other half tells you "Don't you Dare", what do you do? Well, I stepped my foot on the accelerator and attempted to gun it through the water! Unfortunately the water in the 'puddle' was deep enough to cover my headlights and the next thing we know, the engine cuts out and the car is bobbing up and down, and floating forward from the momentum... and the guy that I had just splashed, drove past whilst showing me his finger...
Storm brings chaos to Melbourne, Victoria
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Now, I'm insured with RACV for an agreed value of $77,990 (10K more than I actually paid for it..shhh) but due to the 10,000+ storm related claims, my wait for the assessment was a long and gruelling one. The next 2.5 weeks I was stressed out, not knowing if it was a Hydro-locked write-off or a repair job. Along with this, I became the butt-end of every water based joke on the Aussie forum.. (thanks for the love guys!)
As you have all figured out by now, RACV paid me out 77K (after costs) and I went back to my Nissan mate and ordered myself a 40th QuartZ MT6 for $64,000AU Drive Away. An added and probably the biggest bonus was that the 2010 Z also gets the 19" Sports Wheels standard!!! Anyway, after clearing off some credit card debts, I decided to spend the remaining 9K on performance and cosmetic mods. I will detail what I have ordered in my next post.