Free guide · 2003–2009 · VQ35 V6 · 280–313 PS
Nissan 350Z Z33: what to check before you buy
What this car is, and the six questions that decide whether the one you are looking at is a good buy.
In this guide · 6 chapters
Who built it, and what they built
The Z had gone. Production of the previous generation, the Z32 300ZX, ended in August 2000, and its successor did not go on sale until July 2002. The 350Z is what happened when Nissan decided to start again from the opposite end: not more technology, but less.
No turbochargers. No four-wheel steering. No twin-turbo complexity of the kind that had made the previous car brilliant and unaffordable. Instead: a 3.5-litre naturally aspirated V6, rear-wheel drive, a six-speed manual, and a price that ordinary people could reach.
Nissan puts the total at over 250,000, from the launch in July 2002 to the end of production in December 2008. That number matters to you as a buyer: there is a genuine market, there are specialists, and parts exist. This is not a car you buy and then discover you cannot maintain.
The engine, and there are two of them
The VQ35DE ran from 2003, with 280 PS, revised to 300 PS for 2005.
The VQ35HR arrived for 2007 with 313 PS — and it is a meaningfully different engine, not a tuning revision. It cleaned up the oiling system and, according to the sources, addressed the oil consumption that plagued the earlier DE.
That single sentence decides most of what follows in this guide. If you are choosing on specification, the sources' own recommendation is a 2007-2008 HR with the six-speed manual, with 80,000 to 120,000 miles and a folder of receipts.
But the HR is not simply the safe answer, and this is the part that is easy to miss: it has its own weakness at higher mileage, and it is covered with the engine's own faults.
How the figures in this guide work
No euro totals — a labour rate differs by country and by workshop. Each job carries a step on a scale of five — an hour or two, half a day, a day, two or three days, a week or more in the workshop — plus one line on where the work sits: in the part, or in getting to it.
On this car that second line does unusually heavy lifting, because two of the most important items in the whole guide are measurements that take an hour or two, on a car whose worst bill is a week or more in the workshop.
The six questions that decide whether this car is a good buy
1 · DE or HR — which engine is in it?
Everything else follows from this. DE up to the 2006 model year, HR from 2007.
2 · How much oil does it use, in miles per quart?
Ask for a number, not a reassurance. The sources give a figure beyond which it is not normal, whatever the seller tells you about "they all do it" — and that figure is in the buying guide.
3 · What does the long-term fuel trim read?
Any garage can read it in minutes. What the reading tells you — and what it does not clear — is in the buying guide.
4 · Has anyone done a manual oil pressure test?
The oil gallery gaskets degrade at higher mileage — one source names the HR, another the high-mileage DE. On the HR, the first says, the oil pressure then drops and the bottom end follows, and its advice is direct: get a manual pressure test before you sign anything.
5 · On a manual: does the clutch pedal feel normal, and does it stay normal?
The concentric slave cylinder is a known failure, and it is a cheap part in an expensive place.
6 · Have you looked at the rear arches and the sills?
On European cars this is where they rot, and it starts from the inside.
What the honest answer to all six looks like
An HR with a documented oil pressure test, a good fuel trim read-out, an oil consumption figure the owner actually knows, and clean arches has given the right answers — what is left is the viewing. A DE with "it only uses a bit" and no read-outs is not necessarily a bad car — but every expensive item on it is still an open question, and you should pay as though they are all coming.
Which years, which specification
2003 to 2006: the VQ35DE. 280 PS at first, 300 PS after the 2005 revision. This is the engine with the oil consumption story.
From 2007: the VQ35HR. 313 PS, a cleaner oiling system, and the oil consumption problem addressed. At higher mileage it has its own item to test for, the oil gallery gaskets — and one source puts the same item on the high-mileage DE.
Six-speed manual or five-speed automatic. The sources' recommendation is the manual. Two of the ten points in this guide — the concentric slave cylinder and the synchros — apply to the manual only.
The trim names are not the point, but the badge is worth understanding. A Japanese-market car wears Fairlady Z rather than 350Z. Same car, different name for its home market. If you are looking at an import, that badge is not a warning sign.
What to establish before anything else: the engine. An advert that says "350Z 3.5 V6" tells you nothing, because both engines are 3.5 V6s. The model year tells you — but a registration date is not a model year, so where the documents give only a date, have the engine confirmed before you travel.
What it is worth
No price list — it moves by country and by month. The method is what transfers, and on this car it has one feature that is genuinely unusual.
Two measurements, each an hour or two, belong before the price rather than after it. The long-term fuel trim and a manual oil pressure test. Both are cheap, and both are available before you commit. A car with both done and documented has answered two questions that an identical car without them leaves open.
There are three kinds for sale.
The documented HR. 2007 onwards, manual, folder, and ideally a pressure test. Top of the market and, once you have added what is outstanding on the others, usually the cheapest.
The tidy DE. Cheaper to buy, drives the same on a test drive, and the oil consumption question is entirely open. Buy it on the assumption that you will be measuring rather than trusting.
The cheap one. On a 350Z the reason is usually oil consumption, a slave cylinder, or rust in the arches. All three are knowable in advance.
Compare entry prices, not asking prices. And do not read low mileage as safety here: the rust in the arches is a function of years and salt, not of use.
What it is actually like to own one
The 350Z is a naturally aspirated rear-wheel-drive coupé with a manual gearbox, sold as an ordinary car. Not a limited edition, not a homologation special. A car you could walk into a showroom and buy.
That is also why it is a good ownership proposition. With over a quarter of a million sold, there is a real parts supply, a large community, and specialists who have seen every one of the faults in this guide many times over.
The habits that cost almost nothing:
- know your oil consumption as a number, and watch whether it changes
- read the fuel trim occasionally rather than waiting for a noise
- treat oil pressure as something you measure, not assume
What surprises people is how much of this car's condition is invisible from the driver's seat. A 350Z that is using oil and whose pre-cats are already breaking up sounds completely healthy on the driveway. That is not a flaw in the car; it is the reason this guide puts the measurements before the test drive.
The buying guide — €24
Everything above is what the car is. This is what you check.
Seven faults that belong to this engine, taken apart one by one, with how much work each repair is and how to tell which of them you are looking at. Ten things that are simply twenty years old, every one with how much work it is, what tells you about it at a viewing, and whether it has to be done now, within a year or two, or not at all. The rear arches and sills on European cars, and how to look at them. The pre-cats, and why they matter to the engine behind them. The viewing in six steps, including the cold-start moments that come only once. The sentences you say to the seller, and how to build an offer out of what you found.
And a card you print and take with you — twenty-two lines, in the order you do them. That comes as a separate file, because nobody wants to print a whole guide to take a few pages to a car park.
This is what one of the ten looks like
8 · Rear suspension bushes and differential mounts
A day · part and press work A vague rear end and clunks over bumps — though a knock over bumps is likely to be worn anti-roll bar links, so rule those out before blaming the bushes. The multi-link rear has a lot of rubber in it and twenty years is twenty years.
Within a year or two. Now, if the rear end is vague, or if it clunks and the links are not the cause.
And this is how the card reads
- 2 · The cold start · stand behind it
- 3 · The measurements · BEFORE the test drive
- 4 · The engine bay, engine off
- 5 · Underneath · this is where the money is
- 6 · Inside
- 7 · The test drive
What €24 buys, put next to what it saves
Worn rings on a DE engine is a week or more in the workshop, and the diagnosis costs almost nothing while the repair costs almost everything. The guide is €24. It will not stop any of that from being needed — but it does tell you which of them you are looking at before you agree a price, and that is the whole of the difference between paying for a car and paying for someone else's postponed maintenance.
Why there are no prices in it
Because a price we cannot verify is worse than no price, and because a price would be wrong for most of the people reading this anyway. Workshop rates across Europe differ widely, and so do parts prices. A quote from a specialist in one country tells you nothing in another.
What does not change is how much work a job is — that follows from what has to come off the car. So every point in the guide says whether it is an hour or two, half a day, a day, two or three days, or a week or more in the workshop, with a labour figure where a source gives one. And it says whether the money sits in the part or in getting to it, which is what lets you tell a fair quote from a bad one.
If you want a figure, ask any workshop one question — what is your hourly rate? — and every effort level in the guide becomes your own number, in your own currency. One question, and the answer is actually true for you.
How this guide was put together
Because you should know before you pay for it.
- Every fault and symptom comes from a source the guide names, the manufacturer's own documents first. The effort levels are our assessment, unless a source gives the hours.
- Sellers will tell you these engines all use a little oil. The guide gives you the figure the sources give — and above it, it is not normal, whatever you are told.
- The effort of every job is counted item by item and checked against the list before every edition.
- It says as plainly what you can leave alone as what you have to do. None of the ten age points start from leave it.
Leave your email address at the checkout and both files arrive straight away: one guide and one card, as two pdfs. No subscription, no account.
The full guide · €24
17-page guide, A4 and phone · 3-page inspection card · instant PDF · VAT included
Have every car inspected before you buy by someone who knows this engine. This is general information about the model and not advice about a specific car.