This car, Lot 817, sold for $35,840, including buyer’s premium, at Bonhams Cars’ Los Angeles, CA, auction on September 21, 2025.
Much has happened in the Datsun Z-car market since my last 280Z profile almost 10 years ago (Next Gen Profile, March 2017, p. 82). First and foremost, Japanese cars have since demonstrated that they are here to stay as legitimate collector vehicles. Many are also more valuable than people previously thought. Datsun owners have seen the value of their Z-cars shoot upwards and many have decided to either offload them or finish a stalled restoration. The latter is especially evident, as it has driven manufacturers to develop high-quality restoration parts for the Z-car market.
More and fewer options
Within this past decade, I also completed the first stage of my own Datsun 280Z restoration. I have been able to watch firsthand how the parts market has changed — both for good and bad. When I bought my car in 2013, I was still able to visit the junkyard and pick off parts from donor cars. Just a few years later, the junkyard supply started to go dry. I then began to use local Facebook groups, Craigslist, or wait for the local annual Datsun swapmeet. Now, after the surge of Datsuns in the collector car world, buyers who frequent these online venues have been a prime target for scammers on social media.
For example, fake Datsun Facebook groups only allow their administrator to post things they “have” for sale. They also only accept payment through non-reimbursable means, such as PayPal’s Friends and Family option, or Zelle. Once you realize you’ve been scammed, it’s too late — your money is gone and it’s not coming back. The only relatively safe way to buy used parts these days is locally in person or on eBay with its fraud-protection services.
The scene for new parts is also wildly different. Gone are the days of cracked dashes and ripped door panels; Vintage Dashes is now making reproductions of both of these popular parts. Z Car Depot and Motorsport Auto Z Store have almost every other stock part you’d need, including rubber trim, tie rods, gasket kits, drivetrain parts and more.
If you want high-performance parts, seek out Techno Toy Tuning and Apex Engineering. Not a fan of manual steering racks? There are multiple options for electric power-steering racks using repurposed parts from various Toyota, Nissan, Kia and even Saturn models. Is your car full of rust and other body damage? KlassicFab Vintage JDM has been laser-scanning cars and creating tooling to pop out brand-new sheet metal. This year, a Chinese manufacturer has even begun producing entire re-pop chassis for sale. Without a doubt, we are in a golden era for Datsun Z restorations.
A shifting market
The market for Z-cars themselves has also changed in these years. Rusty, barely salvageable 240Zs, once only good for pulling parts, are now selling as project cars for more than $3k. Though Z-car fans now have the confidence to undertake huge restoration projects, some of these people inevitably run out of steam, selling unfinished projects with extra parts for around $10k. Still, original-parts prices haven’t moved much. Datsun L24 and L28 inline-6 engines in unknown condition hover around $200–$800. Five-speed transmissions can range from $800 to $1,200, depending on whether the unit has been rebuilt.
Meanwhile, increased popularity has resulted in other knock-on effects. Collector car auctions have seen a huge rush of earlier Z models, including not only the 240Z, but the 260Z and 280Z. Bring a Trailer alone has had over 50 240Zs listed so far in 2025. Today, most examples land in the $20k to $35k area, though the best of the best — such as those restored by Nissan North America’s factory program in the 1990s — still command six figures. Today’s Z-car buyers have the opportunity to hold out for the one that checks all their desired boxes. Meanwhile, sellers are able to list their driver, custom project car or concours restoration at auction and be virtually guaranteed that there will be bidders interested in them.
One person’s dream
That said, the market for outlier Datsuns has dropped. Our subject car is beautifully restored, but there are plenty of demerits. The diamond-pattern vinyl interior isn’t original — it’s custom made and puffier than the OEM upholstery was. The door panels are also custom, lacking the original look many buyers will want. The speaker setup is nice to the right buyer, but that’s not every buyer. Aftermarket air conditioning is a great upgrade, but purists know it lacks the authenticity of a factory-correct restoration. The engine bay hoses are another call-out; they are not the braided style like the original car. The popular aftermarket mag wheels on it are period-correct, but some buyers would rather have the steel wheels 240Zs were born with. Changing all these incorrect features is cost-prohibitive in today’s market.
While this car is nicely restored, it sits in between two worlds. It’s a regional-show-grade car but not national-concours grade. It’s also a custom or “day-two modified” Z, with many nods toward its restorer’s individual taste that deviate from the originality many buyers prefer. With the Z-car market now trending softer following the broader pandemic market boom, plus the sheer number of these cars that are recently restored and available for sale, it was well enough sold.
