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180B Coupe Sss - Value In 2015?


gav240z

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Hi Guys,

What are 180B SSS coupe's worth these days? I have someone in the US looking to buy and import 1 back.  We found a rough looking 1 out in NSW countryside but I am trying to steer him more in the direction of something like this 1 in South Australia.

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/clare/cars-vans-utes/datsun-1974-180b-sss-excellent-condition-/1085921524

It's priced at $18,000 AUD

 

I'm not sure if that's the going rate though for these cars? I always thought they were cool, but not quite S30z cool.

 

$_20.JPG

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A third of that would be a reasonable starting point, maybe up to $10K given that it is a very nice example. As much as I love my SSS, if I had $18,000 burning a hole in my pocket, there are plenty of other cars I'd buy. Like a zed.....

Edited by 1600dave
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My initial thoughts were 5-10K, but with the way Jap classics have been of recent it could easily eclipse that.

Edited by PB260Z
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I feel like anything less than $10k would be highway robbery for ANY 40 year old well looked after car. But that's just me. I initially thought $18K was high but maybe there is someone out there that really wants a 180B SSS coupe?

 

At least my contact in the US of A does anyway :).

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I guess the other reason I ask was that I thought maybe someone knows of a 180B SSS coupe for sale or someone who has 1 and might sell it?

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IMO any older rwd car will be going up in value. The 180B's ticks the rwd box plus the added bonus of the independant rear suspension, just like the 1600 is what I feel raises the value of it. Also, the 2 door SSS 180B, being rarer and more attractive also pushes the value up. My uncle had one, auto with stock twin SU's-it went well. I was just talking to a work colleague about old jap cars and we mentioned the 1st gen RX7's and the old rwd Celica's are very undervalued at the moment-time to snap one up!

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Having had owned a couple and raced the only factory fuel injected 180B SSS in Australia, they are a fun car, but nothing special. They did make good rally cars as you could throw them into the scrub and they were fairly strong, turn them into a ball, get another one for next to nothing and rinse and repeat. I think the rally boys have used up most of the stocks of the triple messes that were around.

 

The rear suspension, being trailing arm is horrible to make work on the track and the car is generally heavy, how you get one down to the homolagated weight I have no idea and my one went to Jenny Craig a lot when it was raced.

 

5 years ago, I would have said the value is what simms metal would give you for it, but there seems to be a weird nostalgia for all the old shitters like these, why I don't know, they were cheap for a reason. For that car, I would offer $5k, $7k if I was feeling very generous and nostalgic on the day, yes they aren't making any more of them, but they are hardly desirable. For the same, or cheaper money, I can buy a well sorted and very bloody quick R chassis boat or S chassis to play in that will be much better car in every regard. 

 

I must say though, that the 180B SSS had much more rear leg room than a charger or XA-C falcon coupe does.

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The Jap-assembled 2-door 180B SSS's we got new in NZ weren't much over the standard 4-door 180B quite frankly, I didn't think they really lived up to the SSS badge of the earlier series cars like the 1200 SSS & 1600 SSS.

In NZ the 180B to get was the locally assembled SSS, which was based on the locally assembled 4-door. Bit of a sleeper, big pair of twin-choke side-draught carbs & a few other mods, quicker than the 2-door.

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had a 180b - real ordinaty car. just removing two doors and putting two carbs on ain;t going to make it a rainmaker

this was a period where nissan was battling with weight bloat

however a friend had one with a FJ20 transplant - now you're talking

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had a 180b - real ordinaty car. just removing two doors and putting two carbs on ain;t going to make it a rainmaker

this was a period where nissan was battling with weight bloat

But they were very strong and that IMO is why the rally guys used up so many of them.

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had a 180b - real ordinaty car. just removing two doors and putting two carbs on ain;t going to make it a rainmaker

this was a period where nissan was battling with weight bloat

however a friend had one with a FJ20 transplant - now you're talking

 

I drove an automatic 200B once and it was nothing special, but then again it was totally grandpa spec with a single downdraught carb on it and probably not all that well maintained, we got pulled over by the police because going around a corner a bit quick caused the tyre's to squeal, only because they were so old and hard etc.. I think it's hard to compare a standard trim car with a more 'tuned' version such as the SSS.

 

These cars after all were the successors of the 510 platform or continuation and many love the 1600's. Having said that I've never driven a 180B or a SSS for that matter.

 

I think comparing the performance of these with more modern stuff (that costs less) is missing the point. The reason you would buy any older car is not because of it's handling, acceleration or performance in general. It's the nostalgic pull and the kudos you get when driving an older car by Joe Public.

 

Just waiting to see what import costs are going to be for my American friend before I give any sellers a call.  :)

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Having owned both, the 180B just lacks something that makes a 1600 special. Hard to say why, its just a "seat of the pants" thing. They are a touch bigger and heavier. The SSS is a touch claustrophobic with it massive rear 1/4 panels and small, steeply sloping rear window. The engine bay and distance between strut towers is slightly larger than a 1600, yet Nissan saw fit to retain the same front x-member and lower control arms (resulting in positive camber on the front wheels, which didn't help their handling - there was a factory "offset" strut top released as a "fix").

 

The L18 SSS engine, whist no powerhouse, was a nearly 20hp increase over the L16 in a 1600 (up from 96 to 115).

 

The 180B SSS is also a much better looker than a 1600   :-X

 

I tried to sell mine 6-8 years ago (one previous owner before me, good interior and mechanicals but with rust). Started advertising at $2K, got down to $500 still with no takers, so it went back in the shed and is my current restoration project. 

Edited by 1600dave
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The 180B SSS we got was hardly tuned, the main difference was the dash, the dogleg patterned gearbox and twin SU's, and a tacho in the dash. It didn't make much difference, if any to the performance.

 

They were a huge step backwards from the 510 and as the 610 weren't really a replacement as they were a bigger car and marketed as such. The replacement for the 1600, in terms of size and marketing out here was the stanza, which if we got the JDM spec with the IRS and the coupe, would have been a good thing. As it was the Stanza was a pretty good track car, you can make the solid rear end work much better than IRS on a smooth surface like a race track. 

 

The 180B was, and is a very ordinary car. However, they were good rally cars because they were cheap, the coupe was strong, if heavy, and Group G rules and to a lesser extend PRC rules allowed a lot of freedoms to get the most out of the engines. For street sedans, or basically production touring cars that I ran, the rules were very limited for modifications, and as a result I ended up running near 1000lb springs in the back to keep the bum on the ground, and couldn't run a camber kit to fix the problem of excessive negative camber on the rear end when lowered because of the rules. For a rally car where you didn't run it as low the trailing arm suspension wasn't a handicap.

 

The 180B also misses the classic car love, unless you are a hipster with tight skinny leg jeans, a bad beard and top knot driving a shitbox to be ironic.

 

The import costs to the US would be worth more than the car, and then the thing would rust away to nothing on the boat ride over, they rust worse than a Zed......

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The 180B also misses the classic car love, unless you are a hipster with tight skinny leg jeans, a bad beard and top knot driving a shitbox to be ironic.

 

I love your passion for the 180B haha.

 

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Going to derail my own thread here, but how did the 180B SSS compare with the 140J SSS?

In NZ the 140Js that came in fully assembled were standard spec 4-doors, I never saw a SSS, did you have them here?

But a number of 160J SSS 2-doors came in, 5-speeds, & they used to go pretty well - same styling as the 140J except 2-door; a bit smaller, so lighter & quicker than the 2-door 180B SSS. They were closest I think to the original 1600 SSS flavor that was so popular for competition over there. I presume it was much the same here in Australia.

That 120Y, 140J, 160J, 180B high-waistline styling with all the contorted swage lines must have put metal stamping machines to the test!?!

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We never officially got the 140 or 160J here.

 

An old friend who was a very good rally driver in the 70's and on occasion beat the factory Datsun team was given a 140JSSS from Datsun/Nissan somehow. Was the only one I ever saw and he could punt it around like there was no tomorrow.

 

It did look funny, sort of like the bastard red headed ugly love child as the result of a drugged and alcohol fueled tryst between a 120Y and a 180B......

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the result of a drugged and alcohol fueled tryst between a 120Y and a 180B......

Yes.....you could see the family resemblance right through.....

Mind you, those early Jap cars were a breath of fresh air to the typical NZ motoring scene full of dated looking English cars, & everything worked & stayed working, they were reliable & didn't break down every time it rained.....

The main design criticism I've always had were the hubcaps - every last one was a nasty cheap looking piece of stamped metal, whoever designed them & approved them for production needed sacking.....

My mate's 160J SSS went very well indeed, as did my 120Y SSS. But thin...just as well we didn't hit anything...

I didn't much like the 180Bs & SSSs & 200Bs I drove, 2 or 4-door, too 'floaty'; I preferred the bigger Mitsubishis - esp the GSR, 2000GTO etc.

Edited by gilltech
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  • 3 weeks later...
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On the same topic, may have found an unregistered 180B SSS coupe. The question is, when exporting a car outside of Australia does anyone know what paper work needs to go with the car to prove ownership? Or is it a case of the checks are only an issue on the other end?

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" when exporting a car outside of Australia..."

Do you mean exporting from Aus to some other country? Look up the export & import regulations for each end, they vary from country to country.

Undoubtedly the big issue will be proof of your ownership to do that with it. So, bill of sale that doesn't look dodgy, & any paperwork that the current owner can muster to prove he/she has clear title on the car in the first place in order to sell to you. Basically proof that the car isn't stolen, doesn't belong in whole or in part to a 3rd party, no money owing, or a lien on it, etc.

Edited by gilltech
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