Nissan 370Z review (2009 - 2020)
Nissan 370Z cars for sale
3.0
Expert review
Pros
Great value
Muscular engine
Impressive reliability record
Cons
Harsh ride
Noisy tyres
Not quite as exciting as the best
The CarGurus verdict
The Nissan 370Z’s old-school charm and eye-catching looks mean it’ll hold plenty of appeal to many buyers – appeal it delivers on with a refreshingly analogue driving experience and lots of pace.
Having said that, some of its rivals serve up more involvement, while others are more usable day-to-day. On the latter front in particular, the 370Z is compromised by its ride and road noise.
Then again, the 370Z’s reliability record is excellent, particularly by the standards of the class in which it competes, and on value, it is particularly hard to beat. So if you’re after lots of punch and an invigorating driving experience on a budget, you could do a lot worse.
There’s a sense that the Nissan 370Z is a car around which the world changed. When it was first released, picking up where the similar-in-concept 350Z (the previous in a long line of Nissan ‘Z cars’) had left off, the idea of an affordable, sporty rear-wheel-drive coupe with a big V6 engine and a manual gearbox didn’t seem so outlandish.
But as time went by, and more and more performance car manufacturers turned to smaller, turbocharged engines and four-wheel drive, the 370Z seemed increasingly outdated.
That has proven to be less of a handicap than you might think. After all, buyers who wanted the driving experience of a classic sports coupe increasingly had nowhere else to turn – and that meant the 370Z lasted a full 11 years in barely unchanged form.
Like its predecessor, the 350Z, the 370Z is strictly a two-seater – and that means it loses out to cars like the Audi TT and Ford Mustang if you need to carry children in the back seats. On the plus side, though, you do get a reasonably well-sized boot and, on the Nissan 370Z Coupe at least, a hatchback to access it, and that allows you to stash larger, bulkier bags without having to feed them through a saloon-style slot.
The Nissan 370Z Roadster is – as you’d expect – less practical, with a smaller boot, though by the standards of its rivals it’s still relatively capacious. What’s more, all of the 370Z’s luggage storage is in one place – unlike in the Porsche Boxster and Cayman, which require you to divvy up your bags up between two small front and rear compartments.
‘Brawny’ is probably the watchword here. Whether it’s the thumping great 324 bhp 3.7-litre V6 engine up front, with its big globs of low-down grunt, or the stiff short-throw gearbox and weighty steering, the 370Z feels like a muscle car – and it needs plenty of muscle to drive quickly, too.
You get a tonne of grip and a very precise-feeling nose, although the tail of the 370Z feels a little soft, and as you push harder, that can translate to a slightly ragged tail-happy demeanour. What’s also missing is the ultimate final degree of feel you get with a Porsche – but if you can live without that, you’ll still have lots of fun in a Z.
It’s when you’re cruising more sedately that the 370Z’s shortcomings start to show up, however. For starters, tyre and engine noise are constant companions, even on smoother stretches of motorway. But the larger problem is its overly firm ride quality, which makes driving in town a game of ‘dodge the pothole’, and causes you to wince over churned-up sections of Tarmac. These issues are made worse by the 19-inch alloy wheels that come as standard on the V6 GT – though even with the entry-level car’s 18-inch rims the 370Z isn’t exactly cosseting.
As you might expect given the 370Z’s old-school mien, it isn’t particularly advanced when it comes to tech. You’ll find none of the electronic wizardry on board that you’ll get in its bigger brother, the GT-R, and nor will you find a particularly advanced set of driver aids. In fact, one of the biggest criticisms of the 370Z in its day was that its traction control was very crude, lacking the nuance in feathering the power that some of its rivals could offer.
Standard equipment is reasonably generous; the basic car gets climate control, Bluetooth connectivity and Xenon headlamps. If you choose the upgraded GT version, you’ll get heated leather seats, cruise control and a seven-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Bose speakers thrown in.
From behind the steering wheel the 370Z doesn’t inspire quite as much excitement as most of its sports car rivals. The interior plastics aren’t quite as high-quality and the design is a little anodyne. Still, the three gauges atop the dash add interest, and the low-slung driving position feels sporty.
With its old-fashioned nature come old-fashioned running costs. The 370Z uses quite a bit of fuel even by the standards of rival sports cars, most of which are somewhat more efficient.
Expect to see fuel economy of no more than around 25mpg on average in normal daily use, and less so if you hoof the throttle regularly. Choose, for example, an Audi TT instead, with its more modern, lower-capacity powertrain, and you’ll better that figure probably by as much as 5 miles per gallon. Of course, the Nismo version will use even more fuel – though as it isn’t actually that much more powerful, the difference will only be one or two mpg.
On the other hand, 370Z servicing costs are remarkably affordable by the standards of its sports car rivals. Indeed, even at a Nissan main dealer, the 370Z qualifies for Nissan’s fixed-price servicing costs, by the standards of which even a large service will cost less than a small service on, for example, a Porsche. Having said that, Audi’s main dealer servicing costs are not vastly more expensive, so keep in mind that the savings might not make up for the gulf in fuel economy costs.
What’s more, the 370Z is equipped with a metal timing chain, rather than a rubber timing belt, and the advantage of this is that the chain should last the life of the car. By contrast, timing belts need to be changed every few years, so some rivals fitted with these will incur a fairly hefty cost when this change is due.
The 370Z is too rare to have featured in many reliability surveys, but anecdotally, it’s a reliable car, with enthusiasts noting in particular the engine’s dependability as one of the key attractions of the model.
That impression holds up when you look at a list of the 370Z’s common faults. Long story short: there aren’t very many, and those issues that do crop up regularly tend to be easily solved.
For example, the boot struts on the Coupe can weaken, causing the hatch to droop. The anti-roll bar drop links in the front suspension can be a bit of a weak point, and cause a clonking over bumps. And if you buy a Roadster, you’ll want to check the roof mechanism operates fine, and that the fabric isn’t worn through at any point.
Oh, and if you’re going to subject your 370Z to particularly hard use – for example, by driving it on track on a regular basis – you might want to fit an aftermarket oil cooler to stop it from overheating. Or just buy an example made after 2012, when one was fitted as standard.
Other than that, there really isn’t a great deal to worry about.
- The earlier 350Z was only available as a manual in the UK, though an automatic was available elsewhere; for the 370Z, however, Nissan brought the automatic option to these shores, to complement the standard six-speed manual. And it’s a good one, too, even by modern standards; a seven-speed paddle-shift conventional automatic unit that offers snappy gear changes in manual mode, but shifts smoothly and almost imperceptibly when you switch it to full auto. Both gearboxes come with a trick bit of tech called Synchro Rev Control, too. This function senses when you’re about to change down a gear in the manual, and blips the throttle in order to match the revs perfectly before you lift the clutch. It works with the automatic gearbox, too, blipping the throttle on down-changes when you’re in manual mode. The function is only turned on when you press the button for Sport mode, which means it won’t bother you when you’re just trying to drive along normally. But when you’re in the mood for a bit of fun, it flatters you, making quick down-changes seamlessly smooth.
- At the top of the range sat the Nissan 370Z Nismo. Nismo (short for ‘Nissan Motorsports International’) is the performance arm of Nissan that looks after its racing cars, and as you might imagine, that translates to a more hardcore, more focussed bent when the badge is applied to Nissan’s road cars. In the 370Z, that means less of a tendency for the rear wheels to lose grip, but an even firmer ride – and because the engine doesn’t have all that much more power (344hp - just 16hp extra), it never feels quite as fast as it should. Neither does it sound any better, retaining the slightly irritating drone of the standard V6.
- The Nismo model was revised in 2014, barely a year after it had been introduced, to introduce more compliant rear suspension, but the rest of the 370Z range had to wait until 2018 before any sort of mid-life facelift. Even then, the changes were minimal – its power output remained the same, and cosmetic tweaks were limited to darker headlight lenses and new door handles. Under the skin, there was a new suspension setup, too, but this felt barely any different to the older car’s – and it didn’t really cure the 370Z’s ride and refinement shortcomings.
- The 370Z works best as a bargain sports car, and the standard car is the cheapest. It’s pretty well equipped, too, and later cars don’t offer much in terms of improvement, so we’d go for an early example with a low mileage and a good history to back it up.
- If you do plan to use your 370Z as a daily driver, though, we’d suggest making your life a little easier and choosing an automatic model. That way, you can avoid the heavy clutch that comes with the manual – though you’ll still have to live with the harsh ride and noisy tyres.
- If you want the fastest 370Z of all, you’ll have to opt for the Nismo. Go for a 2014-on car, though, as these got the better rear suspension that made them a bit more poised to drive. Or better still, if your budget will stretch, have a look at a Porsche Cayman instead – it might not be quite as fast, but it is more involving.
