Nissan 350Z GT End of Term Report
Mar 21st, 2008 by Tim Skipper
I’ve just been outside and taken some final pictures of our Nissan 350Z GT before it goes in part exchange tomorrow for a 2004 BMW 535d M Sport. It’s a bit grubby but it’s too damned cold and windy to contemplate cleaning it.
My wife and I have covered 12,800 miles in the Zed since it arrived in September 2006, with most of those being local journeys with my Wife going back and forth to work. It’s a bit of a shame we never got around to taking it on a jaunt through France to my parents home, but with fuel economy in the low 20s and a Diesel Golf capable of doing the trip on half as much juice, it’s no surprise really.
Similarly, I never took it on a track day, which is a shame.
The Zed is a great sports car. It’s everything you’d want in such a vehicle; it’s fast (300 bhp, with 160 mph easily reached and low 5s to 60 mph); it makes a fantastic sound from its 3.5 litre V6 engine and it has brakes and handling in epic proportions. It also has a limited slip diff and with the ESP switched off will happily indulge you in all sorts of over-steer antics – great fun in the right place.
Despite this though, it’s only really happy being driven in one way; as hard as possible! Sounds great, you say, but in reality it’s not really. That razor sharp throttle response and firm suspension are truly fantastic when you’re on it, but when you’re just cruising around, in town or in heavy traffic; it’s a pain in the backside.
The fuelling at low revs is terrible – I guess this is emissions related – but if you let the revs drop to fewer than 2,000 rpm you get a sudden jolt as it can’t decide how much fuel/ignition it needs. It makes smooth low-speed progress very difficult, and this is the single most annoying thing about the car. You forgive it of course, when you open up the taps and let rip through the gears, but nobody (despite what they might tell you on the Internet) really drives like that all the time.
The brakes are some of the best I’ve encountered this side of Porsche, and the gearbox has a short positive throw (although it was never happy moving between 1st and 2nd).
I appreciate that buying a sports car with a 300 bhp 3.5 litre V6 engine and concerning yourself with fuel economy is a bit retarded, but it has to be said, the Zed likes a drink! On a long journey with the cruise on at the speed limits, and being afraid to touching the throttle, you can just break into the 30s to the gallon. But normally very low 20s or high teens are really what you can expect. I’ve even seen it fewer than 15 on a very spirited cross-country drive!
So, the Zed is going in favour of a bigger more family oriented car. Are we sad? Well yes, the Zed has been great fun to own and drive and we love how it looks (metallic blue was definitely the right colour). But we’re ready for a different kind of driving experience now, so on it must go. We’ll enjoy the memories enormously.
