Several companies sell vehicle history reports, promising to reveal the past of any given vehicle. Keep in mind no report is perfect. It's only as good as the incidents that have been reported to the database. If, for example, someone gets into a minor accident and decides to repair the car without involving an insurance company for fear of rates going up, the accident will not be reflected in the report. Similarly, if the body shop handling the repairs does not share its data with the vehicle history companies, it will not appear on a report either. So a vehicle could have frame damage and you would not know it by just reading the report. That said, we still recommend running a vehicle history report before driving across town to see a car in person.

• Fuel Injectors May Fail and Cause Drivability Concerns.
• Exhaust Manifold Can Warp and Cause the Studs to Break Off.
• Check PCV valves if vehicle emits blue smoke.

AZhitman wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 13, 2021 9:43 pm

That's a metric crapton of miles on a Z32. They're NOT an easy car to wrench on, so you may be getting in over your head (I've been restoring and building Nissans and Datsuns for 20 years and I *still* don't like tinkering with my daughter's 90 Z32).

The seller seems to think that the engine mileage is important. It's not. We wouldn't reset the odometer (or even mention it) if the engine was rebuilt (right?), and there's NO proof that the takeout motor had 55k miles. So, it's still a 240K mile car. At that point, every bushing and suspension component is DONE. Wheel bearings, ball joints, struts, bushings... everything is suspect.

This isn't what you want to hear, but at 16, your first car will most likely not stick around long. I have four kids, so I went through it with them (and they all had professional instruction and even some track time). Each one went through 2-3 cars in the first couple years. That's just life.

So, a collectible Z might not be the smartest first car. It's not as sexy or cool, but a post-2000 manual Corolla, Mazda 3, Civic, Versa, or something of the sort makes a TON more sense. Insurance will be cheaper, and you can learn to wrench on that.

Buy a Z, by all means - but buy the best one you can afford. It'll cost more in the beginning, but the one you're looking at sounds like it's gonna be on jackstands for a long time.

Welcome aboard! Glad you're here.