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

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.

 

thats pretty cool i never knew that ill have to do that!!

its only cos i'm impatient i suppose. waiting for the autobox to react did my nut in most of the time. but when i wanted that stable nice cruise i admit the box was great. but on the whole it didn't keep me 100% happy. all of the time.

A manual will be better on fuel and put more power to the rear wheels than an auto, because an autobox takes more engine power to drive it than a manual.my mates ford torino loses approx 90bhp through the autobox and diff........with a manual box and the same diff the loss drops to around the 50 bhp mark.

A manual will be better on fuel and put more power to the rear wheels than an auto, because an autobox takes more engine power to drive it than a manual.my mates ford torino loses approx 90bhp through the autobox and diff........with a manual box and the same diff the loss drops to around the 50 bhp mark.

 

 

been a big post on this, the 300zx autobox is quicker off the mark than a manual (with the older ones) due to the smaller turbos, they do lose top speed over the manual though, and ive not noticed a difference between my auto and manual as far as fuel eco is concerned.

My first 300zx was an automatic, which I had converted to manual. I noticed a marked improvement in performance, enjoyment and economy from the car. I couldnt stress highly enough how much I wouldnt want an auto 300zx again.

 

Compared to a modern autobox the one on the 300zx seems slow, dimwitted and the gearing is far to wide.

 

As for fuel consumption, of course it completly depends on your driving style, high 20's and even 30 (doubt it tbh....) are possible on sedate lengthy motorway trips. Realistically though, if you use the car as a toy and actually get to drive it on a proper road. Expect 15mpg (of course proper fuel only) and if you mange 16-18 then you've done well.

 

As for the economy difference between the 200sx and 300zx, well the 300zx is going to use far more fuel, 2 more cylinders, another liter cubic capacity and another turbo. If you use the throttle it will get through the jungle juice properly.

 

We have a buying guide on here somewhere which might be of use, and as with these cars they are so old now ignore the mileage, always buy on the condition of the individual car. Most imports have a high chance of being clocked, often they are converted between km/h and mph, either with clocks from a different car or with speed converters, unless there is clear and signed paperwork to say when this was done its hard to work out at what point the conversion took place. Best thing to do is if you have a car that yo like, try and get a knowledgeable member on here to go with you and look for the common trouble spots.

 

Having said all that, considering the age, relative neglect on alot of these cars and there complexity and performance they are amazingly reliable. I drove mine for the first time in 6-8 weeks last sunday, sat out in the cold all that time. Simply put a key in it and it started and took me a nice 30 mile round trip for a sausage butty and a coffee. Lovely jubly!

My first 300zx was an automatic, which I had converted to manual. I noticed a marked improvement in performance, enjoyment and economy from the car. I couldnt stress highly enough how much I wouldnt want an auto 300zx again.

 

Compared to a modern autobox the one on the 300zx seems slow, dimwitted and the gearing is far to wide.

 

As for fuel consumption, of course it completly depends on your driving style, high 20's and even 30 (doubt it tbh....) are possible on sedate lengthy motorway trips. Realistically though, if you use the car as a toy and actually get to drive it on a proper road. Expect 15mpg (of course proper fuel only) and if you mange 16-18 then you've done well.

 

As for the economy difference between the 200sx and 300zx, well the 300zx is going to use far more fuel, 2 more cylinders, another liter cubic capacity and another turbo. If you use the throttle it will get through the jungle juice properly.

 

We have a buying guide on here somewhere which might be of use, and as with these cars they are so old now ignore the mileage, always buy on the condition of the individual car. Most imports have a high chance of being clocked, often they are converted between km/h and mph, either with clocks from a different car or with speed converters, unless there is clear and signed paperwork to say when this was done its hard to work out at what point the conversion took place. Best thing to do is if you have a car that yo like, try and get a knowledgeable member on here to go with you and look for the common trouble spots.

 

Having said all that, considering the age, relative neglect on alot of these cars and there complexity and performance they are amazingly reliable. I drove mine for the first time in 6-8 weeks last sunday, sat out in the cold all that time. Simply put a key in it and it started and took me a nice 30 mile round trip for a sausage butty and a coffee. Lovely jubly!

 

Perfect!

 

That is exactly the way i think.

 

These cars are that old now that the mileage doesn't mean much at all, you need history and lots of it, but it depends on each and every car. A well serviced example can still be a dog and vice versa.

the autobox even now don't do as they should in one way or another on brand new cars that you can pay over 100,000 for. they delibrately have safety delay features and in some cases just delay in responding. i've nothing against z autos as they are a very nice drive.mine was. :cool2:

I'm not so sure the ECU on my '89 car has a learning capability to be honest. I don't know if it's different on younger specimens, but It's been steadfast in its predicability. I like being able to disengage the O/D to put weight on the front entering a corner and its ability to maintain a gear through a corner rather than shift up/down like many autos I've driven.

 

I can only compare it directly to my other 'daily' which actually does have a learning ECU and it's noticeable too. It's tiptronic and initially I thought 'great' but then found I couldn't drive it like a manual and then found that at M/way cruising speeds it was up and down like a yo-yo in fully auto mode and not nice to drive at all. then I discovered that you actually need to drive it in tiptronic mode for it to learn your patterns so when I got on a motorway I stuck it in 5th with occassional downshifts to 4th to accelerate and it learned that way. Now it drives great.

 

The Zed hasn't changed its shift pattern in all the time I've had it and that's included a number of ECU resets by way of failed/disconnected batteries. The same goes for the engine ECUs

Edited February 15, 201213 yr by Big Rod

been a big post on this, the 300zx autobox is quicker off the mark than a manual (with the older ones) due to the smaller turbos, they do lose top speed over the manual though, and ive not noticed a difference between my auto and manual as far as fuel eco is concerned.

 

lots and lots posts about manual vs auto performance. Anyone that says that the auto is quicker is wrong though.

 

The only thing the auto is off the line is consistent, the only way its quicker is if the Manual driver makes a balls up of the launch.

Edited February 15, 201213 yr by Yowser

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?

 

I'd just like to clear up any misunderstanding about my post, I meant that there is no performance difference between a UK auto and a JDM auto. Not that there was no difference between an auto and a manual.

cheers guys. Think ultimately I'd prefer a manual but an auto would probably suit my needs... doesnt look there there would be a significant performance/economy difference between the two