Pearl White in CT (USA)

Mergnthwirker

Been lurking on this site for a while until I finalized the deal. Picking up my new '09 370Z Touring w Sport on Monday. Got my loan and made my deposit, so I'm ready to take delivery. I was smitten by the pearl white on a sunny day and bought on impulse. VIN#3350.

Now all I have to do is pay for it

This will be my third Nissan. Sold my much-loved '91 Sentra SE-R with nearly 200,000 miles just last year (bought it new). Previously I owned a '85 Maxima that I bought new and drove for 160,000 miles. I'm hoping the new Z will be similarly long-lived!

Looking forward to tapping into the collective wisdom and comradrie on this site.

Thanks!

Herbert J. Mergenthwirker (no it doesn't fit on a football jersey)

jgabriel66

Glad to have you on board.

What's the specs on your. Z?

Mergnthwirker

Um, specs? Options you mean?

OK. Touring, Pearl White paint, Grey interior, with Sport package, mats, splash guards, but no Nav.

The 6-speed stick was a no-brainer. We've owned 25 previous vehicles, and all but one were manuals. The Mercedes SLK we're giving up is a 6-speed V-6, as is my Audi wagon (with a twin turbo too).

I wanted the Sport package for the limited slip differential, which is of real benefit driving in the winter in Connecticut with a rear-wheel drive vehicle. The bigger brakes are a bonus, but the bigger wheels are not. Our frost-heaved and pot-holed roads are notorious wheel-benders. This spring I discovered that all 4 wheels on my S4 Avant were bent, and I never hit anything, although I did take it to a Quattro Club winter driving school.

I wanted the Touring package for the heated seats (again, a winter bonus), and because I thought the upmarket seats felt better in the lumbar region than the non-touring seats. Living with a car over the long haul, you start to appreciate some of the small things more, like the bluetooth and XM, but they weren't really factors in choosing the Touring. I might feel differently after a while.

The other factor was aesthetic. My wife really wanted the Persimmon interior, which we thought would be perfect with the Pearl White. But it seems almost no one brought any of that combination into the country. We finally settled for getting a White with Grey interior. Hopefully that will please "she who must be obeyed"

My dealer only had Sport with Touring, unless I wanted to wait for him to find a base model with Sport, which he had decided not to stock. I was initially disappointed, since that's what I wanted to order, but I did get a nice discount off of MSRP to sweeten the deal.

Other cars we considered:
* A used Boxster for about the same price
* A used SLK55 (the AMG with the big V-8, but no stick)
* New BMW 128/135
* Used Audi A5 stick
* Subaru STI

The only one close to being as much fun as the 360Z was the Boxster, and we didn't relish Porsche parts & service prices. In fact, we're burned out on German cars, having owned quite a number of them. Our two previous Nissans had been much more reliable, and both of them were still going strong well over 150,000 miles.

Probably more specs than you wanted, eh?

HJM

jgabriel66

You had a clear plan and a great assessment of what you wanted in a car. It's cool that you were flexible and took the touring even though it wasn't your prefered config.

I also considered a Boxster but having owned 2 previously, a change was in order. I considered a Cayman but the bang for the buck of the Z, it's great styling, and the reliability of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles, this being my sixth, made my decision an easy one.

While I agree that the limited slip differential will help with Northeast winters, I'll be using my wife's EX -35 when it snows!!!

ZCarMan

Congrats and enjoy your new baby!

jginnane

This is a terrific thread. I may be among the few who picked the Z as a "fallback" to the EX35, though,

For six months I looked up and down the East Coast for an EX that DIDN'T have AWD. Reason -- because on our Yukon and M-Class, 4WD/AWD just tends to make you sloppy, and I'd find the actual number of days needed down here on the NJ shore was fewer than 10 a year. AWD makes a car 10% heavier, 10% more expensive, and 10% more maintenance. And in the case of the EX35, the idea was to get lighter and more responsive than the "big brother" FX35.

We searched dealers and inventories from Nov 2008 to April 2009. Infiniti still hasn't introduced a 2009 EX model, and the vast bulk of what we saw had been built in late 2007. A dozen dealers told us we couldn't get RWD east of the Mississippi.

Finally test-drove a RWD EX35 in West Palm Beach in early April. But it was used ... and the selling price didn't reflect that. I was sold on the engine and transmission, but still didn't want to go with an Infiniti coupe or sedan, because these were too close to my wife's TL.

Rather than keep looking at station-wagon configurations, and having been disappointed by Infiniti's overall response, we briefly considered the Honda Insight and 3rd-gen Prius. The first didn't have enough; the second, with the options we'd want, put the price into the mid-30s.

It was at that point that I said -- "We don't really need a back seat, do we?" And since we decided to hold on to the Yukon for another year, we have a fallback for the bigger hauling chores.

Once Congress finalizes this $4500 clunker credit, we may replace the Yukon with a Honda Fit or the like. The only requirement I have is that the roof be strong enough to carry a 16' canoe on a Thule rack.