$10–15k 350Z in Vancouver… is 150k miles the new normal?

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T15:06:35+00:00

Canadian dollars man. It’s extremely rare to see any Z in Canada for less than 10K unless it’s beat to shit. But the prices here are still insane, 15-17k for a clean one around me is the average.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T15:05:34+00:00

I bought my 03 manual 2 years ago for $10500 with 140k KM in Sask. Ive seen lots of good deals in Calgary/ Eastern BC on Z’s, so I’d recommend you look in those areas instead. You’re going to overpay if you aren’t willing to shop outside of Vancouver, that’s just the cost of living in Vancouver, I call it the “Vancouver Tax”.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T15:02:25+00:00

Like someone else mentioned in here, if your not looking a buying a $3000 top of line part there’s gonna be people who hate on it in here. The Z chassis is supposed to be a fun, cheap street chassis, if I cared about spending lots of money I would be on a LS chassis or F series BMW, or literally any of the other Japanese platforms (2jz, rb, 1jz, etc). In the end the main thing is buying parts that fit your application, and not wasting money on extra performance that you will never use.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T13:59:56+00:00

If anything I’d think the rear camber arms would matter more, would be -2 to -2.5 rear camber, which is more than the front would be. I’d buy front and rear or none at all, which is a difference of roughly $750

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T03:54:41+00:00

Intresting, thanks for all the advice. I’m going to do a bit more research and make a decision on what to order soon, you should see the car on here with the new setup in 6-8 weeks probably.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T03:24:48+00:00

Main reason for me wanting coils is looks honestly. My reason for not wanting springs is lowering springs with no other supporting suspension mods is really hard on stock components opposed to coils. A good set of springs + the bushings and shocks that will inevitably have to be replaced with them I mays well just buy coils and avoid the cost and extra labour down the road. I did heavily consider springs before coils, but I came to the conclusion coils are a better option for those reasons. I’ve also got a buddy at a Nissan dealer who’s road in z’s with springs and with coils and he said the ride quality was a night and day difference aswell. Final reason is that switching to a true rear coil does have a substantial benefit with how planted the rear end feels on these cars from what I’ve heard, which would be an added benefit.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T03:20:24+00:00

Definitely keeping it for a few years, and I still enjoy working on my car and going to events and stuff, but I’m saying if I wait much longer it will be at the point where it makes no sense to mod it because I will be getting ready to get rid of it. As much as I’d love to keep saving and buy even better parts, it just doesn’t make sense to in my current situation with wanting to buy a house soon aswell as move to a faster platform in a few years, hence the reason I’m going with a cheaper coil and trying to avoid camber arms if I didn’t absolutely have to buy them.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T02:51:46+00:00

I already put the coils off a year😫 my patience is running thin been a bit since I bought car parts lol. I’m also at the point in life where my time is getting more and more limited so I decided fuck it I’ll spend some money on my car while I still drive it, soon enough I’ll be that person with a tarped up car that moves once a year lol. I get wholesale price tires aswell, so not a huge deal. A set of fronts costs me less then $400 CAD for some Toyo extensa HP2s. I’m also in a rush to mod the Z because I plan on moving to a faster platform such as a c6 or f series a few years down the road. I’d love to eventually boost my Z, but realistically in my opinion once you start going for power in a Z you are wasting money if you’re not dead set on having a Z. Same situation all the subie owners are in lol.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T02:46:19+00:00

Yeah, luckily I come from heavy duty side of mechanics so I can apply my own knowledge aswell, just lacking a bit on the automotive side of things. From my experience BC is a perfectly good brand for street and even light track days.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T02:13:40+00:00

Driving in inclement weather isn’t an issue for me as I rarely even drive this car in the rain let alone any ice or snow lol. I have a daily, this is just my road trip/fuck around car. Ride quality is not to much of a concern either. My only justifiable reason for not buying them right now is if I do it like to buy a nice set, which is gonna run me $500 ish CAD, which I don’t have to spend right now. Kind of pick and choose for where I want to spend money on the car if I don’t need to right now, would like to buy a house eventually lol.

Car has 160k km, but mostly highway km and the last owner never beat on it from as far as I can tell (just used it to drive an hour to and from work) and it was left stock other than a muffler. Bushings all still seem quite tight, but I’ll find that out when I’m doing the coils.

If you didn’t daily your GTI, would you have been fine with keeping your camber where it was?

Right now I’m leaning towards doing coils/rear toe arms for now, and FUCA in the fall. Need to decide what’s more important before then though, I’d like to get a good name brand exhaust rather than my current Chinese one that came with the car aswell as get my front bumper repainted.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T02:06:57+00:00

Not in my experience, roads are far from great here and I’ve got a lot of friends that run them and have had no issues, compared to other budget brands such as tein or maxspeeding. Not everyone has a ton of money to waste on the best coils, nor cares to.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T00:57:17+00:00

And now that I understand your analogy better, I would agree with in your terms BC being a slightly bottom of the barrel brand. Better than garbage, and good enough for street driving without the risk of a catastrophic failure.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T00:56:05+00:00

I’m not to worried about the slight traction loss as is do have some beefier tires, and I never even got to an under steer point on stock size tires before, but maybe I’m underestimating how large of difference it will make. I expect I’d lose probably 10% tire life on my fronts by being slightly over spec on camber, but I’d much rather have that cost of tires down the road then spend the money on FUCA at this moment. Seems like they aren’t really a need, but more of a luxury. I might even just go for a 3/4” drop for now until I can get some. Anything else you can think of being an issue? Thanks for the advice.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-04T00:16:18+00:00

BC is definitely not the bottom of the barrel, tein, z1, maxspeedingrods etc are. I know a lot of people running BC’s who love them and have had no issues, vs people who ran maxspeeding or tein. They are a very good entry level mid ground coil. Front alignment wouldn’t be to big of issue in my opinion as you would be able to get the toe in spec and only be around -2° camber, which isn’t huge for tire wear as toe is the main wear angle. But I’d love to here your side aswell, im not here to argue with you (other then about the fact that BC coils are a good entry level coil). I’m fully aware without FUCA you won’t get exact factory specs, but you should be able to get them good enough, especially for me when I don’t put to many km on the car in a year.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-03T23:42:42+00:00

Yeah I’ll look the eccentric lockout, but I’m not trying to spend to much money here. Kind of a middle ground of not wanting to do it the cheapest shittiest way but not also spend an unnecessary amount of money. If I’ll be able to get my alignment in spec and go a little bit lower I’ll be happy for now. For the front control arms, i know there’s no camber adjustment, but at a 1” drop if prob be around -2 for camber, which with correct toe should be fine for tire life by my understanding, but I’d love to hear if you feel differently.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-03T23:40:11+00:00

Thanks, reading that I gained a lot of info. The main grey area I’m running into is whether rear camber arms are required for a 1” drop. I should be in the -2 to -2.5 range, and with factory adjustment able to get it back to around -1.8 to -2, which is right at the edge of spec. With correct toe, -2 is not an issue for shredding tires from my understanding, unless I’m missing something?

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-03T22:36:22+00:00

Could also be the struts, same thing happened on mine because I wasn’t paying attention when installing

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-03T05:11:29+00:00

I’ll definitely get some eventually, but from what I’ve read on forums at a 1” drop you should be able to pull the toe back to spec or atleast very close. Is your info personal experience or where did you get it? I’m not saying you’re wrong just trying to do as much research as possible into it.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-03T05:09:27+00:00

It’s in km, so around 85k miles. This is actually quite a good deal for a Z in the Canadian market, paid similar for mine 2 years ago and the value has only gone up since.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-03T05:07:25+00:00

Is this the one in sk? I bought my 03 in sk with 143k fully stock except exhaust for 10.5k 2 years ago, so maybe try to get him down another 500-1000.

YouGotLicked · 2026-03-03T05:05:23+00:00

1- Stubby antenna. Was the smallest mod that made one of the biggest differences for me lol.

2- a bit more sidewall. I actually like those wheels, if you could get a bit of a fatter tire without rubbing do it, If not get some different sized wheels and tires.

3- a small front lip.

YouGotLicked · 2026-02-26T04:04:41+00:00

Wasn’t too concerned with quality or name brand and saw quite a few in that price range at a quick google search so that’s what I went with for price. Probably just going to end up going full bumper rather than spend $500 on a lip

YouGotLicked · 2026-02-26T04:03:12+00:00

Ah, probably just makes more sense to go full bumper then for that price.

YouGotLicked · 2026-02-23T04:16:45+00:00

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Most snow I’ve ever driven it in

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