Future Smoking Tire One Take: My 300ZX

"Garrett Davis" (GarrettDavis)
07/21/2015 at 13:50 • Filed to: None

I’ll be heading up to LA on January 8th where Matt Farah will be driving my car for his one take series! Oh, be still my heart.

Plenty of time to replace that pesky little thing they call a “clutch?” Doesn’t sound important to me, but I guess I should probably take care of it before he drives it. I should also do my front pads and rotors at least.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Hopefully he likes it better than that Prius he just drove...

DISCUSSION (22)

AM3R shamefully returns > Garrett Davis
07/21/2015 at 13:53

Nice! Looking forward to watching it..

Local dealer just got a red N/A manual 300zx with T-tops.. 106k on it and they want $6k. It's tempting!

Garrett Davis > AM3R shamefully returns
07/21/2015 at 14:00

Nice! Price sounds a bit high, plenty of room to talk them down on that. Mine was $4500 with 125k miles, though that’s talked down from $5k because it needs a clutch.

It’s a very fun car to drive, though, even in NA form. My favorite car so far, even over my Focus ST.

AM3R shamefully returns > Garrett Davis
07/21/2015 at 14:05

I'm definitely gonna head down there and see how low I can get them.. I don't need another car but having something fun like this wouldn't hurt!

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Garrett Davis
07/21/2015 at 14:49

Awesome! The 300ZX might be one of my favorite cars of all time.

RightFootDown > Garrett Davis
07/21/2015 at 15:15

That’s awesome!

Our founder had a 91 300ZX NA 5-speed with minor bolt-ons and HKS coilovers with SSR wheels and Pilot Super Sports that was a riot and surprisingly quick! We’d love to find a cheap and clean slicktop!

Garrett Davis > AM3R shamefully returns
07/21/2015 at 15:40

One thing to look out for (and possibly to talk them down on) is that these cars have a MANDATORY timing belt and water pump service by 120k miles, which that one is approaching.

Otherwise they’re pretty damn reliable in NA form. I haven’t had mine all that long, but judging by the extensive service history on mine, the maintenance is all pretty standard wear items

Garrett Davis > RightFootDown
07/21/2015 at 15:41

Nice! I’m definitely on the fence on keeping this stock. They’re just so hard to find clean and stock that I don’t want to do it a diservice.

Garrett Davis > Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
07/21/2015 at 15:41

Thanks!

AM3R shamefully returns > Garrett Davis
07/21/2015 at 21:36

Here’s the ad, thanks for the heads up! http://atcm.co/S2PVDP/1826C61…

Are these really as hard to work on as people make it seem?

Garrett Davis > AM3R shamefully returns
07/22/2015 at 00:13

Just a few notes on that one, it looks like the rear cargo shade and for some reason the coin/ash tray insert are missing.

If the paint is original I’d check the front and rear for run wear. Nissan did kind of a poor job on prepping the plastic bumpers for paint, so there is usually some fading on the bumpers. Watch for cheap touchups on them, especially for on dealers.

116k means it either has recently had the service or needs it pretty much immediately (which might be why it was sold to them in the first place) This is easily a $1k service for everything. If they did do it, make sure it was a complete service with timing belt, water pump and seals — not just the belt itself.

As far as maintainance is concerned, keep in mind that most of the problems you hear come from the very complicated TT model. The engine bay is very cramped even in the NA model, let alone with two turbos crammed in there (they’re under the exhaust manifolds). The turbo models also had a very finicky four wheel steer system that many people end up bypassing anyway.

Otherwise, these engines are impressively reliable in NA form. As long as you keep up with fluid changes, its really just standard wearables that go. The engine bay is still tight as hell, but most typical things you’ll need to touch are relatively easy to get to (alternator, spark plugs, belts are a bit of a pain, etc).

One common problem area is the two piece driveshaft which starts making a bit of noise at around that mileage. The common fix is to just buy a one piece replacement, which isn’t all that much more than rebuilding the original, and it’s much more stout. The trade off is a bit of NVH, but from what I read it’s worth it for the decrease in rotational mass alone (I’ll be replacing mine soon).

A few other notes, aftermarket “cold air” intakes are nearly worthless on these cars, as they already pull air from right below the headlights from dual intakes and throttle bodies. This one doesn’t have the Bose stereo, which is good if you plan on upgrading it (you should). The Bose system uses a ton of proprietary parts, mountings and baffles that make it a total bitch to replace with something modern.

That’s pretty much everything you should look for besides typical used car issues. These really are fun cars to drive. For comparison, the acceleration is about on par with an FR-S, so not exactly fast, but reasonably quick. Just don’t be scared to rev it out, it makes peak power between 6k and 7k.

That was probably way more info than you were looking for, but let me know what happens anyway! There aren’t enough clean 300ZXs around here! Or anywhere for that matter.

AM3R shamefully returns > Garrett Davis
07/22/2015 at 00:46

I greatly appreciate all the info. If I don't pursue the car myself I'm going to heavily be pushing my brother to buy this as his first car. I think I'll have the time to check it out tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get back to you with good news!

Garrett Davis > AM3R shamefully returns
07/22/2015 at 01:11

Cool, man! Hopefully this thing is everything they say it is. If they have no record of the service being done, just assume it wasn’t. You really, really don’t want to find out the hard way. Good luck!

AM3R shamefully returns > Garrett Davis
07/22/2015 at 01:26

Thanks! Let’s just say they have no service records.. What would you offer? If that's the case I'm gonna try to bring it to my mechanic. I'm very interested in this now.. I just feel like the price is pretty high. I don't wanna pay TT money for no reason haha.

Garrett Davis > AM3R shamefully returns
07/22/2015 at 10:30

I kind of doubt they will have the service records. That’s the shitty thing about buying from a used dealer. I have a suspicion they just throw the records away, because I’ve never seen them actually have anything.

I would definitely take it to a mechanic. I would bet that the reason they even have it is because the previous owner either couldn’t or didn’t want to afford the 120k service. Either way, $7k is far too high for an NA. That’s getting into TT money. If the service has been done and verified by a mechanic, I would say between $5k and $5,500 is fair. If the service hasn’t been done, then I wouldn’t pay over $4k (and that’s if everything else is kosher). This car is a rare case where it is sometimes worth more with higher mileage, just because of that service interval.

Looking at the pictures on my desktop now, I see it does actually have the Bose head unit, but not the panel that went underneath it, which tells me they probably had an aftermarket stereo in there before, so that’s something to look out for. If the paint on the front and rear bumpers is as nice as it looks in the pictures and has no sun fading, I would be very suspicious of the paint job. It’s fairly common for people to just respray the bumpers, and often times a pretty cheap job at that. A good place to check is around the bottom edge of the front bumper for scrapes coming out of driveways (which is pretty much unavoidable), if you can see a few layers of paint there you can tell it was a respray. If you just see one shade of red and then yellow underneath/where it scraped off, this is normal (Nissan didn’t primer the plastic bumpers, which is why they fade).

I hope it ends up working out!

Edit: Oh, and take a look at the tires for the brand. It says 4 new tires which is common in used dealers because they love to slap the cheapest rubber they can find on there to cover up any uneven wear. If you’ve never heard of the brand, or they’re obviously cheap, have the mechanic look at the bushings and hubs for any wheels slop, and then watch for vibrations at freeway speeds. None of this is 300ZX specific, but it’s good to look for on any used car, especially from a dealership.

AM3R shamefully returns > Garrett Davis
07/23/2015 at 00:24

Kinja'd!!!

Looked at it earlier today, didn’t even end up driving it because they made it clear that they didn’t want to budge very much on the price for this “rare beast”.

Like you said, bumpers were bad. Looked poorly resprayed, tons of orange peel. Even on the side skirts. The bad respray was so obvious, the rear tow hook had paint on the front of it! Didn’t have any service records or prior knowledge on the car. New tires (can’t remember the brand.. Had bridge in it but wasn’t Bridgestone haha) and fresh oil. I told them I was thinking more like $4k, especially considering the lack of maintenance on the car and the obviously poorly resprayed bumpers. The clutch was also likely original and would soon have to be replaced too. I liked the car a lot for $4k.. But no way for $6995. Oh, the sticker on the car was $7995.. $6995 was the Internet price that the guy would “hook me up with".

Garrett Davis > AM3R shamefully returns
07/23/2015 at 01:19

Jesus... Yeah, I can tell on the paint from the pics. Terrrrrible respray. Yeah, even at $4k I’d be cautious with that dealership. These guys sound like some of the worst. $8k will buy you a decent TT, not a mediocre NA.

Definitely better off passing on that one. If you’re really interested in picking one up, I would just be patient and keep checking craigslist. They aren’t easy to find, especially not a stock one in decent shape.

If you end up finding one and have any questions, shoot me an email at garrettdavis6 at gmail.com - I’d be more than happy to help out a fellow Jalop in finding a good car. I tend to go overboard on research with things, especially with cars, so I’m always willing to pass that info along, especially if it means preserving more cars like these.

Cheers! You dodged a svelt, sexy Japanese bullet on this one.

AM3R shamefully returns > Garrett Davis
07/23/2015 at 01:33

Thanks again for the help, definitely appreciate it. I’ll keep your email in case I find another. I always liked Z32’s but never actively looked for one, on my usual autotrader search this popped up and caught my eye. At least it made me want a 300zx more!

I’m the same way when it comes to buying a car, I’ll research non stop until I know exactly what I’m getting in to. So far it seems to have worked well, I have two German cars that haven’t caused any headache! I like the research.. But that usually ends up with me researching mods too, which is the quickest way to hurt my wallet haha.

Off to Craigslist to look for some clean TT’s..

Dsscats > Garrett Davis
08/29/2015 at 01:48

Come meet me, hang out with another Z!

Garrett Davis > Dsscats
08/29/2015 at 04:28

I thought you sold yours! I could have sworn I saw a post on here about that.

Dsscats > Garrett Davis
08/29/2015 at 04:30

Lelnope!

Garrett Davis > Dsscats
08/29/2015 at 05:27

Am I just making that up.in my head or was that actually a post?

Dsscats > Garrett Davis
08/29/2015 at 12:53

I listed it a while back, but didn’t sell