240KA

title kinda sounds like a troll thread...

so i have a clean 240sx hatch with low miles and in VERY good condition. it's an automatic, but the transmission is fucked. so it either needs another auto trans or i have all the parts to do a manual swap.

obviously, the manual swap is more desirable for the young kid drifters. i'm not posing this question to you little fucks.

OG's, what do you think would be more valuable as far as resale in the future? to keep it in its original form as an automatic or to manual swap it? i don't need to sell it, so i don't need the "quick sell"...it'll probably sell faster as a manual.

mewantkouki

It’s a 240sx... the resale market is Craigslist & Facebook, not Barrett Jackson.

Green Arrow

Ill wait for Supadoopa to let us all know

Touge_Monster

I recently purchased a stock, low mileage automatic fastback. I decided to ruin it and modify it so I am in the process of the 5 speed conversion now.

If you want to preserve it I would either leave it or convert it using new or refinished OEM parts. If it is quality work with quality parts I would not expect it to hurt the value. Good luck!

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ixfxi

it doesnt matter if your potential buyer is young or old, all that you should worry about is that they have money to buy your car. when i say "your car," i mean exactly that, YOUR car. what do you prefer?

because i am picky about buying a clean chassis thats been well maintained, many of the cars i've purchased have been autos. but, there is no comparison, manual transmission cars are so much better in terms of performance and driving experience. automatics are terrible from a performance and when they need a rebuild, they are more costly to repair. in my opinion, its a lose-lose sticking with an auto.

one of my good friends and customers owns an s14, single owner, fully serviced at the dealer. the car is an auto. i believe his car would have commanding value just because it has so many rare parts on it, clean chassis, excellent condition, etc. It being an auto is probably the least of someone's concern.

thats why i say you should do whatever makes you happy. conversions, if done right, only add to the value of the car. but i would rather buy an all original, well maintained auto then a poorly modified/maintained manual car. same goes for a motor swap.

Malik

Put the Manual in...

SupaDoopa

The car will sell faster with a manual.
The car will sell for more with an automatic.

And this post does what for the original topic exactly? I thought comic book characters were supposed to be witty an intelligent? You're a fucking idiot.

dizzariot

...dude what is with the influx on preservation threads? While I'm happy y'all are considering it, it's also fucking stupid to not just start a thread about it.

Swapping the car to manual using all OEM parts is, at least in my eyes, totally fine. My 240SX in the US was an automatic SE. It took me about a month of driving all over Riverside, Orange County, and San Diego to track down actual OEM bits for the swap, but that's the level of OCD I operate on.

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jr_ss

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, these cars aren’t valuable and they never will be. No one is going to pay Barrett Jackson pricing for these cars. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 1998 or a two tone coupe, they do not have a cult following such as the GTR or the Supra.

Put the transmission you prefer in it and keep the original if you’re so concerned with it.

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dizzariot

I agree with the Barret Jackson thing. I disagree with everything else lol.

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jr_ss

And you’re welcome to your opinion. This is Merica after all.

When it’s all said and done, it doesn’t matter what you do with your car. If (that’s a huge if) these cars do become “valuable”, it’ll be decades down the road. It’ll also be the limited production units, not your everyday run of the mill hatch or coupe.

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Hoffman5982

That stock s14 on Bringatrailer that sold for close to $9k was a manual converted car, but done using all oem parts as suggested by a few people here. It's easier to find a clean stock auto car, but 99% of the possible buyers would be more pumped if it was manual.

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SupaDoopa

BringATrailer, eBay, Craigslist, Zilvia are not ways to gauge resale. Those cars generally are in better condition than 99.3% of the community and some moron with too much usually buys them. While this is good for the seller, it's not a consistent form of gauging resale.

Sorry to tell y'all but the resale on the S-chassis is dropping rapidly. With more desirable cars like the Skyline, JZX, Laurel, etc. becoming legalized and importing all over the country, our little drift whips are no longer what they used to be. Expecting to fetch a premium anymore is just a pipe dream. If your goal is to stick in the scene, chances are someone will go pay $2,500-$3,500 for a 350Z well before they spend double that for your car that is in shittier condition, needs a lot of work and much, much older.

ixfxi

No offense, but I hate when people try to predict the future.

I guess too many people are watching TV where they see big dollars associated to all these old cars, then think that their car will be worth money "some day."

There are a couple different mentalities here:

One is to keep it all original thinking that one day it will be worth some serious coin. Well, if its well-kept and with a hope and a prayer, I would say its possible. If you have some neglected shit box and think you're going to make serious money due to neglect, ahem, patina, then i'd say you have a much slimmer chance in getting good money for your car.


The second is to actually build a car, upgrade it, restore it, drive it and enjoy it. If thats the case, then I have no doubt in my mind that a nicely built and modified car is worth good money - but it has to be done right. No cheap parts and no hack jobs.


As for "newer" cars taking away, i dont buy that either. I didnt want a 350Z then and I sure as hell dont now. No offense, but they suck. There is a reason why the Z32 has some value and are desirable. The newer line-up of NISSAN vehicles are disposable. They're just not made as well. Which I find ironic, because our cars are kinda shitty. But not nearly as shitty as 350Z.

dizzariot

I can only speak for myself, but I don't think these cars will be worth 'big money' at all, at least not the US variants. I can see my '93 240SX touching $10k one day in its current state.

I have the opportunity to get the Japanese models here (Spec R, Type X, K's) and I think those will fetch a higher amount, but I see the Spec R capping at like $30k. There were a few Spec Rs here that sold for nearly that with about 2,000 kilometers (not miles) and I don't doubt someone in the US would pay that for a practically brand new S15 one day. The Type X is well on its way to becoming a 'nostalgic' car (zenkis are already there) so that one will be the first to go up. They're almost $20k here for clean ones...not even LP2.

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jr_ss

Aside from being a capable chassis, with large aftermarket support and some what attractive, the 240 doesn’t really have much going for it. It was a “cheap” sports car with an anemic truck motor. For it’s time, it was a good car and I’ll agree modern cars in general feel cheap. Namely because of soft touch materials and everything designed not to kill you in an accident.

The 90’s era sports cars are the pinnacle of Japanese automotive creativity. They were raw, almost visceral with out too much invasive technology altering the sense of being in control.

I digress, I love my car, but realistically speaking, no one will pay the coin I’d be willing to let it go for. Real value, is what the car means to you, not what someone can buy and or replicate the car for. Blood sweat and dare I say tears cannot be quantified in the sale of a machine you dreamt of and created.

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cbeuglas

Ok, here is where we sit. The car is only valuable if there is demand. It is possible that 15 years from now that all of you drifters after kids and life decide to renew your youth with another 240 like years ago. Here is where demand comes in (there are no more 240's) as they were all destroyed with drifting. This will drive the prices up as there are none left. My guess is value will go up and the manual as always the way to go. Who wants an automatic?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Hoffman5982

Uhh they absolutely are. The fuck?

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Standard

Bingo.
I would not be surprised one bit if 10, 15, 20 years from now a clean example of a USDM s-chassis will fetch a price that would have our heads spin in today's market. I find it silly when people say these cars will never fetch a premium price tag. It's supply and demand, there are people who adore these cars like myself and others here. If they want to purchase a s-chassis in the future, a small market for a dwindling supply of clean cars will no doubt bring some money. Hard concept to grasp for some people with the disposable/shitbox car mindset.

ixfxi

Dude, you're talking to me as if I dont already know what a 240SX is. Rewind and re-read my posts from years ago, I'm the guy that says that in stock form, these cars suck shit. Obviously they are not absolutely terrible, but no one in their right mind says "yeah man, i love these stock brakes... and these stock wheels... and these stock shocks... and this shitty open differential... and these automatic seatbelts" the list goes on and on. And thats why such a huge aftermarket exists (and I'm not talking about cheap parts, I'm talking about quality parts).

The point I was trying to make, is that no one here can ultimately predict how much these cars will sell for in the future.


Yes, and I completely agree. If no one paid stupid money for parts, my business wouldnt exist. No one would pay for Volk wheels, Recaro seats, etc. Its obvious that people like what they like, and when that happens, the wallet opens. I was stupid enough to dump coin into not 1, but 2 old NISSANs. One S13, one S14, as well as various other cars. If a Z33 interested me, I could have bought it. Same goes for a GTR. But those cars are of zero interest to me. I am stupid. I like cheap cars and I like upgrading them with stupidly priced performance parts. This is part of being an idiot. And if one day I didnt have a 240SX and wanted one, I could easily see myself spending a lot of money on a properly built/restored/assembled/tuned 240SX. So if Toby finished that S13, and it wasnt a coupe, and it was up for sale, and it still had the SR (not the mullet LS), then I would have probably paid 50k for that car.

But, thats just me.

By the way, look at the nerd on Youtube, Saab Kyle... picked up that bone stock S13. Did he keep it stock? Nope. Because stock sucks. He went down the rabbit hole like every other moron, started doing real basic shit, then realized "oh well fuck it, I'll just drop an RB engine in it."

SupaDoopa

Hates when people 'predict the future' but then predicts the future. Interesting logic.

CostFree

I would manual swap like i got done on my s14. I just enjoy it more than automatic. But what would you enjoy more?

dizzariot

Fixed that for you.

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SupaDoopa

No. I was right. You contradicted yourself. They will be worth something AFTER the 10-20 period if you have a specimen that's perfect. You know, the definition of 'collectors grade.'