I’m honored to submit my first COAL installment, and where better to start than with the first (and only) new car I ever signed my name to, a 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R?
Car and Driver quite literally sold me on the car. I discovered the buff books as a teenager and consumed them cover-to-cover every month. But something about Kevin Smith’s review of Nissan’s hot new Sentra wormed its way into my brain like no review ever had. It must have been the ratio of performance/handling to MSRP. I still have snippets of that road test memorized to this day, wherein he raved about the SE-R as the second coming of the BMW 2002 and practically a front-drive clone of the aging E30 BMW 3-series. “Yes, the Sentra SE-R is the dream of a brand-new $12,000 BMW come true,” C/D claimed. Why they leaned so hard into the BMW comparisons when Datsun’s own 510 was the obvious choice is anyone’s guess. I mean, the 510 was right there. But on the strength of that one review, in February 1991 I signed the lease papers on a new SE-R without having test driven it.
My Tennessee-built SE-R came suitably equipped for a sport sedan: ABS, 15-inch alloys, limited-slip, sport seats, 4-wheel discs, a 5-speed stick, and a 16-bit ECU. Hey, that was twice as many bits as my Nintendo NES, so it had to be good, right? Rounding out the amenities list were a driver’s airbag, trunk spoiler, power moonroof and mirrors, A/C, and a pair of fog lights hanging under the front bumper like Bugs Bunny’s incisors. There were no options available other than a stereo and the choice of black, white, or red paint (I picked red). A 140HP DOHC aluminum block, 2.0-liter SR20DE engine with a 7,000 RPM redline motivated it to 60 MPH in the low 7-second range, with a quarter-mile trap speed of 15.8 seconds at 87 MPH according to that C/D road test.
I still remember the drive home from the dealer. In traffic, a young guy about my age driving a boxy, earlier-generation Sentra stopped behind me at a light. I watched him in the rearview mirror as a quizzical expression spread over his face upon seeing my car’s badge. I could read his lips: “SE…R?!”
But that poor car seemed cursed. Shortly after I got it home, a late-winter ice storm struck and a chunk of ice falling off a tree left a dent in the rear quarter panel. Later, a gross old guy driving a van hocked a thick, disgusting loogie out his window as I was passing him. The putrid yellow glob splatted onto my hood and by the time I got it hosed off the next day, it had actually cracked the paint. Was that an old man or an acid-spitting Xenomorph from Alien? Then a coworker backed the company van into my poor SE-R. I took that opportunity to get the replacement grille painted red like the rest of the car, which quite frankly, Nissan should have specced from the get-go.
The SE-R was my quickest car to date (which admittedly is saying very little). To put its acceleration into context: in 1991, it was truly quick for a cheap, normally aspirated 4-banger. It was about equal to a Mustang GT, or a Porsche 944 from a couple of years earlier, and a good deal quicker than a V-6 Camaro or an Acura Integra. A guy in a Miata tried to race me once. The SE-R flicked him off like a flea. However, I had my butt handed to me by a second-gen Acura Legend coupe. Can’t win ‘em all. Most humiliating was the mom-driven C-body Cadillac that bested me; in my defense, I didn’t know it was a race and shifted too early.
Of course, the SE-R’s strength wasn’t drag racing; it was taut handling. I learned to push deep into corners with that car, although my technique needed work. Early one morning after pulling an all-nighter at school, I got a little sloppy and learned about snap oversteer. Fortunately, I stayed on the pavement, albeit facing the wrong way, and I went back to the dorm to get some sleep, much chastened and better educated about FWD dynamics.
A 1980 Datsun 310GX in this same shade of blue had been my first Nissan product a few years earlier. The SE-R obviously was worlds better, in every way but one: reliability. As soon as warm weather hit, the SE-R developed an annoying driveability issue, bucking and hesitating and, as it is known in the business, “running like crap.” The dealer tech scratched his head for a bit and suggested the aluminum engine didn’t care for the summer blend BP gas I was using. I never figured out what the engine block material had to do with it, but I changed brands and that seemed to solve the problem.
That was to prove to be the best service I ever got from that dealer. At the 30,000-mile service, the tech somehow reinstalled the radiator overflow bottle upside down. Later, in year three of ownership, the transmission developed the habit of violently jumping out of fifth gear, as if it was trying to fling the shift knob off. The service department drove it and claimed they couldn’t recreate the problem, then admitted they didn’t actually put it into top gear. When I insisted they had to put it in fifth in order to, you know, actually test fifth, the service advisor testily replied that the speed limit on the street in front of the dealership was only 35 MPH and fifth gear was verboten below 55. Was he trying to trick me into admitting that I sometimes used fifth at less than 55 so he could claim driver abuse and deny a warranty claim? I didn’t take the bait. “Let me take your tech out to the interstate, then,” I said, and he said “No, I don’t have time for you to drive him all over the place.” Grrr. I had to involve Nissan corporate to get the dealer to take the car in, whereupon they kept it for a month and wouldn’t give me a loaner. Grrr, again. They eventually replaced the gearbox, but the replacement exhibited the same problem a year later. GRRR!
Also, the front brakes tended to seize up, overheat, and not last very long. Finishing out my bachelor’s degree with a month-long field class in South Dakota, I found the brakes tended to wash out alarmingly on long downhill stretches in the Black Hills. Imagine this view, only imagine your brakes are going to the floor as you gather speed and approach the curve:
Replacement calipers didn’t solve the problem. Going back up those same mountains resulted in hot running and a loss of power as minivans passed me. The front subframe bushings also began clunking. All this on a car that was by then only four years old and always maintained per the manual.
By the end of the SE-R’s five-year lease, the residual I would have had to pay to keep it around just didn’t seem worth it for what felt by then like a tinny little car with noisy bushings and a transmission that wouldn’t stay in gear. I let Nissan have it back and took my aunt’s 1987 Volvo 740GLE as a hand-me-down.
Thirty years on, the original SE-R is prized as a modern classic, made all the more desirable by Nissan’s failure to ever properly follow it up. The next generation of SE-R was heavier, less sophisticated and somehow slower even as it faced more competition. Here’s one in a stereotypically ’90s shade of teal:
Subsequent generations added power and Spec V trim, but because we can’t have everything, styling got a little weird.
And then it just got plain ugly. This is a sport sedan?
But after all, we’re talking about Nissan USA of the ‘90s, the people who followed a sports icon like the S13 240SX with a Japanese version of a Cutlass.
Here’s the part where I’m supposed to say I regret letting go of my SE-R and have been looking for another ever since. But here’s the thing: years later, I bought an E30 BMW, the car that Car and Driver seemed to believe was the SE-R’s spiritual kin. Even though I was its eighth owner and it had over twice the miles the SE-R had, in terms of build quality and refinement there was simply no comparison. No, it’s the E30 that I regret letting get away. My advice? Read the buff books if you must, but don’t buy based on them.
Well written. And excellent advice. I’ll even take it another step: be weary of taking people’s advice, or giving advice.
I feel that just because you have had good experiences with a vehicle, or I have, there’s always that chance that it’ll bite you!
Neighbor was looking at minivans back in the early 2000’s and asked my opinion. Well, we had just bought a GMC Safari that was well screwed together. However she thought she wanted a Ford Windstar. I told her I can only tell you that I’ve heard they have enormous rust issues.
Well, that started a downhill relationship. She bought her Windstar maybe an 2004? Anyway by 2007 they asked to borrow our van because they didn’t trust theirs.
One year later it was sold for $500. Why? Rust!
The 510 and Sentra were tarted up cheap cars (i.e. flimsy unibodies, flaky IRS (510) or FWD (Sentra), cheap seats and interior fittings expected for a basic economy car). The 2002 and E30 were decontented expensive cars (i.e. stiff unibodies, well sorted RWD chassis, good seats and interior fittings, but no bells and whistles normally expected at the price). The 510 developed a cult following because of its racing success and big aftermarket for go-fast parts, but the basic stock 510 was in no way a true competitor in quality or performance to a stock (but more expensive) 2002. The Sentra SE-R came from the factory with the go-fast bits that the 510 only received from the aftermarket, and hence was close to the much more expensive E-30 in performance, but was still a cheap econo-box in terms of material quality. A lesson in getting what you pay for, plus I suspect that the SE-R that C&D tested was a ringer press car that was far better sorted than the typical SE-R the average customer bought off the lot.
The interesting question to ponder is why Nissan constantly screwed up their cult cars (i.e. 510, original 240Z, early Maximas, SE-R) by watering them down technically, performance-wise, and styling-wise with each new generation. I can only assume they weren’t as profitable as required, and hence the bean-counters took over product development.
That’s a good point. All the retrospective write-ups on the 510 tout it as a poor man’s 2002 but never talk about what it took to get it there.
Why they leaned so hard into the BMW comparisons when Datsun’s own 510 was the obvious choice is anyone’s guess
To be fair, ‘out-the-box’ a 510 was no sports sedan. All the critical bits for a good starting point were present, but you had to DIY modifications to unlock the potential; the embodiment of docile.
The 5-speed popout issue is a known fault and plagued practically all of them.
Oof, well at least it was a lease, and you weren’t stuck with a deteriorating Nissan to try and sell on your own.
My only experience with that generation of Sentra is Mexican taxis, and I don’t think more power and less brakes would be a good thing.
Prime example of why I won’t buy a new car. Same with my dad, the only new car he ever bought was an El Camino and it was a similar disaster. Mainly something about some experimental camshaft from what I was told. One time at the dealer he threw the keys across the floor and said keep it, but he was still stuck with it. At least yours was a lease and you could give it back. He wrecked his after a few years.
I prefer to buy cars with some years and mileage on them. At least that way, the reputation is known. And if it was one of those “you either get a good one or a bad one”, the bad ones would have usually been junked already. The good ones are what’s left. Works for me anyway.
Yes those car books are paid to push whatever is not selling.
That said, I drove a 2017 loaded Sentra for a few months. It handled like a Camaro and, with 278,000 miles, ran like a clock and I assume would tick over the miles at 90 MPH all day long.
A series of unfortunate events indeed. The mechanical woes described aren’t exactly the sort of thing you’ve paid for if a car is new, and the Nissan response to the ‘box is just depressing in its absolute familiarity to too many people, from too many brands.
The Sentra wasn’t sold here, but we got the N14 Pulsar in 1991 (as did Europe) and they really were BMW-equaling machines. Stiff bodyshell, very BM-like dashboard, slick gearchange (and I don’t recall top-gear fails happening) and truly excellent dynamics. Top-line ones had that same rev-happy engine you describe, which was indeed fast in the day. Known for excellent reliability over time, too. A refined, thoroughly decent car, it got excellent buff-book press, but in this case, quite properly so.
So Nissan COULD build a proper car at the time: in the Sentra, it seems like they simply chose not to.
There is nothing worse than going from the excitement and pride of a brand new car to frustration when it doesn’t live up to expectations. Maybe it’s not as bad with used cars because expectations are generally much lower. It sounds like the lease turned out to be a great idea here.
I still have trouble wrapping my head around some of the vehicles that experience trouble in manual transmissions. These and newer Toyotas with flaky manuals are a puzzler, because they (theoretically) sold so many of them worldwide.
Same here. And, for good grief’s sake, the all-synchro manual ‘box has been a mass product for only 75 years!
Way back in the 30s Oldsmobile feature the first syncro box, Youd think by now theyd have it right, or is it lack of operator knowledge
My teen daughter was the only one she knew who could drive a manual when she was first licenced, she has since taught others, its no longer a common skill which may account for some failures but not regular repeats.
Internal combustion engines have been built since the 1800s, yet some modern engine families still have serious issues from time to time. It’s not the concept of building a manual transmission; the devil is in the details.
At least it looks nice, bummer it failed to satisfy .
As far as giving or taking advice, that’s a good point .
I have Customers who tell me years later “you told me these like to make liars out of you but I did what you said and had no troubles .
Looking at that remote downhill road makes me want to go for a drive .
RE : tranny issues : my then young son had a bad habit of making Every. single. shift. a !!POWER SHIFT!! and then decried all the broken trannies .
-Nate
Welcome Mark!
OK, so I have to chime in here with some confirming, as well as contrasting, comments since I actually daily-ed one of these for nearly 10 years and over 180K miles. I was in my COAL too 🙂
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1993-nissan-sentra-se-r-how-do-you-define-daily-driver/
I get/got the hype for these when they were new. I did test drive mine before I bought it, but even as a purchaser who may have about 20 years of age on you, I was taken by what the magazines said and I was quite primed to love the car and to want one. It was the first car I’d ever purchased that wasn’t simply sitting on the lot (meaning, I was ready to be reamed by the salesperson because I had to have one and HE was going to be paid to go find one for me). I had to wait a couple of weeks for that car as one was located somewhere in the midwest and then driven (!) to the dealership in Indiana where I purchased (I was living in KY, so Indiana wasn’t that nuts).
Thing is, that car was pretty much everything that I’d read about, and then some. It was pretty fast (fast enough for me), and it handled amazingly. I did a little autocross (see Adam Dixon’s CC post for more insight into autocrossing his SE-R). I also took it to track days and suitably impressed drivers of contemporary E30 BMWs. But mostly, it was a solid, dependable, daily driver.
I never had brake issues, although the ABS (that was an option in 1993) did start to act up toward the 10 year mark. Also, the transmission “5th gear pop out” thing was a known issue once the car got up in miles. Yours seems to have started early, and it may be that since yours was an early model the dealer was not familiar with the issue yet.
Or it may be that the dealer was just a bad one. That’s what I’m thinking based on some of your other maintenance issues. I found Nissan dealers to be kind of middle of the road during my Nissan ownership (roughly 1992 – 2001). Not as bad as VW (my experience), but not quite up to the legends surrounding Lexus (at the time). That’s of course a generalization, but definitely whatever you had out there in South Dakota doesn’t seem to have been at the top of the game so far as dealership service.
Finally, like you, I moved from the Nissan to the BMW world. First with a MINI and then an actual ( 😉 ) BMW. I can appreciate the spiritual kin thing. Still, I wish that either of my subsequent cars had the build quality of the SE-R. Also, I really feel that the SE-R is more spiritual kin to the 2002 tii, and not so much E series BMWs. That was the attraction to me when I got my SE-R, and having driven a few restored 2002’s back then, I’d say that Nissan nailed it.
Anyhow, welcome to the COALmine, and I look forward to reading what comes next!
Thanks for the shout-out, Jeff. Here’s the link to my COAL:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1993-nissan-sentra-se-r-kismet/
What are the odds of two B13 SE-R COALs so close together?
And, Mark, this is a great first COAL. Welcome! One small correction: The redline is 7,500, which put the SE-R in rare territory in 1991. It would shrink to 7,100 for the B14 generation.
Also, I think the E30 comparison really comes into play because the contemporary 318iS looked very similar on paper to the B13 SE-R for a good deal more money.
Thanks, Jeff! Sounds like you had a similar purchase experience to mine. My salesman had to drive the car to me from a different city a couple hours away (putting 140 miles on my “new” car). When he handed me the keys he was talking about what a fast car it was and I was just wondering what abuse he did to it during the break-in period. I’m glad you got to use yours on the track as intended.
I may have been a little unfair to the car here. There was nothing about it that some minor upgrades couldn’t have fixed. I just wasn’t in a position to do that at the time (and the Web was in its infancy then, so the fifth gear popout being a common issue was unknown to me).
Yes indeed. There are absolutely things that the Internet has changed, some better some worse; but the availability of information on what’s happening with real people in real time was one of the better things.
Nice start to the series Mark. I remember these being a sweet drive when we had a few at the car lot but I was more in CRX mode then.
That 310 looks to be very COAL worthy. Will we be getting a chapter on it?
Welcome Mark!
I was a bit confused, as I thought this car was somehow related to the first gen Nissan Primera, introduced in 1990 (see below). That was called a D-segment car in Europe, just like the BMW 3-series.
But after some Wikipedia-ing, it turned out that your Sentra was also called the Sunny (B13). Not the same Sunny we had here, that one was also known was as the Pulsar (N14). Geez, at least a 3-series is a 3-series all over the globe…
Fun fact: the Primera Mk1 was the first car here that came with airco as a standard feature.
*That* (the Primera) came to the States as the Infiniti G20. It was essentially a tarted up SE-R sedan.
Aside from the SR20DE engine, I don’t think there was much other hardware in common between the G20/Primera and the SE-R aside from the Nissan common switchgear and components. The Primera was sized between the smaller Sentra and the larger Altima and designed primarily for the European market.
…I meant Stanza (the Altima would replace it in the U.S. in 1993).
Weirdly here in NZ we got the N14 and called it a Sentra… unless it was a JDM import, in which case it was called a Pulsar. Oh, and we also got JDM import B13 Sunny’s. Then the N15 came along, and we called it the Sentra when we built them here, then when it was facelifted and CKD stopped we got the same car as a CKD N15 Pulsar!
You described the shortcomings in one photo that curve at 100 mph is just steer and keep the engine pulling in a FWD Citroen why6 brake? not all FWD cars are created equal.
I like Sentras the regular versions are bulletproof, except for the electrics nothing ever seems to go wrong, I had two 1500 versions on their second trip to the moon and well into it on the odometers and they both ran great and drove well within their limitations the ex JDM was loaded but little of it worked common problem I found out the NZ version had less toys and only the radio didnt work, rust is their mortal enemy they thrive on abuse, just dont chuck em into corners too hard.
It wasn’t so much the curves, it was that a lot of these mountain roads had stop signs at the bottom of the hill.
I bought two of these well used both in excess if 350,000kms both ran great first was a 93 ex JDM wagon ran and drove fine but rusty and most of the electrics didnt work, apparently normal I removed things I wanted and sold it on it drove away,
Years later I bought a 97 sedan NZ new so fewer toys and only the cassette deck didnt go, daughter didnt want it wanted my Xsara, ok take it then the Nissan would have been better though not a better car driving wise gentle curves like the one pictured are not something to brake for in a Xsara or any Citroen for that matter, so Isold the green sedan to a young couple within the week and its still going Ive seen it since the 2023 cyclone, edit both were 1500 5 speeds
It sounds like my mother made the smarter choice, when she bought a 91 Mazda Protege LX.It was a similar spec to the Sentra but much better made.It was zingier than my 84 Jetta and was still solid and reliable when it got rear ended in 94. Totaling the car may have dodged a bullet since a few more New York winters might have revealed rust issues.
I’m surprised that this had been so troublesome. As Bryce points out, they have a reputation here in NZ as being very reliable. Our N14’s came in NZ assembled, and Australian assembled and were all pretty good. We also had a lot of JDM imports in both N14 and B13 siblings. Seems perhaps that you got unlucky…
I had the same 2 door body as a ’94 1.6 manual: kept it for 7 years and only had two problems : replacing the clutch prematurely, my fault for thinking I was in a SE-R and the odometer cable broke. I kept the original exhaust line all this time surprising for a Nissan of any era and the battery to replace, all in all, dependent for 160k km of ownership.
Great COAL chapter 1!
Well, there is that. But also there’s this:
The photo of the 1980 Datsun 310GX could have been the twin to that of a lady I drove with from my apartment complex to work (hers was a ’79 but the same paint color). I also drove a Datsun back then, as my first car was a ’74 Datsun 710, but moved over to buying watercooled VWs since 1981. My younger sisters took over, each owning qty-2 Datsun 200SX or 240SX’s apiece. My surviving middle sister still has her ’97 bought new.
I’ve tended to buy “pokey” (slow) cars, except for my ’86 GTi). I think they are probably less stressed (if you drive them that way, though if you tend to flog a slow car they probably tend to be more stressed and wear out quickly. I’ve had pretty good luck with the VWs, though sometimes have had unexpected problems (yes, they have in fact stranded me) but once fixed they seem to keep on going. I’m almost to 24 years with my Golf I bought new. This year will be 50 years that I’ve been driving (probably past that since I got my learner’s permit in Feb 1974) but only owned 4 cars in that time. If something works well for me I tend to stick with it.