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BMW has done it again: here comes the ugliest car you have ever seen
Mein Gott that’s bad
This is Collector Car TL;DR: a weekly recap of what happened on Collector Car Feed, plus car auctions, listings, automotive news, and other things of interest to the average CCF Enjoyer, and you can get it weekly by giving me your email address.
The Videos
The Videos
This past week in Collector Car Feed videos was pretty great, I’m talking S-tier every day:
One deranged man thinks he can save them all: welcome to the Isuzone
One of us bought yet another Isuzu SUV. His driveway has hit capacity so this one’s going to live in the back yard. He swears it isn’t a problem. This is a key lore episode: we will absolutely continue to talk about this purchase.
Every Aftermarket Jeep Grille Ranked
Wrangler sales are down and Bronco sales are up (praise the Ford), but the Angry Jeep Face persists on the streets and in our minds, so we put every single one Netgear could find on a classic tier list.
Hunting for real stolen cars on Facebook Marketplace
This is one of our best performing videos in months, at least over the first few days. Our audience loves stolen cars and poverty rides, but it also happens to be a great video. They’re really out there and they’re not hard to find.The News
The Next BMW M3 front end design has been leaked
Scroll up. That first image is the new M3. We were all wondering how they were going to add more kidney to this grille. They did it by letting the kidneys consume the headlights, coincidentally making the whole thing look like the 1999 Pontiac GTO concept car.
Subaru is discontinuing the WRX in Japan
It’s almost certainly not a permanent goodbye, but Subaru is pulling the plug on the WRX in the Japanese market, and news sources are citing noise and emissions regulations as the culprits. The CVT-only WRX is too loud and inefficient to be sold in Japan.
Jaguar’s Design Boss Is Officially Leaving The Company
It’s unclear if he was fired or quit, but Jaguar’s lead designer for the past two decades is out. Weirdly the article only mentions him having designed the Land Rover Defender, Land Rover Evoque, and most recently the Jaguar Type 00 Concept, which is linked to that disastrous Jaguar rebranding campaign you probably already forgot about. There’s a picture of it in the article, and they call the design “highly controversial”, but I thought it was kind of cool, if you can separate it from, again, that awful commercial they made that the entire world absolutely hated. Feels like this guy is being punished for the marketing department’s mistakes, but what do I know.The Cars
2016 Ford Focus ST
This would be a great match for my shadow black Fiesta ST, but the secret seems to be out on these and they’re hitting new heights all the time bid-wise on these online auction platforms. 54,000 miles, one owner, ST3 package and optioned just right (everything except the upgrade wheels; the snowflakes are better). Those options are leather heated Recaros, heated leather steering wheel, Sync 3 (Carplay/Android Auto compatible), sunroof. And it’s a facelift! The only negative are a couple accidents on record, which the Cars and Bids crowd will completely ignore as they run the price up to probably around $20,000, which is deep into Ecoboost Mustang territory.
I know, you hate all of this. You’ll come around, but until you do, let’s look at something else.
1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo
This is actually the only other ongoing auction I have saved from the past week. It’s been slim pickings. 144K on the clock and three days left as of this writing. It’s a real turbo, not a swap. It’s more or less unmolested and has a clean title. There’s no mention of any accidents. The mileage is the major drawback here, and it’s an SW20 so of course it’s leaking oil. Luckily the seller has no record of the timing belt having ever been done, so you can replace all the front side seals when you do that critical piece of work.
This unmaintained, meh-mileage MR2 Turbo should sell for around $10,000, but I’d bet on $14,500 as the final price.
1995 Ford Taurus SHO
This is actually TWO 1995 SHOs, both in project car condition, for $1500 OBO. They’re both stick shift. I wish I had Netgear-level space for derelict vehicles when I see things like this.
Lamborghini Countach Replica
Classic: it’s a Fiero wearing a Lambo suit. Check out the old school hood pins on the frunk. Doug says “for those who want the eye-catching Countach look without the eye-watering Countach price, Pontiac Fiero-based replicas like this can be a lot of fun.”
Doug, when are you going to stand up for yourself? I know you didn’t write this.
Ferrari 308 GTB Replica
Classic: it’s a Fiero wearing a Ferrari suit. And of course, Doug loves it: “The Ferrari 308 GTB is an iconic ’80s poster car – but not everyone can afford (or wants to maintain) the real thing, and that’s where high-quality replicas serve a great purpose.”
This will probably sell for more than the MR2 Turbo above. Which would you rather have: the Poor Man’s Ferrari, or the Complete Idiot’s Ferrari?Final Thoughts
I gave away several more Scion CD Samplers to people who read this in their email earlier today. Could have been you, man. I have a whole box of ’em. Some other junk too. Get the email, scroll back up.
See you Soon.
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Nice Price or Crack Pipe: 73,000 Mile S14
You know the deal on this one. The drift scene ravaged the S13/S14 population over the past 15-20 years. Finding an unmolested example takes a great deal of patience, the owner always knows what they have, and generally speaking, if the the mileage is low, it’s because the car doesn’t move.
This is not an ideal S14. You can tell it’s been sitting in the sun for years, it has unrepaired paint damage all around, particularly on the front passenger corner, and it’s an automatic. The previous owner installed a push-start ignition, which is never a good sign. But, it’s listed on Facebook Marketplace for $7800, and has 73k miles on the odometer.
Side note, to see a list of every S14 240SX we’ve found on Facebook Marketplace, check out this link. If you’re new here, we hunt Facebook (and eBay, and Cars and Bids, and Bring A Trailer) for collector cars of interest, and compile them into these massive lists. We update daily, so come back for more.
The engine bay is complete: no eBay short ram, no OBX header. This is a hen’s tooth, a unicorn horn. Yes, it needs work, but the way things are going, will you ever find another S14 this “reasonably” priced?
We’ve reached a point where most 240SXs have been destroyed. And at $7800, this one might be next, unless you save it.
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Dammit: This Solar Yellow MR2 Spyder Sells on Facebook Marketplace in Six Hours
I own an MR2 Spyder. It’s a 2000, it’s bright red, it has 63,000 miles. It’s genuinely the most fun car I’ve ever owned. I cherish it and would never consider selling it.
…Except I definitely will now, because one with two thousand less miles than my own sold for over $17,000 on Bring A Trailer recently. Considering what I paid for mine, hanging onto it in these absurd times feels foolish. After all, these cars get posted on Facebook Marketplace all the time; I can just get another one.
Expect to see this for sale sooner rather than later. So I’ve been looking, and looking, and looking. Unfortunately, it seems a lot of Spyder owners have also gotten the news that these cars were crafted from solid gold. $10,000+ asking prices are the norm for sub-90k examples, and the owners I’ve attempted to haggle with have all but laughed directly in my face. I’m sure if I tried to offer $6500 in person they actually would, immediately before chasing me off their driveway.
Yesterday, I received an alert on our Discord server. You can enter what make, model, year range, and mileage range you’re after, and my bot will tell you when there’s new matches. Two MR2 Spyders had just gone up for sale: the one pictured in this article, and a white 2001 with 63K on the clock, which was optioned identically to the one that just sold on BaT.
I immediately clicked on both and sent offers. The BaT clone was asking $8000; I offered him my customary $6500, to which he replied that was simply too low as his inbox was filled with interest. Fair enough.
Solar Yellow, the only color louder than Absolutely Red The yellow MR2 was being offered at $6500. Located a mere 28 hours away by highway in a suburb of Los Angeles, this 89,000 original mile Solar Yellow example actually included the OEM hardtop, color matched of course. Underneath was a black top and black cloth interior, just like mine. I offered him asking price. I told him I had cash in hand. I did everything I could to secure this car. He sent me the VIN and some jovial conversation, telling me how much he loved it, how much he hated to see it go. I told him I needed to book a flight, just don’t sell it.
This OEM hardtop is worth $3000+ if you can even find one. Of course, you know how this ends. Within six hours of listing the car, it was sold. This car, with the matching hardtop and sub-100k mileage, is the perfect Bring A Trailer bait car. even with 50% more miles than the white and tan beauty that sold a couple weeks back, I’m sure if it were listed, it would fetch a similar price. The hardtop is basically impossible to come by at this point, much less color matched, and the solar yellow really does look insane out in the real world, surrounded by the usual tan and beige conveyance appliances most choose to drive.
It’s not a matter of if, but when this car will show up on Bring A Trailer, Cars and Bids, or eBay. We’ll keep our eyes peeled and update on this car’s journey as it continues. I fully expect to see it again in the near future sporting a five figure price tag. The white 2001 Spyder I mentioned remains for sale at the time of this writing, but god knows for how long. I guess I’ll make another offer.
One final note, if any of you live in the Los Angles area and want to act as an intermediary for these kind of things, jump on the Discord and talk to us. California has a wealth of great cars and we’d like to get our beaks wet from thousands of miles away. We’ll make it worth your time. Free stickers?
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What cars do YOU want to see?
I want to narrow our search a bit. Daily Deals missed a few days due to some issues with my server, but now that we’re back running, I want to make it something I personally actually want to scroll through. For me personally, that means 90s and 00s Hondas and Toyotas: the Civic Si, RSX, and MR2 Spyder. It also means 80s and 90s Nissans: Z32 300ZXs, S13s and S14s, and the Sentra SE-R. And maybe some oddball Subarus like the Brat could keep it interesting. What that doesn’t include, in my perfect vision, is hundreds of F-150s and Super Duties, any sort of German car at all really, and maybe less Plymouth Prowlers wouldn’t hurt.
But nobody’s tastes are the same, and I want to make sure I’m still including your interests in these posts, and what we aggregate on the forum. So what do you want to see? Email me directly at collectorcarfeed@gmail.com to tell me what you’re looking for, or let me know in the Discord server.
I’m also thinking about reducing the number of emails to every other day, or maybe three times a week. If you know about this site and come here regularly anyway, do you really need a daily notification in your mailbox? Do you want one? I’m open to either way, continuing daily or switching to a few times a week. I’m pushing the limit on my free Mailchimp account right now, so dialing it back wouldn’t hurt. Again, let me know what you think!
There are some new features in the Discord server (get notifications for specific searches, with filters for year price, mileage, and keywords!), and a few other updates worth mentioning, but I’ll tell you about them in a separate post. Thanks for reading!
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Found on the Feed: Better ACTY now!
If you’ve ever been to Japan, then odds are you’ve had the pleasure to see what’s known as a kei car. These are smaller Japanese market-only vehicles that value function over form. Kei cars and trucks have been making their way to America for quite some time, but it’s only recently that they’ve become staples on many import shops’ websites, with some places going as far to only import kei vehicles. Powered by tiny, sub-660CC motors, in this ACTY’s case, it’s a 650CC I3. These vehicles also came in a variety of forms, from trucks to vans; there’s an ACTY for everyone.
Bet you didn’t notice she wasn’t wearing shoes. It should be known that when I pulled this example up during the Feed’s offices daily “T. Flats and Trucks” luncheon, there were several vomiting noises, and we can’t be sure which caused it. [editor’s note: we don’t all agree with Atlas’ disdain, I THINK IT’S CUTE] However, here’s today’s 1994 ACTY Van, currently listed on Facebook Marketplace. It’s been in the states for less than a year and only has around 50,000 miles on it (76,000 km). It’s a stick shift and the seller states that it’s in great condition for its age. The seller, a Feed discord regular, has a deep-rooted love for the ACTY platform, and when asked what makes it special, he said it’s got a rare double sunroof, for taking your six-pack of Asian thots on a pleasure cruise to the nearest beach for an afternoon of backgammon.
The seat that’s held 1000 Japanese farts. Overall this example seems to be fairly clean and with a good detail, and some carpet extraction, you’ll be the star of the next Cars and Coffee. Priced at $8,000, I think this vehicle won’t last long. It’s a fair price and if Bring a Trailer has shown us anything recently, it’s that 90’s JDM stuff is on the rise and this ACTY is about as JDM as you can get.
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Found on the Feed: Rally Spec Pulsar GTI-R
The Nissan Pulsar is the (already) eccentric Nissan fan’s Nissan. These were some unique little hot hatches made for the Japanese market, and never quite made it here to the United States (we got the Sentra instead). That’s kind of a shame, because certain models (GTI-Rs) came with a SR20DET, all wheel drive and the rest of your classic 90s Nissan tropes. The only thing this little car didn’t do is race Mt. Akagi against a certain panda Trueno. [editor’s note: fact checked for accuracy. It’s true: Takumi never races a GTI-R]
That brings us to today’s model, which is set up to be a true Group A rally car, which, according to Wikipedia, was an actual thing Nissan did! However, this particular example, found on Facebook Marketplace, is a recreation, appearing to be a GTI-R underneath, as stated by the seller: “NOT saying its a NISMO car !! Has some Nismo parts !!” But nevertheless, this is a cool car, decked out with everything you’d need to attend the next New England Forest Rally with your favorite co-driver.
There do be a redtop there Now, the price isn’t exactly cheap at $19,500. But I’m going to forgive that for the fact that it’s both a 90s Nissan with an SR20DET (thanks, Bring a Trailer) and a bonafide Rally Car. It sounds like at the end of the day there’s some room to wiggle here, being that it’s been listed for a week now. With the rest of the mods the seller lists, I don’t have a ton of doubt that this would be a solid weekend driver.
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Found on the Feed: Your next NB Miata Project
We all know NBs are the superior Miata [we don’t -Feed]. It’s been discussed on the Collector Car Feed podcast several times now. However, what we’ve got here is a real project that is (thankfully) OBO so you might be able to scoop it for a reasonable price, considering the low miles it has.
Almost everyone on this fine website knows about Miatas; it seems like even the most common folk know now. I double-checked this by yelling out the window of the Feed offices “Hey what’s a Miata?” and a nice gentleman on the sidewalk below replied “A great driver’s car!” If you need more convincing, let me tell you this fact: It’s the best selling roadster of all time.
A nice wet picture to hide how terrible the paint really is. This particular NB has just under 29000 actual miles on the car. However, the seller does state that the Arizona sun has taken a toll on the vehicle’s paint and dashboard, as noted by the above and below pictures. The car is an original 5 Speed and does have a hardtop, which is an exceptionally desirable, hard-to-come-by amenity.
Overall, this car’s a little steep at $8500, but as I said in the beginning, the seller states this is or best offer, so you could potentially scoop it for a decent price. A little Maaco love, some time on the internet finding either some new seats or having an upholstery shop run free and you might (keyword might) have a Bring a Trailer winner on your hands. You can go here to find the listing. Unless it’s slipped away by now, in which case you should have gotten Feed Premium to find this gem and ones just like it, first, when they hit Facebook Marketplace.
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Big if True: World’s First 10 Second Honda For Sale
Today’s staff pick is an actual piece of import tuning history. Today we take a look at the Silver Bullet Honda CRX, currently up on Facebook Marketplace for “trades and cash 30k range”.
This CRX, originally owned by David Shih, has spent the last 22 years untouched as part of a private collection in Monroe, Louisiana. Shih was interviewed by Honda Tuning Magazine about his historic feat in which he piloted the little B18 powered sport compact to the world’s first ten second quarter mile pass in a Honda, posting 10.87 at 136 miles per hour, all the way back in 1996.
This is truly a piece of automotive history. This car can be credited with kicking off the tuner craze of the late 90s and early 00s, leading into the creation of the Fast and the Furious franchise, American Products Company, Super Street Magazine (which coincidentally also started in 1996), and so many other things we’ve come to love in hindsight here at Collector Car Feed. $30,000 for this historic milestone almost feels like theft.
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Site Update: Daily Deals Revamped
If you haven’t taken a look at Daily Deals in a minute, I don’t blame you. Where are the deals?
Up until now, the Daily Deals post has been a collection of all cars found in the past 24 hours with less than 100,000 miles on the odometer. The idea was maybe this would help you find a low mileage Bring A Trailer darling to flip.
Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with 10+ year old cars, limiting to a hundred thousand miles rules out the vast majority, and what if you’re not necessarily looking for a cherry example? What if you just want to get behind the wheel of a 240SX or 4Runner and don’t really care about the number on the odometer?
Daily Deals has been reworked. Now instead of limiting by mileage, it shows everything we’ve found in the past 24 hours (and will soon include live auction listings). To help make sense of the mess, I’ve added labels to standout listings, both positive and negative. There’s a 1-5 dollar sign price rating, markers for low and high mileage, and a quick warning if the price or mileage looks fake. The price and mileage labels are model-specific: previously, anything under 100k was considered “low mileage”. Now, low and high mileage labels are based on the mileage of all similar vehicles I’ve found in the past six months. The same is true of price labels. Everything is based on similar vehicle data instead of arbitrary numbers.
Our goal here has always been helping you find a good deal, and I think this is a massive step forward in living up to it. This functionality will be added to the forum pages as well in the near future, along with some other tweaks and new features. This site is never “finished”, there’s always something else to fix or improve.
Anyway, the YouTube channel needs subs, so smash that bell or whatever.
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Z Odyssey, Part 2: Ship (Doesn’t) Happen(s), A Donkey Show, and Love at First Sight
I’d found the car I wanted, but, coming from across the country, how would I buy it? With everyone and their uncle leery of wire transfers thanks to the numerous Nigerian princes out there, I had to come up with a way to get my money in the seller’s hands without having him being scared of getting ripped off. Any banker in their right mind would warn him against accepting a wire transfer. I could always mail him a check, but then I’d be vulnerable if he backed out. I considered putting the money into an escrow account, which is common, but that would take time: time I didn’t have, since I was on both the seller and my friend’s schedules.
Golf, it turns out, would be the Klonopin all three of us would need to ease the anxiety. My friend Pat works for the golf course at Mammoth Lakes, CA, and the seller was a golf pro at his local resort. Once the two of them made the connection, it was smooth sailing from there. I wired the money directly to his bank, but the tellers warned him of the potential scam. He shrugged it off and put faith in me and Pat. He was $7000 richer, and I was $7000 poorer, with the title to a 1972 240Z. I kept in contact with the seller over the next few days, as transfers can take time. I wanted him to be sure that this wasn’t a scam and that the money was transferred.
Pat made the 4 hour trek back with my new pride and joy while I started contacting shipping companies to get it loaded onto a trailer to ship back east. This turned out to be a nightmare. Transport companies tend to just accept whatever job they can within a reasonable price range, regardless of the location of the vehicle. I had multiple carriers accept the job, wait a few days to a week, call me to arrange pick up, realize the location sucked, and then cancel on me. It was Thanksgiving , and time wasn’t doing me any favors either, as roads and winter storms could disable travel at any time.
After a few weeks of waiting, I wondered if I should just try and drive it home. I started researching flights and found a few decent fares. I talked with my wife to see what she thought of me embarking on this journey, and she was 100% supportive. I waffled for a couple days on the decision, since I figured I would need a two week lead time to make the flight prices work. As luck would have it, I was finally going to pull a sort of scam on Frontier. Frontier was offering $48 one way flights to Vegas. I could leave the next day for fifty bucks and start the journey. If you aren’t aware of Frontier, they nickel and dime you for everything. You want to choose your seat? That’s an extra fifteen bucks. You want to bring a carry-on item? That’s an extra fifty bucks. You want to use the bathroom, ten bucks. I might be the first person to make that flight for the advertised price. I was planning on packing light anyways, so this was more of an incentive. I shoved everything I would need to bring with me in a “personal item” sized backpack. With 30 hours notice, I was on my way to Vegas with only a backpack and a one-way rental car destined for MMH airport in Mammoth Lakes.
I arrived in Vegas at 1 AM on Friday, December 1, 2017. I wasn’t hassled one bit from Frontier, which honestly surprised me, as I figured they would try and nickel and dime me at any opportunity. I got about 4 hours of “plane sleep” on my flight; that kind of sleep where you’re partially awake and partially asleep at the same time. Where you’re constantly entering and leaving consciousness. As I had a long drive ahead of me, any sleep I got was better than none.
I got to my Enterprise rental car at about 1:30 AM and embarked on the five hour drive to Mammoth. I stopped at the infamous Alien Highway rest stop off of Route 95 north of Vegas, and was bemused to see that they had an alien brothel. If I had more time, was single, and desperate, I might have walked in just to see what it was all about.
In between Mammoth and Vegas is nothing but highway, a small town, and a few brothels. I made it to the small town of Beatty around 4 AM. I was starting to get a little tired, and thought I saw something in the middle of the road. It wasn’t an alien, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t two donkeys crossing the street. They didn’t acknowledge or flinch as I came to a quick halt about 10 feet away. I had seen wild horses crossing the road when I previously lived out here, but never wild donkeys. I wasn’t sure if that was an omen, but I pushed on regardless. I made it to Pat’s house in Mammoth at about 6:30 AM.
I finally got to see her after weeks of waiting. Pat had gotten busy tearing her down a little bit to prep her for the trip. The original radio was long gone and she had been spliced open (Dash Panel had been hacked apart) to store an antiquated aftermarket CD player. I say store, because the head unit wasn’t even connected to power or the speakers. If you’re going to make a trip across country, you have to have music. And it’s sad to say, but if I was going to go from Mammoth to Northern VA, I needed tunes or else I didn’t think I could make it. He had also wired up the cigarette lighter so I could charge my phone for the trip.
We buttoned her up so I could take her out for a quick test drive and stop by the local NAPA auto parts to get a few needed items. The clutch was slipping under load in 3rd, 4th, and 5th but once you got above 3500 rpm, she would hold and pull all the way to 6k, which is short of redline. I wasn’t ready to push her that high yet. This 240 had a L28 paired with a 5 speed transmission which was perfect for highway cruising. It still had the stock 240Z secondary cylinder adjustment rod, so I was hoping to make some adjustments to get rid of the slipping clutch. Would it work? Tune in next time to find out!
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How To Ruin The Market: Nissan 240SX Edition
Like many enthusiasts and users of this fine website, I appreciate collectible and rare cars. I also seek out the high profile sales of some of these collectible and rare cars. It helps me form a better opinion of where the market is heading, so that I can offer that advice to you fine folks (and anyone else in the office who will listen to my soapbox rants). If you can’t find me browsing the forums here, I’m probably browsing Bring a Trailer, eBay Motors, or newcomer Cars and Bids. And in doing so, I’m noticing a scary trend: undesirable outliers setting the price to unobtainable for exceptional examples. Case in point, this 1990 240SX (S13)
I can smell the little tree from here. Undesirable
This is an undesirable S13. Why, you ask? This is a USDM model with a single cam KA24E truck motor. It’s a “zenki” (or “pignose”), pre-facelift model, which is widely considered the ugliest variety, although some people (mainly zenki owners) do seem to appreciate the kitsch of it.
Short of being an automatic (this 240 does thankfully have the five speed manual), this is pretty much the least desirable iteration of the 240SX. While that’s not so bad for Facebook, this wasn’t listed on Facebook. This is Bring a Trailer. The name and reputation of the website itself implies that this vehicle is so rare, unique, and special that you need to Bring. A. Trailer. This car is none of those things, especially when you can import an example powered by the legendary SR20DET or with Type X parts equipped. This example is an average 240SX, which somehow evaded a drift kid strapping an eBay turbo on and cutting the fenders off.This car sold for a whopping $32,750, and no, I did not make the number up. If you look at the data Bring a Trailer provides on specific models, you will see that this vehicle is an outlier. Prior to the sale of this example on August 24, 2020, the highest-selling 240SX went for $20,000, and that puts the average price of a unique and collectible S13 (at least according to the folks at Bring a Trailer) at approximately $8,800.
As I said in the beginning, I believe sites like Bring a Trailer, eBay Motors, and Cars and Bids are useful tools to help predict and set the market, especially as enthusiasts and collectors flock away from auction events like Barrett Jackson and Mecum, where they don’t often showcase cars that our generation wants. This is also equally important to note, because as import regulations become lifted for 25-year-old cars that were never sold in North America, we’re going to have to look somewhere else to get some guidance on pricing.
Why this S13 matters
So, you might be asking yourself: why does this particular 240SX, which sold in August of 2020, matter? Well, when I originally began to cogitate on this whole idea, I knew something like this was going to happen: here we have another S13 that just closed its an auction on Bring a Trailer. The high bid of $18,001 did not meet reserve. Upon learning this, I broke several pieces of furniture in the Feed’s office (sorry guys, I’ll get another coffee pot soon). Why does this make me irrationally angry? Because aside from the Juniper Green Metallic, the car in question was just as undesirable as the listing in August! [Editor’s note: I want both of them, but at 2005 prices pls] The seller even had the nerve to list the car with a reserve that was entirely too expensive! At the end of the day, these auctions set price trends in the secondary market. For evidence, check out the S13 listings page here on Collector Car Feed. Wow, that’s a lot of $1234 listings, isn’t it?
I don’t see someone paying $9,000 for this. Observe the above BaT reject, recently found for sale using Collector Car Feed. An 80,000 mile example, its paint is far from perfect (note the peeling roof), it’s a single-cam KA, and it’s automatic. Three strikes and you’re out. But, because of that single moon shot S13, the price of a Nissan 240SX has risen so drastically that this formerly $4,000 car is now asking $9,000, which, coincidentally, is the average asking price on Bring a Trailer. [Editor’s note: I bet we see this constantly once I add finished auction analytics.]
I don’t think this is the first example of this issue in the market; in fact, I’m sure this has happened before, twenty or thirty years ago when companies like Barrett Jackson first began to auction cars. Except then it wasn’t S13s, it was Camaros and Mustangs. The only respite we’re going to get is when a real JDM legend hits the market, it should finally make the value of true collectibles reflect the opinion of their owners thirty years later.
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Z Odyssey Part 1: The Realization That We All Become Our Fathers
The Dastun 240Z is one of the most iconic sports cars of the 1970s, and, I’d argue, the 20th century. It is a timeless design coupled with old fashioned Japanese quality workmanship and engineering.
I’ve tried to remember when I first fell in love with the S30, and I think I my appreciation began around 2010. At that time, I owned a 2005 WRX and was an active member of NASIOC, a popular Subaru Impreza forum. I had gotten bored one day on the site and delved into the off topic forum where I found a thread about 240Zs. I was smitten with the first image that loaded. It was metallic blue, lowered, and customized with fender flares, a shaved rear end, larger wheels, and a few other custom pieces. It was absolutely gorgeous. The modifications were simple and elegant in a period where extreme camber and two stepping at car shows was all the rage. I had never realized until that point how timeless these cars were. I vowed that day that, eventually, I would own one.
At that moment, I started keeping an eye on Craigslist. In a conversation with my father, I casually mentioned my slight obsession with them. While he isn’t a collector or a car guy in general, he spoke to me as if I was an idiot. It turned out he had owned a ’70 240Z before I or any of my siblings were born. He and my mother loved that car and told me a few anecdotes about owning it. It was at that point that my desire to own one grew and I was going to buy one. Unfortunately, I was working a job that I loved, but I didn’t have the disposable income to “throw away” at restoring an old car, so I had to put my obsession on hold. I remember talking to my brother about them right after discussing with my dad. “You want to restore a classic car? A 240Z? that’s not really a classic though.” Little did he know just how incorrect that statement was. The S30 is really starting to appreciate in value now, and some of them go for $50k or more on Bring a Trailer.
I started moving up in my company and finally became financially stable enough to seriously consider one. As time went on, I began laying the groundwork for ownership. I bought a house with a garage so I could start pursuing projects and keep my car out of the bitter cold Virginia winters. No way was I going to let mother nature reclaim through oxidation my soon to be pride and joy. My wife knew I was ready to pull the trigger on a project and was very supportive of it as I began my online search for a 240Z. In November of 2017, I finally found an example in my price range, and it was rust free. The only issue was that it was located in California.
Fortunately, I had a friend that lived within a few hours who was also a gear head. He has some cool projects as well, like a 1 of <2,000 turbo DSM Colt and a Suzuki Samurai with a VW diesel motor swap. He understood my passion and offered to make the drive to check it out.
It was a perfect project, my friend claimed. There was no rot on it: just a little surface rust in the usual spots and a “nickel” (aka a shitty Maaco) paint job. It was living outside, but the owner made sure to tell me that this was his “driver”. Living outside in the arid parts of California is quite different than the east coast. Cars with exposed metal will often take years to develop surface rust, while back east you watch the chemical process take place in damn near real time. If this car had lived its life on the east coast, it would have returned back to the earth long ago. The windows were cloudy from years of sitting outside, exposed to the occasional rain storm. It had some cheap Chinese tires on it that had tread, but just looked really old. It had cheap APC seats, and the drivers side had a fairly large mouse hole in it. However, this was right up my alley; with a little bit of time and money, and this would be the perfect project car.
Read more the Z Odyssey archive.
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Toyota Celsior: The Most Reliable Car Ever Built, Part Four: Goodbye
TOP TEXT
First off, I’d like to apologize for leaving the story open for so long; I’ve had lots of requests to finish, so thank you to all that have read about my adventures with the Celsior.
Where we last left off, I had just dropped off the disabled Celsior with Lutz. It had been about two days, and he called and asked me to come in to talk about what they found. This didn’t bode well with me, and I prepared myself for the worst as I walked through the doors of his shop. I saw my car sitting on the lift with one of his mechanics working under the hood, while he explained to me the work they had done. That’s when I noticed it – the car was running! The glorious 1UZ-FE V8 was again back to its smooth and quiet self! The car had jumped timing just before I was set to replace the timing belt/water pump. Lutz also found one my camshaft position sensors had tested out of spec, so being the perfectionist he is, he went ahead and replaced them both, as well as the radiator, as he had found a slight leak. I was ecstatic, and couldn’t believe the work had been done so quickly.
Then came the bill, to the tune of $1,800 (maybe more, I don’t remember), which I couldn’t be happier to pay. I had my car back! As I drove away from the shop, the car felt as good as new, and it nestled into its spot on my driveway again, ready to take me to work in the morning.About a day or so later, I had my family in the car, and we were coming back from my son’s taekwondo lesson. As I pulled into the driveway, I rolled the window down for some reason. Inside my safe cocoon of sound proof metal and glass, I couldn’t hear it, but now that the window was down, it was evident that a *sound* was coming from the engine bay.
As I popped the hood, my mind wandered and I again heard the voices of demons and my wife. Why must I be tested this way? With my spouse looking on puzzlingly, I donned my stethoscope and placed it on the idler pulley. Bingo. My mind left the dark place, and the next day I purchased both the idler and tensioner pulley for good measure.
Around this time, my friend in San Antonio was getting ready to celebrate his son’s first birthday, and I thought “Wow, how fun would it be to take a road trip in my newly fixed, 25 year old Japanese car?” What could go wrong? The Friday morning before the birthday party, I packed up my family and we began our journey from El Paso to San Antonio. My wife reclined in her plush passenger seat and my son napped in the back, as I started putting miles (or kilometers?) between us and El Paso. When we arrived at the first “major” city, Fort Stockton, my wife decided she needed to use the restroom. I pulled into a gas station, got out of the car to stretch, and noticed it smelled like a car was burning oil. I went inside and used the restroom as well, and when I came back out my wife asked “Is the car smoking?”
The demons immediately returned.
There were definite wisps of smoke coming from the undercarriage. I moved the air suspension switch from NORM to HIGH to try and get a better look, but all I could ascertain was that I had developed a transmission fluid leak. I had to make a quick decision, and it seemed my best option was to turn around and try and make it back home instead of continuing on, as home was the closer destination. I purchased a quart of transmission fluid and left the gas station, turning on my left blinker to enter I-10 *West*, defeated. I kept my eyes on the rear view mirrors as much as the road in front of me, ready to pull the car over at any sign of smoke and evacuate the car. At that point, my attitude towards the situation had changed to a very Ivan Drago like one: If she burns, she burns.
Thankfully, the God of Bomex was watching over us: we made it safely back to El Paso, straight to Lutz’s shop. I left the Celsior in his care once again, and walked back home. He called me later that day to inform me that he had found the source of the leak and had corrected it. I brought the Celsior home again, happy, but with a little less glint in my eyes. Driving old cars is tough, and I had three RHD projects I had to keep running.
Sadly, the story ends abruptly here. The Celsior was sold locally on July 20, 2020, for the sum of $6,750. It is survived by a 1991 Nissan Silvia K’s (KPS13), and a 1992 Toyota Land Cruiser ZX (HZJ77).
There is another JDM legend. BOTTOM TEXT
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Recalibrating The Feed: What’s New, What’s Changing, What to Expect
First, thanks for reading and supporting this project! This thing has changed substantially since its inception as a Discord bot, first expanding to a blog with original journalistic endeavors sprinkled amongst auto-generated “Every X For Sale in America” daily posts to keep things moving, and then evolving to a forum format with tables of for-sale cars and trucks (and now bikes and ATVs!) to peruse.
You’ve scanned your last “Every X” style blog post. The aforementioned forum has rendered these posts obsolete. If you want to see “Every E36 BMW M3 For Sale in America”, for example, you can just go to the E36 M3 thread, which is updated every day, and now has some new sources beyond just Facebook: if you haven’t visited in a while, you may be elated to discover we now also search eBay Motors, Bring A Trailer, and Cars And Bids, and there are more sites coming! We want to see those gray market Canadian Skylines just as bad as the Canadians who browse this site, so Kijiji is on the table.
While “Every X” is gone, the blog isn’t going away. This week, we’re pushing car content every single day. There’s a new Collector Car Feed Podcast up right now (did you know we have a podcast?), in which four of us take turns presenting cars we’ve found on The Feed, while the other three shoot holes in our dreams. Part Four of the Toyota Celsior series is coming, detailing the ups and downs of importing a JDM classic. There’s a Datsun 240Z post coming this week as well, and a look at the insanity Bring A Trailer has wrought on the 240SX community.
Finally, to replace the “Every X” series, a new daily post format is coming, which better captures what I’ve been trying to recreate this whole time. This new, yet-unnamed daily post will now feature vehicles found in the past 24 hours: new listings only. Focusing on cars over 15 years old, we’re going to filter out junk prices ($1234) and junk mileage, only looking at cars with under 100,000 miles on the clock. The idea is to recreate cracking open a brand new, print-edition Auto Trader that you just brought home from the corner gas station, hopefully finding, without a laser focus on a single model, something worth looking into. The first post will drop this Friday.
Thanks again for reading, and thanks for all the suggestions and ideas you all have sent. You’ve all helped shape this site, and it’s starting to evolve into exactly what I was hoping for from the beginning. This coming week is full of journalistic gold, so stay tuned.
