This rare little white wagon is a 1982 Datsun-Nissan Sentra wagon. This would have been the first year, or half-year, of Nissan offering the Sentra in the US and it’s a rare car from when Nissan was switching over from Datsun to Nissan-badged cars in the US, so it has both badges. This wagon is listed on eBay with a buy it now price of $2,871 or you can make an offer. There are only a few hours left on the auction! It’s located in El Cajon, California.
Those bumpers! I know, but Japanese market bumpers are available on overseas auctions so the next owner can really clean up the look if they wanted to. I had two of these cars in the last year, a 1984 Nissan Sentra two-door sedan and a 1983 Datsun-Nissan Sentra two-door sedan. They were both fun little cars to drive but the ’83 Datsun-Nissan Sentra was an absolute jewel box. Unfortunately, the guy who I sold it to flew up to Minnesota and literally five minutes after picking he and his dad up at the airport and driving them back to our house to get the Sentra, they jumped in it and drove it home, at 85 mph trying to make it home quicker. Somewhere in Tennessee, I think, he blew it up. He just left it at a gas station after getting it towed there and flew home the rest of the way. Ugh, what an unbelievable waste of a fantastic, rust-free and almost perfect rare little car. Sigh.. back to this wagon.
This example does look nice and I still have some NOS hubcaps/wheel covers that anyone can have if they want them. They would sure dress up this wagon, as much as a Datsun-Nissan Sentra can ever really be dressed up. 1984 would be the first year when Nissan used strictly Nissan badging, and the Sentra was the second car to use a model name instead of a model number. Oddly, the first one would be a Nissan Stanza, which I also had and recently sold. Here’s a YouTube video showing a Nissan ad talking about the name changeover.
The interior looks almost perfect, but the dash cover is alway scary. These cars had a very brittle dash and being in California, I’m guessing that the dash is cracked at least on the top where the speaker holes are. This is what it should look like under there, this is my former ’83 Sentra dash. The back seat looks great as does the cargo area, although with the sloping rear hatch it’s almost more of a hatchback than a standard wagon.
The engine and engine compartment look almost like new which is amazing for a car that’s three and a half decades old now. The seller has the engine listed as being a 1.14L but this should be Nissan’s E15 1.5L inline-four which would have had a whopping 67 hp. My cars were fun to drive because they were 5-speed, this one is an automatic, unfortunately. I know that not many people here are into 1980s Japanese econoboxes like this wagon, but I love to see preserved cars from any era. I really regret selling my 1983 Datsun-Nissan Sentra given the horribly wasteful end that it had, but I’m not sure if I’m ready for another one quite yet, are you?
I learned to drive on my uncle’s Datsun-Nissan Sentra 2 door…I recall the dual badging on the trunk lid. He had borrowed my father’s station wagon for the day, and standard 101 started. It was a great car, the profile to my young eye had a BMW-esque appearance…. especially the rear quarter view.
I wonder why it has Montana Dealer plates?
Won’t pass smog in CA?
Bor-ring!
Yes,,,yes it is,,,BUT, one can’t deny the impact these made, ( Nissan wasn’t the only one that took down Detroit) they really were good cars, and cemented Nissan’s name here forever, once people got used to the name change, that is. I think that actually hurt them for a while.
Beats seeing another Grand National.
What did the turbobrick ever do to you, man? Seems like every other post you’re on about that. At least stay up to date dude,it’s been WAYYYYY too many 2nd gen trans am’s as of late.
As for this Nitsun it’s a cool car in my book! My aunt had a brown one when I was a toddler, but it was at least a stick. Unfortunately it seems like almost all of the seemingly forgettable people movers of this era that survive are ALL slushboxes. Which seems odd as from what I recall a majority of cars like this and say the civic and accord were manuals back then. An automatic was hard to find. Now it’s the opposite. Be it classic or new. Very saddening. A manual transmission is the most effective safety feature an automobile can have. Keeps drivers off their damn phone.
Hmm, good point. No wonder millennials can’t shift a manual trans.
Learn to drive stick on 74′ Datsun B210 back in 1975. What a blast of a car to drive. Fast ? No, Fun ? oh hell ya.
When I was a kid in Puerto Rico, my parents bought in 1983 a champagne color 83 and 6 months later a 1984 brand new sentras. My uncle had an 84 brown 3 door hatchback. My first car was an 83 hatchback white lowered. Over the years my family has owned many sentras. My brother had an 87, I had a 91, 92. Including a 2018 model.
Good ol’ TJSJ. The last time I was down there I saw a ’78 F-10 in the same color as ours was. It was in great condition. Sure miss the San Juan runs. Great overnights. Got to cruise a bit on bikes down there as well. Breaks my heart to see her now on the tube. Viva!
Way back when I was shopping for a new car for our young family. It came down to a Sentra or splurge a bit on the new Accord. I bought the Accord and glad we did.
Seems cheap for this car but the automatic is a deal breaker to me.
We stuck with Datsun/Nissan due to the “dealer prep” charges on Hondas. Then there was the “dealer convenience profit package”, shipping, freight and destination-doc fees. Still, that dealer did quite well for himself.
That helped our Datsun dealer sell 33 cars in 6 years to our family, including extended family members. All of the cars and trucks were manual shift.
When I was a kid we inherited a 2-door sedan version from a relative. I remember the Datsun/Nissan badging and the pale yellow paint. And it had 5 gears, which was pretty novel at the time, at least to me. Good little car, and since I’d never known air conditioning, I didn’t mind summer road trips with the windows down and backs stuck to the brown vinyl.
Had an 83 Datsun-Nissan 720 pickup and drove a new 1979 Datsun B-210, both with manuals, for a courier service around the DC area. Man, they were fun to toss around but doors and tailgate sounded literally like those cookie tins you receive around the holidays. Nice B Find!
now that 4WD Stanza was THE one, Scott! but this is fine too (wagon).
I miss the ‘pre minivan’ models ( that Stanza, a Honda, the Eagle/Mutizu, hummm – seems like there were others).
Dodge Colt? Mazda MPV somethingorother…..
Mazda MPV, a little later….
I’m stuck with a 2009 Sentra as my daily driver after I lost my 200sx Sei was lost in a hit and run accident back in 2013. I look at it this way a 1982 Sentra might be boring. But I would consider this car. I’d rather have this Sentra or a B210 than have a Corrolla of this same era.
Where I am the Tsuru I, which is this car, are cheap.
I am partial to the wagon and the hatchback.
I can find them in really nice condition for around $1200 USD.
I am thinking of buying some and waiting for them to go up in price.
If they have 5 speed manual transmissions (carried over from the 210 series), Miguel, buy all you can! Those are practically bolt-on upgrades to A series engines on Austin Sprites and MG Midgets. Ample market for which you can profit in the States. Not sure about shipping tho….
You mean buy them to part them out?
Yes and no. If you remove the gearboxes (verify 5spd not 4spd) you could most likely turn said transmissions around for $700-$900 for all the Spridget drivers upgrading from their factory 4 gears. But then you are left with a Sentra/B210 rolling shell which may be worth nothing. So then what……
Lots of Spridget owners are hoarding Datsun manual transmissions since they were based straight off the Austin design and with very few mods, make our little cars nice Interstate runners….
Bro picked up one of these for my nephew and then my niece to drive through HS and first of college….they didn’t break it….
Wow. Piece of crap.
Too many comments about said crapola.
Crap
How can I bid on this car?
Build a time machine? It was posted in 2018 for sale.