For those whose ears perk up at the mention of the word, "Silvia":
The S12 is the car in the Silvia series which came before the S13. Yes, there were Silvias before the S13. Check out this page for details. When I say "Silvia" I'm referring to the Silvia chassis family, not to any JDM conversion. I refer to 240SX's as S13's or S14's even if they are USDM stock, because they are essentially the same car as the J-Spec Silvia, just with a different engine. The S12 was sold under the Silvia name in several markets, mostly with FJ20 motors, which never made it to the U.S., and even though my car has a VG30E, it is still an S12 Silvia-platform car. Referring to the cars as S12, S13, S14, etc., helps to maintain the connection between the generations of the car (i.e. USDM 84-88 200SX and 89-98 240SX), and inter-market relationships (i.e. USDM 240SX, Australian/UK 200SX, JDM 180SX/Silvia). It also avoids confusion like that described below:
For those who are familiar with the cars sold in the United States under the 200SX name from 1995-1998:
The S12's featured on this site bear no relation to these later 200SX's whatsoever other than the name. The 95-98 200SX is a B14, a 2-door Sentra, completely separate from the rear-wheel-drive "S-series" which began with the S10 in 1977. This family of cars includes the S10, S110, S12, S13, S14, and S15. Depending on your location, cars from this series have carried all the following names: 200SX, 240SX, 180SX, 180ZX, Gazelle, Sakura, and Silvia. All those cars belong to the same "family" in the same way that Camaros and Firebirds do for example. The 95-98 B14 200SX is not included in that family.
The 200SX name was dropped in the U.S. in 1989 when the 240 came out, and then brought back in 1995 on the B14. There is NO model connection between the 200SX 1977-1988 and the 200SX 1995-1998. I have heard too many B14 "200SX" owners who think that my car is the previous version of theirs. It is not. My car is the previous version of an S13, or 240SX.
This is the previous version of the 95-98 200SX:
It's my wife's 1992 Sentra XE. This is a B13, (91-94) which came immediately before the B14 (95-99) Sentra/200SX. It even shares the same GA16DE engine with the 95-98 200SX SE. The 95-98 200SX SE-R has the same SR20DE engine that the 91-94 Sentra SE-R had.
Why they decided to slap the 200SX badge on the 2-door version of the 95-98 Sentra is beyond me, especially since the Silvia is still sold under the 200SX name in many countries. From 1995-98 the S14 was sold as the 200SX, and from 1999-2002, the S15:
This is an Australian Nissan 200SX S15, called Silvia in Japan.
The point is, a 1995-1998 200SX is a Sentra, not a Silvia. Not that the Sentra isn't a fantastic car, it is. But to take the 200SX name which was meant for the S-chassis cars and put it on a front-wheel-drive Sentra was kind of a cheesy thing to do. I guess they thought 200SX would be a familiar name to Americans. Nissan SX/Silvia's are rear-wheel-drive cars, all of them, and all related. The only anomaly is the FWD 95-98 B14 "200SX" sold only in the North American market. The B14 is a nice car, but it should not have been called 200SX. It just doesn't fit.