How did I not know this happened?

[OriginalWheelman]

http://jalopnik.com/what-happened-to-al ... 1583370936?

And so, in 1996 Nissan went on a used-car buying binge, rounding up as many clean and straight 1970 and 1971 240Z models they could find, mostly from desert locales. Former race driver and Z-Car restorer Pierre Perrot's Pierre'Z Service Center in Hawthorne, California (and three other SoCal shops) set about dissassembling them, tagging each part and performing ground-up resto jobs. Nissan anticipated a series run of 200 refurbished Zs, and the company picked 10 dealerships as designated "Z Stores," in Texas, Florida, California, Virginia and Georgia, to handle retailing duties.

I mean, these cars are almost 20 years from restore. They may be out there and ppl don't even know what they have. I just can't believe I never heard this.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

"We're losing money hand over fist... better launch a program to save all our kickass old cars"

Man, I miss old Nissan.

[AZhitman]

I don't think they did all 200.

People know what they have if they have one - they're asking silly money for them (and not getting it).

[Bubba1]

I mean, these cars are almost 20 years from restore. They may be out there and ppl don't even know what they have. I just can't believe I never heard this.

Well, it was only big news for about a week. The problem was not the quality of Nissan's refurbs or that they were not good cars. The problem was back then, you could buy a clean one for less than what Nissan wanted for their refurbed ones. And the main difference between Nissan's refurbed ones and the others was a fine-print filled 12K mile warranty. That warranty was not enough incentive pay such a premium for the same car. They're more of a interesting footnote than a value added model, which is why their owners are finding out the hard way that they're really not worth more than any other Z in similar condition.