Need advice regarding First Car

  • Thread starter Thread starter KING Of ROCK
  • 40 comments
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300ZX's are natively as reliable as a wood-burning stove. I'd check the car's VIN history to make sure it isn't a salvage title and or seriously wrecked.
 
The 1990-1996 Nissan 300ZX's are my dream car, and it's very reliable and powerful too, definitely jump on it if it checks out!
 
As I recall they were pretty decent cars, although at the time I was much more focused on Corvettes and the like. I know here in Michigan they're hard to find in good shape, particularly without rust or the turbos blown out (that is, if its a turbo model).
 
My only advice is to absolutely avoid the automatic non-turbo models if you expect to have any fun. They are rather slow--but reliable as just about anything. So its a trade-off.
 
Thirdeye
Oh, one more thing, if you insist on having something big and powerful and poor on gas, try an ex police cruiser, generally they're well maintained, cheap, powerful, and reliable :)
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Nah forget that. Get a LT1 F-body or LS1 f-body if you can find on ein your price range. They are bullet proof expecially if you take care of them with regular maitenance. But I'm assuming you don't have the money for gas so I say go with what duke is sayin.

Thirdeye
Hers was a 1994 and it was the worst car we've ever owned. It was fast... whenever it wasn't in the shop (which was once a week at least). Brake issues, overheating, relay switches, spark plugs falling out of the head (?!), shocks, bottoming out issues, transmission leaking & jerkiness, one of the corvette wheels got bent somehow, sluggish performance when we sold it, exhaust leaks, whining alternator/air conditioning, catalytic converter broke apart, etc. etc. we spent well over $2000 on that car in a matter of a few months, then got rid of it. We had only PLPD on it, but that's what we have on my car as well. My car's always been around the same price as hers. Her Daewoo now is even more expensive than the 300hp Formula Firebird... Doesn't make much sense does it? We checked 3 different insurance companies as well, none of them were very high for the Firebird. It was more expensive to own a Jeep, Daewoo, Explorer, etc.
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Sounds like somebody didn't take care of it. And it was more like 275hp.
 
xXSilencerXx
Nah forget that. Get a LT1 F-body or LS1 f-body if you can find on ein your price range.
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I'm actually going to disagree with you here even though I own an Fbody. The ex-Police cruiser--whether it is a Crown Vic P71 or Caprice 9C1--would be the best of both worlds. Reliability and price. Insurance on the P71 is super cheap--and I do mean super cheap. I was able to get full coverage on my 1999 P71 for less than $60 a month at age 25.

The only downside to anything American with a V8 is gas mileage. Expect really crummy MPG from anything with a V8 from America. And before YSS comes in and tells me that "LS1's get 27mpg" blah blah blah let me preemptively retort by saying no one under the age of 40 will drive it slow enough to maintain that kind of MPG. You will drive the hell out of it.
 
While I do agree that not many would be able to achieve that gas mileage on every occasion, it by no means makes it unachievable. I know that I could easily do it, skip-shifting by doing the 1-4-6 combo, but like you said, you aren't going to do it all the time. Plus, to get the good mileage, you need the T56, and not everyone is into a stick with those cars...
 
xXSilencerXx
Nah forget that. Get a LT1 F-body or LS1 f-body if you can find on ein your price range. They are bullet proof expecially if you take care of them with regular maitenance. But I'm assuming you don't have the money for gas so I say go with what duke is sayin.




Sounds like somebody didn't take care of it. And it was more like 275hp.
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It was dyno-tested at 300, it had a custom exhaust & header.
 
YSSMAN
While I do agree that not many would be able to achieve that gas mileage on every occasion, it by no means makes it unachievable. I know that I could easily do it, skip-shifting by doing the 1-4-6 combo, but like you said, you aren't going to do it all the time. Plus, to get the good mileage, you need the T56, and not everyone is into a stick with those cars...
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"Skip shifting" will do nothing but ruin your synchros. I don't recommend it at all. While it may be achievable for an LS1 T56 Fbody to get 25~27mpg highway--almost no one will come within 5mpg of that. And since autoboxes are what was sold in the vast majority don't expect much better than 22~24mpg highway and 15~17mpg city. The best I ever got in my Camaro when it had reletively low miles (considering I've got 240k+ on it now) was 20~21mpg mixed city-highway driving. I can get 18~19mpg mixed now if I never go over 2500RPM--but thats assuming I just "rest" my foot on the accelerator. ;)
 
JCE3000GT
I'm actually going to disagree with you here even though I own an Fbody. The ex-Police cruiser--whether it is a Crown Vic P71 or Caprice 9C1--would be the best of both worlds. Reliability and price. Insurance on the P71 is super cheap--and I do mean super cheap. I was able to get full coverage on my 1999 P71 for less than $60 a month at age 25.

The only downside to anything American with a V8 is gas mileage. Expect really crummy MPG from anything with a V8 from America. And before YSS comes in and tells me that "LS1's get 27mpg" blah blah blah let me preemptively retort by saying no one under the age of 40 will drive it slow enough to maintain that kind of MPG. You will drive the hell out of it.
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Yea I did forget about that insurance thing. But YSS is correct to an extent about the LS1 gas mileage. I got 25 mpg on a 300 mile trip mostly highway miles. I belive I average around the low twenties high teens depending on my driving style and the roads I am on. Right now I do alot of highway miles because school is 30 miles away so I am getting excellent gas mileage for a american V8. My car is automatic with 3.23's. I see guys with manuals that get 28 - 30 on the highway. Oh yea I'm 17 and only driv ethe hell out of it some times.:sly:

Thirdeye
It was dyno-tested at 300, it had a custom exhaust & header.
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Ahhh that's different. I assumed it was stock. My bad
 

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