History Lesson:
s13 hatchback:
The hatch back model has a really large/near horizonal rear windshield and blacked out triangular rear windows with a "240 SX" logo on the bottom window. The tail lights are ovals flattened on 2 sides with two big round lights in them (kind of like a mini-skyline)
The hatchback is pretty much exactly the same car as the Japanese 180sx with the exception of the motor... the 180sx in Japan came with a number of flavors of SR20 or CA18 (the more common motor for which the car was named)
s13 Coupe:
the coupe has a really squared off almost sedan like rear window, much more vertical. tailights are really wide and square with the lights as horizontal lines.
The coupe is similar to the same year Silvias in Japan (200sx in europe) with a few major differences, aside from the motor the front end was completely different. the us 240sx had the flip up headlights from the 180sx where the silvia/200sx had thin wide rectangular headlights with 2 or 3 projectors; no flip ups.
Putting the Silvia headlights on a hatck back is called a "sil-eighty" meaing silvia front end 180sx rear end... in the states it's often referred to as a "sil-forty" because it's a 240sx... sil-eightys were popular in Japan with drifters who wrecked their front end, the silvia front panels and lights were significantly lighter, cheaper, and more abundant then the flip up lights from the 180sx making it a popular swap. An aftermarket shop eventually started manufacturing a small number of official sil-eightys complete with badges and a few other supporting modifications. It was never an official Nissan product though.
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As for the price 240s are rare in general, though probably 80% of the 240s I see on the road or for sale are s13s and if I can get a near flawless example of an S13 with an engine swap for $5K in my rusty state of NH some schmuck in AZ asking $8K is a little ridiculous unless he's got some serious coin put into other areas of the car (coilovers/ Silvia front end conversion etc.). The only thing I would be warry of in your area is faded paint and a cracked dashboard.
Based on production numbers there were roughly 250K s13s manufactured from 89-94
Similarly the s14 (zenki) only saw about 30K manufactured from 95-96
and the s14a (kouki) only saw about 12K manufactured from 97-98
S14s will fetch a pretty penny... S13s are a dime a dozen... honestly for a car that old you see quite a few more of them on the road then any other car of that age due to their continued popularity.
S13 engine swaps are dirt cheap too... a period motor with all the fixins for a clean drop in with no metal working will run you $1500-$2000 + labor.
S13s with an engine swap aren't really worth all that much. it's an old car with a cheap motor... and there are WAY more motors available from importers then there are people interested in doing the swap.
