If you’ve ever had a project car, you understand the pain, misery, long hours, and out-of-pocket change that turns it from a shell into a dream car. It’s never an easy road, and those who’ve experienced the journey to the end, genuinely understand the joys of the ‘built, not bought’ community. On his latest episode, Netgear57 of Collector Car Feed YouTube channel dropped some hard-hitting truths about owning a Nissan 240SX in 2022.
Car restoration isn’t a walk in the park, especially if you are still running on an allowance. For most of the part, content creators on the internet never get into the intricate details of their builds.
A “Building a 240SX in 15 minutes” video will rack in a couple of million views showing how easy it is to put car parts together and own a dream car. But what you never get to see is how many years the project stalled due to a missing engine component or drained bank account.
Nissan 240SX is a legend in the world of drifting and auto tunning. Its following is closely related to that of the Ford GT and BMW 3-Series. It’s a fancy-looking car, with outstanding performance straight from the factory. While the numbers are constantly soaring, the 240SX is still accessible and relatively affordable, with shells going for as low as $2,000 (if you are looking to begin a nightmare build).
It was first introduced in North America in 1989, replacing the outgoing 200SX (S12). Its production ran from 1989 to 1998 under the S-Platform or popularly the S-Chassis. The 240SX is closely related to other S-Chassis variants, including Japanese Silvia and 180SX and the European market 200SX.
But underneath its drifting glory, the 240SX is a lemon in 2022, especially if you want to build it from scratch. Netgear57 admits it can make a perfect daily driver (in good condition). He has been using the S13 chassis variant for years delivering pizza, and it never let him down.
“It can be hard owning a 240SX. It’s a tough road. But it can also be very rewarding if you buy the right one,” he confessed.
He highlights the four pitfalls of owning a Nissan 240SX in 2022: lack of experience, community burnout, cheap car fallacy, and clout chasing.
Like any other project car, doing your due diligence and deeply researching it before purchase will be the difference between enjoying the journey and getting dragged through the whole process to project car hell.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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