What Was She Thinking?!

Continuing with my series, I am featuring one of my own vehicles. Well, it's not mine anymore, but "she used to be my girl. . . ."

I have been crazy about the Nissan 300ZX from the first time I ever saw one up close and personal in a parking garage in San Antonio, Texas, in 1985. This 1988 that I'm featuring today is a very special one, indeed. I had lost my red 1984 300ZX in the flooding of Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001. To me, there wasn't the option of getting any other kind of car. I wanted another Z. So I hung around on Z31.com, lurked on e-Bay looking at some of the Zs that were available for auction. I'd contact the seller, ask questions, run the cars' VINs (Vehicle Identification Number) through CarFax to shake out obvious title defects. And of course, post to Z31.com so the mavens there could pick the prospect apart like wolverines.

I finally found the car of my dreams, on e-Bay all right. It was a 1988 baby blue 300ZX, being auctioned by its second owner, who it appeared took loving care of it and whose spouse was forcing him to choose between his sports car and his motorcycle to make room for their new baby and new SUV. What a prize. It was meticulously cared for, inside and out.

I alerted my credit union who was going to be financing the new car. They thought I had taken leave of my senses, buying a car "sight unseen" on the Internet. I assured them many eyes would be on the car and I wasn't lying.

I posted a request at Z31.com for someone in the Orange County, California, area to take a look at the car, to kick the tires, to take it for a test drive. To be my eyes and ears for the deal. To my amazement, two people volunteered. I chose the one closer to the car's actual location. I gave him the details about the car and gave the seller the details about the person who was coming out to look at the car.

I still have the email he sent me of his critique of the car. In part,

So what's the verdict? Well if you've read all that I've typed (which is a lot, I apologize), it's a good car. WAY better than anything I had expected considering it has 173,000 miles on it. A lot of miles, but a great car. Good thing the engine has only half that many miles! You should be very pleased with it, because it performed much better than I thought it would. I tried to be very critical of the car, but there weren't many flaws.

So getting it from point A (Orange County, California) to point B (Houston, Texas), over 2000 miles away? I booked a one way ticket to LAX (yeah, I should have flown into John Wayne Int'l Airport in Orange County, but the fare was cheaper into LAX), took a shuttle to Orange County, and called the seller when I arrived. (The credit union had already wired full payment to the seller several days previous.)

And was there anything special about the day that I flew out to get my new "baby"? You bet there was. It was Friday the 13th. Of July. My birthday! What a wonderful birthday gift and I had so much fun driving her back, all alone, to Texas. I had made arrangements with Robert to meet me in El Paso so he could take over driving us the rest of the way home. It's a car I'll love forever, and she's not far away even today. I get to see her once a month during the Z Club of Houston membership meetings, since the former President bought her from me when Robert became paralyzed.

Here's but one photo; the rest are in my Drive Me Crazy photo album.