Nissan = Fanboy Junk

I agree, I have been very satisfied with my Civic. I really can't think of a better car on the market for under 20K. With the exception of power (I have the base engine not the Si) it drives and handles every bit as well as some of my buddies 3 series BMWs at about half the price. Since I was able to pick mine up near the end of the model year I walked out of the dealership with the thing for 13K. Probably the best 13k I ever spent.

 

My wife traded in her 03 H2 on an 06 Armada. She loves it and says it is 10X quieter at speed than the H2. It was almost 45K though and I'm sure the beating when she trades it back in 2 years will rival that of the Hummer. The engine in the Armada is fantastic. I was showing some of the out of town relatives one of my largest homes that I have under construction and noticed that my skid loader and trailer were at this particular home. I knew the guys would need it first thing Monday morning clear across town so I back up the mada and hooked up the trailer and drove off with my 6,000 lb skid laoder and trailer. Me, my wife, 2 kids, 2 in-laws, and 9,500 lbs of equiptment rode surprisingly well back to the other job site. All in all I'm very impressed with the "big" Nissan. While not the towing machine our F-350's are, I was still impressed. Being in the constructon biz, all my big sh#t gets a work out.

 

I've had my 350Z for 3 years and I've only had to change the oil. As far as people complaining about interior trim, it's a $27k car brand new, what do you expect? It's not a $48k BMW M3 where you expect certain things, sheesh.

 

Exactly.

I have an 05 350Z, bought it new, paid 26k and still love it. So I really don't care if it is cheap on the inside. I am in college (no my parents didn't buy it for me) and am thankful to have a car like that. Not many other kids have a car like that. Supposedly I can take an SL500 from a rolling start so I don't care...

 

Nissan interiors are just sub-par. Go compare the interior of a Honda Accord and any Nissan at or above that price range. Nissan does a barely adequate job of masking the hard plastic -- not as good as Honda. It's embarrassing to see a better interior in my co-worker's 2002 Honda Accord LX than in my old 2003 350z that cost $10k more. It's one thing to take a minimalist/spartan approach with interior (think Audi TT), but it's another thing to have a hard plastic center stack console with a nav pocket that has shintzy door opening/closing action. The soft touch plastic/foam dash and center pocket door action in my co-worker's Accord rivals my M3 and that's pretty effing amazing.

Since late 2004, Nissan continually improves the 350z interior so there's still hope yet.

///Michael

 

Are you on my350z, too? Your name with the intergrated M logo is really familiar. I guess some people prefer their interior a certain way, but I really couldn't care THAT much. For BMWs, I've always like the leather dashs that I saw in a 750iL and 2000 M5 with the extended leather option. Other than a leather dash, I don't care for the foam-thin plastic stuff on other BMWs.

 

Ditto. I am a big fan of cowhides on everything. The 750's interior is still one of my all time favorites of cars from the 90s.

 

Yep. I've had a history of owning Z's for 9 years, 1/3 of which was owning a 350z Track. I sometimes miss it when I see a clean Chrome Silver example, but no regrets on trading it for the M3.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to come off sounding as though as I "hate" the Z, I'm just very disappointed in the direction that Nissan is taking. Same crap, but different look. And what I mean by that is that they only seem to go halfway in everything, performance, handling, interior, etc.

If it's any consolation, the Cadillac CTS-V has, I think, a slightly better interior of the 350z. A $50k car, yet you can still see plastic mold lines running across the dashboard.

///Michael

 

A friend has an 05 Xtrerra, very nice no-frills truck (the older Xterrar were garbage, but the 05 is a whole different animal). He loves it but did mention to me that Nissan is among the lowest in overall quality for Japanese manufactorers. Although that is a tough class with Honda and Toyota as you competition....

I agree about Nissan interiors, it even applies to Infiniti, who is a full step behind Acura and Lexus. They do however have that very nice VQ motor and an excellent modular RWD platform which makes up for some hard platics, cheap panels, and their dreadful navigation interface.