The Nissan Silvia in Malaysia
In general, only three generations of the Nissan Silvia are available on Malaysian shores: the S13, S14 and S15. Incidentally, these three generations correspond with the three generations of Skylines that can be found here: the R32, R33 and R34, respectively.
The S13, S14 and S15 all come in turbo and normally-aspirated (NA) variants.
S13
First produced by Nissan somewhere around the early nineties, the S13 was brought in by Tan Chong Motors along with the 180SX. Although the latter was derived from the former, the 180SX went on to be more recognizable and more iconic than its elder sibling. The 180SX has pop-up headlights, whereas the S13 has headlamps remarkably similar to that of the original Cefiro.
The NA version of the S13 is tagged with “Q” whereas the turbo version is tagged with “K”, in reference to playing cards where K is higher than Q.
S14
Introduced in the mid-nineties, the S14 is the “lost generation” where Malaysians are concerned as it wasn’t brought in by Tan Chong nor by grey importers. This might have been due to the economic slowdown at the time. As a result one is hard-pressed to find the S14 on Malaysian roads. My friend Munz purchased his S14 from someone who had studied in Japan and brought it back home.
S15
The S15 came out in the late nineties and its styling is more modern compared to that of its predecessor. For whatever reason grey importers started sprouting like mushrooms and many of them brought in the S15. The spec labels also changed to “Spec-S” for NA and “Spec-R” for turbo.
Pricing
The price of used Silvias has gone up in recent years, no doubt due to the spike of interest in drifting among Malaysian amateur racers. For example, an S14 which could be had for RM48K in 2006 is now RM60K. Unfortunately, although RM60K is not too bad, nowadays loans are not available for used cars above a certain age. Therefore you could only buy old Silvias in cold hard cash. So that’s why many have opted for the Toyota Corolla KE70 (DX/GL) which is rear wheel drive and costs only around RM3K before modifications.
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