[ssrock64]

Around these parts, the guys who work at the counter at Autozone, etc. are all local kids who didn't go to college after graduating. The guys at service centers tend to know more, but the parts store staff can be completely ignorant of anything automotive.

 

[Hutnicks]

This morning I was at a local auto parts store (part of the O'Reilly chain) buying a little stick-on spot mirror. The kid helping me looked out the window and said "Do you know what kind of car that is?" When I looked, I wasn't sure what he meant - all I saw was one of those ugly first gen Datsun/Nissan 300ZX from the mid 80s. I said "You mean the Z-Car?" - and he responded "Is that it's name 'Z-Car?' I just sort of stared at him at then said - "It's a Datsun 300ZX from the mid-80s." I guess I was just sort of flabbergasted that someone that works in an auto parts store didn't know what a "Z-Car" was...

 

 
 
So you had to throw the kid a curve ball and lay the Datsun name on him 
 
It's a 20 odd year old car. The kid was probably still a protein strand in a steak sandwich his father had yet to eat.

 

[veyrongatti]

This morning I was at a local auto parts store (part of the O'Reilly chain) buying a little stick-on spot mirror. The kid helping me looked out the window and said "Do you know what kind of car that is?" When I looked, I wasn't sure what he meant - all I saw was one of those ugly first gen Datsun/Nissan 300ZX from the mid 80s. I said "You mean the Z-Car?" - and he responded "Is that it's name 'Z-Car?' I just sort of stared at him at then said - "It's a Datsun 300ZX from the mid-80s." I guess I was just sort of flabbergasted that someone that works in an auto parts store didn't know what a "Z-Car" was...

to be fair that 300ZX (Z31 because the Z32 was a beast) was one of the biggest failures in the Z car range..... Too heavy and too slow to be anything significant would not be astonished if people my age don't know about it 

 

[Hutnicks]

Ah the second they hung an "X" on the end of the designations, the whole line went for a dump.

 

[billybob_jcv]

What got me was that he didn't recognize the term "Z-car"...

 

[Hutnicks]

What got me was that he didn't recognize the term "Z-car"...

That's a really sad comment on the 350-370Z 's isn't it? From every highschoolers wet dream to obscurity.
 
Now if they'd only harken back to the original days and make the 380 the "Poor Mans F-Type"

 

[veyrongatti]

What got me was that he didn't recognize the term "Z-car"...

I wouldn't 

 maybe its because Im not American >.< 

 

[veyrongatti]

 
That's a really sad comment on the 350-370Z 's isn't it? From every highschoolers wet dream to obscurity.
 
 

I still wouldnt mind one 

 

[jimmers]

 I guess I was just sort of flabbergasted that someone that works in an auto parts store didn't know what a "Z-Car" was...

 

I thought Z- Cars was an olde English TV cop show (their patrol cars were mk3 Ford Zephyr sixes) 

 

 

[Magick Man]

I love old Z cars, the fat-arsed 280ZX doesn't qualify. The 240Z, aka. 1st gen Fairlady, is almost perfect... especially with larger brakes, better dampers, a locking LSD, sticky tires, and RB26DETT/5-spd swap. Even with those mods, you're looking at ~$40k, all in, for something that will smoke all but the fastest new sports cars, and look much better doing it. Check this: http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/datsun/240z/1651714.html That's a great price.

Leaving Italy, we're sending the baby back to the US while we stop in Dubai for a few days, I need to see that 250 acre car lot full of exotics for myself.

 

[ssrock64]

I may have mentioned in the past that I had a bright orange '72 240Z while I lived in Wisconsin. It came to me as a non-running project from somebody's garage, complete with a selection of two engines and three transmissions, so I ended up with an L26 (complete with triple Weber carbs in place of the original pieces) and a later 5-speed from the batch. It was always meant more as a weekend back roads car than a track monster, but I've seen some Z-car guys with really serious racing setups in their examples. If you go to any major track event (Kohler International Challenge was my local pilgrimage each year), the number of BRE tribute 510 and 240Z track cars is truly astonishing.
 
But yeah, that early 300ZX is a pig. The 350Z is a pretty good car that helped bring back the spirit of the original somewhat, but the 370Z followed the same path as Nissan did in the 70s and got fatter and less focused.

 

[billybob_jcv]

I've owned a few Nissan vehicles, and my opinion is that the excellent Nissan cars are more of an accident rather than good engineering. This is supported by the fact that every good Nissan car has been ruined in later versions. Occasionally, they do create a better car than the original, but then they will later ruin what they fixed! The Maxima is a good example of this, the 1985 Maxima was cr@p, the 1989 Maxima SE was excellent, the 1995 Maxima SE was good, the 2000 Maxima was not as good and it continued downhill from there.

They didn't give the Datsun 510 a perfect 50/50 weight distribution with the perfect platform for a stiff track suspension - it was a complete accident. They clearly didn't understand what they had in the Datsun 240Z, because everything they did to it made it worse!

 

[billybob_jcv]

I just watched a bizarre documentary. It's on Netflix, and you need to see this. It will make you laugh and also make you cringe. Some of the people, (like "Master Legend" & "Mr. Xtreme") are genuinely nuts and should be committed. Others seem to just be geeks that want to help people and do this instead of volunteering at the local food bank.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1792621/

After watching this movie, I think the best way to describe my feeling is: confused.

 

[billybob_jcv]

Have you guys been following the GM recall fiasco? Wow - they are hanging the engineer that signed-off on that ignition switch out to dry! I can't imagine what it would feel like to have an independent investigation name a decision you made as the specific cause for 13 deaths in a public report.

 

[ssrock64]

Have you guys been following the GM recall fiasco? Wow - they are hanging the engineer that signed-off on that ignition switch out to dry! I can't imagine what it would feel like to have an independent investigation name a decision you made as the specific cause for 13 deaths in a public report.

Of course heads will roll, but the fact that the top echelons of their management claims they never knew about all of these safety issues is the real indicator of a company-wide culture of concealment. The people who set the tone for issue reporting are those at the top, so the people who created this issue are generally gone from the company by now with Barra and her administration in place. However, it remains to be seen whether this recent recall frenzy is just a PR move from Barra's team, or if she's genuinely trying to clean up their corporate culture.