jongould-work

im thinking about selling me scoob and getting me a 200SX. the theory behind this is that my car is worth £6.5-7K, and you can get a good 200SX for £2.5-3K, leaving me about £3-3.5K to spend on tuning it.

give myself £1K for styling parts and that will still leave me with enough to get me an exhaust/filter, ECU upgrade, uprated injectors, boost computer and fuel computer.

not only that, but 200SX'x are a bit rarer (modified ones anyway) and i am quite partial to thier looks.

failing that, i was think 300ZX twinturbo, but pricey to repair and VERY juicy.

whats your thoughts?

magnet

I had the s13 1.8 turbo 93.

They look nice and handle well but the engines are flawed in that the cylinder walls wear with age.

So its a case of when you getting an engine recon not if.
They also are rust buckets! (s13)
Newer s14;s and s14a's look lovely.
Fast and furious styely

jhdee

had a s14 for 3 years before the scooby.
great car - first one i've had i didn't want to part with but needed a 4 door.
cheap to run, great performance and ssssooooo reliable. not everybody like the looks but quite easy to remain anonymous which does have its benefits. local nissan dealer was also happy to play the game with modifications.
go for it you won't regret it.

jhdee

Brun

I couldn't do it myself. They just don't look right. I accept they are streets ahead in tune-ability, but it just ain't a Scoob.

Crush

I do like the 200sx's. I was thinking about one before I settled on an impreza. I really like the look of them

have a shot of one, you might love it, they look to be a lot more involving than an impreza

marty_t3

Crush... they are a lot more fun and involving to drive IMHO, but, unlike the scoob, they do not forgive mistakes.

Midmotorsteve

Looked at loads of these before getting my mr2, s14 newest shape are great looking, damn fast and can be tuned to silly figures, only reason i didn't get one is according to other owners, full and i mean really full and preferably extra 3000 mile oil changes are essential cause they tend to turn really rather unrelaible if they don't have 5 star treatment. I couldn't find one with even a basic full service history.

Only thing i now regret is not getting a turbo'd 2.

If you do get an S14 check manifold for cracks as earlier cars had problems with this, and if they have been running more than standard boost that they have had the fueling up'ed, as they run out of fuel at the top of the rev range if boost has been increased, thats the most important thing as lack of fuel = engine death, its a well known thing in the nissan tuning circles but remember lots of people won't have read up and assumed that uping the boost a bit fueling wouldn't be an issue. They're wrong it is.

marty_t3

3000 mile oil changes?? They're not that bad lol. Yeah, they're turbo charged and need regular changes just like any other high reving turbo'd car. Manufacturer recommend 6000 miles (IIRC) but just like the average scoob enthusiast, many owners change it more often.

There are plenty of good examples out there with history. You just have to look around and be prepared to travel to find one (i spent 7 hours on a train to go and pick mine up). Bear in mind that they are a lot less common than scoobs so finding a good one might take a bit longer.

marty_t3

Steve... quite right about the fueling. 200s suffer from det when not mapped correctly just like the impreza

rhybeck

i won't have any thing bad said about nissan's love'em 300zx,skyline,gtir,200sx all top motors.
BUT can't see the point in throwing 3k at a car that will be worth less than 2k after a year or two.
also i guess you haven't got a sti type R or RA
if you did i don't think you would ask this question as not meny standard motors come close

marty_t3

rhybeck does have a good point. You won't get your money back on a 200sx. (but neither will you on a scoob )

I don't think anyone here is buying their car as an investment. When you buy a car for 3k you're never gonna lose more than 3k off the value. Not something that can be said for 10k worth of STi RA.

As for the cost of the mods..... they are easy to sell on again to other 200 enthusiasts (just make sure you keep the factory bits to put back on).

Midmotorsteve

other difficulty i had was most were autos, manuals seemed few and far between

marty_t3

Steve, must admit... i did notice that too when i was hunting for mine last month. Got offered loads of good cars that would have been absolute bargains if the had been manuals.

Not keen on auto's myself. IMO it kinda defeats the purpose of being a "driver's" car when it doesn't have a gearstick.

marty_t3

I just sold my old WRX and bought a 265bhp S13 200sx for £2.5k. The car has already had a new engine fitted and already has a stack of mods. It would absolutely waste my old scoob (which admittedly was standard). There are no problems with cylinder walls that myself or any of the other guys on SXOC have heard off.

One of the flaws in the S13 (apart from the expected rust on a 13yo car) is the big ends. A lot off 200sxs will need a bottom end rebuild around 100k. (my old car suffered this at 85k miles). Valves have also been know to go early... Other than that s13s are VERY reliable, cheap to fix, cheap to run (compared to a scoob), cheap to tune and cheap to insure (for a 150mph car).

Parts are easily available and there are plenty of good tuning places in the UK. The SXOC is an excellent scource of info for anything you want to know and i'd recommend that you join up and find out some more about 200s.

ok... so i'm slightly biased towards the Nissan since i'm on my third but i'd recommend it to anyone who wants a cheap and fast car.

[Edited by marty_t3 - 3/4/2003 9:38:10 PM]