The odometer on today’s Nice Price or No Dice Dodge Daytona has rolled over and now shows less than 4K. Let’s see if the car is in good enough shape to have us rolling the dice on its price.
On the whole, the singular purpose of a sports car is to elicit a sense of excitement, both aesthetically and viscerally. That’s been the case for over a century, with many manufacturers having carved out an entire existence on this proposition. For whatever reason, however, some sports cars fail to hit the mark. The 2005 Nissan 350Z Touring we looked at yesterday certainly had a lot of the proper deets—a convertible roof, six-speed stick, and responsive V6 under the hood. Despite those bona fides, as well as appreciably low miles and a paper trail detailing its maintenance history, few of you got too excited over the prospect of paying its $18,000 asking price. Could the blame be laid on the car’s somewhat awkward styling? Or maybe it was the uninspired silver and gray color combo? Based on your comments, it was a mix of the two, with the little Nissan just not breaking through to make anyone’s must-have list. In the end, that resulted in a 68% No Dice loss.
Daytona Beach
Nissan’s Z car has been around for a long, long time. Back in the 1980s, it was offered with a 3.0-liter turbocharged six and a bit of a more grand touring bent than yesterday’s more contemporary take. If a buyer was looking for a car with similar performance to that ’80s Z but wanted something a little more hard-edged, then something like today’s 1986 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z might just have fit the bill.
Wearing a badge pulled from Dodge’s past and riding on what, at the time, was the company’s savior K Car platform, the ’80s Daytona—even more so than its little more than badge-swapped brother, the Plymouth Laser—sought to go toe to toe with the likes of Nissan’s Z, Ford’s Mustang, and even the Porsche 944. With a 146 horsepower 2.2-liter turbocharged four under the hood and a five-speed stick backing that up, the Daytona Turbo Z had the goods to do so.
Special K
In fact, with the Daytona, Dodge stretched the performance parameters of the K Car platform to the bleeding edge. Being an ’86, this 104,000-mile example is interesting for being the last year with the model’s original fixed headlight styling but the first with the available T-Top roof. Under that sits a set of factory 15-inch phone dial alloys, which were also used on the smaller Omni.
Overall, this Daytona looks to be in great shape for its age. The paint still pops, and those wheels show no indication of curbing. The badging is all there, too, including the “Turbo Z” decals on each door and a dealer logo on the butt.
Inside, it’s a sea of ’80s plastic, although the seats are leather-faced, as is the three-spoke steering wheel and shift knob. There is some crazing apparent in the leather, but it’s all intact. So, too, are the little sphygmomanometer bulbs for inflating the lumbar in each seat. The dash features analog gauges, including a cool rectangular-sweep boost gauge and the aforementioned odometer in the speedo with its fib-encouraging five barrels.
Work in progress
It’s not all an ’80s dream team, however, as the seller notes a few flies in this Daytona’s ointment. First off, there’s a fuel leak when the tank is full. Keeping it at ¾ or below is a short-term solution, but for safety’s sake, that will need to be addressed. Then there’s the A/C. According to the seller, that has been converted to r134 and has a replacement compressor, but it is still not functioning properly. The third major issue is the non-functioning wipers. The diagnosis for that is that the arms have come detached from the motor and, hence, are on strike. Minor problems include missing internal door latch bezels (replacements will be included in the sale), a dash clock that can’t be set—but is right twice a day—and a headliner that sags like a hipster’s pants in the back. On the plus side, everything else seems to work as it should, and the seller claims the car to be rust-free, having come out of a collection in the South.
Dodging for dollars
A clean title means no monkey business at the DMV aside from explaining that rolled-over odometer reading. The asking price for this classic Dodge is $8,500, and the seller says that it needs to be in cash or a wire transfer. They also note that the car is being sold “As is, where is,” implying that buyer’s remorse is not an option.
What do we think about this Daytona and that $8,500 asking price? Sure, it’s far from perfect, but it’s a ton cheaper and arguably vastly more interesting than the current Dodge Daytona EV that is creeping us all out. Do the pros outweigh this car’s cons? And if so, do they do so to the tune of an $8,500 outlay?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Waterloo, Iowa, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Dean W. for the hookup!
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