Used Car Of the Day: 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

Today's used car of the day is a Chris Tonn special. It's a 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R. And it's affordable.


That's the good news. The price is a low $3,500. The bad news is the body appears to need some paint work, and there is one rust spot.

On the hand, the seller says there are no mods or major mechanical issues and the car runs well. On yet the other hand, it doesn't have ABS or a sunroof.

If you're a Nissan stan looking for a fun project car on a budget, this could be for you. If you're looking for something, um, more aesthetically pleasing you might want to keep browsing.

Nissan fans, hurry up before our own Chris Tonn adds this to his fleet.

[Image: Seller]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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3 of 26 comments
  • Z9 Z9 on Nov 05, 2022

    I owned a '91 NX2000 which was the "more attractive" version of the SE-R and remember it fondly. The thing that sold me on this platform was, first, being given a regular Sentra for a month when my VW was trying hard to be a Lemon Law case. Then I decided to test drive an SE-R and met a car salesman in San Francisco who, before letting me drive the car, took me on a highly irresponsible and thrilling drive on nearby city streets. The guy was a physics postdoc and said he was selling cars for fun.


    One thing I remember from driving the Sentra was the incredible visibility. Visibility is an underrated fun factor.


    Is the SE-R a future classic? Don't ask me, I have terrible judgment on that account.

    • FreedMike FreedMike on Nov 06, 2022

      Nice examples of this car are going for decent money, but not modern classic money.


  • Wjtinfwb Wjtinfwb on Dec 07, 2022

    One of Nissan's best, from their last days as a scrappy, Mazda type builder of fun cars. Too bad those days are gone.

  • Ronin It's one thing to stay tried and true to loyal past customers; you'll ensure a stream of revenue from your installed base- maybe every several years or so.It's another to attract net-new customers, who are dazzled by so many other attractive offerings that have more cargo capacity than that high-floored 4-Runner bed, and are not so scrunched in scrunchy front seats.Like with the FJ Cruiser: don't bother to update it, thereby saving money while explaining customers like it that way, all the way into oblivion. Not recognizing some customers like to actually have right rear visibility in their SUVs.
  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
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