DATSUN 280Z: BUYER'S GUIDE
Median Price: £17,137 • Highest Price: £109,760 • Lowest Price: £2,000 • Sell-Through Rate: 74%
Source: Bring A Trailer
How much is a 280Z worth?
In our experience, we've seen plenty of 280Z's go under the hammer and based on analysing every sale you can expect to pay £17,137 for one in average condition - that places it amongst the most expensive 60% of collector cars across our database.
As Datsun's go, a 280Z is on the lower end relative to other Datsun models. In fact this model is £1,192 below the median Datsun price of £18,329.
What is the maximum to pay for a 280Z?
Across the 253 280Z's we've seen sell, the highest price ever recorded for this model is £109,760. It was sold by Bring A Trailer in the US on 19 Nov 2020.
What is the lowest to pay for a 280Z?
Well, that depends on where you draw the threshold.
The lowest sale of all time for this vehicle is £2,000. Brightwells sold the car at auction in the UK on 07 Mar 2018.
When looking at more recent sales the lowest recorded price is, as you would expect, higher. Analysing every sale since 2020 shows that the lowest price between 2020 and today is £3,489, Brightwells sold this car in the UK on 28 May 2020.
What is the background of the make / model?
Datsun produced this model between 1975 and 1982.
Datsun is a brand of car that originated in Japan in 1931. It has been owned by Nissan since the 1930s and has been used as a marque for various models of cars, trucks, and vans. The name "Datsun" was derived from the first three letters of the last names of the three founding partners of the company, Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama and Meitaro Takeuchi.
How common is a 280Z?
According to data from the DVLA, the UK licensing authority, in 2022 there were 59 licensed vehicles alive and kicking on UK roads. There were also 143 vehicles that are SORNd - in other words not currently registered for the road. Note: that data is for this model and all of its sub-models.
Building on that, we've also seen plenty of these go under the hammer at auctions around the world, 342 to be precise. It's among the 2% most common collector cars to sell at auction.
Of those 342 times the model has gone to auction 253 have sold. In other words, this model sells on 74% of times it goes to auction - that's below the average sell-through rate we traditionally see.
How does the 280Z compare to other cars?
We know from reviews of this model by our 42,000+ strong community how this car performs across multiple variables. Those variables stack up to give a TCVScore which is a relative score of how good a car is across 5 variables in comparison to all other cars.
For the 280Z, it scores a 60 out of 100 - that places it in the top 60% of all cars in our database.
How the car scores across all variables is below:
Styling: 6/10
Cool Factor: 5/10
Practicality: 6/10
Handling: 7/10
Speed: 6/10
To understand more or add your own review, click the link below.
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Why this article was created
Well, we've got one of the largest databases of sold classic car prices in the world so we thought we ought to help and put that data to good use. To be clear though, this article is not intended to be a full tour of every nook and sill of the 280Z, rather it's meant to act as an introductory guide and overview of the market for this model.
It is here to provide you guidance on how much you should and shouldn't be paying for one based on the 342 we've seen previously.
If you're after more detail, we've got you covered. Click the button below to be taken to a the price guide for this model so you can see every single sale, price trend over time and lots more.
How this article was created
This article was created by looking back at sales of 280Z since the beginning of our database in 1992. We've scanned over 30 auction houses and results from over £15 billion of sold cars around the world to understand the where the market is at for this car.
The Classic Valuer takes that data and analytics which enables it to generate these articles at scale, for further information regarding the 280Z please visit the price guide linked below.
About The Author
Giles Gunning
Giles is CEO of The Classic Valuer - one of the world's largest databases of sold classic cars in the world going back over 30 years covering over 11,000 models. Giles and The Classic Valuer are regularly referenced in key classic car publications including Classic & Sports Car.
Giles grew up around the iconic historic motorsport venue at Goodwood and enjoys his 1972 Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior around the Sussex roads. His primary car goal is to purchase back a selection of his grandfather's car's including his 1931 Riley Brooklands.
