Got me an old Nissan Sentra 'n she's a runner. Ain't too pretty to look at but man is she the perfect work car.
My partner purchased her used a couple of years ago. By then she was most likely an old second-hand rental car fleet car. There's tons of them (this make and model) on the road around here. The owner put her up for sale on Craigslist for $2000 but the first four 'buyers' didn't get to own her 'cuz the seller wanted cash, all of it, and they didn't have it. My partner and I did though, so the seller drove the car to us. I was at work at the time so my partner, with the help of a friend, looked her over a bit then made the call. Sold!
Under the hood she looked good but the tires were old and worn, and were from three different manufacturers. I guess the rental car company just put whatever tires on her that would fit. The fuel pump was weak, she wouldn't start on the first crank but (the seller assured us) she always did on the second. "Been that way for months!" the seller said, convincingly. It sounded exactly like something a long term owner would oh so casually say.
Had to dump a little money into her to fix a few nagging problems but that came early on in our ownership. Now she don't call for any maintenance. Just gas and a little bit of oil every now and then.
She's the perfect work\errand runner car now.
Like I said, she ain't purty to look at but if ever a car screamed "owned by a local" it's this one. She fits right in, her tan paint all faded from the sun.
Her suspension is shot, she needs new front struts, but that ain't gonna happen on my watch and 'cuz of those struts being bad, she rides low. I had to put a cushion on the driver's seat to raise myself up proper. Her saving grace is she’s great on gas. I drive her to work a couple days a week and leave my other, newer car, in the driveway.
Handling-wise, she drives like a go-cart. The stereo is good, an aftermarket one that puts out righteous sound. The wipers work well and have a plethora of intermittent settings, which are great to have where I live 'cuz you drive in showers a lot, showers that come and go.
Our mechanic insisted we get new tires 'cuz some of the old ones were cracked, and we did, after a while, so no worries there. A few months after we bought The Sentra my partner lost a hubcap after getting a flat with one of the old tires. That hubcap never has been (and never will be) replaced.
The stiff rubber tracks for the windows and softer rubber seals for the doors and such are weather-beaten but cost way too much to replace. A little silicone spray works wonders on the window tracks but the trunk lid has some seal issues and is on my to-do list.
There of the doors open- who needs four? The rear passenger one has a broken door handle interior thingy that will never get fixed. I'll see to that!
The heater/air conditioner fan only runs on setting ‘4’, 1,2, & 3 being inoperative. The windows fog up some in heavy weather so I got a work-around for that. I pop the windows open a crack and run the fan if the windows fog up too bad. That, and paper towels.
There's also a little rust spot that needs paint and the clear coat is peeling but nah...
…..fixing any of that is work. Which ain't the point of this car at all. This car's service life has entered the low or no maintenance whatsoever Sweet Spot.
I think she’s rated 118 horsepower.
Antor Roy- Unsplash.com
I love using this car for junk duty. Errand running. Stops at the bank. The grocery. The post office and hardware store. The mall. Fill-up-the-propane-bottle runs. Taking out the recycling and the trash. I park it anywhere I want to. Worries about door dings are worries that I have with my other car.
The beauty of a car like this is in popping the hood once every two weeks and seeing that all of its vital signs are still stable. A wee bit of maintenance and years of experiencing this car’s blessed prime-of-life cycle could pass.
The biggest expenses we have with 'The Sentra' (we never gave it a nickname) are the yearly registration and semi-annual insurance payments.
Let her sit for too long and the battery will go dead. I got a battery charger because finding out the cause of the slow electrical leak stumped our mechanic and if he couldn't do it.....
So, long as she runs I'll drive her. The check engine light comes on and stays on sometimes and she seems to have a hard time breathing for a while and then something happens, I don't know what, she starts running smooth again and the check engine light goes back off. I've tried to figure out why this happens but nothing has clicked so far.
A few other things I oughta mention are the model we've got has a timing chain so no worries there.
Underneath, the muffler rattles sometimes after a strenuous day and the plastic splash guard on the passenger side of the engine is hanging down some.
The washer fluid reservoir's plastic mounting plate cracked so I tied the reservoir up with some zip ties. The tranny fluid and engine oil need to be replaced but not right away I wish I woulda saved the paperwork on those fixes....
I know car enthusiasts are thumbing their noses at a lot of this because your ride has to be sexy, new, and perform but I like The Sentra. I might even love it. It's practical and utilitarian and that’s golden to a frugal guy like me. But it's not that I need to be frugal, I’m not obsessive like that. I just love being around mechanical devices that last and last.
Now, should the day come when she tanks on me, or makes the kind of sound that has my mechanic giving me The Baleful Eye I think I'll find it in me to let her go. It wont be easy, though.
Cars have personalities, don'tcha know? Ending our relationship ain't gonna be something I look forward to but I've gone through final rites of passage with other cars before. The Sentra and my partner and I’s time together was actually supposed to be up months ago. I took The Sentra to our mechanic and he gave me something close to the dreaded Baleful Eye. "I'll check out that rough starting issue" he said with reluctance, that reluctance coming from the diagnostic headache that all old cars bring to mechanics. So much can go wrong.
About that rough start issue....
Every now and again, she stumbles a bit upon being started up, runs rough for about two, three, sometimes five minutes, then smooths out. This has been going on for well over a year now. Some internet forums say it's the notorious head gasket issue, where coolant leaks into the cylinders and has to be burned off. Some say it's the EGV (exhaust gas recirculation) valve sticking closed. Some say it could be temperature related, or spark plug/electrical system related. My partner thinks it might be due to being driven in the rain, or from colder than normal temperatures.
My mechanic says it's the head gasket. But, that was six months ago and I'm still driving The Sentra three days a week. It runs fine and is not losing any coolant. So???
Methinks it's 'cuz The Sentra and I had a little discussion. I told her I knew she might have a head gasket issue but that I wanted to keep her on the road and out of the junkyard for as long as possible. "We'll drive around" I said. "We'll see things and have fun".
The Sentra seems to have agreed with that proposition because it's been business as usual ever since.
You know, I got half a mind to think that all cars want to be in that Sweet Spot position. They wanna be kept around- like they're part of the family or something.