S-Chassis as future collector cars.

[RedStage]

Originally Posted by mkiv98

but after 25 years we can start to import S15s.

wonder how many will be left by then.....

[tougemiata]

whats everyone's problem with barret-jackson? I can understand people paying stupid amounts of money on stock cars just to have them sit there, but not every car sold there is just for looks and showing off the bank roll.

[KA-T_240]

One of the guys that live in my town buys a shit load of stuff on that show.

For example the 1971 Hemi Cuda Convertables. has 3/14. Paid over 1mil for the last one and then it went off to get re-restored or something like that. His garage has over $20million in cars in it.

[swiftdrift]

Originally Posted by PHLIP

After I thought about it, I think about it more of a "per capita" thing, looking at the number of people who buy them to modify them opposed to those that buy them to leave them BONE stock.

Where do you get your "numbers" from? I live in so cali, where you probably see more 240's than in any other state in the country, and honestly I will see at least 10-15 bone stock 240's driving around before i see 1 actual modified one.

I was just speculating whether or not he had any factual evidence or statistics that 240's are in fact "the #1 most modified car in the US". I'd think it would be civics before 240's. I'll see 15 modded civics before i see one that's BONE stock.

[HyperTek]

i believe yuri's word, right now 240s are a pretty hot item in the media right now as far as the import scene go.. esp if you look at its world wide popularity, japan, Australia, etc.. where hondas seem to be mostly a US craze.

[swiftdrift]

Originally Posted by HyperTek

i believe yuri's word, right now 240s are a pretty hot item in the media right now as far as the import scene go.. esp if you look at its world wide popularity, japan, Australia, etc.. where hondas seem to be mostly a US craze.

Originally Posted by Yuri

240's are the #1 most modified car in the US... #1 most modified car in the US.... in the US.

He said US, not worldwide.

[drift freaq]

Originally Posted by fliprayzin240sx

Dont think itll happen, I say that because I dont see 240Z or 280Zs going down that road. Its almost as bad as saying EG6 Civics will become collector items too 50 yrs from now.

Actually Ray your wrong. 240Z's are already being considered as Classic and are well on the road to collectors. Even hough Toyota made the 2000GT and Nissan made the Datsun 310 and 311 roadsters, the cars that started this whole Japanese performance car/sports car thing in the United States officially numbers wise was the 240z. Followed closely by the 510 as the poor mans BMW 1600.
Though we owe it all mostly to the 240z. It layed the groundwork for Mazda to introduce the RX7 and Miata, Toyota to introduce the MR2 and Supra etc.....

180sx's in Japan though cheap are already falling into the legend status catagory as well due to the fact they were the most popular sports car ever sold in Japan.

Though I have a feeling 240sx's will be strictly a cult thing in the U.S. and not achieve the kind of collector status a 240Z will.

[Nachtmensch]

Originally Posted by drift freaq

Actually Ray your wrong. 240Z's are already being considered as Classic and are well on the road to collectors. Even hough Toyota made the 2000GT and Nissan made the Datsun 310 and 311 roadsters, the cars that started this whole Japanese performance car/sports car thing in the United States officially numbers wise was the 240z. Followed closely by the 510 as the poor mans BMW 1600.
Though we owe it all mostly to the 240z. It layed the groundwork for Mazda to introduce the RX7 and Miata, Toyota to introduce the MR2 and Supra etc.....

180sx's in Japan though cheap are already falling into the legend status catagory as well due to the fact they were the most popular sports car ever sold in Japan.

Though I have a feeling 240sx's will be strictly a cult thing in the U.S. and not achieve the kind of collector status a 240Z will.

i would argue the 240z being the one who "layed the groundwork."

i feel that the toyota 2000gt did much of the work. the 2000gt really turned heads and made people realize that the japanese are very capable of creating a sports car that rivals that of the american ones.

yes, the 240z seemed to sell much better, but it wouldnt be where it was without toyota's 2000gt coming first.

with that said, i dont think there will be a high demand for the 240sx. the 240sx is in that awkward pubecent phase of automotive history. just past carbs, but before technology really settled in. if someone wanted a "vintage" japanese car, why would they settle on a 240sx? the R32's, R33's, and R34's would be much more desirable, like they are today. the 240sx is just your common RWD sports coupe.

do you see people collecting foxboy mustangs too?

[HyperTek]

2000gt never made it to teh US though.. and wasnt a mainstream production car, it was more of a homeland special . datsun made the z to attack the US, but they never sent godzilla gtr lol

i agree with driftfreaq 100% good points

[HyperTek]

then again,.. the 240sx's popularity didnt grow til after its production run, so its kinda too late for it to get a spot in history books

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by chibo

Where does the "most modified car in the US" come from? I seriously doubt it.

"most Modified car" comes from SEMA's official market information.
Aftermarket companies that are sema members get update every so often on which markets are the hottest.

There are more people modifying 240's now than any other model of car.
There may be a higher total number of civics that have been modified, but people are no longer sinking as much money into them.

Plus 240 owners are more likely to buy big-ticket items like wheels and suspension. Most of the stuff being bought for civics were trinkets.

As for classic Japanese cars increasing in value, there was a big uproar over Barret Jackson allowing a Toyopet Crown in the last auction.
Japanese cars have started to cross the block.

It takes time for cars to build value in most cases.
A lot of people never thought 71-74 Chargers would appreciate, but now their values are snowballing. The same with Dusters and Darts, musclecars that people never thought would rise in value.

As the higher end cars continue to go up, the next rung on the ladder is pulled up with it, as people who can't afford the top dollar cars buy the next best thing.

Toyota 2000GT's already sell for insane amounts of money when they are put up for sale (which isn't often.)
First gen toyota Celicas are already appreciating.
The Nissan 240sx has a huge cult following, and as a result, the prices have already stabilized, at around the same age as popular musclecars did due to demand.

You have to realize, the musclecar market is driven by nostalgia.
Most musclecars weren't impressive in terms of performance.
They may have seemed like they had tons of power, but most of the time it was rated in gross horsepower, not net or SAE.
Most family cars today have better acceleration. 0-60 in under 7 seconds was considered really fast back then.
I realize that there were several musclecars that could do the 1/4 in the 13's, but many couldn't.

What I'm saying is that most of the people who are buying musclecars are doing it because they remember them being awesome and desireable when they were young.
Just like most of us are doing right now by being on this forum.
In related news, I don't doubt that 30 years from now, mint original Evo's and STi's will be fetching high prices.

[Vision Garage]

Cant wait to sell my 240 25 years from now for 10k. only one i see that would be worth money would be the kouki for the scarcity of numbers produced.

[kingkilburn]

The price of a 240sx is already going up. Look at the Kelly blue book value for an s13(I think it something like 800) Then check out auto trader or eBay. People are getting 4-5 thousand for an average quality car. When I got my s13 5000 would have gotten me a decent kouki s14. I know a lot of this is due to drifting(and modern lowriders) but that is the same as drag racing for muscle cars.

[Rob's S14]

Right now, there's a couple low mileage s14's going for more than 15k here. I bout mine for 8 almost 5 years ago, and mine was bone stock and real clean. I realized that this pricing is kinda high, but still that's almost double from just a few years ago.

[shmiddy]

me and my buddies were just talking about that. we said that the civic hatch's and the 240's are gonna be colectors. cuz when we get old and wrinkley thats the cars were gonna want back

[exitspeed]

Hmmm, seems like just yesterday Yuri and I were discussing this over a couple Potbelly's sandwiches.

But yes, I think they are going to be future collector cars. I have a friend (snatch13) on here who happens to own a 240 that will probably end up on Barret Jackson 30 years from now if he keeps it.

It's a bone stock White 95 SE with...29k! He never drives it either. On purpose. He pretty much just bought it to not drive it and hang on to it.

But the kouki's will bring in the most. The probably original stock two tones.

[VROOOM]

nissan restored some 240z's a few years ago and sold them for around 30k
http://www.geocities.com/~z-car/rebuild.html

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by VROOOM

nissan restored some 240z's a few years ago and sold them for around 30k
http://www.geocities.com/~z-car/rebuild.html

I think they did that at the wrong time.
I would buy a completly factory refurbished S30 for $24k today if they were to do it again.

[axiomatik]

Originally Posted by brndck

2tone coupes. with clean original paint. and working hud. they're hard to find already.

I've got mine


Yes, 240's will be collector's cars in the future. 6-7 years ago I would have said no, because no one was into them. but now their popularity is sky high. remember, the popularity of muscle cars now is based on nostalgia. the people who are plunking down huge amounts of money for them now either drove them when they were our age or always wanted one and never could get one. you can't predict the 240's future collectibility based on the current collectibility of 240z's. the old z's were very much a niche vehicle. not many people ever owned one back in the day, and so not as many people are seeking them out today. but 30 years from now, many of you will reminisce about that 240 you owned when you were young, and want to go out and restore one, and prices will rise, especially for rare models, 2-tone coupes, verts, s14 koukis (especially '98s), etc. I don't know how important numbers-matching engines will be, (because who wants a stock sohc?), but look at how rare that is already.

[SimpleS14]

I wonder if I can import a S15 now and just hold onto it.....

[Yuri]

This just in, headline from the future:

"'89 Nissan 240SX coupe crosses the block at Barret-Jackson-Shin-Rodriguez for a record 5 million Euros!

At the Barret-Jackson-Shin-Rodriguez automotive/ekranoplan auctions this weekend in Denver, a new record was set when a Nissan 240SX sold for 5 million Euros. The car was a numbers matching 1989 coupe style body painted a very rare Lavender frost metallic.

This continues the trend of skyrocketing prices of what have been labled "athletic recipro-cars."
Other cars that have been fetching high prices are AE86's, Hyundai Genesis coupes, Nissan 350Z,370Z, and 400Z, Chevrolet Cavalier Z24's and although they are not technically recipro's Mazda RX7s. Many think the demand for these cars started growing due to the unattainability of the so-called "Godzillas," cars such as the Toyota Supra, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo and Eclipse Evo, first-gen Subaru STi, and the short lived Nissan and Infiniti GTRs.

A large collector base exists for these cars, even though they can no longer be used for their intended purpose. Gasoline powered reciprocating internal combustion engines haven't been legal for street use for the last decade. Even if their owners convert them to a modern clean drivetrain, it would be near impossible to fit them with the automatic guidance system that's required for all federal highways and the entire state of Mexico (formerly known as the state of California and the country of Mexico until last year).

There is still a soft spot however, for the men, women, and nongenders that buy these collectable yet hopelessy outdated former modes of transportation.
It can be best summed up by a qoute from the aging gentlemen who bought the Lavender 240SX: "If I can wake up every morning, and gaze at it shining under the lights in my garage, I can handle being shuttled to work in my Kia-Chery Charger Daytona. The Kia-Chery may be a top of the line luxury vehicle, but I'll look at my S13, and remember when I was young, and part of the car itself, not just payload."

[sxe]

back to the original question. does anyone think a s14 zenki would be more of a rare collector than kouki? being that alot of s14 owners are buying kouki front ends?

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by sxe

back to the original question. does anyone think a s14 zenki would be more of a rare collector than kouki? being that alot of s14 owners are buying kouki front ends?

I doubt it, since so many more zenkis were built.
Zenkis converted to koukis will be categorized as "clones."

That's like saying 318 powered Cudas will be more of a collector car than a Hemi 'Cuda, since most 318 cars are turned into Hemi clone cars.

[VROOOM]

according to Wikipedia there were 32,448 zenki's built and 5,833 kouki's built. 8320 convertibles made

98 silver moss kouki with 85k miles here

[Rob's S14]

damn, to have one in under 6k wordwide. I feel so special.

[EDacIouSX]

If integra's and civics make it to the collectors status, so will 240sx... why? Cause who the heck didnt want to mod a civic si back in the 90s except me? look at those mitsubishi cars too like the eclipse. I don't know, just a basis for comparison... I guess what I am trying to say is, are 240s a fad like the civic, integra, preludes, and etc were or are they here to stay???

if they are here to stay, then I am betting they will get some kind of recognition in the future.

[The Chad]

I saw a Prince Motor Co. race car, (Grandfather to all that is Datsun/Nissan) go for a pretty penny via an auction my friend send me a link of a while back. I figure if teh Datsun world of 510's and My Fair lady's are increasing in value as they age i don't see why some of the more rare models of S chassis would not follow suite??
---But who knows...unless...ah yes if one of us had only put a flux capacitor in their hatch and a gullwing door conversion so we could travel into the future and find out haha.

[s13Dr1ft]

Lol...1989 Nissan 240sx. 245,xxx miles on a rebuilt KADE swap.
wonder what that would pull at Barret Jackson.

Honestly, I dont ever want to sell my S13. I dont want my kids to have it either.

[SimpleS14]

Originally Posted by VROOOM

according to Wikipedia there were 32,448 zenki's built and 5,833 kouki's built. 8320 convertibles made

98 silver moss kouki with 85k miles here

This is strictly U.S....correct?


I can see the Zenki being a collector item in Europe since its rare than the Kouki....well atleast in U.K.

[usdm180sx]

My guess is for verts, 5 speed chukis and 5 speed koukis