1985 Nissan 300ZX’s Digital Dash Displays All but Your Passenger’s Age

During the 1980s, many car manufacturers vied with one another to introduce the most futuristic gadgets in their products. To be a serious player in that game, your car needed to boast a digital dash, preferably one that looked like it had been pulled from a very busy arcade game.

Subaru, Mitsubishi, and Nissan had the wildest digital dashes of the era, and Nissan was so proud of its effort in that department that it ran this 1985 magazine advertisement focused entirely on the car's gauge display.

When you read the text of this ad, you learn that the 300ZX's digital dash was just the face of a completely computerized car, with microprocessors watching over everything "from your fuel-air mixture to the signal your radio receives."

Naturally, Nissan had converted its groundbreaking "talking car" Audible Warning system from tiny phonograph records in the 280ZX to a fully digitized rig in the 300ZX. You could get an electronic compass display in the 300ZX as well.