200SX - where's the love?

I was thinking about these cars the other day. When I was a senior in HS a kid got one brand new. Turbo, RWD, cool looking. Head to head with a Corolla GTS, you'd have to say the 200SX was the cooler car.

Now, today, kids will sell their mother for an AE86, but I never see the old 200SX. Shoot, they even made a V6. So why no love? Another on the very long list of cars I want...

I loved mine. I think people just don't know about them.

I learned to drive stick in my best friend's mother's 200SX. It was a base model but still plenty fun at 16. I'd certainly consider one for a fun car if they survived the rust around here but i haven't seen one in years.

I just looked on jaXed and found one for sale. Man. Several old ads that are expired, but a grand total of one for sale.

I have never seen one in person. Maybe when I was a little kid, but not at least in the last 15 years. I would definitely dig one of these if available for purchase and was rather rust free.

they're still somewhat popular http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/08/28/car-feature-gt-gt-henry-s-s12-not-an-ae86.aspx

smog7 wrote: they're still somewhat popular http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/08/28/car-feature-gt-gt-henry-s-s12-not-an-ae86.aspx

That's pretty cool!

I saw one of these for sale in my city back in October. I believe it was a '84-'85 and was CLEAN. Asking price was $2000 then dropped to $1800 after a couple of weeks. If I hadn't just brought home a Challenge car and a parts car the week before I saw it I might of had to get the misses permission to look at it.

hard to find any that aren't fwd non turbo (basically sentras)

I think what happened was the 240SX :D There was no equivalent improved descendant for the AE86, was there? Also, the 200SX has never been the hero of a cartoon.

That is why kids like the AE86 so much.

and now for something completely different...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1-Owner-83-Datsun-200SX-Nissan-Roadster-280z-Silva-/310280511891?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item483e28e193

Wow.

That's hideous.

200sx and 1g 300zx were replaced by an overall better car is what happened , and when those cars were made mustangs and camaros were still the prefered sporty car . but i love s12 and z31 cars because they can use late model parts, theyre cheap and when you put elbow grease into them they are super cool.

not an hour before this thread started I was actually on ebay searching 200sx's.

I had an S110 in high school, right before I got an AE86 GTS. They were just old cars. I paid $350 for the Nissan when it was a 12 year old car, and I drove it like I wanted my money back. That car could NOT be killed. I remember that car ran really really strong first thing in the morning when it was 20 degrees out, and seemed to lose some punch as the engine temp came up. Drove it a year, sold it for the same $350. Got a letter six months later that "my car" was in impound. The guy who bought it had never registered it. The storage fees well exceeded the value by that point though. / random storytelling.....

Buddy has one at the garage i'm renting for sale. Black, clean, has that horrible turd of a motor with 8 spark plugs and 27whp or something. He's only wanting something like $600 for it.

You'd think that because it's weird i'd want it, but i really don't.

In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:

Put an F2T and B2200 trans in it.

I have seen these around...tho not in years, both the turbo and the V6 versions. The V6 is pretty much a lower cost 300ZX, even looks a bit like a ZX. I'm guessing rust and or high mileages along with piss-poor maintenance by "kids" killed nearly all of them.

When I was in high school, we went to the next town over for half a day at a vocational school for auto shop, and left over there was an 87 or so 200sx, 5 speed with the 3.0 in it. It was abandoned by a student who graduated. They gave him three years to pick it up, he never showed, and they crushed the thing. Made me a sad panda.

They are unique cars, I really like em, and actually like the styling. I'd like to see what one is like with a SR20DET swap, as cliche as that is. Or something stupid like a LS or whatever, I'm a sick, twisted man.

And that's why I belong here!

http://lexington.craigslist.org/cto/2085612861.html

This one looks interesting. Already has a KA24DE in it.

I had a 1985 Red 200SX hatchback. I loved that car. 135,000 miles - autopower "show" bar from JC Whitney and a loud Ansa exhaust.

Tomorrow I will also post some 200SX pictures from the JCCS this past fall. There were some great looking ones.

Its so rare for there to be a topic I feel knowledgeable about on here! (compared to the vast number of far more experienced people). Anyway:

I owned 2 in college. An '84 solid rear axle (only year for that) with the CA20E, SOHC, dual spark plug per cylinder mystery, and an '85 IRS FJ20E grey market import from Europe.

The '84 was bought for $400, but ugly and with wiring problems. A full clean up and some re-wiring, removing the 80s-tastic hatch louvers and chrome hub-caps (you read that right), and some porterfields and azenis made it an entertaining momentum car for a college kid. Went from this:

to this:

and I eventually blacked out the window trim:

Pardon the door dent, the previous owner was kind of rough on it. All told I had about $1000 into it (including purchase), and sold it to a kid in the area for $800 when I graduated. No complaints.

The '85 I bought from a guy whose parents brought it back from Europe and gave it to him (i think as a first car), and he drove it for a couple months and blew the headgasket. Got it cheap, didn't realize how hard it is to get parts for a grey-market car and motor never sold in this country, and sold it unchanged for the same $$ like a year later. If I had it now, with a garage and decent job, I would have fixed it up, but a college kid's time and budget was better spent on other things.

Cool car though.

All that being said, I think the reason you don't see them more often is due to a couple things. As mentioned above, the 240SX is a better car in every way. Better suspension, better engines, better brakes. Also, parts availablity, even for the non-grey market cars, is terrible. All Nissan OEM parts for them (and most other Nissans, FYI) was sold to OEM surplus, a company in Michigan? (I think). They're actually great to deal with, I bought a wiring harness from them to fix the fuel pump issues, but as the parts are bought up, availability suffers. Even simple things like rubber hoses and wheel bearings from parts stores typically was a mix and match affair, requiring either cross-referencing to 280Z/ZX/300Z, or bringing the old part in and sizing. When I had to replace a hub, there were NO new ones available anywhere, and I went through 3 used ones purchased online before I got a rebuildable example.

I finally decided the time and aggravation weren't worth it when there were other cars that were as enjoyable or more so for the same money (E30s, Miatas, MR2s, etc.)

Couple of nice things though:

-All common Nissan motor swaps go in just fine: CA18DET is practically bolt-in, KA24DE, SR20, even VG series motors.
-You could get Konis for them when I owned mine (~4 years ago), I think they were Z-Car part #'s (280ZX for the one axle, 300ZX for the other if I remember right)
-Porterfield makes brakes for them
-If you love cars with a strong 80s aura, this is right up there with Starions and C4 Corvettes for that, mine had a talking lady that told you to buckle up, when the doors were open, when the lights were on, etc. The grey market car even had the initial-D "chime" above a certain speed
-The seats on my '84 were some of the best OEM I've ever had. They were comfortable, aggressively bolstered, and had lumber, bolster, and thigh adjustments. 8 hr road trips in that car were NO problem
-The back seats folded flat and were level with the trunk, and the rear quarter windows could pop open. Great for camping and sleeping at the track.

Flynlow, great info!

That one in Lexington looks great, and it's a coupe! Wish I didn't have way too many projects already, but glad I didn't see that when I was in Cincinnati over the Holiday!

smog7 wrote: they're still somewhat popular http://speedhunters.com/archive/2010/08/28/car-feature-gt-gt-henry-s-s12-not-an-ae86.aspx

Man Speedhunters really has a hardon for the hellaflush stuff... And did you see that interior?

Yeah, the interior, eh? But when I was a teenager I'd have loved it.