Touring vs. Touring & Sport
 

Hi Everyone,

New to the forum and looking to buy a new Z. Test drove the Touring package this afternoon and immediately fell in love.

Based on your guy's knowledge and experience is it worth to pay for the Sport package on top of the touring? Or is there more value if I was to buy my own rims and mods??

Thanks!

Well the Sport package is basically: Better brakes (upgraded calipers and rotors), the bigger tires and wheels (19x9 front, 19x10 rear), some decent summer tires (Potenzas), front/rear spoilers, a viscous limited slip differential, and on the 6MT, the SynchroRevMatch feature.

Everyone seems to love the SRM, so if you're buying a 6MT, I'd say you pretty much need to get the Sport package for that alone.

The spoilers are available separately (Aero package, can even be ordered/installed after the fact later).

So... if you're going to put in your own better-than-stock differential, brakes, wheels, and tires, and you're buying a 7AT (auto) transmission, the sport package doesn't make sense, just get the Aero package. But in any other situation, you should probably get the Sport Package.

I would have to agree Sports packages is the way to go I have it on my Touring but to be honest if you want to know if its worth it just look at the cost of purchasing the stuff on your own and see what it comes to.

Rays Forged 1PC. Nismo:
$800 each

Brembo Big Brake Kit:
$2,900

SynchroRevMatch feature:
$unknown no one else has it

Aerodynamics Package:
$650

Limited Slip:
Not sure

Labor:
$$$$

In my opinion if you are planning on doing any of these things later on after buying the car might as well save yourself money in the long run and buy the sports package.

The Sport package is a great value if you tried adding it all up, I say yes go for it. I did, and think it was a must for me.

I blew it in 06 when I got my first Z. This time around I spent the money for the touring and sport packages. well worth the money..............

I didn't like the SRM, and I want to put my own LSD (mechanical; not viscous) so the sport didn't make a lot of sense to me. I will wait for more aftermarket brake kits to come around, as I need to find one that will fit some smaller wheels for all-season tires.

If you like the features, the sports is a good deal. I just plan to do my own mods down the road, and it didn't make sense. I got the aero kit for free on my touring, so that helped make the decision a little easier too. :P

I highly recommend sport package. In fact don't buy a Z if you don't want to spend the additional money for sport package. It has the only LSD that will be under manufacturer warranty. Forget the SynchroRevMatch forget the brakes just think about 5lb lighter 19 inch rays and the stickier bridgestone rubber with VLSD are worth a lot more then 3K.

The flip side to getting Sport is:

(1) a pretty-but-useless poseur spoiler;

(2) while the Rays are beautiful, replacements are not cheap outside of warranty;

(3) the Akebono brakes might be the best part. Unless you're going to drive "normally" (on the street, close to the speed limit) most of the time.

(4) Without Sport, you can select better rubber (on a smaller rim, with a higher ratio) for your personal driving needs. Someone just mentioned a good UHPAS tire, the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus, for example. These will probably last at least twice as long as the Bridgestones, assuming again that you're not on the track all the time, and could extend your safe driving by 2-3 months each year (depending on the weather where you live). Even with all-seasons, you'll still have the best car on the road.

(5) Yes, a limited slip differential is important ... but only if you drive in such a way that it's going to help you much of the time. On my GMC Yukon, for example, I only need to turn on 4WD 5-10 days each year. Is it worth carrying around the rest of the time? (Rhetorical, but the answer seems to depend on how much you like to live in your vehicle.) If you believe you MUST have LSD, then maybe you need to come into the purchase decision from the opposite side, and ask why you don't "absolutely" need AWD.

Actually the Nissan claims the aero package reduces drag, so the spoiler is functional.

Id say the Sport package is well worth it. Better brakes, Lighter wheels, aero pack, and VLSD...all for 3k...you just can't say no to that!

I plan to add a mech LSD later, Still for me the brakes and the wheels were enough to make me buy the sport pack....so later on ill have a VLSD for sale..lol.

You're correct: http://i576.photobucket.com/albums/s...Z_com/drag.png

Go for the sports package. It's well worth it.

Yesbut!!!1!!

The purpose of a spoiler is to increase downforce, NOT to reduce drag. All car manufacturers that sell spoilers don't design them for increased downforce, BECAUSE that reduces mileage. And that affects the whole CAFE gas-mileage thing.

I would agree this spoiler is likely to give you a few extra feet of gas mileage, like the trailing edge on a Honda Insight or the new generation Prius. But you're not buying "sport" to go green, are you?

Yes.We.Can. (tm)

The reason is that you're comparing $3,000 ($2,666 invoice) to aftermarket purchases of these components. But what you fail to take into account is that the $3K is additional, not replacement cost.

If you get a car without Sport, you still get brakes. Rims. Tires. In fact, you get a whole car ... and then you can choose to customize, with the pieces you actually want. (Instead of looking like a good little corporate soldier, with your shiny Rays rims and Bridgestone summer treads.)

There's a lot of good reasons to buy the Sport package. The biggest might be that you want a few upgraded components, and are too lazy to find which are really best, and maybe your financing works out better when you've got OEM instead of aftermarket pieces.

I had the same sort of issues when I was looking closely at the Infiniti EX35, and many dealers were adding a roof rack, which turned it into a station wagon, instead of leaving alone, where it was a 2+2 fastback with vaguely Jaguar XKE-style classic lines. Fortunately for me, I couldn't get a simple 2WD on the East Coast (only AWD). I even went to Palm Beach FL to look at a used 2WD, but they wanted way too much for used. Finally said ... "Z" !!!

(How many people wound up on this forum because Infiniti dealers were too difficult to work with?)

While the sports package is just "upgrades" of already solid parts on the Z, it does add features, i.e. VLSD & SRM. How much is an equal VLSD and install? How much is SRM worth?

I had a nice thread here about sport v. non-sport and in the end you get a great value for the sport package. Yes you could go aftermarket and get "better" parts and save some money up front and spend more later, but why not take a great value and use these parts and upgrade down the road when/if needed.

Thanks, I'll look for it. I'm still going through old threads. I only found this forum a couple weeks ago, and agree it's a big improvement over the Z-forum competition.

Also this week, the Z I expected to pick up next Monday didn't work out (don't ask), so I have a different dealer looking for me. This morning, I emailed him that if the config I wanted wasn't available, I would "reluctantly" consider adding Sport. I'm not shopping value (aside from buying a Z) -- I just didn't want to foreclose future options.

That OEM spoiler needs to be bent up about 5-6" to be any good at all, though, and I'd much rather have an articulated (retractable) one. This one's only good for parking your can of Pabst while your mullet gets honed.:happydance:

I feel if you are going 100% aftermarket in the next year on most of the "upgrades" of the sport package it may not be worth it. Though you really have to consider SRM, it may be a feature you could care 0% about, but for me that was the main selling point of getting the sport package. Everything else was an addeed bonus. My main debate ended up being base v. touring, in the end I can get 90% or more of the touring features aftermarkte for less and will not lose any essential part that cannot be added, i.e. SRM.

1+

Im not being Lazy per se..
The akebono brake pack was good enough for me...if there are better brake kits so be it.....but in my experience its the brake pads (Hawk DTC60s will probably be my next choice) that really do the trick...the sport pack had the size of calipers and rotors i wanted. The BBK was worth the 3k for me..as my 350z lacked one..and i hated killing my rotors every 2-3 track events...while my track buddy with a BBK didn't have that kind of rotor wear problem.

Though i do admit...if you don't track the car..the little brakes are adequate enough for spirited/street driving, and auto-x especially with a pad upgrade. This can turn in a -1 for the sport pack if you dont track, since you will have to hash out more for brake parts when the time comes for replacement.

Also the wheels played a big factor for me...the wieght, size and look of the wheels is excellent in the sport pack IMHO...i plan on keeping my wheels stock. Not dealing with 30lb 18x8s like on my 350z, and not having to go out and getting a set of LMGT4s like i did in the past....also made it worth it for me. Though this may not be the case for all.

If my wife drives my Z, likely since I'll be getting the 7AT so she can drive it too, I'd have to factor in the cost of a couple replacement rims every year. New York City curbs and New York potholes are not kind to good rims.

(My stepson is one of the most careful drivers in the world, but lives in Queens. His $3K worth of chrome rims were almost completely square by the time he stopped trying to bang them out each week, and went back to OEMs.)

Ouch..lol.

In my opinion if you do not have a car with LSD your whole car is limping. Not the whole time, only when it matters.
When I was test driving a Z, a mustang cobra happened to come in front of me. Because I was testing the car appropriately, the driver in mustang assumed I wanted to race so he floored it. He started getting some serious fishtailing, Z on the other hand after being floored made a slight noice from the tires (with VDC on) and in matter of seconds cobra was just sitting in my way.
Yes LSD is not necessary 90% of the time to me but it doesn't bother me that its there during those 90% of the time. I don't even care that it's there. But the 10% that you don't have it will bother you if you have any sense of driving.

Yes ... life is a series of compromises. I wouldn't be getting the 7AT, otherwise. But once you get on the far side of 50, you think of little things like "What if I'm not here to drive the Z? Who would?" So ...

For me this is as a highway cruiser primarily, and would even downgrade the standard 18" Yokohama Advans to All-Seasons. (UHPAS, not Grand Touring treads, at least :-) And I expect to have to replace OEM rims, depending on who drives the car and where.

In the 70s, I lived up in the snow belt (Rochester NY) and had really crappy cars -- a 68 Chevelle, a 70 Mustang, a 73 Nova, a 78 Grand LeMans -- to learn to drive with. The Mustang needed 400 pounds of weight in the trunk just to be able to move on the snow and ice. Bias-ply tires were a considerable improvement over "4-ply nylon", but some years we didn't even have that. (And since the rubber didn't last too long, you could count on using your spare with some frequency -- regardless of the season.)

I don't want a car that does TOO much for me, or makes it easy/tempting to drive in a way my reflexes may not be up to any more. The Sports package is like taking an extra dessert on the buffet line -- it seems "free", but there are hidden costs you WILL pay.

Sorry for killing off this thread, folks! (Nothing like an old fart rambling ... think: Grampa on the Simpsons. :)

To make it short -- my pearl & persimmon 7AT will be picked up next week. I've scanned the tirerack.com listings and it looks like those stock Yokohama tires, treadwear rating 180, might only last through the summer if I'm careful. Then I'll go with the only UHPAS that tirerack currently carries for these 18" rims, the Goodyear Eagle F1 All Season with treadwear 420.

If you scan tirerack prices for replacement rubber on the sport package, the 19" rims take treads about an inch wider, front and rear. ONLY "summer treads" are available. The RE050 Pole Positions that come w/ Sport are the best available tire for the Sport rim, but they'll run you about $300. per tire.

Please note: tirerack doesn't stock every tire from every manufacturer, and by the time you're ready to replace, you may have more and better choices. I'm happy that with All Seasons on non-Sport trim, I should still be able to visit New England into late November.

I just have one question. What is this "all season tire" you speak of? LOL suckers move to the desert.1 tire type and rain 10 days a year. Come on why have to drive in that terrible white stuff. In regards to the package it really depends on your intentions, not everyone on here is going to the track weekly. I choose to get it because I think the performance and styling were well worth the additional $. I probably wont see a track ever but there are a ton of empty open roads to play on out here.

I started a recent thread over in the Tech Area / Wheels & Tires, about my upcoming set of tires. With 8K on the car, some wear is apparent but I'm sure I'll need a set to replace the Yoko Advans by end of summer.

One terrific reply I got was from a person in Philadelphia who faced the same circumstances but got his all-seasons 20mm wider in front, 30mm in the rear. The highest-rated rubber by tirerack.com, Conti's "Extreme Contact DWS" with treadwear rating 540. And another great feature about this tire is its bidirectional -- you can swap left-to-right, so it helps on the even wearing.

I don't know if there's rubber like this available for the 19s, but I'm almost looking forward to wearing out my OEM rubber at this point. Tires are the single biggest change you make to improve a car's performance, and unlike a CAI or high-bypass exhaust, everyone has to confront it at one point or another.

I think some people care more about having their sports car be sporty than luxurious. with touring you are paying for a sound system you don't necessarily want, JUST to get leather seats.


I dont think its laziness that people get sport instead of doing everything after market. To some, the idea of replacing their brakes, buying new wheels, etc seems like a lot of money to spend AFTER buying a whole car. Yes i think a lot of times packages are a rip. I got the alloy wheels when i got my Altima. waste of money. i could have gotten nicer wheels that were more than 16" for what i paid for that package, but this is different.

I am getting both, but if i had to settle for one it would probably be sport package.