So far my Z hasn't given me too much trouble. I'm a college student and work part time so I don't have a ton of cash either
The only thing I've "had" to do was replace the oil pan and diff gaskets, tune it up/mess with the afm, and a new radiator. I've only done one oil change and put about 4k on it so we'll see what happens down the road.
Oh, and I get horrible gas mileage but I think that changing the fuel filters and cleaning the injectors will help a lot