Used Car of the Day: 1986 Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Today we take you back to the days of my youth and present this 1986 Nissan 300ZX Turbo.
It's a dark blue and silver two-tone with T-tops. There's a 5-speed and gray leather interior and just 30,500 miles on the clock.
The car is in the possession of original owner and it's based on New Jersey. The asking price is $40,000.
There's not a lot more to the ad copy and sadly just one pic but the car looks clean.
Check it out here.
[Image: Seller]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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A 300ZX Turbo almost killed me. In 1985 a friend traded his black '78 Z28 for a black 300ZX Turbo 2-seater. I'd had a 280ZX and was quite aware of the Datsun's propensity for lift throttle oversteer but mine was not a turbo so pretty hard to get in trouble with. Skip was a banker and a pretty conservative guy; I don't recall any smoky burnouts in the Z28 although he was a bit of a hellion off-road in his Jeep. One night after a few adult beverages at happy hour we took a twisty road back home. Skip was on the throttle pretty hard and as we approached a downhill section with a right hander that tightened up after entry, I said loudly, don't back off the gas! As the words left my mouth Skip lifted. The Z started to rotate, and I saw a mailbox through the driver's side glass. We hit the grass and slid about 50 feet before stopping. Whew! No harm or damage done, but we limped home slowly from that point. Shortly after Skip traded the menacing black Turbo for a homely beige Volvo 740 sedan, automatic, no Turbo. He said he didn't need that much excitement in his life! Skip died a few years ago; Cancer did what the Datsun couldn't do.
These were the "buy one and get a free hairpiece" generation of Zs. I was in high school when these came out and while the previous Zs remained the subject of teenage interest, these certainly did not. That's not to say they were bad cars, per se, but they were very naff. 40-something white guys who had moved on from Camaros and wouldn't pony up for a 3 series seemed to be this model's target demographic. I recall voluminous praise for the generation that launched in 1990 because it represented a move away from everything this car embodied.
I loved these cars, I was blessed to own three. My first a red beauty 86. My second was an 87, 2+2, with digital everything. My third an 87, it had been ridden pretty hard when I got it but it served me well for several years. The first two I loved so much. Unfortunately they had fuel injection issue causing them to basically burst into flames. My son was with me at 10 years old when first one went up. I'm holding no grudges. Nissan gave me 1600$ for first one after jumping thru hoops for 3 years. I didn't bother trying with the second. Just wondering if anyone else had similar experience. I still love those cars.
Nice cars .my nissan 1988 beautiful I own one