I actually graduate in a month, and start my new job in about a month and a half. Right now I just walk to class - living .1 miles from campus FTW :D

I won't be buying my new car until spring (or winter if I go with the Evo). I have about 10k in savings right now, my SI is worth about 15-16k as a trade-in, and the parts I could sell off of it would probably fetch 8-10k. Looking at my finances now, I could actually afford a fairly nice 'beater'. I might just look into a base impreza or something along those lines for winter.

And yeah, I realize it's ridiculous for a 22-23 year old to be looking at a nismo 370z, but this is what happens when you stupidly in-debt yourself at 17 with a brand new Civic SI - you set stupidly high standards for yourself :) Thankfully, through a part-time job, awesome scholarship, and help from family, I'm graduating debt-free from college with a fair amount of assets, so it's time to splurge a bit.

sounds good. my neighbor's kids friends all had these hotshot cars like modded evo's and sti's, modded civics and rsx and they all had expensive mods and wheels too, not some faux crap. they were all teens and went to college. they all turned out pretty good, i think. they came back later in new corolla's and accords but hell, adult life's a biotch at times. :D

Tell me about it....I got stuck with a rustang :(

buddy, you need to be an adult first to count. :tup:

:icon17:

I don't think its to crazy for a younger person to look at a car like this so long as they understand the money commitment and have the cash flow to accept the burden. There are plenty of 30+ year olds who shouldn't even be looking at a vehicle worth 20k much less 30k to 40k. My mother happens to be one of those people.

My only suggestion is to keep looking for a nice used one. Take a weekend and drive it back if you must. Will probably save you a few grand in the end if you do and would give you time to learn the vehicle some.

Whatever you decide, good luck at your new job. :tup:

Unless you are talking about a previous 'stang, i wouldn't call what you have a rustang! Were is the pride! :tup:

the hell's your problem throwing your own mother under the UPS truck? :mad: :icon17:

Thanks man, appreciate it. I'm a little disappointed at how well Zs seem to hold their value :rolleyes: I was quoted 38.5k for a 2011 nismo the other day, and it looks like I could find a used one with 5-10k miles on it for ~35k. Perhaps I need to start looking harder...

Lol, my mother and I do not get a long for some very good reasons. Best left at that. :tiphat:

I thought you were crazy at first, but I just looked at kbb and $35k is pretty close. You might want to check into prices for base+sport and add in the NISMO body kit and whatever else you want on it. May be less? :ugh2:

Probably not. That Nismo bodykit is pretty expensive. Only reason to even try that would be if you wanted the touring+nav packages which aren't available with the Nismo.

You know, part of me is wondering why I'm even looking at the Nismo variant. If/when I get this car, I'm more than likely going to swap out the suspension for adjustable coils so that I can soften it up when I'm dailying and stiffen it when I'm tracking.

I'm really not a huge fan of the way the 370 looks, though. It just looks like something is missing - the Nismo model is probably my favorite looking car, though. How accessible are those body parts? I suppose that extra 18 hp really isn't a big deal either since I eventually plan on supercharging or turboing whatever I get.

IMO and quite a few others as well, the biggest reason for getting the NISMO is for the body kit. It looks great and again, IMO it looks every bit as good as what the aftermarket has made so far.

Yeah, I see that.. suddenly I'm not sure it's worth another 10 grand to get a nice body kit.

In other news, I youtubed 370z/snow and was pleasantly surprised. It looks like with nice winter tires, the Z gets around just as well as my SI does.. not spectacularly, but well enough

I drove my 370 all winter in New England last year. With snow tires it handled better than my old Civic with all seasons. Don't get scared off by the horror stories of RWD in the winter, most come from people who don't know what a summer tire is.

Fixed!

I have a video on there of my car driving in 8 inches of fresh snow with the annoying backround music. Did you see my vid? Night time. White Z? Drove mint in the snow I was impressed. But I still have an older Subaru legacy I drive when it snows... Z stayed in driveway 95 percent of the time when snow was falling and just fell

I grabbed a Subaru legacy gt I think it's a 95??? Lol older looking not terrible have had it from 105 to 140k never broke once. Paid 2k. Great beater

Well, it goes both ways. :-)

I mean that RWD cars are mostly equipped with summer tires stock. Some people try to drive them when the temps drop and when they go all over the place blame it on the drivetrain, without realizing that summer rubber turns to hockey pucks below 40.

So true!!!

Exactly what I was thinking. Although I must say, I'm looking at STIs now. I'm really not sure if I can justify only having two seats, as much as I want to.

Looking back over the past 2 years, the transition from an evo x to a 370z, i cant help but thinking: what was i doing buying a 370? The 370 is a better looking car, however thats where it ends. The versatility, practicality, all weather any-time-any-where performance, ease to modify and drive fast trump the 370. My evo put down 350 + awhp with basic bolt ons, and it did so with impeccable reliability. Since day 1 i beat the hell out of the car, driving it as if i stole it, regular track days. I beat the piss out of it whether it was 90 degrees or 0 degrees for 30, 000 miles with 0 problems, and 350+ awhp almost all of those miles.

The sight of a snow storm would put a silly grin on my face as i looked forward to driving very sideways in the snow with my fellow sti and evo rally cars. Most people dont understand how much fun this car can be until they drive it. Ive owned both, and i miss it. Im not taking away anything from the z, but unless the sun is out, the weather is warm and the road is smooth, it doesnt compare.

The Evo is a great car, but I think some cars fit peoples personalities better. Do you consider yourself an Evo/Subie "guy"? I know it sounds silly, but after owning a Z and an Evo, surely you know what I'm talking about.

Do you do more than daily drive your cars? I'm in a similar situation right now, debating on whether I should get rid of my X and go back to a Z, since all I really do is daily drive it (originally bought it because of it's performance capabilities). Plus I have transportation in the winter if roads are bad...

What about build quality, Mitsubishi service, and the overall satisfaction you get owning the car? I owned a 350z prior to my X and loved every minute I had with that thing (quality, service, ownership satisfaction). Sadly, I can't say the same about the X. Sure its fast as hell with only moderate bolt ons, but I don't find myself grinning ear to ear as I walk up to it after work (like i did with the Z). I realize the car is built for performance but damn it feels SO cheap IMO. And the unwanted attention it brings from every rice bucket with a fartcan is annoying. The Z is just so much more mature. I'm almost 30 years old - I feel like I've outgrown the boy racer scene.

Do you have pics and dynos of the civic?

are you asking him to post a pict of his butt? :eekdance:

I don't have any pics of my car being dyno'd, but here's the exact same kit + exact same car + exact same supporting mods running about 1-1.5 more psi than I am:

http://swiftracing.com/SRT/Images/ci...r12halfpsi.jpg

I can throw up pics of my car later, but it's a pretty generic looking civic - slightly lowered on coils, black wheels, etc.

You don't have your dyno graph?

do you need a pen to draw up some lines? :icon17:

Nay, the last dyno graph I had of my car was on WG pressure at around 370 whp while it was being tuned. No dyno graphs of the current car, sorry bud.

How was it tuned?

Street tuned. Has a bad rap, but the company that did mine (e-tunez.com) has literally some of the best K series tuners I've ever heard of. He did my NA tune before the turbo, and my shop told me it was the strongest/smoothest FA5s they had driven with my mods to date. I also started with a base calibration that was based off of a full tune on another car with the same kit + supporting mods, although my tuner slightly changed the cam angles and whatnot based off of what he saw. I neglected to ever have it thrown on a dyno once it was making over 400 whp because I'm rocking the stock clutch still, and a few pulls on the dyno have been known to be deadly to the clutch at that point.

My car is fast, I promise you that hah. It's too fast, hence the desire to sell. It's just not very fun having a car that cannot hook up unless it's on the highway. I could probably be beaten by a minivan around town since it's just spin spin spin.

Sounds pretty fun, but how is a stock clutch able to hold more than 2x the original power levels? Anyways, i think you would have even more fun with the Z :tup:

You know, I ask myself that same question every day :D

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that my car very rarely sees heavy load on the clutch or trans - I'm usually driving around in town, and in 1st/2nd gear, the only gears where I can really stretch my legs, the tires just spin. The real load isn't put on unless I'm on the highway in 3rd+, and I don't do that too often.

That being said, my car is a ticking timebomb. The clutch will give out eventually. If it lasts another 5k miles, I'll be happy. The tranny is slowing dying on me. I have zero issues with it yet. but it's an inevitable situation. So yes, you're right, I would have more fun in the Z. I've pretty much determined that I'm going to try to find a used 370 w/ sports/touring package if possible, and then pick up a cheaper subie impreza for the winter months.

If i could do it over again, I would have bought an '09 or '10 model instead of buying brand new.

New is always nice. I worry a little about what a previous owner will do in a sports car right before they dump it since there are a lot of pricks out there. I would buy new, but I'd like to invest in a house while the market is low, and every penny counts! I just hope I can find a white one with the options I want. White or bust for me.