I choked on my Thanksgiving leftovers a little bit this morning when I scrolled by this Nissan dealer inventory listing, showing a deeply sun-cooked 240SX in a corporate presentation template like it’s a new Z or something. It looks like the starter car you’d have in a street racing video game. The $10,000 price tag made me laugh too until I realized that if I were standing in this lot and had to pick between this and any other new Nissan, I mean, I’d probably be leaving with the relic.
This very car was being discussed in a Facebook group called Oppositelock earlier too, where the comments seem to mostly be in the lane of “that’s way too expensive and society is doomed.” That’s a totally understandable gut reaction—I would have been skeptical about spending $2,000 on this car in that condition when I was in high school.
But it ain’t 2004 anymore, my friends.
The more I look at this crispy old ’91 240SX, the more appealing it is. Yeah, the paint’s fried. But the body seems really straight, it’s sitting at a healthy-looking ride height, the engine bay is absolutely mint, and even the interior is bizarrely nice. On top of all that, it’s a bone stock 240SX with low mileage. 108,000 on the clock on a 1991 model year anything? That’s almost perfect—enough to let you know it’s been exercised but not so much that the car’s bones are fatigued.
I’m not saying this is a deal or anyone should be tripping over themselves to grab it … I’m not picking up the phone to put down a deposit. But from where I’m sitting, there are definitely worse ways to spend $10,000 in the car world right now. OK, and I mainly shared it because I thought that first picture of it superimposed over the dealer facade is funny.
If I did acquire it my main struggle with it would be deciding whether to mod it or keep it original. This would be a great platform to turn into a tuner car and the aftermarket for these is still robust. But as I hurtle toward 40 years of age, I’m finding I appreciate near-stock survivors a lot more than I used to. Heavily detailing the interior, replacing all bushings, fitting exceptional tires, and just keeping this thing running without touching the paint would probably be my inclination, even though I wouldn’t be winning any races or shows.
Hey if any of you buy this, we want to hear about it. Drop the author a note at andrew.collins@thedrive.com