I know that the book on this is just over $3000, but that assumes normal wear and tear on the car. Originally I was told that the car was an SE, but the owner amended that when he looked at it again. It was daily driven before being replaced by a new Tiburon by his parents.
Here are the specs:
1995 240SX Base model. 113,000 miles. 5 speed manual transmission, no suspension or drivetrain mods. Other modifications include an intake and exhaust of unknown make. Unfortunately, a very ugly wing is also on the trunk. This will be removed. Most likely the exhaust will go as well, unless the note is particularly quiet.
Private party book value is in the $3000-3300 range for "fair" to "good" condition.
I got some pics from the owner (obviously-see below), but I have a few concerns.
First, I noticed that the car is not an SE. This would not be a problem, BUT neither set of my rims (from my maxima) will fit, so this is a bit of a concern for me. Also, it reduces the chances that the car has ABS and a VLSD (nearly eliminates the chances, to be honest), and it lacks the ever-cool white-faced gauges and fog lights. Not a deal breaker, but a dissapointment. The VIN can clear up the presence or absence of the other options.
In all honesty, knowing that there is very little chance of the VLSD or ABS, and with the compounded problem of having to do a 5-lug conversion to run my lovely Milles, I am inclined to offer much less than what I was thinking before.
Second, I cannot tell in the pics, but it looks like there may be some rust spots. The spots that I noticed included the radiator support beam and at the front where the bumper meets the fender on the driver's side. Rust is a major concern for me. If I can be sure that it is not there, I would be fine, but the last thing that I need is a rusty body. Other than that, the body appears to be in pretty good condition, though the paint could use a good wax/polish/buff job.
The interior is not bad. The carpets obviously need to be cleaned, and a few interior parts that were painted red for some reason will most likly be pulled and stripped back to black, but that is not a huge deal.
I guess where this stands depends on the rust issue. Also, when I was thinking price, I was thinking that it was an SE with all of the SE options- ABS, VLSD, White Gauges, Foglights, and the 5-lug hubs. But before I can go forward with this I have to re-evaluate the cost based on those other factors. At $3000 for the SE it was fine, but with it not being an SE I really have to think things over.
Oh yeah- and the ricer wing HAS to go!!!!
Impressions: I DO know that the kid riced it out when he could not afford a 20DET swap, which was why he bought the car in the first place. I do not know for how many miles he has owned it. I DO know that he did all of the mods (wing intake exhaust), as well as getting those horrible rims and new tires, plus doing the terrible painting, all in one summer.
My hope was that it was mechanically sound but that its astetics had been mauled by rice.
Opinions on what i should offer for it?
Pics:
1995 Base Model S14 5 speed- What is it worth?
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Rockenreno
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where do you live? $3000 seems like a steal, I got lucky when I got my base model (with a salvage title) for $4000 6 months ago in southern california. That car does not have ABS or VLSD (I'm sure you've come to realize it was exclusively available on SEs). I say hold out for the SE if you can wait, but don't expect to lower the price any on that car. It's easily worth $3000. In SoCal it would sell for $4000 in under a week. Prices seem to be inflated here though, so it doesn't necessarily apply to anywhere else in the world.
Bottom line, don't settle for it if its not what your looking for and you feel uncomfortable with it. It would be a lot of work to fix all the crap on the interior, perform the 5 lug swap, get the gauges, fix the spoiler, etc.
Good luck!
Bottom line, don't settle for it if its not what your looking for and you feel uncomfortable with it. It would be a lot of work to fix all the crap on the interior, perform the 5 lug swap, get the gauges, fix the spoiler, etc.
Good luck!
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TachyonS14
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- Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2003 11:11 pm
Thanks for your thoughts, guys.
My MAIN concern is that this car was owned by a well-to-do riceboy teenager. In all, I just worry about him having mis-installed the intake, exhaust, stereo, etc. If I end up buying it, most likely the exhaust will go (I hate exhaust drone) and the CAI may stay. I will remove and totally re-install the stereo, and the interior will be stripped and cleaned out entirely. I have done this before, so it is not a concern. What i do not want to do is to drive to NJ and find a lot of rust, or a bad transmission, or a major oil leak.
To make myself feel better, I am calling a local mechanic and having him do a once-over on the car. I may have him run compression tests and the like, and themn I will decide. Astetically, I could not care less. If it runs, I can drive it as is until warm weather, assemble the 5-lug conversion parts, and make the swap one sunday- even if it is one end of the car at a time.
The only reason that I am buying this car and selling my maxima is to free up some cash. If this falls through, i will wait for another inexpensive fixer-upper- and not necessarily a 240. I only considered this 240 based on price, not on it being a 240 or even on it being a Nissan. This purchase is out of need, not affinity fo rthe particular car. After researching 240s for a week or so, I have a great appreciation for them, but I did not go looking specifically for a 240.
Here was/is my plan to address the shortcomings.
1. To fix the interior problems, all I have to do is get some paint stipper, pull off the offending panels, strip them, and then replace them. Seems like a pain, but really not that bad. I have seen people do this, and if you rinse the parts after the stripping it leaves no film.
2. To fix the wing, I have an SE wing that could go in its place. I would tape off the holes, prime a 1" x 1" square (or a 1" circle) and prime it. Then I would go to a vinyl shop (like the ones that do signs and graphics) and get either purple or black "patches" to cover the holes. Not perfect, but for what I will be using the car for (daily driver/project, not show car) it will be fine. I have done this for other people in the past wiht no fading, leaking, or peeling problems. Also, the SE wing will cover the holes for all but the most discriminating eyes.
3. Gauges are not a huge deal. I did the same swap from an SE into my GLE in my 96 Maxima. Took an hour, tops, and cost $20 for REAL Nissan OEM gauge faces. I used to do stereos and interiors, so it is NOT uncomfortable for me to disassemble dashes, doors, whole interiors, etc.
The 5 lug conversion is last. While the tires can get me by for now, it would be no problem to do the actual conversion, IF I can find the donor parts. If I do it, I may do z32 brakes as well, and I may not. It all depends on parts availability and cost. I did the full suspension replacement on my 96 Maxima in my apartment parking lot. Tools and mechanical understanding are not in short supply, however time and parts might be.
I considered buying it in cash, fixing the easy stuff, selling the mods, and then re-selling the car. I figure if I can get it cheap enough, I could make about $1000 if I re-do the interior, detail it, and resell it with some patience. Or I may fall in love with how it drives and end up keeping it.
So here is the real question:Buying it as-is, how does the car look? I think that most of the visible problems are very fixable for a DIYer with some patience. Do you guys agree or disagree?
Also, what is it worth in present condition (from the looks and what I have told you)?
My MAIN concern is that this car was owned by a well-to-do riceboy teenager. In all, I just worry about him having mis-installed the intake, exhaust, stereo, etc. If I end up buying it, most likely the exhaust will go (I hate exhaust drone) and the CAI may stay. I will remove and totally re-install the stereo, and the interior will be stripped and cleaned out entirely. I have done this before, so it is not a concern. What i do not want to do is to drive to NJ and find a lot of rust, or a bad transmission, or a major oil leak.
To make myself feel better, I am calling a local mechanic and having him do a once-over on the car. I may have him run compression tests and the like, and themn I will decide. Astetically, I could not care less. If it runs, I can drive it as is until warm weather, assemble the 5-lug conversion parts, and make the swap one sunday- even if it is one end of the car at a time.
The only reason that I am buying this car and selling my maxima is to free up some cash. If this falls through, i will wait for another inexpensive fixer-upper- and not necessarily a 240. I only considered this 240 based on price, not on it being a 240 or even on it being a Nissan. This purchase is out of need, not affinity fo rthe particular car. After researching 240s for a week or so, I have a great appreciation for them, but I did not go looking specifically for a 240.
Here was/is my plan to address the shortcomings.
1. To fix the interior problems, all I have to do is get some paint stipper, pull off the offending panels, strip them, and then replace them. Seems like a pain, but really not that bad. I have seen people do this, and if you rinse the parts after the stripping it leaves no film.
2. To fix the wing, I have an SE wing that could go in its place. I would tape off the holes, prime a 1" x 1" square (or a 1" circle) and prime it. Then I would go to a vinyl shop (like the ones that do signs and graphics) and get either purple or black "patches" to cover the holes. Not perfect, but for what I will be using the car for (daily driver/project, not show car) it will be fine. I have done this for other people in the past wiht no fading, leaking, or peeling problems. Also, the SE wing will cover the holes for all but the most discriminating eyes.
3. Gauges are not a huge deal. I did the same swap from an SE into my GLE in my 96 Maxima. Took an hour, tops, and cost $20 for REAL Nissan OEM gauge faces. I used to do stereos and interiors, so it is NOT uncomfortable for me to disassemble dashes, doors, whole interiors, etc.
The 5 lug conversion is last. While the tires can get me by for now, it would be no problem to do the actual conversion, IF I can find the donor parts. If I do it, I may do z32 brakes as well, and I may not. It all depends on parts availability and cost. I did the full suspension replacement on my 96 Maxima in my apartment parking lot. Tools and mechanical understanding are not in short supply, however time and parts might be.
I considered buying it in cash, fixing the easy stuff, selling the mods, and then re-selling the car. I figure if I can get it cheap enough, I could make about $1000 if I re-do the interior, detail it, and resell it with some patience. Or I may fall in love with how it drives and end up keeping it.
So here is the real question:Buying it as-is, how does the car look? I think that most of the visible problems are very fixable for a DIYer with some patience. Do you guys agree or disagree?
Also, what is it worth in present condition (from the looks and what I have told you)?
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Duckmeister
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silvia tunner
- Posts: 291
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I have a Maroon s14 and when i bought it it on;y came with 92k miles. it also had Eibach springs and old 17" Konig Cobras. the person who i bought it from was a chick and she had bought it from the dealer, she was the on;y owner. i paid 4800 it my baby. 3000 doesn't sound bad but u should find out as much as u can about the car.
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hannibal
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A kid who would do that to his car probably wouldnt take good care of it. Even if the price were low, and you're willing to clean it all up, I still would be doubtful of the condition.If it were in good mechanical shape, I'd pay $3000 at most. From what Ive seen, the asking price on a stock 240 in similar condition (100K miles, 5 spd) is about $5-6000 in the southeast.
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spec-u-later
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2BN_S13 wrote:funny it looks like an altima with an identity crisis. ha. serious 3000 is great with the dohc engine, but just look at the engine. if the engine says "2400" on the top, its not the one you want (its sohc and slow), and unless you have the money to swap it, its not going to be any fun.
Are you looking at the same car. S14's didn't have sohc engines. Only the 89-90 models. Not being a prick, maby you just didn't know.:thinker
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MikeMurphy
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Take it to a trusted mechanic and get a good inspection. Remember, if it breaks down your going to be paying HIM the money to fix it right. If all checks out, just repaint the interior to a more athetically pleasing color (such as stock) or tear the interior out and turn it into a track car 
I would love an excuse to tear all my **** out.
I would ask the guy why he is selling it. gauge his immediate reaction.
I would love an excuse to tear all my **** out.I would ask the guy why he is selling it. gauge his immediate reaction.
MikeMurphy wrote:Take it to a trusted mechanic and get a good inspection. Remember, if it breaks down your going to be paying HIM the money to fix it right. If all checks out, just repaint the interior to a more athetically pleasing color (such as stock) or tear the interior out and turn it into a track car
I would ask the guy why he is selling it. gauge his immediate reaction.
Like i said in another post, he bought the car while in high school with dreams of a SR20DET conversion. His mechanical abilties were lacking, so he bought the intake/exhaust/rice accessories and decided to wait until this summer to do the swap. His parents bought him a new Tiburoun to go to college, and he was going to play with this car this summer. He realized that college was expensive, and that he woudl never save up the money to do the DET swap, and he wants to rice up his tiburoun and to have beer/weed money, so he is selling. Initially, he was tlaking to me about the car and his plans for it when I mentioned that i had wrecked my Maxima. After a while of tlaking, he had made the car sound good, but was upset that he lacked the money to do the swap, so he was planningto sell the car this usmmer. his parents told him to get it out of their driveway SOON or they were going to give it away.
Initially, he asked me to HELP him sell it based on my contacts on Maxima.org, but then when I worked out the numbers I decided to consider the option of buying it myself and selling my maxima.
s14/se wrote:I just noticed the front radiator support looks a little tweaked and the headlights look to new it has probably been in an accident
ah...that's true
Who knows what could have happened.....the best way to figure out is actually seeing the car in person and asking the owner many MANY questions.
At first glance, $3000 for that car is a good deal. I wish that I could have found a 95 S14 for $3000 when I was beginning my project.
The radiator support does look a bit tweaked. It could just be the picture though. From the front, it looks tweaked. From the side, it looks okay.
If the engine has good compression, go ahead and pick it up. I had to rebuild my KA24DE before doing my swap. It had a blown head gasket and 160,000 miles. After the rebuild, I abused it because I knew that I was going to be yanking it out in a few months. I think the transmission took more damage than the engine did. Those things take abuse.
The radiator support does look a bit tweaked. It could just be the picture though. From the front, it looks tweaked. From the side, it looks okay.
If the engine has good compression, go ahead and pick it up. I had to rebuild my KA24DE before doing my swap. It had a blown head gasket and 160,000 miles. After the rebuild, I abused it because I knew that I was going to be yanking it out in a few months. I think the transmission took more damage than the engine did. Those things take abuse.