Gone but not forgotten - not exactly an original epitaph for the Nissan 300ZX - but appropriate nevertheless.

Axed from the New Zealand market early this year, and also in Australia just a few months back, the Zed car is one of the casualties of changed tastes and altered buying patterns among new car buyers on both sides of the Tasman.

In this country, it also took a severe body blow from the used import trade, but that probably only hastened the inevitable.

The Nissan 300ZX has become out of step with its audience…although tens of thousands of admiring Zed car fans around the world would disagree.

Never a big seller in New Zealand - its relatively high price and niche market status ensured that, although 17 were sold in the first 12 months following its release date in 1990 - the Zed is now capable of assuming a kind of “classic’ car status, following the decision to phase it out of the New Zealand market as a new car model.

New Zealand’s used import trade from Japan is ensuring the car will continue to show up on New Zealand roads with new number plates, even though new car showrooms will never see its bold and swoopy lines again. 

Even in Japan, the future of the 300ZX looks bleak, with rumours that the chances of a successor aren’t great. 

Production of ZXs for the British market stopped in 1994 because of the price hike that would have been struck to cover the cost of re-engineering the car to meet new European emissions regulations. 

In July this year production for the United States also stopped, thanks to the falling demand for what the Americans call “high-line” sportscars, in favour of sporty sedans and the ubiquitous sports-utility vehicles. 

In Japan, the loss of export markets such as Britain, the United States and now Australia and New Zealand will have an effect on the model’s future, coupled with falling demand on the domestic market too. 

The 300X stemmed from a succession of sporty predecessors, including the 240Z from 1970, the 260Z from 1973 and the 280ZX of 1979. 

During the 1980s, the ZX lost its way significantly.  It packed on weight faster than a New Zealand motoring writer on the new car press launch circuit and developed a lazy suspension that bordered on sloppy.  Air conditioning, electric this and that, and American-market styling blunted the performance edge the car’s predecessors had earned the hard way, and eventually the 300ZX became an object of derision. 

Motoring writers around the world wrote the car off and said Nissan had forgotten how to build sportscars. 

Then came the 300ZX, which reached New Zealand late in 1990, and all the criticism suddenly died away. 

The Sydney Morning Herald recently passed judgement on the last of the Zed cars saying the model wasn’t the fastest sportscar around, nor the best value - but it was smart and honest, well built and well finished.  It handled predictably and “didn’t leak or creak.” 

The Australians judged the 300ZX of the 1990s as the first genuine, mass-produced sports coupe from Japan to shake up what they called “the Euro firmament.”

Back in October 1990, Wednesday Motoring sampled the new 300ZX car and described it “like a clear sunrise after days of rain - an absolute sensation.”

Our article described the birth of the new model: “Nissan cut down its height, widened it, slashed centimetres of overhang front and rear, expanded the wheelbase and moved the cabin forward - dumping the orthodox shape of long bonnet and set-back cockpit.

“It designed and interior to look as if it had been cast from a single mould.  It penned seats sophisticated enough to adjust to anyone’s shape and preferred driving position - and then it set to improving the 3-litre V6 motor and designing suspension that would act like no other Nissan undercarriage had before.”

Back then we judged it the best-handling Nissan in decades, its strengths being ride quality at speed, smoothness of power delivery, stunning good looks and reasonable luggage space.

Downsides were fuel economy, awkwardly heavy doors, and (predictably for a 2+2 car) rear seat accommodation.

Given that sort of reception for the car six years ago - and the fact that there has really been nothing to match the 300ZX since - it’s a pity that the only 300ZXs now coming here these days are being disgorged from ships reserved for tired used cars from the automobile trade auctions of cities like Tokyo.  There’s no doubt that the used imports have put the 300ZX more within of many motorists, but the trade has simultaneously killed much of the car’s mystique.

Nissan New Zealand says the arrival of used import models from Japan in previous years - many with the much more powerful twin turbo engine at half the $106,000 price of the “New Zealand new” V6 car - effectively wiped out imports of new models.  Last year only two new ZXs were sold and early this year Nissan said: “Enough!” and deleted the model from its line-up.

Seven year old 300ZXs from Japan are now retailing here for between $25,000 and $35,000, which must seriously irritate those buyers who previously shelled out significant numbers of dollars to buy a New Zealand-new example of the car.

Used imports may have devalued the car’s memory - but there’s still nothing to take its place.