# good idea for daly driver?



## fstlane86 (Apr 27, 2003)

OK, so I'm about to start school next week and basically i don't wanna ride the bus anymore. so i've started looking for a car, nothing special just a beater that i could drive to school and back, and also to work...if i can ever find a job. i found this 240 but it says it has a blown head gasket, and a knock, and the engine and tranny, may be shot. so my question is, how much would it cost to fix the knock and head gasket, also, could i drive it a while, daily. it's only about two or three miles to my school from my house. it's either this or a '86 Prelude Si  or.... the bus  here's the car http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2426284015&category=6396#ebayphotohosting 
any help is greatly appreciated.


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## Bumpin (Feb 18, 2003)

Its going to cost you $750 for clutch and tranny, $150 for head gasket and replacement, and depending on what the knocking is. It could be the fact that the car has no oil or you got chickens. So the knocking depends on what exactly the problem is.


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## vsp3c (May 15, 2003)

if u want a beater, get a old honda. they're rather reliable cars. 240 like that will give u too much trouble..and since ur a student, i don't think you are willing to spend much..


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## fstlane86 (Apr 27, 2003)

thanks


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## drift240sxdragqueen (Oct 23, 2002)

ride ur bike  
build ur leg muscles up!
well, he is getting eithe r aunreliable 240 or a REALLY old prelude, i say look for something newer... maybe a 92 civic


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## Drft1580 (Jun 20, 2003)

Do not buy that 240sx , it sounds like a money trap. I bet it also has hail damage, chipped paint, and as soon as you pop in a cd the motorized antennae is going to fall out. (sob...i still love you 240!).


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## Roy (Jul 10, 2003)

Not to good of an idea to buy a known problem car, unless you have time, and money and resources to make it right. The head gasket is not too bad of a fix, neither is a clutch. The tranny may prove to be ok, then again it may be toast.....as for the knock it could be big time money or it could be a cheap fix, either way I would go with the honda, or find another vehicle that runs ok. I just went this route with my son and wife buying a 1990 240SX, that supposedly only needed a thermostat to cure its overheating problems. Yea, right, as anothr poster stated, it could turn into a money pit, like my sons did. Although it runs like a champ now, I could have bought an already serviceable vehicle and saved myself a lot of time and headaches and busted knuckles. If you can do the work yourself it will save $$ but if you have to farm it out it could easily get pretty stiff in $$ paid out. Be pretty tough working on a car that is trashed and attending classes at the same time.


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## Drft1580 (Jun 20, 2003)

Jesus, everything about the 240 is nuts, even changing the oil is more complicated then neccesary. 4 hours to put on an intake, it took around 3 hours to take off a fender but 3 minutes to put it back on,all I know is, kitting on a 240 must be a bitch.


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## Mcpaul66 (Jun 13, 2002)

You all seem to think that Hondas are the answer to everything. Not so. My friend had a '91 Civic he got a couple years ago. That thing was an unreliable POS. It even had 30k less Miles than my family's B13 Sentra. We got 100k trouble-free miles out of that Sentra. Then all it needed was a new alternator and a CV boot, and it was running like new. He had 70something thousand on that Civic, and it needed a new distributor, and all sorts of other stuff I can't remember.
So stick with Nissan. If you don't have the skill to maintain a 240, try a Sentra or a 200. The Ga16de is a bullet proof engine.


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## Mcpaul66 (Jun 13, 2002)

Drft1580 said:


> *Jesus, everything about the 240 is nuts, even changing the oil is more complicated then neccesary. 4 hours to put on an intake, it took around 3 hours to take off a fender but 3 minutes to put it back on,all I know is, kitting on a 240 must be a bitch. *


Something tells me you're using a $10 set of Wal Mart tools to work on your car. Save yourself the headache, and buy the proper tools for the jobs.


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## fstlane86 (Apr 27, 2003)

i was considering a sentra for a while, may go the route again. i do have somewhat of the skills to fix some of the problems on the car, but definitely don't have money or time. hence why i wanted to buy a $610 car.


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## nx2000 (Jan 24, 2003)

Mcpaul I believe your friend just got a bad apple. they ARE out there. Honda in general is the one of THE most reliable brands out there. If I was in the market for a daily driven beater...it would be a Honda. Key word is BEATER. If I wanted a new daily driver...it would probably be a spec-v....LOL but that is another topic


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## Mcpaul66 (Jun 13, 2002)

nx2000 said:


> *Mcpaul I believe your friend just got a bad apple. they ARE out there. Honda in general is the one of THE most reliable brands out there. *


It definately was a bad apple. But what makes you think Honda is the most reliable brand out there? Honda has a high reliability rating because most of them see regular service. While a Honda may see service at 30k and 60k miles, other cars like, let's say A Dodge, will see NO service. So then when something goes wrong on the Dodge at 70K miles, it is seen as less reliable. But the fix will usually cost less than the services the Honda saw. So which is really the better deal? 
Sorry, I just don't buy into the whole "this brand is more reliable than this brand" thing. Most companies are on the same level now. This isn't the 70's or 80's. I see just as many Hondas as other cars at the junkyards.

That said, I definately say check out the Sentras again. Stock for stock, the ga16de is a little more potent than the Honda 1.6. And if you decide to start tinkering, it should take to mods A LOT better. The only thing an older Honda will have on an older Nissan is better paint.


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## nx2000 (Jan 24, 2003)

Whatever I am not going to argue about reliablity. Their is a reason that Hondas retain their value. They are known to be reliable. ALL my experiences with Honda's have been good. My friend had a shitty Sentra, should we not recommend that either??? And can you back up that claim of the GA16DE with dyno slips please. I would take a B16 over a GA16 ANYDAY of the week including Sunday. 

b16 is something like 160hp 126 tq or some shit

ga16 is something like 110hp 108tq. Now if you were referring to the d16...I found some numbers, but not what I wanted so I wont post them, but they are comparable.


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## Mcpaul66 (Jun 13, 2002)

> Their is a reason that Hondas retain their value. They are known to be reliable.


Yes. But people in general are usually ignorant when it comes to cars. Some believe late-70's rules of reliability still apply today, and others will tell you certain '66 Mustangs CAN NOT be $15k today because they only sold for $3k in '66. 
People are stupid. Don't listen and do your own research.



> ALL my experiences with Honda's have been good.


And all my experiences with Ford have been great. But I don't go around preaching about how reliable they are, because I realize I haven't driven EVERY car that rolled off the assembly line.



> And can you back up that claim of the GA16DE with dyno slips please. I would take a B16 over a GA16 ANYDAY of the week including Sunday.


Shit. I don't know Honda engines. I never cared, to be perfectly honest. I was probably referring to the D16 since most of my experiences with the ga16de's were in B13's. And since the guy who started this thread is looking for a cheap car, this is the Sentra and engine, that falls in his range.
All I know is I watched my friends '92 Sentra E beat the living crap out of my other friends '91 Civic. Stock for stock. For the record, both of those cars were unreliable POSes. But while the Civic was going through Distributors, the Sentra was going through clutches only because the kid drove it like a little bitch.

I also beat the hell out of the same Civic with my little 200ci. '66 Mustang. Now if you know anything about Mustangs, the 200ci, is not fast by ANYONE's standards. I believe they dyno in at like 87rwhp. So because of that beating, my friend has to always admit his car was a slow POS. 

I did read in Sport Compact that the ga16 generally takes to mods better than some Honda 1.6(not sure which one). But I'll take my own advice, and only back things up with my own experiences.


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## fstlane86 (Apr 27, 2003)

would the sentra be the best route for cheap power, i mean i do want a beater, but once i get a job, i may start to mod it. and honda's are pretty reliable cars, but i a have to go with nx2000, on that there not the most reliable cars. all cars have there own reliablity, and most if taken care, of will last you a while. a friend of mine in chicago, had an 89 civic, that he's had for about two years and he drive the crap out of it, but it kept on going. he's using it as his beater now, since he got an SRT-4. anyway, which would be easier, or cheaper to drive and then modify later, civic, or sentra?


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## nx2000 (Jan 24, 2003)

Hands down the civic would be cheaper and easier. Modding Nissan's is a bitch. Even the now infamous 240sx. Only a handful of companies make shit for Nissan's. Only one or wo people mod ECU's. On the other hand, everyone and their momma makes something for a honda. Competition is a good thing. it drives down prices.


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## Kelso (Apr 29, 2003)

well i dunno about the knocking but depending on how stupid the owner is, that head gasket could be much more....if theyve been running it for a while like that then the motor could be just about trashed...from personal experiences i too expected a quick cheap fix on a head gasket, i ended up spending like 7 or 8 hundred on the motor! remember, antifreeze seizes your rings too and if you blow a head gasket then you have coolant on your rings i dont think you want to get the beater 240 personally unless you have money


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## UNISH25 (Aug 12, 2002)

drift240sxdrag said:


> *ride ur bike
> build ur leg muscles up!
> well, he is getting eithe r aunreliable 240 or a REALLY old prelude, i say look for something newer... maybe a 92 civic  *


riding a bike, won't help you build muscles(well, it might help you a teency tiny amount!). It'll make you loose weight!

SORRY! I just had to be a D*CK and dispute that!


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