370z hard to drive?

memorylasts

Clutch is a bit snappy in comparison to other clutches I've driven...and randomly test driven. But I dont think it is a hard car to drive.

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Coon-azz

Agreed. I've driven cars from 1,000k to half a million dollars and I think the Z manual is no different than other performance cars in its class or $ range. I drive mine daily so I'm getting familiar with the car as I go. Coming from an aftermarket clutch/shifter i've found the Z very easy to drive. Much more unforgiving than say my Pontiac Solstice...Just my opinion, but the Z is pretty refined compared to some of its peers. Remember to compare apples to apples....

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I don't care how slow you want to drive; I encourage it. JUST GET THE HELL OUT OF THE PASSING LANE YOU TUCK FARD!!!

kenchan

Hummmmm werd....I've yet to stall my Z.

Cell

Why is it difficult for you some of you guys? I drove mine out the dealer without any problems or stalling. Sure the clutch is a bit more sensitive compared to a Honda/Toyota but it isn't to the point where it's hard to drive. I notice a large number of people have trouble with the 370z. I just don't see how people cannot adjust quickly to the difference.

One of my buddies wanted to test drive my 370z and going from a civic's clutch to a 370z he almost stalled it many times over. He was basically dropping the clutch like he would in his civic. That is because the civic has a larger range of engagement compared to the 370z.

When I first got my car, I got used to the clutch within 10 minutes. I didn't bog it or anything either.

ghostbusters

^

I just test drove the manual 370z, precisely 30 minutes ago at a Sydney Nissan Dealership. I wouldn't call myself a good manual driver, but in a non-sports car, manuals are a lot easier to drive because of that larger range of engagement. With the 370z, and perhaps other sports cars for that matter, when the clutch has a much narrower range of engagement i.e. the "sweet" spot as most of you will call it. It's indeed a "spot", not a "band".

Perhaps more practice will make you better. As for me, with Sydney's traffic and high numbers of rear-end accidents (particularly by cab drivers ) which does not boost my confidence in "mastering" the stick in a 370Z, I will most definitely go with an auto.

blackcherry20

The "sweet spot" is a lot harder to find-once you do tho, look out! Pure fun after that!
Side note: i killed it before i even got off the dealer lot! Lol!

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Grand Sport Corvette Arctic White

ghostbusters

Mind you, I killed the engine 3 times in a 10 minutes city drive with some open roads. The salesman with me who came from a BMW, Audi & Mitsubishi dealerships in the past i.e. he knows how to drive a manual sports car, kindly suggested he drove back to the Nissan dealership. Never felt so embarrased in a test drive before

VQinside

the Z has the worst clutch feel I've ever driven in 12 years of pure manual driving. it's a pain to drive but it has nothing to do with the power it has, its simply the clutch that sucks.

RiCharlie

I havent stalled mine either..never.. not to brag..

Jeffblue

i drove my friends saab 900cs. WHOA that is different. its a cable clutch, that engages like ON the floor. talk about a weird feel.

ImportConvert

Sounds like it's a cable clutch that needs adjusting. I love cable-clutches. They don't have the issues hydraulic ones do. People like to whine about how "hard" to press they are, though.

Jeffblue

definitely was hard to press, but there was definitely a feel to it.

weird thing was the way the pedal traveled. maybe the car was messed up. but 3 pedals were totally loose. like you could push them down 2 inches with no resistance and nothing would happen (no gas, no clutch release, no brake) then you would get resistance, and each pedal would start to do what it was supposed to do. at first i thought it was the lightest clutch in the world. very strange, never seen anything like that on a car.

i didn't stall it though. he was like 'everyone who drives this car stalls it the first time.' i think he had more fun driving my Z though. i had SRM on when he test drove it and he was like WTF?! which i guess i could see being weird if you didn't expect it.

ImportConvert

Yes, it has problems. Not normal.

Jeffblue

hmm i should let him know. any idea what that would be symptomatic of?

Zaggeron

I think the issue is more that the 370z is hard to drive slowly in traffic situations. I believe this is primarily because of the awkward shift from 1-2 when at slow speeds. When driving in locations where you can give it some gas without hitting the car in front of you I find it easy to drive.

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2010 Platinum Graphite 370z Roadster:Touring/Sport
2013 Subaru BRZ Limited