Sorry, but I’m somewhat excited here… I get to do my first (albeit amateur) car review! Also unofficial, because it’s a car we happen to be babysitting… A 2003 Nismo S-tune 350Z. Our friend got deployed, and we convinced him that it was better for us to take care of her and drive her every once in a while than letting her sit for four months.
To be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of the 350Z. And, to also be honest, I’m still not a huge fan. The 350Z seems to be a mainstream sports car… A car that people can buy and have that recognizable sports car. So I see them everywhere, which I honestly don’t like. I don’t see that many NA Miatas around, seriously! (At least here, anyways.)
I’ve ridden around in her for a while, and my preliminary thoughts weren’t that great. After having my two very responsive sports cars, the Miata and the S2000, the Z felt… Numb? I didn’t want to knock her completely until I got to drive her myself, but I wanted to get a feel for the car before jumping in. I’m weird like that I guess.
The other day I finally took the leap and actually drove her, after my husband was kinda making fun of me for taking so long. It was a nice reminder that once you learn how to drive a manual car, you can drive any manual car.
It was also enjoyable, but it left something to be desired for me. I’m an enthusiast and a purist, and it really didn’t appeal to me on a “I love this!” level. Maybe I’m just hard to please, or too attached to my own girls, but GT just isn’t my style yet. And the 350Z is definitely more of a GT car than I’m used to.
It’s not that it doesn’t have the power, because she definitely does. The six-cylinder engine is rather fun and peppy, and definitely pulls. Acceleration is smooth, as is the braking. Nope, she definitely has power and the sports car appeal in that case.
But it’s just so… Refined. The suspension is stiffer than seems necessary, but there isn’t as much feedback from the car as I’d like. The steering is heavy, responsive, but just heavy. The clutch is oddly heavy, and the engagement seems odd. (At least from what I’m used to anyways.) And while the Nismo exhaust sounds great, it’s also quiet… My Miata is similarly quiet, but I don’t get the same sort of feedback from the rest of the car as I do with the Miata.
It was also funny driving a car that’s bigger than all of my others, and only slightly smaller than other people’s vehicles.
I also don’t like how it’s somewhat rare to find 350Z’s driven by other enthusiasts… As I said before, it’s more mainstream and more common to find one. There are definitely the enthusiasts out there, but there seem to be more that aren’t than are.
Overall: It’s a great car, but it’s not for me. Right now, anyways. It doesn’t give me the feedback that I like from my cars, and it would need quite a few upgrades to get it out of one.
Here’s the one I drove. Nice, but maybe too nice for me.
But, if the price was right… Can’t say I would ever mind having one in my stable, someday. I’m sure I could appreciate the GT qualities someday, I just like my very raw sports cars right now.
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Life’s Unexpectedly Pleasant Surprises « Cars x Girl // Oct 30, 2009 at 6:49 am
[...] Thankfully, we now have a timeline of exactly when we will be leaving. And I am horribly excited to go where we’re going next…. Spokane, Washington!! Fairchild AFB is where we will be making our next home. (It’s also cool that a good friend of ours is going to the same base at the same time. He’s the owner of the 350Z I talked about here.) [...]