Y2K was the now laughable threat of societal collapse supposedly threatened by the inability of Windows computers to recognize the new millennia. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe NX2000 shows Nissan solved the problem a decade beforehand. Will its price be enough to start a riot?
I love contradictory terms. You know, jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, family values. Once such term at present is mid-engine Toyota, but you know that wasn’t always the case. No, the big Japanese company once had a whole line of mid-engined sports cars. They were so down with that particular layout that they even once made a mid-engined minivan. It’s true!
Yesterday’s 2001 Toyota MR2 Spyder was the last of the line—so far—for the company’s back-seat drivers of any form. And in contradiction to expectations, it was priced at a mere $3,700. That low-low price was reflected in its somewhat grungy appearance and the seller’s ho-hum appraisal of its condition, stating that it runs ‘good.’ That was good enough for us though, and the little Spyder managed a solid 73-percent Nice Price win.
Most mass-market mid-engine cars leverage drivetrains that are shared with FWD cars. That gave us Fiat’s 128-based X1/9 and GM’s Pontiac Fiero which took its motivating force and most of its cradling subframe from the X-body.
That’s the ultimate sporting evolution, but it’s also one with a limited appeal in many markets, as shown by the dearth of mid-engine two-seaters out there, despite most car makers offering some sort of FWD donor.
More appealing it seems, is to take a dull, mundane FWD car like say, oh I don’t know, a Nissan Sentra (yawn…) and give it a sexier body and maybe some better kit underneath. Ford pretty much invented this recipe by re-skinning the Falcon and calling it the Mustang. Other companies just copied the model and moved it to FWD platforms as the mood hit them.
The aforementioned Nissan took that route with today’s 1992 NX2000 coupe, as it’s based on the Sentra/Pulsar platform, but features bodywork that’s far more attractive than either of its cousins.
That bodywork includes a pair of removable roof panels, opening up the NX to the sky and all sorts of fun in the sun possibilities. For a while, the T-roof was the new convertible. That was back when car makers were scared that the U.S. government would ban the real deal.
The C3 Corvette was the first production car to really popularize the feature, while the NX was one of the last. These days we just drive crossovers and those who want some sun are relegated to weirdly shaped beasts like the old Nissan Murano convertible or the Land Rover Evoque. You don’t see many of either for a reason.
Once again, I digress.
Under the clean and bestriped body of this NX lies the drivetrain of the Sentra SE-R with that car’s SR20DE DOHC four, five speed transmission and LSD putting 150 horsepower to the front wheels. Those ponies have apparently pushed this car a mere 72,000 miles so far.
As noted, the bodywork appears free of major blemishes and maintains the horsey rocker extensions that Nissan chose to make the car look like it is spilling over a serving tray. Aside from the plastic wheel covers however, it all looks proper.
The interior on the other hand is a bit of a dog’s breakfast. Seriously, it looks like someone’s living in it, right? And I don’t mean someone clean like the sassy gay neighbor who lives downstairs from the perky young woman finding her way in the big city in some poorly written Netflix sitcom. No, I mean it looks like the trailer park moved in and had their vittles in there. Just look at those ass-shaped seat cushions. You know those are illegal in three Southern states due to their resemblance to a woman’s neverseen? I don’t know, it’s just something I’ve heard.
Let’s just talk about this a second. If you’re trying to sell you car, clean it the eff out before you take pictures. No one is interested in your attempt to get on Hoarders.
The other major issue in here is a steering wheel that’s losing its leather. I don’t know how hard a new one of those would be to obtain, but I’d hate to have to stare at that all day so I’d want to find out.
The ad describes the car as being ‘Like New’ and to have ‘Slotted/Drilled competition disc brakes.’ Yeah, whatever.
More intriguing is the price, which is a cool $4,400. The thing is, you really don’t see these cars around all that much any more, and you almost never see them in such decent (except for the trash panda interior) shape.
The question remains, is it worth that $4,400? That’s a bit more than yesterday’s MR2, and that was a small wonder. Would this more traditional sporty coupe be able to bring that asking? Or, is this NX’s price going to be the end of it all?
You decide!
Western MA Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to TheLateApx for the hookup!
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