Faults:

A/C - evaporator and low pressure hose.

Alternator.

Hood release handle broke.

Antenna broke.

Alternator.

2 sets of rear brakes.

Master cylinder.

Clutch and slave cylinder.

Passenger seat would fall back when someone sat on it.

Exhaust at 50,000.

Rear window fell off track (manual window) - could not afford the "SL" model with power accessories.

General Comments:

Granted I bought this car used in 1980 with 50,000 miles. It was my first stick shift car. Make that my first and last Nissan. Nowadays I am 50 and have driven Toyotas and Hondas.

My 200SX was such a lemon it was not even funny. My father at that time warned me about "foreign cars", but being a snotty 17 year old - I did not listen to him. I regret everything about this pile of junk. I got rid of it 2 years later - after only putting on 20,000 miles and putting tons of money into it.

I used to work in the auto parts industry so I know something about cars. Every other 200SX that came into the shop - everybody loved. Mine was just a lemon.

I did learn 3 important things about this pile of junk.

1) Never ever will I buy a used car again.

2) Never ever will I buy a manual transmission car.

3) Most likely never will buy another Nissan (Datsun) - too many bad memories.

Faults:

Head gasket blew at 45,000 miles. Probably my fault for driving the car flat out at the red line trying to keep up with a Corvette for 100 miles on the interstate. The repair was covered by warranty, no cost to me.

Other than that, just regular maintenance. Brakes, tires, clutch at around 120,000 miles. The car had lots of gadgets, all of which worked well right up till the end. The car verbalized a variety of warning including, fuel level is low, door is ajar, lights are on etc. This was a first for the industry.

General Comments:

I always drove the car hard. I drove it like a sports car. Every trip to work was a rally.

The 5 speed transmission was quick and easy to shift. The short shifter made it easy to row through the gears.

The car handled very well being rear wheel drive. It cornered much better than the front wheel drives of the time.

Four wheel disc brakes provided excellent stopping.

The engine was powerful for the time. The 2.2L four had 2 spark plugs per cylinder and the stock exhaust looked like an aftermarket header. This gave the engine a real howl at full throttle. I would regularly beat other comparable cars in stop light drag races. BMW 320is or Volkswagen GTIs couldn't keep up.

My car was the poster car, two tone silver and grey hatchback with spoke aluminum wheels. I still have the poster!

Unfortunately the car's life came to an end one night when I was driving too fast for the road conditions. A patch of black ice sent me spinning off the highway and into a large maple tree. With 285,000km on the clock it wasn't worth rebuilding. I have fond memories of that car, it was really ahead of its time.

Faults:

HVAC, with no AC, broke in a hurry. The cables just could not operate without breaking.

Brakes are very thin on performance and life.

Bad clutch - feel, life, and strength. Mine failed with mostly highway at 60k km. All of the rivets failed.

General Comments:

Beautiful little car that I bought straight out of school. Many compliments on the styling, and the girls loved it.

Drove it pretty hard (100 HP, so go figure). Having Bosch L-jetronic multi-port at that time was amazing. Hot weather/very cold weather starting was always instant and reliable.

I loved that girl. Black on silver coupe.