Faults:

The paint is very low quality; has a lot of pitmarks, and it shows in a black car.

Third gear grinds.

Lots of squeaks and rattles throughout the chassis.

General Comments:

This car is pretty fun to drive, and is a blast with the top down. The engine has plenty of torque throughout the RPM range, and is very smooth.

The exterior styling is very take it or leave it. It looks strange with the top up, but looks much better when the top is retracted under the hard tonneau cover.

What I don't like about the car is that the ride is very harsh; I would expect a much better ride form a heavier car such as this. Also the door sills are very high, so I'm unable to rest my arm on them.

The doors panels are made completely of plastic, and look absolutely terrible.

The exhaust at first was really thrilling, but now I just find it very annoying.

I enjoy driving this car, but it feels like more of a luxury car than a sports car, so I will be trading it in for a Honda S2000.

Faults:

None.

General Comments:

Fast and handles great.

Very comfortable for a sports car. I tried similar cars and at 6'3" this was the only one I fit in.

I am lucky enough to live in San Diego, so I can enjoy top down motoring year round. The Z makes a wonderful sound and keeps a smile on my face.

One minor gripe, I wish the car had a more comfortable arm rest. I have found some aftermarket ones online and will pick one up soon.

The worst thing about owning the car is knowing that it's sitting in my parking lot at work, and I can't run out and drive it.

Faults:

Nothing.

General Comments:

After years of looking and almost pulling the trigger on several sports cars (86 Lotus Esprit, 99 Porsche 911, 2004 Mazda RX8, even a 85 Ferrari 308), I made an impulse buy and bought the 350Z. While I may always long after the Porsche or Ferrari, I am quite sure my wallet loves the Z.

I was looking for a pure sports car in the $30k range and picked up the Z for 27,500. I was looking at the 911 at the same time, and came to the conclusion that with the Z I was getting a car that was equal in performance, 5 years newer, still under warranty, and with probable Japanese quality, for $6k less.

I really can't say enough about the performance of the Z. I have run 3 autocrosses in the past 2 months, and have had done really well against some really good cars. There has been some talk about tires feathering and or cupping. I seriously doubt that my tires will ever last long enough for any of that to occur.

At the last autocross (a Porsche club event) I finished 6th overall out of 30. First went to a race prepared Mazda Miata. The course was really tight and the torque of the Z really helped. I could put it in 2nd gear and pull strongly out of every corner.

The car was pushing really bad on my first couple of runs. I had checked the air pressure before leaving home, stock Potenza's had 41 lbs which was perfect. I checked again after 2 runs and it was up to 60. I lowered the pressure to 42 and knocked 5 seconds off my next run. Still had mild understeer, but could kick the back out in very controllable powerslides around the corners. This car is a ball to drift. I know it can get pretty hairy in the rain, but you have to be smart and back off a little when it is wet.

I have to say though, I get a certain satisfaction out of beating the lap times of more expensive, more powerful cars, even some prepared cars in my bone stock Z on worn out tires. I just can't wait to get it onto the track, although I know I will need to upgrade the brakes for track duty. This is an excellent car at a very good price.