A few months ago, a survivor-grade example of Nissan’s hotted-up FWD Sentra – otherwise known as the SE-R – crossed the auction block and reminded enthusiasts how few of these great 90s cars are left. Since then, I’ve seen several SE-Rs go up for sale, definitely more than I remember being available over the last few years. Here’s yet another car, with this 1992 example from New Jersey here on eBay with an opening bid of $1,999 and no reserve.
The Sentra SE-R hails from the glory days of sport compact cars. This is perhaps my favorite era in automotive history, as manufacturers built cheap performance cars in droves that actually went and handled fairly well, all without relying on a peaky turbocharged powerplant. Sure, you had to rev the snot out of that SR20DE inline four-cylinder under the hood, but 140 naturally-aspirated horses out of a boxy front-driver made for a car that loved to be driven hard.
Thickly bolstered bucket seats, crank windows, and a sport steering wheel – what more did you need? How about a limited-slip differential to put that power down, and a low curb weight that made the 140 b.h.p. feel a lot more powerful? These were innate qualities that came from giving an economy car some serious performance chops without relying on big, heavy wheels, spoilers, and grotesque driver information systems – you know, all the stuff that comes standard on anything resembling a performance car today.
The good news is that no matter what your flavor of 90s sport compact cars is – from the Honda Prelude and Acura Integra GS-R to the Mazda MX3 to the VW Golf GTI – it’s pretty hard to go wrong. Low cost of ownership awaits you, along with robust owners’ groups and plenty of good junkyard spares still available. These cars may still be cheap but they’re also hard to find, so now may be the time to grab one that owners are finally putting them up for sale.
Hey Jeff – nice find and write-up! Glad to see the original SE-R get some proper respect. In an era where it seemed like everyone’s Corporate V6 made 140 HP, and the IROC Camaro made 245, these things were awesome sleepers. We bought one new for my wife after months of (pre-Internet) research, and kept it for seven years and 125k miles. My only complaint was the $135 glass headlights. They have a little funnel under the top-accessible oil filter so the filter drippings come out a tube right by the drain plug. Lots of well-thought-out touches on these cars. Thanks for the memories!
I never had the opportunity to drive one of these SE-Rs as they were pretty scarce in this area. Based on what the author and Todd say about driving one, I sure missed out. Well, I’m still above ground so hopefully, there’s still time. That looks like some pretty significant and costly body damage on the passenger side. I would think trying to match that paint would be a real challenge.
“Grotesque” is a great word for the overabundance of driver-distracting electronics in modern performance and luxury cars. True, it’s what the market wants, but I guess I’m not “the market.”
I just keep seeing stuff that’s going to break at some point and affect resale or trade value. Well, that and stuff a politician somewhere wants to make standard since we can’t be trusted with our own safety… automatic braking, lane change warning, backup camera…. how *did* we survive this long?
For 2019, a back up camera has to be standard equipment on all cars.
How is that a safety feature?
Can’t people turn around anymore?
The thing with the backup cameras in my opinion is because people are now bumping around in such overly large cars errrr SUVs errr CUVs or whatever you want to call them, they really can’t see much by turning their heads when backing up. The wife has a 2012 Hyundai Veracruz. No backup camera. When backing up, there’s an area directly behind me that from the ground up to about 4+’ is not visible by turning around and looking at where I’m backing up. Not really a problem if a car or tree is back there, but if there is a kid…..I’ll never see him/her.
I also don’t have much of an issue with automatic braking, reason being is that in the last 5 years or so of doing a 1-2 hour daily commute here in North Jersey, I can’t count how many rear end collisions I have seen. Yep, people texting while driving and not stopping in time before hitting the car in front of them. So, anything that’s going to keep those distracted aholes from re-ending me I am all for.
Do I want all that junk in my car? Nope. Hell I don’t even like power windows or power seats. But if installing those things in other cars with the distracted drivers at the wheel will save them from smashing into me, I don’t mind as I’m not buying any of those cars anyway.
Yes! I once owned a ’92 SE-R just like this, except for color. It may look like a boxy boring Sentra, but the SE-R was truly a special car and drove fantastically. What was great about it was how integrated the whole car felt, and how Nissan was able to make something so plain feel so entertaining. Good power (the SR-20 isn’t THAT peaky, especially if you are used to Hondas), great shifter, nimble handling, and excellent reliability. It was the kind of car that encouraged you to toss it around, and I have great memories of autocrossing mine.
Anyone remember the commercials that were made for this car? How he made a car for “Bob”…”Even the door handles were cold”
Totally LOVED this car. An excellent substitute for the 300zx I couldn’t afford at the time. Mine was a red 93, bought new. The 93 and 94 had better seats than the 91 and 92. Drove it like it needed to be driven. It was a blast revving that little engine to 7K! Kept it longer than any other car I’ve ever had, and have regretted selling it since then.
Would all believe that this body style Sentra is still being made in Mexico? No SE R though.
No it isn’t. 2017 was the last year for it.
Do you guys here know that the 2015 Tsuru, which is this car, failed every crash test given to it.
It got 0 stars and even after that Nissan continued to dump it on the Mexican market.
That cockroach Versa has now taken over that segment.
I dated a girl who drove one of these. She was a sweet girl but she couldn’t drive a stick up a dead pig’s anyway it was a fun car but by the time she got done with it it was beat.
My first ‘car’ as well – mine was a ’91 that I bought in ’92 with 22K on the ticker. Sold it in ’97 with about 120K on it. I never had the 5th gear poppet problems I’ve learned are common but the red paint was in pretty bad shape when I sold it. I now daily drive the competitor to this car – the ’91 BMW 318is.
I owned the next generation of SE-R, the 200sx SEi. Great cars to drive and as you guys said. this is a sleeper and a must have for me.
Wow… over 16k when it was new? No wonder they only sold about 25k of these…
This was one of the first cars I bought when I came to Mexico. Mine was gray It was a special model here too.
It was such a special model that I couldn’t find parts to fix the engine or transmission.
I learned you had to vet the mechanic you use.
It was having a transmission problem, yes it was a stick, and after I got it back from this one mechanic, the transmission fell out of the car.
He only put one bolt back in and that worked itself loose.
I learned my lesson.
I have stayed away from low production special cars since then. Parts are just too hard to find.
This is my 1994 Sentra SER that I race with NASA Central Region at tracks around the midwest. I got rid of a 95 Miata that I’d raced in the same PTE class for 6 previous years and I’ll tell you what, I love the Sentra times 1000. Its fast, makes 154 hp at the wheels with nothing but a set of cams, ebay header and under drive pulleys.
The BFGoodrich livery from the 1985 BFG IMSA 962’s has been a huge hit, way more than I’d imagined. Heck, I figured some of my younger friends wouldn’t even know what the heck I was going after with the look!
I’ve been racing 33 years, spent 11 racing Formula Ford including a trip to the Runoffs (2000, 12th place, including the engine rebuild it only cost me $14,500 for 10 days of racing…. I was single then!). I’d been thinking about retiring but no joke, the Sentra has reinvigorated my racing career.
The photo attached is from Heartland Motorsports Park, July 2018.
Bought one of these in 2000 with 140k on it. On the way home it overheated and had to be towed. I found the head gasket was leaking, but since it was to be a beater I decided to try one of those liquid head gasket additives. In 2012 I sold the car with 250k on it, and the guy that bought is still driving it. What a tank!
I seem to recall Hot Rod Magazine listing this car in their top 10 that year but I haven’t been able to find that article online. I did find these two – very impressive https://www.caranddriver.com/features/1992-10best-cars-1992-nissan-sentra-se-r-page-10
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a28624/the-1990-sentra-se-r-the-forgotten-performance-nissan/
I owned one of these awesome cars from 94-98 and would probably still have it, but it was involved in a accident. Mine was a red 1992 stick with 60,000 plus miles when purchased. Very high revving engine, and mine was very reliable, and a great DD. These cars were very hard to find in my area also, so I traveled several hundreds of miles away to purchase one. I kept mine stock, except for tinted window’s, but would have liked to added some performance mods to it!!! I did street race this little pocket rocket several times against 305 monte carlo SS, Camaro’s, mustang gt’s and some 280zx cars of the day….and from a 30mph roll I never lost!!! The 280zx turbo did beat me from a dig race, but only by a little….and because of wheel spin… ” I know losing is losing”, but those Z car’s would just squat down in the rear and take off like a rocket!!! LOL. These were great cars of the era, and were fun to drive, and I’m so glad I got to own one!!!
what is the stock ground clearance on a 1992 Nissan sentra ser measured from the rail underneath