2003 Nissan 350Z

The Nissan 350Z hit the street in August 2002 with everything it needed to be an heir to the thirty-year Z-Car legacy:?a stout, rear-wheel-drive chassis with well-weighted steering and beefy brakes; a powerful, torquey V-6 engine; sleek good looks mixing restrained retro styling themes into a modern sports-car profile; and an affordable price. From our first drive, we were smitten with the new 350Z, and further time behind the wheel confirmed that it combined performance, style, desirability, and accessibility in a manner that paid homage to the original Z-car, the 240Z. The 350Z has helped reinvigorate not only Nissan's image but the whole world of affordable sports cars, an achievement we recognized with our 2003 Automobile of the Year award. A Four Seasons test was clearly in order, especially given Nissan's recent penchant for cutting corners in material and build quality. Would the 350Z still be the sports car of our dreams after 30,000 miles, or would mechanical gremlins and rattling bits overshadow our year??From September 2002 through September 2003, we'd surely find out.

Even though all five 350Z trim levels got the same suspension tuning and 287-horsepower, 3.5-liter DOHC?V-6 engine, we opted for a top-of-the-line Track model for its Brembo brakes and lighter aluminum wheels. Our only option was a $69 set of floor mats, for a total sticker price of $34,688. Not cheap, but a cool ten grand less than a 300ZX Twin Turbo cost back in 1996-its last year on the market. There's a similar price spread between the $26,300 base 350Z and the $37,500 base 1996 300ZX, and this time around, nobody gets saddled with a less powerful engine.

Our Daytona blue 350Z arrived just in time for road test coordinator Tony Quiroga and office manager Kim Ewing to prerun our All-Stars test-drive routes in Kentucky and Tennessee. Ewing attempted to scribble navigation notes as Quiroga piloted the 350Z at warp speed down hollers, along mountainsides, and through hundreds of hairpins, off-camber corners, and dip-dee-dos of every conceivable configuration, all the while exploring the car's "controllable power oversteer, quick steering, ass-grabbing brakes, and near-perfect power-to-weight ratio." Surprisingly, Ewing still had a smile on her face after three days of such treatment. Not surprisingly, we all enjoyed the car just as much when we drove on those same roads during our All-Stars trip just a few weeks later.

Once the 350Z was back in Michigan, where the roads aren't nearly as entertaining as the smooth two-lanes of Appalachia, the accolades continued to pour in.

"I cannot imagine a more entertaining car available in the United States for the price," exclaimed Quiroga.

"An outstanding performance value," said senior editor Eddie Alterman. "They got all the important stuff right:?Control feel is incredibly consistent, pedal placement is perfect, and the ride-and-handling balance doesn't give up much to the classics (i.e., the Porsche 911 and 944)."

"Lots of reasons to love this car," agreed executive editor Mark Gillies, "including the styling, the performance, the nicely balanced handling, and the fact that it's the modern-day 944 for less money." Is there an echo in here?

The 350Z received its longest love letter from contributing writer Ronald Ahrens, who drove it some 5300 miles on a meandering round-trip from Ann Arbor to Los Angeles. Pausing in Rolla, Missouri, at the end of his first day of driving, Ahrens directed his Uni-ball medium-point to the first of thirteen pages of the 350Z's logbook he would fill-mostly with praise-over the course of ten days:?"The first on-ramp makes it obvious:?This Z is a runner."

The next night, Oklahoma City: "The Z and I have had some kind of day. We crossed the Ozark Plateau from Rolla to Mountain Home, Arkansas; then over to Fayetteville and on to Tahlequah, Oklahoma. After the hours spent with my tongue sucked up over my front teeth on these make-the-navigator-upchuck roads, I just can't say enough about the car. The handling is so neutral, the steering is everything you want it to be, and this growling engine should be called to the pope's attention for canonization. I can guarantee that more than one farmer today looked up from his pea patch and cussed the blue streak that went past in hyperdrive."