Welcome back to Shitbox Showdown! It’s another Two-Door Tuesday here as we take a look at a pair of sporty Japanese numbers that you don’t see too often any more. But first, let’s see who won yesterday’s reader-inspired battle:
The Saab wins. Of course. Has that particular defunct Swedish brand lost one yet? I’d have to look, but I don’t think so. Not that the Camry gave it much of a fight; I would be curious to see how bad a car it would take to hand that thing a win. Probably any K-car would do it, actually, knowing you lot.
I didn’t see any new suggestions on Discord; some really good conversations, but no viable car listings. So I went poking around southern California and found two manual Japanese sports coupes. You guys like those, right? Let’s dive right in.
1992 Nissan NX1600 – $1,795
Engine/drivetrain: 1.6 liter dual overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Palmdale, CA
Odometer reading: 173,000 miles
Runs/drives? Yep!
It’s a simple formula: Take the platform and running gear of a common small car, wrap it in pretty two-door bodywork, and sell it for more money. It’s not something you see very often any more, but for a long time, every automaker had a version of it. Ford’s Mustang popularized the idea (though as a Mopar fan I’m honor-bound to remind you that the Plymouth Barracuda was first, by a whole two weeks), but every other maker jumped on board in short order. This car is really just a Mustang-ized Nissan Sentra – in fact, you could call it a pony car, I suppose.
Like the Pulsar that came before it, the NX features T-tops. Sadly, it did away with the removable/interchangeable rear hatch, but you can still get plenty of fresh air into the cabin. The NX came in two flavors: the NX2000, with all the performance goodies of Nissan’s brilliant Sentra SE-R, and this car, the NX1600, with the standard Sentra’s underpinnings. It’s not as quick or as sharp-handling, but it probably gets better mileage.
This NX runs and drives well, according to the seller. They don’t give us much else to go on, so we’ll have to rely on the pictures. Inside it looks decent, if a little sun-faded (to be expected with so much glass). Outside it isn’t quite as nice; the plastic nose piece doesn’t quite match the rest of the car, and the rear bumper has a pretty good ding in it. I’m not sure where you’d find another bumper either; these aren’t exactly common cars, even in sunny California.
So it’s not the more desirable version, and it’s kind of banged up. But it’s cheap, it’s rare, and it’s based on a good reliable little car. You could do a lot worse for under two grand.
1998 Honda Prelude – $4,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2 liter dual overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: West Covina, CA
Odometer reading: 175,000 miles
Runs/drives? Sure does!
Honda’s Prelude sports coupe lasted for five generations over a span of twenty-three years. This is the final iteration, and as such, maybe it shouldn’t be called the Prelude. Honda Finale, maybe? Denouement? Anyway. It’s a car that didn’t sell nearly as well as its predecessors, so it’s not a common sight, especially these days.
This fifth-generation Prelude is clearly no longer stock. It has been lowered, the wheels are not stock, the steering wheel has been replaced by a non-airbag wheel, and although we don’t get an underhood shot, the stock air box and intake runner sitting on the passenger’s seat tells me that it likely has a cold-air intake setup at the very least. And of course, out back, there is the requisite fart cannon. The seller says the front tires are shot, and I, for one, am not surprised.
Oh, and on top of that, it has a salvage title for some undisclosed reason. As we’ve discussed before, this isn’t all that uncommon in California, nor is it a huge deal there, unless your insurance agent says it is. But it would be nice to know what happened to it.
It does look all right, and the sticker from an owner’s forum is probably a good sign. You don’t join a forum for your car, and send them money for a sticker, unless you care about it to some degree. It’s no guarantee that it hasn’t been abused, or that the modifications were done correctly; anyone who has spent time on any of those forums know how rife they are with misinformation and bad ideas. But it does show the seller at least cares about it a little.
I really miss cars like these. Sporty two-door coupes based on small sedans were a brilliant idea, and I doubt we’ll ever see their like again. But at least we have a couple of survivors here to choose from. So what’ll it be – the jumped-up Sentra, or the amateur-tuner Honda?
And remember: You can join our Discord and drop links to cars for me to check out any time!
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
I gotta go with the Prelude, simply because as a teenager I always thought they were gorgeous. (I still do! I know this is a minority opinion, but something about the proportions just works for me.) I actually checked one out at one point long ago, but the rust hole going all the way through the A-pillar kinda turned me off for some reason. This one might be frightful as well, but I’m still gonna give it a chance over the Nissan.
It does look like the owner of that Prelude has done all the classic mods that are easy but really dumb, though. Airbag removed? Check! Farty exhaust and dubious cold-air intake? Lowering springs and flashy wheels? Check and check! I can almost guarantee that nothing actually useful has been done to that poor car, but none of that stuff should be terribly hard to undo either.
You should revisit that old flame man, clean 5th gen preludes are a solid investment you can drive. They will either hold value or go up in price.
No shame there, I’ve always thought they were great looking cars.
I drove a 2nd gen Prelude in high school, I want to vote Prelude, but not this particular Prelude. It’s the victim of so many bad decisions. Yuck.
That NX is rough, but I liked them in a quirky way at the time*, and I want no part of that semi-tuned Honda.
*I think my actual opinion was that they looked ridiculous, and then I decided it was cute & quirky.
Part of me wants to rescue that Honda, but I can’t justify it at that price. I REALLY don’t like those NX’s, but it’s cheap, at least.
I was all set for the Prelude because I love those cars but after reading about it I was scared away. T-top time!!
A car with a strange title or a car with a hole for a roof?
I’ll tango with a car coming that’s got a little something strange.
Definitely Prelude for me. Those cars were fantastic, and this was peak Prelude, when they went back to the wedge shape of the 2nd and 3rd gen and dropped some of the gimmicks of the 4th gen.
These two cars are further apart than the comparisons suggest. A Prelude was way more upmarket than the NX. Sure, the NX is cheaper…but I can guarantee the costs to bring it up to what the Prelude is already would make the Prelude seem cheap by comparison. I’d much much rather remove any questionable mods than repair all the damage that’s clearly visible on that NX. Also, as we all know, most people never cracked open the engine–mods are likely to be all the cheap bolt-ons. That NX, however, is going to take serious work….
Idk about peak prelude; got pretty heavy by then, and was more of a touring car than something really fun to drive. But yeah, the NX needs like 3-4k of paint/body work to look as good as the prelude, and it’ll never be worth doing that. Prelude all day, paint looks good, lines look good, car looks good.
I was going to go Prelude but the red flags blocked my vision. I would take the one Nissan for less and spend the money correcting issues if I had to chose.
This is a another none of the above for me.
I’ll go T-Top.
‘ might help me get a date with Sally Fields.
I would happily drive a nice NX or Prelude but I wouldn’t be caught dead in either of these crapped out curs. They are not interesting enough and putting them right would be a pint-size black hole sucking cash. Nobody needs a sporty coupe as poverty transportation. Buy a beat down Camry.
The Prelude was a gem in stock form, and I’m afraid the mods make it worse, not better. An unmolested one would win this all day long.
The T-tops and low price seal it for the Nissan.
As much as I prefer the Prelude, not this Prelude.
My sister used to say that long hair on a guy would cover a multitude of flaws, and with these two, I feel the same way about those T-tops. Plus, it’s less than HALF the Prelude AND doesn’t have a salvage title!
NX for me!
My wife had a Pulsar (very briefly) and that thing was boring but fun to drive, if that makes any sense, so I had to vote Nissan today. More cars need T-tops, my BRZ desperately needs T-tops, and a rear hatch, and sure a turbo too.
Was all set to vote Prelude, and still would have if this one was the same price as the NX1600, but at $4k for a salvage title poorly modded example… no way.
that gen prelude just looks so right. pity about the title, i would sink some money into it,though.
I always dig a fun-looking version of an economy car – a segment that’s totally dead today. Give me the NX. I don’t think I need to explain why that particular (and damn near every Prelude now) isn’t desirable. A shame too.
Honda, please.
I get that that Nissan is an interesting little car, but it’s not doing anything for me – especially in its current condition. I’d like to think the hood simply isn’t latched and that’s why there’s a large gap around it, but that is not clear. In the early 1990s, Nissan Sentras were *everywhere*, and a car based on that loses points by association simply because I got tired of seeing them.
For me the Prelude was once an aspirational car. This one probably does have a hot air intake, but overall I like the look and for whatever else it has going on (including the salvage title), it’s still a Honda.
Also, is it actually “fart cannon”? I’ve always called them “fartcans”.
I call them fart cans, too. Both terms make sense, tho.
Fair enough – thanks!
Wow, I really don’t want either one. However, my Internet money went with the Prelude. My friend had one back in the day and it was a hoot to drive.
Was going to vote for the Honda Conclude, but the salvage title and boy racer mods scream ride abuse. And the Nissan? Those things are rare for a reason. I’m just walking away, today.
Not an option! Pick one!
Yeah, it’s just so fun to pick! This is my favorite thing about Autopian (along w/ David’s rust stories!)
I’ll be honest, the NX never did it for me. I always thought they were ugly and this one is beat and doesn’t even have the SR to make up for it.
I went Prelude here. I’ve noticed that the comment section for these tends to very much skew anti-mods but the wheels on that Prelude are from Volk. They’re an extremely high quality Japanese wheel manufacturer that has decades of motorsports experience under their belt. That gives me hope that the rest of the parts on that car might be from decent companies and not purely eBay specials.
If those Volks are real, there worth more then the rest of car. Real possibility those be reps though.
The possibility of them being reps is always there but I think there’s pretty good odds that they’re real. They’re GT-Ps which aren’t terribly popular so they likely don’t have enough hype for anyone to bother making a rep of them.
The other side of the obscure old Volk coin is that they don’t appear to be all that valuable either. There’s a set on ebay right now for about $1600 and if you’re willing to go to Yahoo auctions, you can pick up sets for under a grand USD all day. Still a bargain for high quality wheels and I’d much rather them than a set of cheap reps any day.
That surprises me they are that cheap. With Te37s being worth more then gold, it seems like anything with Volk written on the side of it have also increased like it was a common egg.
I think the sheer amount of wheels Rays/Volk made has helped keep prices down on the lesser known models. They have 40+ years of making any and every style of wheel you could think of, they can’t all be worth big money. There were even Volk wire wheels in the 80s. I see those come up on Yahoo auctions once in a while and they are pretty affordable as far as wire wheels go.
But this also disproves the argument of people who say they only run rep wheels because they can’t afford anything from a better brand. You absolutely can find wheels from reputable companies for similar or cheaper than a set of reps, you just need to do a little digging and consider options outside of the most well known, most hyped up models.
I haven’t been in the market for Reps, but with shipping are they like 800 bucks? Looking local one could find some slightly curb rashed set of RPF1s and a fresh set of GTCs for 750. Would be slightly more interesting then another Z on TEs real or fake.
Most people here don’t even know what Volks are, but I’d put a lot of money that those are reps.
The Volks are nice, even if they aren’t the most desirable design. However, the taped together dash where the passenger airbag should be (and the missing original steering wheel) lets you know this was likely in a pretty good front end collision to earn the salvage title, and it wasn’t fixed well. Maybe upon closer inspection, it won’t be that bad, but I doubt it. There are nicer cars out there for $4K.
I miss those early-to-mid 90’s small, scrappy Japanese cars like the Toyota Paseo, Mazda MX-3, and Honda Civic del Sol. All the fun of thrashing them around without the pretense of posers like the Mitsu Lancer OZ Rally Edition a decade later. I’ll take the NX, please and thank you.
haha, oh man, the OZ rally edition, that was so embarassing, I cannot believe people paid money for them and thought they were actually cool.
I want the Prelude but salvage title, questionable fast n furious mods and no underhood pics, I’ll take the t-topped NX
What Bomber said. And, most people are proud of their mods-why no under hood pics?
Looking at the ad, several all caps sentences, and also, “Car will come detailed with purchase “. Not much effort put into this (also invites offers)-is it just a trial balloon?
I, too, will go for the T-topped NX. It would be fun to fit it with SE-R bits: I used to enjoy doing the OEM+ thing
The NX has T-TOPS!!!!!!!! and a digital dash too 😀
That cute lil NX is the Camaro/Firebird Done Right! It’s half the size on the outside yet has twice as much space inside!
Red is also a cooler color than black.
The Prelude has more cupholders, but it costs twice as much and is in poor condition.
Therefore, I voted for the NX1600.
I like the Prelude, but I don’t like it twice as much as the Nissan. That’s why I voted NX.