Why is it a 240SX in North America?

This is a pretty vexing question, especially if you happen to live there. When the S13 was introduced to the North American Market, Nissan North America chose not to import cars with the turbocharged engines (CA18DET or SR20DET).

Still needing good performance they selected the KA24E 2.4 litre engine used in the Bluebird (Altima) and a couple of commercial vehicles. At 130HP it was not slow, and when updated to the 155HP KA24DE engine performance improved even further.

Having driven a 240SX, they are quite well balanced, and the large (compared to the 2.0 litre cars) amount of torque at low revs means they are quite a lot of fun when stirred along.

But the question remains, why? Several reasons have surfaced, and the truth is that it is probably a combination of these and other factors which led to the birth of the 240SX:

• The KA24E engine costs less that the CA18DET and produced similar power. This is not quite as compelling when looking at the SR20DET.
  
• A 200SX with similar performance to a normally aspirated 300ZX but at a much lower price would have cannibalised sales of both 300ZX variations. The Twin-Turbo was sold only in Japan and North America, so elsewhere this was not a concern.
  
• At the time of introduction, "Premium" (RON higher than 93) was rare in North America. California and Florida were key markets, and with the high temperatures, detonation would be a real problem, not to mention poor performance.
  
• In the later years, common parts with the Altima (Bluebird) kept spares pricing down for this low-volume car.