S130 Production Numbers

Two sets of numbers for the 280ZX: Nissan's own figures for how many were built in Japan and exported, and Nissan Motors USA's reported U.S. sales. Both are by the year the cars were built. In Japan that is also the model year, so the figures match Japanese-market cars directly. For U.S. cars they don't: each calendar year includes some cars sold as the previous or next U.S. model year.

Built and Exported

From Nissan Motor Co.'s Public Relations Department, as printed in Fairlady Z Story by Yutaka Katayama and Yoshihiko Matsuo. "Kept in Japan" is built minus exported, which is mostly Japanese-market Fairlady Zs.

Year	Built	Exported	Kept in Japan	Note
1978	91,220	74,784	16,436	Includes the last 280Zs
1979	105,045	85,643	19,402
1980	70,435	62,468	7,967
1981	84,668	78,959	5,709
1982	74,030	69,989	4,041
1983	72,652	61,660	10,992	Includes the first 300ZXs

1978 and 1983 are mixed years. In 1978, S30 production stopped partway through the year while the line was retooled for the S130, which then started building 1979 model-year 280ZXs. The same happened in 1983, when the 280ZX ended and the Z31 300ZX began. Each of those years includes both generations.
For the four full 280ZX years, 1979–1982, Nissan built 334,178 and exported 297,059.
The book's running totals don't add up at 1982, so they are left out here; the yearly figures are shown as printed.

U.S. Sales and Special Editions

Sales reported by Nissan Motors USA for the calendar year in the U.S. market.

Year	U.S. sales	Special editions
1979	86,007	1,008 280ZX-R models
1980	53,687	3,000 10th Anniversary Editions
1981	73,177
1982	63,855
1983	55,011
1979–1983	331,737

Sources Used

Zhome.com: Z Car Production and Sales Reports by Carl Beck and Paul Hillman
Nissan Motor Co. Public Relations Department figures from Fairlady Z Story by Yutaka Katayama and Yoshihiko Matsuo (scan on zhome.com)