I haven't been into the tuner scene for a long time, but I'm going to return to the tuner car soon. I'm choosing between an S13 240SX or a Honda Civic. I'm not particular, I'm open to hatches from 88-95 or a second gen CRX.


Of course, these are 2 completely different cars, but I'm looking for a daily driver that is fun, has a huge aftermarket, handles well, has respectable speed and is somewhat inexpensive.

I plan on purchasing the car for approximately $1000 and immediately spending between $1000-$1500 on maintenance and a few mods. Afterward, I'm going to save and modify as I can. Ultimately, I will do an engine swap in either car, but I'll probably try to buy another car to daily drive afterwards.

If absolute performance was the comparison, the 240 would definetly win. However, I would like to know what car everyone thinks would make a better day-to-day driver

id pick the 240sx, it is rwd and looks better than the civic.

I've never owned a Civic but I've had a 240 that I use as a daily driver and it suits the task well.

I've never owned a Civic but I've had a 240 that I use as a daily driver and it suits the task well.

My old 240 fastback was a decent car to drive even as a stock base model POS. It felt like a stripped down sports car, which is something I could never say about the Civic. A Civic will be a Civic, no matter what I do.

What about these alternatives

FC RX-7
1G DSM


I'm sure there are other alternatives, but these two came up off the top of my head. I'm leery of the Mazda and DSM because of reliablity issues. I know the rotary's concerns, but what's actually unreliable about the DSM's? Their engines are rock-solid from what I understand. Any other suggestions?

Well, one of my good friends has owned two S13 240SXs. They're not too bad as daily drivers, and they are pretty fun to drive. Just watch out for abused 240SXs; a lot of people buy them, drift the shit out of them without any modifications, trash them, and then resell them. I imagine it's going to get a lot worse after The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift, so if you're gonna buy one, buy one now.

Well, one of my good friends has owned two S13 240SXs. They're not too bad as daily drivers, and they are pretty fun to drive. Just watch out for abused 240SXs; a lot of people buy them, drift the shit out of them without any modifications, trash them, and then resell them. I imagine it's going to get a lot worse after The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift, so if you're gonna buy one, buy one now.



I forgot about how the release of a FATF "movie" raises the resale values of 10+ year Nissans :rolleyes:

Hopefully, I'll find an old fart selling one who doesn't know a damn thing about the import scene :naughty:

Just look at what it did to the poor Supra :(

I saw the movie last night. It actually was pretty damn good, and a LOT better than the first two. And it didn't have any S13 or S14 240SXs in it as far as I could tell, just an S15 Silvia. But still, it'll probably bring more attention to drifting, and thus create more demand for cheap, RWD Japanese cars...which is basically just the Miata and the 240SX. And I doubt the Miata will be affected by this much.

A FC is likely either to be torn up or expensive and then you do have the rotory's thurst for apex seals. With that much room in the engine bay they are pretty easy to work on and they are mostly reliable about everything else.

A first gen DSM shouldn't be too expensive, though finding one that hasn't been half-assed modified might be hard. What breaks? Well all crank walk jokes aside, god knows there are a lot of them, the 4G motor's main virtue is that its been around so damn long that it's been fairly well sorted out. The problem comes in when you start upgrading, they don't last long. Typical DSM racer timeline goes something like:

1.Buy a big turbo --> 2.Boost til it blows --> 3.Buy another motor --> 4.Transfer turbo --> 5. Go back to 2

Having been around quite a few first and second generation Eclipses I've found most of the problems outside of the engine and transmission very annoying but fixable. Coolant leaks, cranked bushings, oil leaks, various and mysterious electrical problems...etc.

I might be more than a bit biased but out of the four listed I would still say that a 240SX is your best bet.

And to anyone who wants to reply to this to defend their Eclipses:

I don't give a rats ass how long you've had it, how much power your making, how much of it is stock or how few problems you've had. I've been around enough Eclipses to know they are not the most reliable cars.