![Nissan Sentra](https://oldroadapples.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/scan10148.jpg?w=579&h=380)
The old Datsun/Nissan–when, for a few years, the company couldn’t make up it’s mind what to call itself. I traded a giant Oldsmobile Delta 88 with a 403 V-8 that got 9-11 miles per gallon and had the biggest back seat in the history of drive-in movies for the comparatively thrifty Sentra Hatchback, which took some adjusting but was one of the better cars I ever owned–I would drive it about 53,000 miles in the next 3 years, including across the country and back twice, and all over midwest and east coast, then straight into the ground. It always started on the first turn, but when it developed a shimmy at 124,000 miles and I took it to the shop the guy looked at all the rust on the frame and suspension and shook his head.
![Nissan Sentra](https://oldroadapples.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/montana-border-1a.jpg?w=300&h=196)
“Well,” he said. “You’re looking at twice what its worth to fix it.”
“Any shortcuts we can take, to keep it going for another year?”
“Son,” he said, a thin whistle playing through the gap in his teeth as he inhaled. “People die in cars like this.”
I posted this because somebody from college asked me about it the other day and said he’d seen one just like it on the net here:
http://www.oldparkedcars.com/2012/02/1982-datsunnissan-sentra-hatchback.html
Mine was better. It had a sunroof. Of course, it died in Spring, 1991, so there’s that…. Still, this was a nice trip down memory lane. The Sentra was a fun little car, fairly peppy with the 5-speed and would cruise along the highway at 80 with no trouble. It wasn’t a great hit at the Drive-In, alas, but by that time I had my own place, so….
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