1986 Nissan 300 ZX - You Can't Be All Things To All People

 

Let's make an assumption that in 1984, buyers of Nissan's new 300 ZX would have cross-shopped Chevrolet's also new for 1984 Corvette. I think that makes sense given they were priced around the same and offered similar rakish, good looks with more than an ample dab of sporting pretense. The similarities ended there, though since while the Corvette was finally a sports car to be taken seriously, well, more seriously given where the make had been prior and the 300 ZX, with a sports car lineage to die for, had become more luxury car grand touring car than an out and out sports car. Our subject is a 1986.
 

Even going back to when the first generation "ZX" came out in 1978, they were derided for not being the Datsun 240 Z - which was a raw, edgy, "pure" sports car. And an affordable one at that. Thing is, though, real sports cars make miserable daily drivers. The mass majority of people, even those who think they want a real sports car, don't want something that's impossible to get in and out, are noisy and are going to pound their kidneys into sawdust everyday. A weekend jaunt? Sure. But day in and day out the routine gets old. Fast. "Sports cars" tend to be quite expensive too. So, the combination of impracticality, harshness and being expensive makes for a very niche targeted automobile segment.

 

I'm doing my darnedest trying to remember what twenty something year old me thought of these cars back then. When you drove the crap I did in the 1980's these cars where as unobtainable as getting a date with Madonna. It being the 1980's and Japanese cars kicking the tail pipe out of anything and everything domestically, I probably thought that since it was a Japanese car it was vastly superior to the Corvette; which in the long run as just a car it was. As a "sports car", though, and this goes for its visceral appeal as much as anything, it came up short. Way short. The Corvette may have been a crude appliance but at least in terms of what you should buy a sports car for, this car couldn't touch it. 

 

Is it better to look the part but not really be who you pretend to be or actually be the part and be off putting? Well, having bought a car or two in my day that was wholly impractical and impossible to live with as a daily driver, all I can tell you is you'll be happier in the end with something that looks sporty as opposed to being really capable.

 

Then again, you know what they say about trying to be all things to all people. After almost 15 model years of producing soggy and pretentious sporty looking cars, undoubtedly meticulously well screwed together sporty looking cars, Nissan replaced this car in 1989 with a real sports car that was as off putting to the gold chain and golf club sect as it was appealing to those who longed for the original Datsun 240 Z. It also gave Corvette an old fashioned run for its money.