Used Car of the Day: 1987 Nissan 300ZX

by Tim Healey

Published: October 20th, 2023

Today's UCOTD comes to us via Seattle -- it's a 1987 Nissan 300ZX that someone tried and failed to steal.

The ad copy is a difficult read -- there's a period between just about every word, for reasons that escape me -- but I've managed to ascertain that the car has about 177,000 miles on it and is a five-speed manual coupe.

The appears to be some damage -- it looks like it was hit -- but the seller says it runs and drives, though it needs to be bump-started after the attempted theft. The digital dash seems to work.

The asking price is only $2,500 so if you're willing to put in a bit of work -- and can figure out the ad copy -- you could get a steal of a deal on an old Z.

Click here for more.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

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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2 of 31 comments

Arthur Dailey on Oct 20, 2023

One of the ultimate 'yuppie cars'. A friend of mine ordered an IROC Camaro, he had to wait so long that eventually he cancelled and got a 300ZX Turbo. For its time it was a cutting edge car, perhaps more grand tourer than racer?

2 Reply
Wjtinfwb on Nov 06, 2023

I had a 280Zx and when the 300 ZX was introduced, the Datsun dealer called me to let me know they were taking one off the truck now if I wanted a early look. I raced up to Courtesy Datsun-Oldsmobile and 45 minutes later was... home washing my 280. Baroque, heavy styling Overdone interior. Still a semi-trailing arm rear suspension prone to lift oversteer. Goofy half open lights. Velour interior like a Vegas whorehouse. They slowly improved over the years and the next gen was what the ZX should have been all along. My 280 eventually gave way to a Mustang 5.0 and I didn't look back.

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