Just to Introduce Myself...

[Frankavelli]

Hey guys,

My name's Frank, I'm living in Freehold, NJ, and I stumbled across this forum as I am anxiously anticipating my lease on my Altima to end. I am a lifetime Honda/Nissan lover, but have grown bored with their offerings (especially since I will be buying used for my next vehicle) and have always loved the e46 3 series. I have only began my research about 2 weeks ago on the 3 series, and concluded I cannot afford the M3, but have found the 330ci ZHP to be THE car for me. I'm only 23, I work full time, and go to school at night (Rutgers University). I found that the 330ci ZHP is in my price range, and I am looking forward to owning one soon.

I'm hoping some people on here are from my area in NJ so that I can check it out in person and it would be cool to meet some new people. I have never driven an e46, but can only imagine I will instantly fall in love with it. Just wanted to make my first post here, and to say this is a great forum, and I will most likely be buying my ZHP from here in the coming months!

[mimalmo]

Welcome Frank!

[jreyes19]

well i have always loved my nissans, and still do
but i fell in love with the E46 while looking for a used car, and i know you will as well

good luck in your search and welcome
these are great cars

[M3TA5IN]

Welcome to the fold, Frank!

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Frank, welcome. We do have several NJ members at ZHPMafia.com.

[danewilson77]

Welcome to the mix Frank!

[UdubBadger]

welcome frank

[johnrando]

Welcome. Good luck with your search.

[GSEN820]

Welcome Frank. Drive one and you will be hooked.

[imola red zhp]

Welcome and good luck, this is a great site for help in your search.

[Hermes]

Welcome! I was a Honda/Acura driver but I had to come back to BMW for the current car. Good luck finding the right one for you (take your time looking, don't just buy the first one you see)

[kayger12]

Welcome to the Family, Frank.

I believe zhpnsnv lives in Freehold as well.

I'm in Southern Ocean County. Feel free to PM me. Be happy to meet up with you if you'd like to check one out in person.

[webster]

welcome to the site. good luck with your hunt, be patient and the right one will turn up.

and to echo some others, first time i test drove an e46, i too was totally hooked.

[Frankavelli]

I'm really impressed with this forum so far... I appreciate all of the warm welcomes too. My ideal ZHP would be a 330ci Jet Black on Natural Brown. Don't know how many of that combination actually exist, but my main request is black. Though I am also in love with Imola Red.

I am really looking forward to driving one when it is time to make my purchase. I am a few months off still, but I am impatiently waiting lol.

kayger12, I appreciate the offer, and I will shoot you a PM soon it would be cool to meet up and check out the ride. Do you guys organize meets or anything of that nature locally, and on a national level? My car before the Altima was an 02 TL Type-S, and I belonged(still do) to a great Acura forum that held local meets frequently and even a national meet.

It's awesome that it seems like a tight knit group here, I am on this forum lurking every day since I found it haha, so as I gather more info I look forward to contributing. Anybody in the NJ/NYC area feel free to contact me about any sort of meets. I can't wait to see the e46's up close, and meeting the people behind the wheel.

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Frank, we have an annual meet. Our first one was held in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was a lot of fun.


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[S85FTW]

Welcome Frank, if you ever come to a meet in CT or NY I will be glad to show you my car.... 93,000 miles and all

[Hermes]

My car before the Altima was an 02 TL Type-S

My car before this one was a black/black 02 TL Type S, I think there is somebody else who had a 02 also. Funny how that is

[cakM3]

Welcome to the Mafia Frank :thumbsup We have an awesome group of guys/gals here on this forum! Feel free to ask any questions you may have :biggrin

[webster]

i had an 02 TL, not type S but it was still a great car.

do not miss it one bit.

[Hermes]

I loved mine too but I wouldn't trade my current car either

[Frankavelli]

yeah i loved it... I bought it for myself when I graduated high school so I was really proud of it. I am thrilled about getting into a zhp though. I am really wanting the black/natural brown combination in the coupe version. Of all the zhp's I've seen i have not seen that combination. Anybody know how rare that is to find?

[danewilson77]

yeah i loved it... I bought it for myself when I graduated high school so I was really proud of it. I am thrilled about getting into a zhp though. I am really wanting the black/natural brown combination in the coupe version. Of all the zhp's I've seen i have not seen that combination. Anybody know how rare that is to find?

Looks like there are 6, in either black sapphire or jet black, registered.

http://www.zhpregistry.net/Query.aspx

Safe to say its not average....and somewhat rare.

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

[Marcus-SanDiego]

And I think Lance has that combination, right?

[danewilson77]

And I think Lance has that combination, right?

Yup.

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

[Ryans323i]

Lance, as in Pyreguy? I believe he has 4door black/black. I've seen it in person, although I'm not 100% on the interior. :eeps

Anyways, welcome Frank! Best wishes on finding the car of your dreams! And get out there and test drive an e46. Even if it's not a ZHP you'll love it, guaranteed!

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Lance, as in Pyreguy?

Yeah. Oh, I thought it was black with natural brown. My bad. I've never seen it. I'll definitely defer to you. Thanks for the clarification.

[danewilson77]

Yeah. Oh, I thought it was black with natural brown. My bad. I've never seen it. I'll definitely defer to you. Thanks for the clarification.

+1

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

[static667]

Welcome to the Mafia, Frank! You have come to the right place for info and good people.

[Frankavelli]

I'm amazed at the responses in a welcome thread haha. This is a great first impression haha! ... You guys deinitely seem like a great group ,and I appreciate the info you've already shared with me. It figures that the combo I want is tough, I have that sort of taste it seems.. that was the way it was when i was looking for my Acura. I wanted the Aegean Blue Pearl color which isn't ultra rare, but definitely one of the harder colors to find. I ended up finding one with navi which was awesome, so I am hoping I can have the same luck this time around.

I travel between Raleigh, and NJ quite a bit. My girlfriend is in Raleigh ( I am probably moving back down there soon) and my family is in NJ, so the zhp will have miles put on it. How do they hold up under that sort of use? I have been stranded on one of these road trips before due to my TL blowing a transmission, and do not want that to ever happen again. I just want to make sure this car will serve me well as a daily driver without having a second vehicle.

[Hermes]

scorpius has 161k on his daily driver & he's the only owner, got it brand new in 04

[kayger12]

If you stay on top of the preventative maintenance, they are extremely reliable.

[Frankavelli]

That's exactly the answer I was hoping for! I am meticulous with my car's maintenance, and all I ask in return is to get where I need to go without issue :)

[kayger12]

If you wander through the Maintenance forum, you can see some of the maintenance logs for members here.

The link to mine is here. (http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showthread.php?1769-Jersey-Graphite-Maintenance-Log)Will give you an idea of what a years worth of maintenance looked like for me.

[johnrando]

I'm amazed at the responses in a welcome thread haha. This is a great first impression haha! ... You guys deinitely seem like a great group ,and I appreciate the info you've already shared with me. It figures that the combo I want is tough, I have that sort of taste it seems.. that was the way it was when i was looking for my Acura. I wanted the Aegean Blue Pearl color which isn't ultra rare, but definitely one of the harder colors to find. I ended up finding one with navi which was awesome, so I am hoping I can have the same luck this time around.

I travel between Raleigh, and NJ quite a bit. My girlfriend is in Raleigh ( I am probably moving back down there soon) and my family is in NJ, so the zhp will have miles put on it. How do they hold up under that sort of use? I have been stranded on one of these road trips before due to my TL blowing a transmission, and do not want that to ever happen again. I just want to make sure this car will serve me well as a daily driver without having a second vehicle.

BTW, being new, you wouldn't know this, but it's actually guys and gals that welcomed you to the forum. :)

[Frankavelli]

how rude of me! thank you to the guys and ladies for the welcome!

[SC4ME]

Welcome to the family Frank. I also have a Nissan, a 1985 300ZX Turbo. My parents bought it new and just recently gave it to me as they are down-sizing (retirement, etc). I think they thought I would like a sports car, then when they arrived (from Fla) and drove my ZHP, they had a new appreciation of a sports car!

[Frankavelli]

that's awesome to get a gift like that given to you, especially since it's been in the family all of that time. Do you have any plans for the 300zx? Also, how big is the performance difference between the AT and MT in the zhp? as an Acura guy, I know the 6 speed TL's were a complete beast compared to the AT. Curious if it is the same deal with the e46

[HokieZHP]

Welcome to the forum! I'm from Chapel Hill, NC so right near Raleigh.

[Hermes]

how big is the performance difference between the AT and MT in the zhp? as an Acura guy, I know the 6 speed TL's were a complete beast compared to the AT. Curious if it is the same deal with the e46

there's a thread here somewhere talking about that, will try to find it. people that have driven both apparently say its very similar, but yeah a 6MT will def give you better performance. i bought a step because i know i'll be in a lot of stop n go traffic, hills and the such so convenience was a big issue in my mind. I would love to own a 6MT but what I want and what I should have for practical reasons are two different things

[johnrando]

there's a thread here somewhere talking about that, will try to find it. people that have driven both apparently say its very similar, but yeah a 6MT will def give you better performance. i bought a step because i know i'll be in a lot of stop n go traffic, hills and the such so convenience was a big issue in my mind. I would love to own a 6MT but what I want and what I should have for practical reasons are two different things

+1

[Frankavelli]

Yeah I feel like the mt would be a lot of fun but I'm not going to be picky... if I find a zhp that I like I won't turn it down based on the transmission if the performance gains aren't drastic... hokie when I'm back in Raleigh I'll have to shoot you a pm.. I saw your progress thread your ride is coming along great...thanks for the insight on the transmission differences Hermes

[Frankavelli]

So I work for an auto parts company and one of the body shops I visit had a silver 330ci zhp... looked to have minor rear bumper damage... thinking about finding out how to approach the owner aside from the bumper it looked to be in great condition... didn't get to see the front end though... will have to do more investigating tomorrow.... or maybe it belongs to somebody on here

[danewilson77]

thinking about finding out how to approach the owner...

Chop block then slip a ZHPMafia card in his pocket. Works for me....

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

[Hermes]

Chop block then slip a ZHPMafia card in his pocket. Works for me....

HTC Thunderbolt+TT

Hahaha... Is that how you picked up yours?

[kpro]

I'm amazed at the responses in a welcome thread haha. This is a great first impression haha! ... You guys deinitely seem like a great group ,and I appreciate the info you've already shared with me. It figures that the combo I want is tough, I have that sort of taste it seems.. that was the way it was when i was looking for my Acura. I wanted the Aegean Blue Pearl color which isn't ultra rare, but definitely one of the harder colors to find. I ended up finding one with navi which was awesome, so I am hoping I can have the same luck this time around.

I travel between Raleigh, and NJ quite a bit. My girlfriend is in Raleigh ( I am probably moving back down there soon) and my family is in NJ, so the zhp will have miles put on it. How do they hold up under that sort of use? I have been stranded on one of these road trips before due to my TL blowing a transmission, and do not want that to ever happen again. I just want to make sure this car will serve me well as a daily driver without having a second vehicle.

I used to be the honda girl...I loved Honda, still work for Honda, and swore for the longest time, I wouln't own anything but Hondas... until I bought my E46 one day. Now I don't know if I could ever have anything other than a bimmer as a daily driver ever again. I will stick to Hondas as my track cars tho :) Those TL's had shit auto transmissions...and I've put a few in customer cars in my day. The TL's are nice, but still nothing I could ever compare to my E46. Any car can break and leave you stranded, but as long as you do the preventitive maintainance you should be able to not worry about it so much.

I've put over 20k miles on my 325 this summer alone, with no issues since my VANOS was taken care of. Prior to that I had a few random things on my car "go" in a short period of time, but its been pretty reliable since I've been driving back and forth from NJ almost every other weekend (1,008 miles round trip). Which brings me to, I'm moving out your way...and if you stick around I'm sure we will cross paths at a meet or something :) I'm moving to the philly/NJ area, so South Jersey. Welcome to the mafia Frank :) ...Oh and buy a car with 3 pedals.

[Frankavelli]

I used to be the honda girl...I loved Honda, still work for Honda, and swore for the longest time, I wouln't own anything but Hondas... until I bought my E46 one day. Now I don't know if I could ever have anything other than a bimmer as a daily driver ever again. I will stick to Hondas as my track cars tho :) Those TL's had shit auto transmissions...and I've put a few in customer cars in my day. The TL's are nice, but still nothing I could ever compare to my E46. Any car can break and leave you stranded, but as long as you do the preventitive maintainance you should be able to not worry about it so much.

I've put over 20k miles on my 325 this summer alone, with no issues since my VANOS was taken care of. Prior to that I had a few random things on my car "go" in a short period of time, but its been pretty reliable since I've been driving back and forth from NJ almost every other weekend (1,008 miles round trip). Which brings me to, I'm moving out your way...and if you stick around I'm sure we will cross paths at a meet or something :) I'm moving to the philly/NJ area, so South Jersey. Welcome to the mafia Frank :) ...Oh and buy a car with 3 pedals.

Wow moving to Jersey?? what's bringing you here? Everybody seems to be moving out of here lol. I know all too well about the glass transmissions in those hondas/acuras. I blew through two of them in the 3 years I owned the TL. By the way I saw some pics on here of your 325, it looks awesome, very tastefully done. It's also very reassuring to hear you routinely road trip it with the 325 with little issue. I can't wait to get into one!

When youre back in NJ we should organize something with the locals from around here. Even if I dont have my e46 yet, I'd love to come check it out. Hell, I was bringing my Altima to a few Acura meets when i was in North Carolina anyway haha.

Oh and i may take your advice on the 3 pedals, hopefully I find the perfect ZHP for me

[kpro]

Thanks Frank. I'm with you on organizing meets...I do that ofter here in Ohio, and will need to meet new peeps once I leave anyways :) Sucks you had to put 2 transmissions in that thing.

Good Luck on your ZHP search :)