Guest bastaad525 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Okay guys, I think I have FINALLY found my daily driver... for real this time!!! The 240sx fell thru, and several other cars were such eyesores... wastes of time every one of them. Having only $1k in hand, I guess I should have expected no less. But today... I happened upon what I consider to be the mother lode of daily driver, economical, yet still FUN cars A pristine '91 Nissan Sentra SE-R... new red paint, perfectly straight body, leather interior in cherry shape, racy bucket seats... the car looks NICE and almost like it just rolled off the dealer lot.... and a very, VERY healthy feeling little 2.0 litre engine. I was REALLY amazed at how powerful this car felt... I know I said that about the 240sx... but this car felt even more so. Probably because the 240 had an auto and the SE-R has the 5 speed. The car feels really quick and VERY good throttle response. The SE-R also handled like a champ. My only complaint was that the AC doesn't work, and from what I've gathered so far on the 'net, this can be a very pricey thing to fix on these cars. Given that I usually drive at night or early morning, and so far the lack of AC in my Z hasn't really been a problem, I'm not gonna let this worry me. This car is also coming with a VERY nice detachable face CD player. Also a sunroof. I already test drove this one and really got on it as well, not like the 240sx which felt fine up to 15mph in my first test drive, which was as fast as I really got a chance to take it, but then revealed that it had problems going any faster than that! The SE-R is clean inside and out, engine bay looks great, car looks VERY well taken care of, I'd give it a 9 out of 10, looks near brand new. On the flipside, mileage is sorta-high, at 144k miles, but I already know these engines are good for twice that if taken care of, so I'm not worried. I think of all the cars I've considered having as a fun, yet econimical daily driver, this would be my first pick, if I'd thought I could have found one! Funny thing is, I've gone looking for SE-R's before... several times, they're pretty hard to come by, made in limited numbers and most people aren't selling OR they are trashed if they are. Comparable in difficulty to finding a really nice 240z, I would say. Even funnier thing is I almost DIDN"T KNOW THIS WAS AN SE-R!!! When they painted the car they removed the lettering from trunk lid, and really there was no other indication... I figured it was probably an SE... it's at a dealership and the guy doesn't really know much about it, but he said he also thought it was an SE. During my test drive I kept commenting on how surprised I was at how powerful and quick it felt... that should have tipped me right there. I looked at the engine and I thought SE-R's engine had some defining characteristic (like the red or black top SR20DE's from japan, or maybe just saying SE-R on top) but this just looked like a plain jane motor... I cant say I've seen a regular 1.6L sentra motor so I had nothing to compare to. Then looking around on the net I saw some SE-R engine bay pics and they looked the same as this car. Ran back to ask the guy if I could take another look under the hood, found the little sticker with the engine info on it and sure enough! 1997cc's displacement... BINGO!! So I'm really jazzed now... even if this car does have some problems I've been DYING to have one of these, the price is good and I"ll be making low low payments on it over 24 mos anyways, and blows away any car I was just going to buy straight for the $1k I was trying to spend, so payments are fine by me. Well... if all goes well I should have her home tommorow morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToplessZ Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Id recommend putting as much down on it as possible as the interest on those small payments adds up very quickly. You also made the mistake of being way to excited in front of the dealer. That just lessens any chance of negotiating a lower price on your part. Should have let him keep thinking it was a regular SE. Good luck though. Dont forget the sr20det bolts in nicely for future reference....hybrid #2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxilary Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Is there a checkered flag on the hood? Sounds like an SE-R i know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzx0 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 HAHA! That's what I have, a '91 SE-R. (no sun roof, no leather, though) http://mccay.hitchcock.org/max/Photos/Sentra/Sentra.html I think you'll find that you can get yourself in a lot of trouble with that thing. I got mine for $500 from a guy at work who didn't really know much about it. He had just bought a new Subie and was looking to get rid of it. Unfortunately, I only drove it for about a month before the crank pully fell apart. I should have paid more attention to the belts squeaking, I guess. It was horrid. The shop I nursed it to said it was gonna cost at least $1k to fix, since they thought the head had warped when it overheated since both belts snapped/fell off. I got a new pulley on eBay, screwed around wiht the car all winter, realized I'd never be able to free the crank pulley bolt myself, had it towed. ended up costing $100 for the tow and pulley replacement. (new pulleys are v.expensive, though.) Anyway, the SE-R is an awesome car. I think you'll be amazed at how much it just wants you to rev it right up. 7500 RPM in first and second comes a lot quicker than you'd expect. It also loves to go from 80 to 100 MPH. Don't even have to floor it. I get mine up to 105-110 pretty much daily. It's a great car. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 We're putting about half of the price of the car down, and while the interest is kinda high (some big credit problems in the past ), the term is a very short 18 mos. so the interest isn't really adding up to that much. To top that off, the monthly payments are so low that we'll be able to put at the LEAST 50% more than the what we're being asked to pay every month, so we'll have it payed off even more quickly and will end up paying even less interest. I'm still paying a price premium over if I had, say, saved up the cash myself and went hunting for one in the classifieds, but I really needed to get something ASAP so I can stop driving my Z every day, and also start saving over my Z's 17 mpg's of expensive 91 octane fuel. And I've always wanted an SE-R. It doesn't have a checkered flag on it. Well... the thing feels SUPER quick that's for sure but I think that is really an illusion of the very short gearing or very high differential that it has(4200rpm at 80mph in 5th!! as opposed to about 3000rpm in 5th at the same speed in my Z). But then I made the mistake of shattering the illusion by busting out the stopwatch for some timed 0-60 runs. Well... I dunno if it's because of the relatively high mileage (144k) or if it's been abused or just needs a tune up or what, but best time I could get, give or take a few tenths for my own inaccuracy with the stop watch, was a 9.4. That tells me either I suck at driving, or the thing is definately not in it's prime, or may even be sick. Stock, new I've read they were capable of 0-60 in the 7-8 sec range. The engine SEEMS to be running fine, starts easy, idles smooth, revs smoothly, sounds good... so I dunno. I'll probably do a compression test soon and see what I get. Anywho, after a few hard launches I also got my first taste of bonafide clutch slippage ever so I cut my 'testing' short. Oh and you're absolutely right... it revs so quick you dont even realize it... it's a bit of an adjustment when I'm so used to the shifting rythm of my Z, which has nice long gears, and I usually shift that at around 3k when 'normal driving', but with this thing I gotta watch the tach because if I dont I keep hitting 4-5k before I even know it. Another thing, the suspension feels a little too soft, I think the rear shocks or springs might be worn out. That will be the first thing I change. It was a little scary at points on the freeway, I mean it felt like a real boat on rough waters, lots of fore-aft rolling when going over even gentle bumps... reminded more of an old muscle car. It also has a great xplod (xplod? xplode? I dunno... it's nice though) stereo, but it's wasted on a set of crap speakers (or rather, maybe it's so good that it wasted the speakers?), which are next on the list after suspension. So... it's not perfect, by a long shot, but, I'm still glad to have it, even with the price premium, because I know that these cars are just full of hidden potential just waiting to be unlocked, to be a fun, economical car with great performance. Question, this probably applies to ANY sentra owner. Can anyone tell me if the sentra fuel gauge behaves like the 240z fuel gauge? In my 240z, the first half of a full tank goes by REAL fast, due to the shape of the tank, giving the illusion of really bad gas mileage for that first half tank. The sentra also seems to have gone thru the first 1/3 of the tank very rapidly, with only about 80 miles on it so far... doesn't make sense for a car slated to get 30ish highway miles a gallon. It supposedly passed smog with flying colors, they smogged it before I picked it up... they ended up needing to replace the O2 sensor, but after that it ran great. If it's not just a quirk of the way the gauge reads, then maybe this has something to do with the car running so much slower than stock? Well... it's not running rich, and the timing would have had to have been right to pass smog... I'll check the air filter later... matter of fact I'll probably give the thing a tuneup myself later (fuel filter, air filter, spark plugs, cap and rotor and possibly wires) and see what happens, but if this gauge is right so far (will verify when I re-top off the gas tonite) I'm only getting about 20 mpg's, and no I'm not flooring it at every light (every other light, maybe? ). Well maybe someone can shed some light on this? Also, should I be running 91 in this thing? Recommended? Required? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 You can get the smog test history on the car by inputting the VIN or License plate # in the DMV website. It doesn't give the numbers, but will tell you if it ever failed. http://www.smogcheck.ca.gov/vehtests/pubtstqry.aspx Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 yeah it just failed yesterday I told them when I test drove it the check engine light was coming on, and even said "it's probably the o2 sensor", so these dumbasses just go and reset the ECU by disconnecting the battery, and sure that made the light go away and I'm telling them "dude it will come back on trust me... there's no way it's gonna pass smog" of course they just shrugged me off like I dont know what I'm talking about. Well I ended up waiting around for like an extra TWO HOURS at the dealership because of course it didn't pass smog and the check engine light came back on and they found out it WAS the 02 sensor... so had to order the part and all that. Dumbasses. I'm actually thinking of paying for one of those carfax reports just to get an idea of history of the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 Sounds like you are buying another headache Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 they are ALL headaches... even brand new cars are headaches. And dont try to tell me their not, I have a friend who has bought three brand new cars in the last 5 years, a Focus, a Scion, and an Infiniti, and each has had quirky problems and spent time in the shop. Anyways... been searching around the net and found a great SE-R web page and a bunch of good links off that... just like any car, the SE-R does have quirks and bugs particular to it, and funny enough I found every problem I have noted so far with this car to be mentioned on that board, along with easy free solutions for most of them. Now, dammit Tim, just be happy for me and stop being so negative... that money would NOT have done me any better in the Z! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.