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

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey


Today's UCOTD is a $5,500 sporty Nissan that's over 30 years old, in "ok" shape, and according to the seller, able to surprise "American muscle".

It's a 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R with a SR20DET engine from a U12 Bluebird.


This car also has a manual transmission and a chassis with 204K miles on it. The seller planned to restore it but ran into issues -- there's more at the link. The list of features is long and a nice mix of factory/stock and new/aftermarket. For example, most suspension bits are new and/or aftermarket.

Older Sentra SE-Rs are often looked upon as performance bargains -- and this one could be a nice grab if you're able to put the time and money into restoring it.

Check it out here.

[Images: 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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2 of 22 comments
  • Tassos Tassos on Mar 15, 2023

    TTAC WRITER: Do you need a crash course to understand what are screaming bargains and what are UTTER RIPOFFS among used cars? It seems you have gone back to picking from the LATTER category. GET SERIOUS. WHat is the POINT of today's 'find"? WHO in his or her right mind would want this? Back in 1988, you could get a BRAND NEW Hyundai for less. That is only 3 years from 1991!!!

  • Jim65716105 Jim65716105 on Aug 18, 2023

    The SeR are not bad cars. Had the newer version. 6spd becomes irrelevant since not enuf power to push her at the higher speed. With the 2.5 engine these things are not slow.

  • MaintenanceCosts "But your author does wonder what the maintenance routine is going to be like on an Italian-German supercar that plays host to a high-revving engine, battery pack, and several electric motors."Probably not much different from the maintenance routine of any other Italian-German supercar with a high-revving engine.
  • 28-Cars-Later "The unions" need to not be the UAW and maybe there's a shot. Maybe.
  • 2manyvettes I had a Cougar of similar vintage that I bought from my late mother in law. It did not suffer the issues mentioned in this article, but being a Minnesota car it did have some weird issues, like a rusted brake line.(!) I do not remember the mileage of the vehicle, but it left my driveway when the transmission started making unwelcome noises. I traded it for a much newer Ford Fusion that served my daughter well until she finished college.
  • TheEndlessEnigma Couple of questions: 1) who will be the service partner for these when Rivian goes Tits Up? 2) What happens with software/operating system support when Rivia goes Tits Up? 3) What happens to the lease when Rivian goes Tits up?
  • Richard I loved these cars, I was blessed to own three. My first a red beauty 86. My second was an 87, 2+2, with digital everything. My third an 87, it had been ridden pretty hard when I got it but it served me well for several years. The first two I loved so much. Unfortunately they had fuel injection issue causing them to basically burst into flames. My son was with me at 10 years old when first one went up. I'm holding no grudges. Nissan gave me 1600$ for first one after jumping thru hoops for 3 years. I didn't bother trying with the second. Just wondering if anyone else had similar experience. I still love those cars.
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