Hi,

 

I'm new on here and am looking at buying a 300zx TT... Pretty much every single one I've seen for sale on Autotrader/Pistonheads/Ebay is an Automatic. I know that UK spec cars came with a 4-speed Auto and the ones I am looking at are all Jap imports.

 

I'm slightly concerned at the prospect of having a 4-speed Auto as I know it will completely drink petrol... or do Jap cars have a different Auto box to UK cars? Ideally, obviously I'd like a manual car but practically none of them are around... unless of course Jap cars have a 5-speed Auto or a different gearbox...

 

My budget is about £3.5k and wouldnt want to get one above about 80k miles, but if anyone knows any decent ones that are for sale then please give me a shout!

 

Any help would be appreciated!

 

Cheers

Hiya bud,mines an import Auto and I use it every day. I drive like Miss Daisy and it's great on fuel-Boot it and it drinks it!,Go figure!

Oh! and it's for sale on here! LOL!:whistling:

When I wanted to get a 300 I wanted manual, leather low mileage. I saw one advertised locally and thought I would take a look. Auto, velour interior but in my eyes worth ever penny of the 2999 it was advertised for. I have been smitten with her ever since. I will end up getting it converted to manual but in good time. I guess what I am saying is go and have a look at some as there are good/bad/ugly ones and you need to find one that's right for you. Awesome time to buy though as there have been some floating around recently that I would have got as well as my own if I had the readies. Good Luck Hunting

Welcome matey :)

 

The Autobox is a 3 speed with overdrive and is the same box whether JDM or UK. The jdm spec does have a couple of features called Power and Hold, these are dealt with electronically. But there is no difference in performance. Manual cars are more desirable but the auto is still a fine car. Don't worry about the mileage as with cars of these age it's not important. Far more important is the condition, check sills for rust smoke from the exhaust that sort of thing.

 

£3.5K should get you a very nice zed have you looked in our For Sale section?

Welcome matey :)

 

The Autobox is a 3 speed with overdrive and is the same box whether JDM or UK. The jdm spec does have a couple of features called Power and Hold, these are dealt with electronically. But there is no difference in performance. Manual cars are more desirable but the auto is still a fine car. Don't worry about the mileage as with cars of these age it's not important. Far more important is the condition, check sills for rust smoke from the exhaust that sort of thing.

 

£3.5K should get you a very nice zed have you looked in our For Sale section?

 

Exactly what he said........

 

......and a lot of 300zxs are autos; simply because it is a GT car (like a Jag XK8 or Aston DB7 back in the day); hence the original owners would most likely have preferred an auto. But as my learned fellow owner says, in reality there is very little difference in performance. Or economy for that matter - as overdrive in the auto is at least as high (if not higher) a gear that 5th on the manual.

 

Fact is, the 300zx TT is a 3.0 twin turbo car from the 1990s so in either format, fuel consumption is not going to be anywhere near that of a similar car from today. Think low 20mpg at best and you won't be dissapointed - but expect 18-20mpg unless you drive like a vicar heading off to Sunday School.

 

Good luck in your search - we're always here to help!!

 

Richard:cool3:

Hi,

 

I'm new on here and am looking at buying a 300zx TT... Pretty much every single one I've seen for sale on Autotrader/Pistonheads/Ebay is an Automatic. I know that UK spec cars came with a 4-speed Auto and the ones I am looking at are all Jap imports.

 

I'm slightly concerned at the prospect of having a 4-speed Auto as I know it will completely drink petrol... or do Jap cars have a different Auto box to UK cars? Ideally, obviously I'd like a manual car but practically none of them are around... unless of course Jap cars have a 5-speed Auto or a different gearbox...

 

My budget is about £3.5k and wouldnt want to get one above about 80k miles, but if anyone knows any decent ones that are for sale then please give me a shout!

 

Any help would be appreciated!

 

Cheers

 

 

I hate to start a post on a negative, but these cars drink fuel regardless of them being a Auto or manual, they both get around the same MPG, 14 to 18 around town, 25 to 28 on a cruise on a motorway, and if you floor it, well. you can watch the needle move as long as you're on a privet road lol

 

You need to be aware that at the time the cars were made, fuel prices were in the 50p per litre mark so fuel economy wasn't on nissans list of priority's when designing it.

 

anyway, having owned a 300zx in both manual and auto. (currently on a auto) i have to say that apart from the lazyness of the auto, im now not fussed as to what i have it in and im doing roughly the same miles per gallon.

 

You can always buy an auto and convert it to a manual.

I know where there'll soon be a UK twin turbo with 71k on the clock and 3 owners from new, I'll get you some more details if you want?

I use my jdm auto every day, to get to work and back etc and to be honest it isnt much (if any) thirstier than the 3.0 calibra its replaced.

Hi guys, thanks for the messages.

 

As I'm pretty new to 300zx-land, can anybody explain how the overdrive on an auto box works? I had previously thought it was like a "sport button" where it would drop gears into increase acceleration... but judging by what RichardSmith says I'm now not so sure?

 

Reason I had mentioned fuel economy is because I had originally looked at an S14 200sx, where the manual box on that gets about 28mpg and the auto gets about 24, so didnt know if there was any real difference on a 300zx rather than on a 200...

 

I am looking at going to see and drive these 2 cars at the weekend- but not 100% sure what bad bits etc I should be looking out for. Can anyone recommend anything obvious that I should be wary of?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nissan-300zx-Twin-Turbo-Manual-UK-Model-not-skyline-evo-1993-19-wheels-/260956500055?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3cc2383057

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nissan-300ZX-Twin-Turbo-low-miles-loads-extras-/130647209636?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item1e6b2e36a4

 

Theres also another auto one in North London that looks really good, but its a right old trek when I work long hours during the week... dont know if anyone has seen it already?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201205445597434/sort/priceasc/usedcars/model/300_zx/make/nissan/radius/1501/page/1/postcode/ls249ru/quicksearch/true?logcode=p

 

And lastly... Baz - do you have any details? I might be interested :-)

 

Thanks for your help guys

around town driving, you will get 1 2 3, on a motor way cruise, you will get 1 2 3 and lock up which is essentially 4th gear and have you cruising at 70 @ 2800 rpm.

 

If you stick your foot to the floor in any gear except 1st, you will initiate kick down, where the box will kick to a lower gear to gain revs faster, if you go for a TT this essentially means you have to hold on until you lift your foot off.

At the risk of sounding negative, if you're worried about MPG you're looking at the wrong car.

 

At best you'll get 30 MPG if you're kind to it but they're not cars that you'll be inclined to be kind to.

 

Mine is an auto', (as have most of my cars over the past few years by choice rather than necessity), and I have to say that the Zed's autobox and management is the best I've ever driven.

 

The overdrive on auto boxes is different to the overdrive on manual ones. Basically what it does is gives you much longer legs. On a manual, there's an extra gearbox added to the final drive which has 'planetoid', (google it), gears in it which dramatically increases the final drive ratio giving more comfortable cruising and, (hypothetically), better MPG. Automatic gearboxes have an interesting 'by product' in that they, by the nature of how they work, have an extra high gear available. As the next paragraph will elude to, not every car/manufacturer made use of this...

 

BUT! That higher gear needs a lot of horse power to make it effective. For instance, the Lotus Carlton was one of the first production cars, (in the UK at least!), to have six gears. GREAT! Except that to use it you had to be doing over 120 MPH to have the engine operating in an appropriate 'power band'. So to sum up, it's there naturally but because of the lack of power in 'normal', 'lazy' shopping trolleys it's never used.

 

Automatic gearboxes, (IMO), are far superior to the manual option. Hell, top fuel dragsters use autoboxes. They shift faster and if you know how to drive the things they're just as entertaining and when you're my size, (6'4"), getting your knee between the steering wheel and the gearstick becomes a bit of an issue!

 

The downside is that Autos cost a lot to fix BUT there're plenty of breakers out there.

 

Disclaimer! All of the above was posted 'in my opinion'.

Mines a manual,i really wanted a manual because i used to think they were quicker, but i dont think there is any difference between manuals and autos they both go well.

It's a 4 speed auto plus lock up clutch. 4th is overdriven just as 5th is on a manual box and when the lock up clutch engages it feels like a 5th gear just engaged ever so smoothly. This is because the torue converter slip just got stopped. The original auto box on mine expired around 135k. This is not bad for such a car as this one. The box is the same whether import or UK spec but the software is different apparently with the hold mode which on the UK type just stops it using 4th and makes it seem very responsive. I think it is in fact using the same ratio as a manual in 4th at this point. On kickdown the engine seems to rev to 7000 before changing up.

It's a 4 speed auto plus lock up clutch. 4th is overdriven just as 5th is on a manual box and when the lock up clutch engages it feels like a 5th gear just engaged ever so smoothly. This is because the torue converter slip just got stopped. The original auto box on mine expired around 135k. This is not bad for such a car as this one. The box is the same whether import or UK spec but the software is different apparently with the hold mode which on the UK type just stops it using 4th and makes it seem very responsive. I think it is in fact using the same ratio as a manual in 4th at this point. On kickdown the engine seems to rev to 7000 before changing up.

 

are you on about a standard zed autobox?

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/automatic-transmission.htm

 

Google is your friend...

 

HTH

Wow I have an auto and am confused now. All I know is If something is behind me that looks a bit quick I push both buttons so I get two orange lights on my dash. I then usually forget I pushed the buttons and think its reving a bit high = (more fuel) I then push the buttons again. :clown:

Its not necessarily the MPG that I was "concerned" about - I just wasn't sure the Auto box would have more of an impact on fuel that the Manual box (like it does on a 200sx).

 

Problem is, there arent a lot of decent 300zx's for sale in my area and I'm away on business for parts of the next 2 weeks so dont have the time to get down south to look at some...

 

Unless of course, anyone is willing to have a look at one or two of them for me while I dont have the time and let me know what they are like, and I will of course send some sort of thanks for doing it (like some vouchers or something haha).

 

Theres an Auto one in North London/Hertfordshire and a Manual one in Hampshire... if anyone can help me out with these then it would be greatly appreciated...! Cheers

ive got a uk auto tt and tbh i wanted a manual as well but i drove the auto and its actualy a pretty good box i get about 300ish miles from a tank i love it, nice and smooth on the mway and launching from the lights theres not a lot that can keep up!!

mines manual, alough ebay keep putting it as an auto....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/nissan-300zx-twin-turbo-import-/230745124248?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item35b97b2d98

Mine is a rare original manual, a slicktop (lightweight) too, with fantastic history and for sale for £3500.

 

I have had two auto's in the past both NA and TT and i always found them to change gear at the worst time, they are a very good auto don't get me wrong, but the manual is better, hence all the converted 300's on the forum

i get about 300ish miles from a tank

 

Do you drive around like a granny everywhere then? :D

 

No seriously... I dont even get that currently from my EM2 Import Civic.....

Do you drive around like a granny everywhere then? :D

 

No seriously... I dont even get that currently from my EM2 Import Civic.....

 

Zed's have big 72L tanks mate.

i found that the autobox is unpredictable especially if you like to pull a few manouvers(on private land) so i had to bin the box and lob in a manual . much better imo. the only plus i had when it was an auto.was launching. this is only my opinion though.

i found that the autobox is unpredictable especially if you like to pull a few manouvers(on private land) so i had to bin the box and lob in a manual . much better imo. the only plus i had when it was an auto.was launching. this is only my opinion though.

 

REally? I find the Zed auto box is the polar opposite. It does exactly what I want it to, when I want it to but there is an element of pre-empting and anticipation which is no bad thing in my book. I guess you just need to get into the style of driving.

 

To be fair, the auto boxes on my other two cars drive differently again. I do have trouble remembering which one I can get away with 'stuff' in, but that's as much to do with cornering abilities too!! LOL

Autoboxes on the 300zx have a learning feature, best thing to do when getting the auto is reset the ecu back to basics so it can learn how you drive the car. its more than likely not doing what you expect as it was driving to how someone else drove the car.

 

when i first got my autobox working, it didnt have a clue and sometimes would sit at 3k revs when i was sitting in the car going "come on change gears?" now it does it how it should and works perfectly.

Do you drive around like a granny everywhere then? :D

 

No seriously... I dont even get that currently from my EM2 Import Civic.....

 

lol nah as steams said massive tank so not actualy that great about 18mpg having said that if its a second car it doesnt matter so much lol