Early Impressions on "Pearlie"

Originally Posted by jginnane

In that last post I tried to set out a matrix of where we are, what we need, etc.

I saw a recent post from a grad looking forward to getting his first car, a Z. There was a bad feeling, because for many people in various stages of life, it's not only an impractical car, it's dangerous. (If you've looked for threads about roof racks for anything other than skis, or wondered if you could mount a hitch ... this may not be the car for you. Get an Outback instead.)

However. It's not mine to judge other people. I can hint, yah, but everyone has to find his/her Way.

So the sports package has a combination of useful and semi-useful items for people who want to go fast. Serious, pro-type drivers (who like the low pricing of the Z) will go past most items in the sport package. If you scan the for sale threads, there's already been good activity with those OEM Rays Forged 19s. My neighbor who retired from racing except for a bike, questions why Nissan downscaled from Brembos to Akebonos this year.

I could go on ... re-evaluating each component of the package ... but the bottom line for me was, is the 8-9% cost increase over non-Sport really going to give me a better, safer car? Or does it have the potential to turn a very good car into a high-maintenance horror, because of the way I'd want to drive, and because of the higher expense of replacement parts? (I look at the addition of "sport" in the same way I was evaluating adding AWD to the Infiniti EX35.)

It sure would be nice if Nissan used these owner forums as a test bed for future options package offerings.