One of my favorite “bread crumbs” as it relates to understanding a car’s history is spotting an old license plate frame and assessing where, and when, it was last maintained. In the case of this sad Z31-chassis Nissan 300ZX, it apparently spend time at a predominant Z car repair shop in California; interestingly, it and another Z31 both ended up at the local donation lot, which makes me wonder if these were customer left-behinds claimed by a mechanic’s lien and ditched. Who knows? Either way, this particular car is a 1984 300ZX with the preferred 5-speed manual listed here on eBay with two bids to just $255 and no reserve.

“Precision Z” is located in Canoga Park, California and is still in business (seemingly, a good business, too, based on the positive Google reviews. Of course, it’s entirely possible this car was serviced by them and snagged out of a driveway when it was later abandoned, but based on many cars I’ve seen left at mechanics I’ve patronized over the years, it is not unusual at all for your local specialist shop to have to deal with a car wherein the owner doesn’t want to come in and pay their bill. While these cars are mostly undesirable, you wouldn’t believe some of the significant vehicles I’ve seen abandoned due to the owner being a globetrotter or going through a nasty divorce (or becoming a globetrotter because of divorce, as the case may be).

Now, this is a fairly low-spec Z car, and while that doesn’t make it a bad car, it does make it more likely that there’s no white knight coming to save it. The naturally-aspirated cars are still fairly easy to come by, and while an Anniversary model with the turbocharged powerplant has a bit of a following even in project car form, you don’t need to save this one. It’s more useful as a parts car for someone who needs the transmission or perhaps the digital instrument cluster (that’s assuming the one in this car still works.) The seats aren’t particularly desirable and these are trashed, anyway, but perhaps they’ll offer up a usable seat motor for the power adjust functions.

Now, when this seller lists a car, they do minimal assessment as to its mechanical health, but they usually flag if the car is terminal in some way (as in, the engine smokes or shudders badly.) This one is a bit of a mystery as it doesn’t run at all, even with a battery dropped in, and the listing notes that it doesn’t fire up with a jump box. Does that mean the engine is toast or is it due to a bad fuel pump, starter, alternator, and so on? One could assume due to being serviced at some point in its lifetime by a reputable shop that all is well under the hood once you determine the source of the non-starting issues; if you’re keen on owning one of these for peanuts, I’d recommend calling the shop and seeing what they can tell you about this forgotten Z car.