Renyulb28

In my search for an older Japanese rwd car to trade for with my 1999 Honda CR-V that has a blue book value of $3,500, I stumbled upon this listing

86 Nissan 300 zx t top

I contacted the owner, and it seems that the car has ~150,000 miles, had an overheating problem but was fixed with a new thermostat, and may need a throwout bearing in the near future.

I am new to Nissan's and Z's; only owned Toyota's and Honda's thus far. How much do you believe this car is worth? And is this a worthwhile trade?

Thanks for any help!

rogerz

iF YOU HAVE mechanical ability and the patience to work on and maintain a car that is old enough to drink then yes. They are fun cars but you need to learn their quirks. Hondas are okay toyotas suck in my opinion they have lousy engines that are underpowered. But you won't have a Z car with out problems cropping up. depending on condition that car (I assume not a turbo car) would go for maybe $2K forget blue book it is a joke. If it were a turbo in good shape and everything works might go $3K
May need a throwout bearing means a clutch job plus those tranny's usually have input shaft bearing problems - so you might as well replace that while in there plus rear crank seal. and you can figure on doing the following if you want a reliable fun car to drive.
Get your battery load tested. Be sure you have clean, tight corrosion free terminals on both ends of your battery cables. Be sure the ground (negative) cable goes to a bolt into the frame before going to the starter. grounding through the starter is not a reliable connection. Z's don't like low voltage. causes the electronics to act funny. it is possible to have enough amps to crank but not enough voltage to run the electronics. If you have one size fit all cheapo clamp on terminals they are a problem waiting to happen.

Clean the connectors for the maf or afm, ecu and tps. Deoxit by CAIG is probably the best connector cleaner on the market. spray with CorrosionX after cleaning and before putting together this will help prevent any further corrosion.

Replace outer tie rod ends, and ball joints. replace the bushings with poly (don't forget to lube them as directed unless you like squeaky things). New shocks. all those things will make you think you are driving a different car. doing them piece meal is a waste you won't see a great improvement until you do the complete job. Rear bushings nice too but more work and you won't notice as great an improvement. Rear shocks also because if the fronts are gone so are the rears. if car squats when you jump on the gas the rears are gone. If you have the electro adjustable shocks they are DEFINITELY GONE.

blackout08

Sounds like he probably overheated up before he realized he was getting hot. I'd go look at it with open eyes. 3000 seems a bit high though, especially for having body damage. Just my two cents (I now own two 86 models, 1 turbo, and 1 n/a)

ken99

Looking to buy an 86 Z31, I've been sort of tracking the selling price of early generation Z31's on EBay since last April. B grade cars with more than 150K on the odometer have been sold for as much as $2,500 to $3,000 for manuals w/ turbocharged engines and clean body panels. I would say $1,500 to $2,500 is more typical. NA engined cars and automatics bring less money. These were 84 to 86 cars only.

I would not trade of the Civic for the Z31, but would sell it separately to get as much cash out of it as possible. I would not trust the Z31 to be a dependable daily driver from how it has been described.