'Surprise Z costs' .... mmm.....

Try having a VW or BMW, then you will understand the meaning of 'Surprise (whatever brand) costs'

For the Passat I drove, Battery dead right after the 40000km bumper-to-bumper warranty, $250+tax:shakes head:. Dashboard failure--don't know how much fuel, how fast, how hot..... dealer wants $800+tax, eventually my mechanic charge $600, BTW, a 3 weeks wait for the part:shakes head:. A fuel/air sensor failure since day 1, they change it for free while under warranty, but after the warranty, $300+tax:shakes head:.
While I was trading in that sh!t for the BMW, the air-con wasn't working:shakes head:, consider the VW was only 3 years old and close to 100,000km on it, a piece of unreliable scrap-metal:shakes head:.

BMW... ball-joint of the front lower arm is a must-change every 20,000Km because of the aluminum material, if you are lucky, the mechanic can take out only the joint, then $200-$300, if they can't take out the joint, then $800+ because they have to change the whole arm:shakes head:. Mine was a cabrio, hydraulic line of the soft-top failed, of course it broke after the warranty period. Part was about $300, one week in BMW service department cost me $2700 labor, plus I have to pay for a one week rental, yup, they said all the courtesy were out, yea right:shakes head:!! Fuel line + fuel pump failure after that, water pump, power window motor. Plus lots of here and there problems:shakes head::shakes head::shakes head:.



The 350ZR I drove?? Please read my 1st post, can't find it? Ok, cost me $25 for oil change.... 2 1/2 sets of tires, 1 set of snow, and 1 1/2 sets of summer. The driver's side power window auto-up was failed, 4 years of daily abuse with one failure. Yup, that's it. :driving:

Still thinking the Z cost so much???? :hello:

Ze German makes are expensive!

Yeah the 370z is more expensive in just about every way.

Glad I do all my own work oil,brakes air filters engine. I got the 8/100k warranty, yet it reads as if the can cancel it at any time if you don't use their oil and take it into the dealer for scheduled maintenance.

Had my last warranty revoked for putting and AEM CAI on my Acura. The same unit they sold at the dealer. Never took it to the dealer again. Those people are rip off artists.

You have to pay to play. Better tires on the Z will move it up in the A class department.

I want a roots style or twin screw supercharger though. I see those paxston style but have not seen a eaton style that replaces the intake. That would be the bomb give more bottom end torque and more power through the band where it is usable on the street.

:iagree:

Redline is OK, but the RP you're just paying more for purple food coloring.

Mobil1 is good stuff. I have oil analysis done on several vehicles comparing it to other oils as proof of that.

However, the best bang for the buck is Penzoil Platinum. I've run it for 10K miles at a time in my Accord and it still had life left in it according to the Blackstone oil analysis.

not necessarily. I bought a house in 03, sold for massive profit in 06, bought another brand new but cheaper house with a huge down payment, I clearly saw a bubble about to burst, so despite losing 30% of the (artificially high) market value when I purchased, I was able to refi into extraordinarily low rates, under 4% on a 15yr, so I still came out way ahead of renting a house compared to renting over the same period.

Holy S*T i never knew this! My son has an Audi and i thought it was just the fact he bought a used one,.,lots of problems.. I though German cars were good, although i never owned one.

A friend has an American made truck and he could write a book on it's problems.

My wife has a 10 year old Honda with 140,000 miles..we replaced the timing belt and I think that cost $600 because of the labor involved..and that is it!
Altogether I have had about seven Japanese cars..Toyota and Hondas. and one Acura...this is my first Nissan and never a problem with any of them..

I hate to think of what would happen if the Japanese and the Chinese merged into one block.

Tits and tires
 

If you have either, it will cost you down the road. My dealer oil changes are $66.

The biggest problem I see with the OP is Attitude.

I think you could change the oil a little less often to balance it out some (though the VQ does like it's oil), but where you are I'd think you need winter tires (and possibly wheels).

I get about 17 mpg with mostly city driving so yo may pay a little more there.

Coming from an expensive sports car, I think the only unexpected cost is the cost of mods (hood struts, K&N drop-ins, next HFC/Y-pipe or new exhaust, LED kit, backup camera kit, etc.) Not that they aren't reasonable - they are too reasonable so seems affordable to do a lot more :)

Interesting, I've been poking around at mods for the 370 and they seem kinda high to me. I thought parts for my Challenger were expensive but they're cheap compared to what I've seen thus far. Where do you guys find the best prices on cat backs and things of that nature? I've been browsing through the site but I see several vendors and so far pretty pricey. $1100 for a cat back?

I bought my 370Z new last May and have not spent a dime on anything but gas, insurance and payments. My dealer gave me lifetime oil changes! Work it into your deal man! :happydance:

A full catback will run you around 1k plus or minus 200 depending on quality.
Not say an 800 dollar exhaust is bad, but spending the few extra can get you a bit more quality. On the topic of the parts being expensive compared to other cars, well part of it has to do with the amount of cars sold, plus factor in only X% of those who buy mod so on a lower production car aftermarket prices are higher to cover R&D.

Yep, that's why I thought Challenger parts were high....I think its production numbers are much lower than even the Z.

However, I got my Magnaflow exhaust for the Challenger for $650 shipped. $1000+ for exhaust wow. I need to do some more digging to see if it really sounds much better than stock. On the Challenger it had to have something, this car not sure. I tested the exhaust back to back on the dyno on the Challenger and it only gained 5HP, but man it sounds WAY better.

For the Challenger, was that for a full catback or just for axle back?
I know with a lot of american V8 cars you can order an axle back and it adds a little bit of HP but a huge sound difference.

Yeah, full cat back stainless and all.

I'm considering the shockwave so $1200 sounds cheap :)

Otoh, look up the price for Tubi exhausts that were popular on my old car and you'll see everything is relative :D

Zippo suprise costs. $100 for oil change, Redline plus change charge. $1200 or so for a set of tires at 38k miles. Two tranny fluid changes, one diff oil change. That's it. 24mpg on fuel.

Most reliable and cheap to run car I've ever had.

Dam new set of tires at 38K miles?

I let the dealer change the oil and filter on my motorcycle, and it costs me about 75 bucks, and I used to bitch about the cost, but no more, not after analyzing the costs. It only takes 3 qts. and a filter, and I use dino oil. Even dino oil costs about $8/qt nowadays and the filter is about $14, o-ring a dollar, so $39.00 in parts/supplies. So where's the rest going? Dealer gets about $85/hour labor. Tech takes about 10 minutes to drain and change oil and filter, followed by test ride, followed by leak check, followed by a little touch-up cleaning. $36 labor is reasonable for that service in my opinion. I used to do all the maintenance myself (except for tire changes) but at my age and with my old creaky bones and sore everything, I'd rather let them do it.

If your lucky! I had them changed at 22,000..but the ones that come with the car are soft and easily wear out..

Biggest expense so far will be tires. Gonna run me about 13-1400. Other then that she has been flax less no extra expenses.

:iagree: Super lucky. I replaced mine at the wear bars at 7250.

Wow, didnt know im coming up on 12,000 miles now, hopefully I dont have to change mine anytime soon.

A lot of tire wear depends on how you drive and how you maintain tire pressure. I'm a bit OCD about things and check pressures and stuff all the time in my cars. I'm still on the original tires on my 4Runner after 10 years and 85,000 miles.

The Potenzas are soft, but should last 20K if you don't drive like you're racing everybody on the street...but what fun is that LOL

Ha, yeah I actually bought new tires from the original stocks to fit the rays I have on my Z now, so I think I should be all set for a couple thousand more miles, even with a little harsh driving. :tup:

What!?? So how did you do at Indy?:icon18:

Thats the only reason I used to stay up and watch Miami Vice bro..Oh, those were the days.

I put aside $100 per month for maintenance and repairs since I got my Z new. By the time the powertrain warranty expires, I will have about 5K saved for repairs. That's how I manage the surprise costs.

My driving habits, moderately aggressive/no track, got me about 15,000 miles out of my OEM Potenza RE050A's and they're about $1200 a set. I just bought some Potenza S-04s, which appear to be better tires with a better wear rating. We'll see. The biggest advantage to me is that the S-04s were $800 instead of $1200.

2 year bump for this post? :rofl2: :tup:

On topic: The CSC is a known problem for the 6MT crowd. Other than that, steering lock is covered under recall, engine oil is no more expensive than any other car. Tires are expensive. How expensive depends on how you drive :driving:

i dont have csc problems.

/thead.

:p

Some people launch their cars a lot. The CSC cannot handle hard launches. I'm not having CSC problems... yet... but my CMC appears to be going out. I'm going to replace it and get the Z1 CSC delete kit so I don't have to worry about it failing on me in Middle-of-Nowhere, TX.

:confused:

yah, i drive my car spiritedly but i dont want to be screeching the tires causing all sorts of unwanted attention, so i dont launch had like msbc. :icon17:

:iagree:

Sorry about that. I read a lot of old threads for research purposes and sometimes cannot help to post / respond.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

I bought my Z used, so I missed the depreciation hit. Of course, the downside sometimes to buying used is that you inherit some of the issues that made the original owner get rid of it in the first place. I got lucky with mine; car was in very good shape, and it came with a set of FI LTHs and a Takeda cold air intake already installed. :tup:

The tires were somewhat low however. I managed to get another year out of them before they finally wore out. Spent about $1200 to put a set of Michelin A/S3 on it. That's the only additional expense I've had in the 2 years or so that I've owned it.

Ironically, my insurance went down when I got my Z. Through State Farm, I was paying $130/mo on an 07 VERSA! Now I'm down to $98/mo (full coverage with rental). Lesson learned there, talk to your insurance agent every couple of years to see if they can bring your rates down. If not, start to look at other companies. Insurance companies love it when people sit on the same policy forever. Gives them an excuse to keep you with a higher rate.

get a tesla, you don't need oil change no more, no more O2 sensor. :bowrofl:

or get a pee-a$$, their tires are cheap and last forever.. not sporty enough? add a spoiler... :bowrofl::bowrofl:






seriously, regular oil for the Z could be around $35, synthetic oil about $70-$80 @ mechanic.

tires... could be cheap could be $$$, also depends on your driving style.

it is difficult to compare the cost of two cars which they are two different classes, it's like you go into a ferrari dealer and say "how come your oil change cost $xxxx while my civic costs $30".... :wtf2: