General Comments:
Fair - Good Handling.
Moderate Power.
Moderate Reliability.
Good - Excellent Gas Mileage.
Very good looking car and worth the money, but not for the power hungry. Hatchback model has more headroom in the back than the fast back and probably more space, but in my opinion doest look as good. Get a manual if possible to take advantage of the 240's gas mileage and power. An automatic 240 is fun to drive but doesn't compare to a manual with its pull as the gears shift. After a little while i wanted more power. Many performance parts are expensive and some are hard to find and are often out of stock such as headers.
The 240 is a good starter car and fun to drive. The heads up display is excellent but isn't on all models. You don't have to take your eyes off the road to see your seed. The 240 also feels like its going 40 miles an hour when its traveling at 60 so be careful. This car would be ideal for a person getting interested in sports cars who wants fairly good handling and accelerating car with good mileage for little money. Expect to pay $2000 - 5000 for a 89-93 (The newer model is ugly to me) Keep in mind the Honda Prelude can be the same price and same year with double the miles ;) I think the 91-93 240s have a dual over head cams (DOHC) giving them 20 or so more horsepower than the 89-90 240's and the 92-93 240's also have air bags while the 89-91's do not, Check for these two options before buying a 240 I cannot guarantee those are the exact dates, but if I could go back in time I would of gotten a 92 or 93 240 so it would have had the air bags and the dual over head cams for more power.
Be careful in the rain, i fishtailed and destroyed 3 tires after going up onto a curb.
Ugly rims, not the easiest car to work on. Comfortable, good sound with a subwoofer in the trunk and the back seat down. Id also consider a Porsche 944 and a Nissan 300zx both the 944 and the 300zx have better handling than the 240. Good online community of 240 owners if you have problems, questions comments or tips. Great car, but I think I should of bought a Porsche 944 for the same price instead, the mileage would be higher on the Porsche and it would be older but I think it could out perform the 240 in every way except for age mileage.
Do as much research on the 240 before you buy one, mileage can be high and make sure the car is in good working condition before a purchase.
9th Mar 2003, 23:38
Good sources of information for the 240SX are at www.240sx.org and www.freshalloy.com.
Also, I would tend to disagree with the comparison to the 944 as an immediate alternative, if only for the differences in cost. For a 944 in even comparable condition to my current '91 240, I would expect to pay at least 3,000 more (that is, close to 5,000). Also, you can buy a newish KA24DE (<100k miles) for less than 300 bucks. The 944 engine, assuming you could find one, would likely be what, a couple grand? The 944 is a wonderful car, and I have personally looked for one, but unless you are prepared for the repair costs or an enormous price tag, it's not really a 240 alternative.
Similarly, you would have to go back at least to the Z31 to find a 300ZX even close to a 89-94 240SX in price range. If you were to compare the 89 to 89 directly, the 240SX can be found for around 1000, while a N/A 300ZX would be closer to 2 or 3 thousand, and at least 4k for a decent turbo.