How reliable generally is the Z?

Marcus Ryan

Hey guys,

So I've had my Z for a little under a year now, bought it new, and I thought it would be a great car to pay off, hold on to, and maybe go a little crazy with mod wise. Now I'm having second thoughts honestly, It's going in tomorrow for transmission number 2, I have the annoying ECU ring, the (beautiful) paint is paper thin, and it generally just seems a little raucous.

Now to be clear I'm not gentle on a car. I love driving, I never leave a car stock, and I'm going enjoy it, consciously understanding that maintenance will be required, that things will fail quicker, and that it's going to cost some dough. That said, I don't just beat the dog **** out of it either. I know on it's face the comparison seems ludicrous, but my last car was a used 2005 Dodge Neon SRT-4 running 320hp (100 over stock), on 20 psi and it held up like a god damn tank. Over the 4 years that I owned it, I put some serious hard miles on it, at the track and otherwise and I never had a single problem, not even a clutch.

Now I'm not closed off to the possibility that I'm over reacting a little, it's just a synchro that went out, and in a metal forge making thousands of parts I realize that 2% are going to fail prematurely and that's just how it is. I also have no science to back up the feeling, no reports of reliability or anything like that but I can't help but wonder a bit.

Am I alone here?