Forty years on, even the most popular cars have lost their daily driver responsibilities. The lucky ones were well-kept or restored and are now promoted to weekend jewelry kept in the garage. Let’s face it, who is willing to live without navigation, Bluetooth integration, bun warmers, electrical everything to make their lives easier, plus some extra safety thrown in? Well, if you are willing to live without those, you’re in the right place! So it’s nice to see a car that could still qualify as a daily driver, at least by its condition – it wears its 42 years proudly, and while you might want to do some upgrades for reliability or just to restore things like seat padding back to new, this could be the basis for a good driver. You can find this 1972 Datsun 240Z for sale for $3300 in Mountain View, CA.
The car appears to have mostly original finishes, including the silver paint. While the more common orange and yellow suit this car very well, silver is a bit more unusual, and the contrast of a conservative color on a sporting body style is interesting to look at. The current owner is said to have owned the car since 1973, and while it’s lacking the blue plates it would have had back then, it does have the white plates that date back to the early 1990s.
There’s a fair amount of attention in the ad text devoted to originality, yet the car wears 280Z wheels, a broken aftermarket antenna, and seat covers that look like they were made up by the local veterinarian in his spare time. The dash looks pretty good, since you’d expect a driver-quality California car to at least have a few faultlines running across the dash to the base of the windshield. Some cleaning, restuffing of the seats, and a carpet kit could get you pretty far. The only real concern here is what looks like rust along the door seals – hopefully that’s just liberally applied adhesive or, at the worst, surface corrosion. Given how the rest of the car looks, you’d be justified in being optimistic.
Things look complete under the hood, and while no indication is given of the running condition of the car, it’s said to have the original L24, which mercifully runs through a 4-speed instead of the automatic you might find on a cheaper car. As with the interior, some cleaning up could take this car a long way – while you don’t want to erase the car’s age or honesty, you probably want to get it to a point where you can easily see both carburetors, and where you won’t need a rag to wipe your hands just for checking the oil.
Assuming this car is still in running, driver condition mechanically, a couple of weekends could have you a nice driver that you won’t worry about each time you park at the local store.
Rusty But Trusty 
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