put your hand on the bulge where the Transmit goes down the middle of the
car. is that hot to the touch?
if so... that isn't good.

make sure you get the roof covers.
and net for the trunk.

For whatever it may be worth to you, I'll offer you my personal opinion as a
current owner of a 1990 300ZX N/A(normally aspirated--or non-turbo if you
will). Here goes. For starters, the body style on these cars were WAY ahead
of their time. To me, they still hold their own with about anything new that
is out there today. Including the 350Z. That's just one good thing about the
1990-1996 300ZXs. They are a whole lot of fun to drive too. I still
thoroughly enjoy driving mine after all these years. That's amazing for me,
because I usually get tired of my cars fairly quick and either sell them or
trade for something different.

A friend of mine that owns his own garage and only works on Asian cars has
told me a lot of things about the particular generation of Z car that you
are interested in buying. By the way, he is a certified Nissan mechanic and
builds his own Nissan racing engines for the cars that he drives himself at
various tracks across the U.S.A. So I put a lot of stock into his opinion on
these cars. He said that it is best to stay away from the 1990 and 1991
model 300ZXs and buy a 1992-1996 instead--IF you can find a nice one at an
affordable price. Here are a few things with the 1990 models that he said
were fairly common problems for people that drove their Z past 120,000 miles
or so of operation:

-Automatic transmission hard/bang shifts from 1st to 2nd gear on some of the
1990-1991 models--depending on how the car was maintained and driven. Not an
uncommon problem for these Zs, but can happen to any car with an automatic
tranny for that matter.
-Delayed shifts going from 2nd to 3rd gear with some of the 1990 and 1991
models.
-Valves not seating properly*
* He showed me a Nissan technical service bulletin describing this issue for
1990 and 1991 300ZXs. Believe me, you don't want to ever have to pay for a
valve job to be performed on a 1990-1996 300ZX. It's VERY costly.
-Air intake valves causing a girgling sound from the front fender/wheel well
area on one or both sides of the car. This one can cause the vehicle's low
speed idle emissions inspection to fail in certain cases. Water gets trapped
in the air intake valve system and causes the girgling sound.
-Air conditioning problems weren't all that common for these cars, but it's
really expensive to have them resolved if you do encounter them. Depending
on the nature of the problem, of course.
-The black finish on the T-top and windshield trim pieces eventually flakes
off pretty badly. This is very, very common with these cars. It doesn't take
away from the appearance of the car too terribly bad, but it can lessen the
appeal to some degree for those of us that are picky about our ride(s).
-If the car has leather seats it's not uncommon for a hole/tear to get
rubbed into the driver's side of the backrest down near the belt line. Comes
from frequent entry and exit of the vehicle. For some reason this problem
has been worse with my Z car than it has been for other vehicles with
leather seats. Others have agreed with me on this assessment of the Z cars'
leather quality.

Other than these few items, I would say that overall the 1990 Nissan 300ZX
was/is a GREAT car!!! I rate mine a 9.0 on a 10.0 scale. Fun to drive,
plenty of pep, awesome looks, VERY reliable, comfortable and cool. These
cars appeal to a WHOLE LOT of people. Mine still generates positive comments
almost daily from someone--and it's not even in mint condition. Close--but
not quite by my standards.

Lastly, I believe that even if the one you're looking at is totally
immaculate, that price is too high for the car.

Regards,

S.T.