I think it’s fair to say times are changing and there's a lot more Z love out there today then there once was. You only have to go to a few show's to see the crazy amounts of positive attention these cars get. I’ve been blown away by all of the comments and support I get wherever I take the car, there’s lots of people out there who lust after one of these still.
From my understanding given the reputation of Datsun’s and rust back in the day its hardly surprising that stereotyping exists, even though that similar reputation spreads across many different manufacturers of the period. If we're being realistic its only in the last decade that the S30 is finally being recognized by the general market place. Back in the 90’s I doubt the marque would have attracted much attention and I’m sure prices would have been fairly rock bottom. With the classic market booming and buyers being priced out at different levels everyone looks to what they can afford and that demand keeps the prices surging.
While a few dealers think they can make a quick few bucks on the back of this then they’ll keep bringing in basket cases in the hopes to make some easy money. Hopefully when they realise this isn’t the case and we see the market continue to rise (rather than being critical of the price hikes, regardless of condition) then suddenly there’s the financial sense in doing the high level restorations that we’d all like to see. I think for the UK though this will be a slower game unless someone can fabricate and produce a kit to convert cars to RHD then I imagine a lot of potential buyers will disappear. My car being LHD doesn’t bother me in the slightest however I know for a large proportion of people that’s game over before they’ve even put a foot in the door.
I get the impression that large contingent of owners on here have in some case owned their cars for decades and there’s not too many new faces, the fact that my membership no. is only 1093 speaks for itself. Ultimately if you want to raise the profile getting more people involved and out on a regular basis is a sure way to do that, using our cars regularly and drawing attention to the S30 should attract new interest and money which is ultimately what we should all be interested in doing as everyone wins then. Also engaging with social media is the new big thing whether we like it or not so it’s important to be spreading the word.
I'll follow this with interest.
Any 'anti Datsun' press came mainly from the UK car industry and those 'working' in it. As a way to try and make up for producing cars that were(still are) 20 years behind the Japanese. Have a look around 80's/90's uk built cars, much worse than a 1960's design Datsun/Nissan.
I guess in the long run the Japanese did get the last laugh though, look at the state of the car industry that we dragged along with tax payers money for so long.
I wouldn't describe the cars of SJ classics as basket cases, some of them need more work but generally good.
If people are shy of LHD cars, all the better in my book, those people must really have the blinkers on. There doesn't seem to be much trouble selling them. I would prefer to have a RHD car, however one that was in the same condition and originality didn't exist, if it did, it'd be out of my price range, its not a feature that I value enough to pay that sort of difference for.
LHD/RHD/Original/Project, it's engaging people in the cars, the rusty ones just help to show the value of those that aren't, they're all helping develop the parts market for the cars which help us all.
and offer clean, original or restored examples instead? 
since 1989 in promoting them - was/am I stupid
, wasting my time and effort ?
