At $9,995, Would You Flip Your Lid Over This 1983 Datsun 200SX Convertible?
The seller of today’s Nice Price or No Dice 200SX may be familiar to anyone who frequents YouTube’s automotive content. Let’s see if this custom convertible’s price has us changing the channel.
My First Car: Cesar Milan’s Two-Tone Datsun Wagon
Naturally cyclical, the classic car market is now in one of its downturns. Right now, in fact, it’s seemingly as soft as a day-old birthday balloon. That makes it challenging for sellers, especially those trying to peddle cars needing restoration, since that’s guaranteed to be a financial hole with no bottom. It’s just such a daunting challenge facing the seller of the 1967 Lotus Elan SE project we looked at yesterday. They had already dropped the price by $3,500 to $16,950, but it still appeared too much, as evidenced by the astonishing 99 percent No Dice loss it suffered.
If you at all follow the hijinks of our good friend Tyler Hoover, purveyor of the self-described “Dumbest Automotive Channel in All of YouTube,” then you’ve most likely seen one or more of his encounters with local Wichita, Kansas car dealer Euroasian Bob, whom Hoovie jokingly likes to call “Urination Bob.”
Bob has his own YouTube presence, as does seemingly every single individual in Sedgwick County with a car and a Harbor Freight club card. Bob’s channel is more of an advertorial tool, often promoting the weirder or more interesting cars and trucks he comes across and then puts up for sale.
This 1983 Datsun 200SX convertible is one of those cars. It’s an aftermarket convertible conversion done by a company out of Beverly Hills, California, called American Custom Coachworks, and is one of a handful that the company decapitated with Datsun’s blessing.
Datsun built two bodystyles for the 200SX in the early 1980s: a two-door notchback and a three-door hatch. That lineup would continue through the following two generations but started with this edition. As you might expect, the convertible is based on the notchback coupe. This one is all the more unique for having a five-speed stick behind its 103 horsepower 2.0-liter four. I’m calling that out as I just so happened to see another one of these at the San Marino Car Show this past weekend, but that, like most, was an automatic.
According to Bob, the car has only 66,000 miles on the clock and is in excellent running condition. It does suffer some cosmetic blemishes, and with the top up, it looks like it has just rolled out of bed.
On the plus side, the interior appears in excellent condition and has all the wonderful, fiddly little buttons and levers on the dash that ’80s car buyers apparently loved. These also had a voice announcement system warning when lights were left on, or a door was ajar. That’s accomplished using a small record player in a shock-proof box under the dash. How weird is that? The title is clean, and Euroasian Bob is asking $9,995 for the sale.
What’s your take on this custom convertible and fiver-away from ten-large asking? Does that seem fair, given the car’s unique stature? Or is Euroasian Bob pissing in the wind on this one?
You decide!
Wichita, Kansas, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to glemon for the hookup!
Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at remslie@kinja.com and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.
