Touring vs. Touring & Sport

Z-ed Out

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!

wstar

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.

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>135I

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.

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crbn_fbr

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.

ANOTHERZGUY

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..............

exar333

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

awesomez

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.

jginnane

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.

ZYUL8R

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.

AK370Z

You're correct:

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

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jginnane

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?)

theDreamer

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.

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jginnane

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.

theDreamer

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.

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ZYUL8R

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.