zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Buying
/
At $2,800, Are You Cool Enough For This 1992 Nissan 240SX?
At $2,800, Are You Cool Enough For This 1992 Nissan 240SX?-August 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:09:49

The seller of today’s 240SX says he tried keeping it in the family but his relatives are either not cool enough for it, or are too broke. Let’s see if the price means it’s not them but him.

Many timeshare companies try to lure customers in with an attractive offer—free vacation! fancy dinner! kinky sex!—only to then ruin the experience with a high-pressure sales spiel.

Last Friday’s similarly had a strong initial appeal—263 horsepower! six speed stick! Enkeis!—but carried with it the model’s flaky reputation which could easily turn the good times to bad.

That fact was not lost on the majority of you, who pointed out in the comments the car’s many potential pitfalls and bad habits. Those issues couldn’t overwhelm the little Mazda’s reasonably cheap $6,450 price however, and it walked away with a respectable 75-percent Nice Price win.

FWD hot hatches have fallen on hard times here in the U.S.. At least they haven’t fared as badly as have reasonably priced sporty coupes. That category was once was a mainstay of Japanese manufacturers for their American lineups, with models like the Toyota Celica, Mitsubishi Starion and Mazda Cosmo vying for buyers with caviar dreams but Camry budgets.

Into this milieu Nissan dropped the SX series as a cheaper and more versatile companion to the ZX. It was sort of like Robin to the ZX’s Batman.

As evidenced by the real Robin, second bananas rarely get to step into the limelight. The SX however, is an exception, having found favor as a coveted icon of the Drifter crowd.

This is, by all appearances, bone stock. That means you could do with it pretty much anything you wanted, including driving its sideways in a cloud of smoke if that’s your bent. The car’s condition is appreciably rough so you’d likely have to do something with it.

The ad notes that the car was originally owned by ‘an old lady’ who drove it for its first two decades of life. The present owner bought it four years ago and has since taken it on tour, traveling from Virginia to Mississippi and then to Texas, finally ending up in Spokane, Washington. It sounds like sort of Meth Crawl to me.

Over all that time and its 112,000 miles, the car has sustained a number of battle scars across its arrest-me red coated body. It’s sort of like what has happened over the years to Mickey Rourke, only in car form. The hood is more faded than the rest so maybe it’s even from a different car?

Underneath all that the car seems sound and the seller does include a number of up-skirt pictures as proof. Newish brakes and tires underpin and the suspension is described as ‘squeaky.’ Winter tires come with the car, a concept that, living in Los Angeles is a bit foreign to me.

How did the car get so dinged up? Well, check out the seller’s picture of how apparently they Park in Virginia. Not sure if that’s explanation or just some passive aggression coming to head, but it’s pretty dang funny to include in the ad.

The interior shows similar signs of wear and literal tear with a frayed driver’s seat bolster and some cracks in the dash. This being a ’92, the belts are mouse-operated. I know we’ve had a few cars from this era recently and that annoyance has been called out on each.

Not much info is given on the car’s mechanicals. The engine is Nissan’s KA24DE DOHC four. That offers up 2389-ccs of displacement and around 155 horsepower when new. Now? Who knows? Behind the big four is a 5-speed stick which is a plus.

The seller is asking a nominal $2,800 for the 240 and states in his ad that he tried to sell it to his sister and some friends seemingly for the same amount. They however, were all, in his words ‘either not cool enough or broke and not cool enough’ to buy it.

We’re all pretty cool, right? And while we may be broke, how tough would it be to scrape together that $2,800 asking? The question of course, is whether you should. What’s your take, is this seemingly tired but sound SX worth that $2,800 asking? Or, is that price just plain not cool?

You decide!

Spokane, WA , or go if the ad disappears.

H/T to EdHelmsBakery for the hookup!

Help me out with NPOCP. Hit me up at and send a me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Buying
At $195,000, Could This 2015 Panther WaterCar Be Fun If By Land And Two Times As Much If By Sea?
At $195,000, Could This 2015 Panther WaterCar Be Fun If By Land And Two Times As Much If By Sea?
With the threat of global climate change supposedly looming, there’s a strong possibility that many of our favorite coastal roads will eventually be under water. With today’s Panther Amphibious Car that won’t be a problem. Let’s see if its price will be. Colin Chapman is famous for his efforts...
Aug 27, 2026
Why Buy A Bugatti Centodieci When You Can Have This F-16 Fighter Jet For Less?
Why Buy A Bugatti Centodieci When You Can Have This F-16 Fighter Jet For Less?
The $8,878,800 (plus tax!) list price of the really makes you think. The fact that there’s a market for such a preposterous toy is a pretty clear indicator that some people are too rich. Then again–why would you park among peasants in one of these when I could hook...
Aug 27, 2026
$19.8 Million Sale Proves We Should All Go Back In Time And Buy A Warehouse Full Of McLaren F1s
$19.8 Million Sale Proves We Should All Go Back In Time And Buy A Warehouse Full Of McLaren F1s
There are certain cars whose values have shot up so much that we should all kick ourselves for not having filled warehouses with them decades ago. Air-cooled Porsche 911s and s come to mind, though one of the kings of collector-car appreciation has to be the McLaren F1, one...
Aug 27, 2026
Should The Average Buyer Really Care About Performance?
Should The Average Buyer Really Care About Performance?
As Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are talking about buyer priorities, negotiating extended warranties on used cars, and performance ratios among trims. First up,...
Aug 27, 2026
The 2019 Jaguar F-Type V6 May Be Old But It Still Rips
The 2019 Jaguar F-Type V6 May Be Old But It Still Rips
The 2019 pretty much looks like the 2013 Jaguar F-Type; it’s old news. Then again, so are Converse sneakers and Coca-Cola. The F-Type is not the freshest or most technologically impressive modern car but I’ll be damned it doesn’t hit the spot every single time. (: Jaguar loaned me...
Aug 27, 2026
The Lada Niva Refuses To Die, 42 Years And Counting
The Lada Niva Refuses To Die, 42 Years And Counting
If there was even a shred of hope for my objectivity, it was gone as soon as I climbed inside the 2019 Lada Niva, slammed its startlingly thin door shut, and felt the 84 horsepower engine rumble to life. Releasing the clutch, I heard the familiar ghost-like howl of the...
Aug 27, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved