Congrats on the decision I think you made the right one

Thanks

yep, i think you've made a good decision. while IS-F is a very nice car, to me, it's too different than the 370z. it is more like the sort of car that people would trade their bmw 3 series or mercedes C class for.

In a few years I will be looking at a used IS-F, Jags and M3s. No more brand new cars for me.

However the maintenance on those luxury cars is expensive. Not to many tech outside the dealer except for the M3 to work on them.

Even that I would love an used IS-F.

Yes, unless you have a good local mechanic that only charges about 50% of the dealers do.

You are totally right, but hard to come by!!!

I'm with you, no more brand new cars for me either....I'm letting the other man take that hit! :iagree:

I was lucky to find one with his own small shop. An ASE master mechanic with good parts hookups, he give me his cost on parts. The Jag is going in tomorrow for some work. :ugh2:

Love the new car smell, but the $15k two year depreciation is nuts.

...and he is letting you take the headache.

I have always bought used cars, and all but one of them ended up sucking. I would encourage someone to buy late in the year and get a good deal. used cars are just cars that someone else didn't want, or was too irresponsible to afford once they got (do you want that person's car?), or in rarer circumstances had to give up due to family/medical/financial circumstances outside their control, in which case, it's a good car probably, but you won't discover what happened until after you buy it and it sucks (or not). The dealership always has a glamour story about the last owner.

Seriously, how many people post up saying "should I take the cam out before trading in?" or "This POS always grinds 2nd gear, I'm getting rid of it." or something similar, compared to "This car has been dependable, fun, and a delight to own. I'm getting rid of it!"?

Right.

In my case, I would get the service manual and do almost all the work on my cars myself. Good mechanics are hard to find. My stories at my Nissan dealer are out of this world, sometimes it seems that they NEVER had worked on a 370 before.

The question here is...is it really cost-effective?

I worked on my own cars all through highschool and college, except for jobs I didn't have tools for (clutch-swap on my WS6, re-building the rear-end, etc.) because I had no real source of meaningful income.

Now the question is: Would I rather go in to work for a few hours and cover the labor, or would I rather spend a few hours doing the labor myself? When I work on it, it has no warranty. When they do, it's their baby, not mine. It breaks, not my problem.

For me, having the dealership work on the car is annoying, as I know they are ripping me off for some things, but on another point, it's "guaranteed". Basically, I am betting that it will break again, they are betting it won't, and I don't want to cut my hands up or smash a finger or worse out in the cold working on my own car beyond minor maintenance items like AC filters, oil, plugs/wires, etc.

When it came to doing the motor-mounts, changing the thermostat (A PITA on a G20, apparently), etc. I just made it their issue and not mine.

I cannot imagine an E92 M3 or IS-F being very fun to work on, or very practical without specialized tools.

PR, an off topic question. How are the chicks in PR? I'm going there for vacation. :tup:

raced several times from top of 2nd and top of 3rd but you have to mash on the gas and make sure you up their in your powerband and have perfect shifts or else your screwed.

Well in PR I can understand, not to many 350Zs or 370s!