The Nissan 240SX is one of the foremost hot hatches of the 1990s, and as such, many of them have been snatched up and modified extensively by younger drivers. The same thing happened to the late 80s Toyota Corollas, another rear-wheel drive model that became immensely popular for drift competitions and “midnight club”-style modifications. The 240SX shown here on Facebook Marketplace is part of the S13 generation, and the seller is asking $3,000 for this barn find example.
It’s not hard to understand why cars like these have become popular all over again: simply put, we’re not making vehicles like these anymore. Light-weight, rear wheel drive, and equipped with three pedals is a shockingly hard combo to find anymore. The 240SX wasn’t particularly quick and we never got a high-horsepower version, but turbocharging and Japanese market engine swaps changed all of that. The 240SX was like a DIY Lego kit, which is why so many of them ended up modified. The seller claims that this 240SX, though stock, does have rust issues underneath, and it sounds like they’re significant.
The car does have a few things going for it beyond its stock condition. It also has a nose panel in decent shape, which is hard to find if you’ve ever attempted to restore an S13. In addition, the dashboard is crack-free and the interior hasn’t been tarted up with cheap racing seats and aftermarket shift knobs and steering wheels. The seller claims the rust issues are “…not good,” and it’s to the point he’s not even going to bother taking photos of it. Not the approach I’d take, but I appreciate the honesty. Would you rescue this virgin S13, rust and all?
This was almost my 1st new car. Drove it on a few of the roads really curvy roads and liked it but the salesman wanted my (still pristine) Charger and $1000 cash down payment.
I walked away but came to appreciate Nissan cars all the more because of It.
This one may be worth the asking price in parts if everything works like it should, but IDK-if the seller won’t even take photos of the underside because it’s so bad what’s the remainder of the car look like?
How rusty can a PA vehicle be?
It can be argued that there is still an affordable rear wheel drive sporty car: the Subaru BRZ. Starts under 30K when the Z and Supra are over 40K. Not sure how that translates to 1989 dollars.