New owner with some questions (long)

[Jason Arrington]

Well, there's been enough interest that I'll go ahead and post some
details on my new sled. The car was owned by Michelin of America's R&D
department, where it was used for instrumented braking tests at their
test track in South Carolina. This probably explains how the center caps
were lost, since Michelin likely left them off to save time swapping
tires. The CarFAX report shows that it wasn't even registered to be
driven on public roads until 1996! The exterior is very nice. The only
flaws are a couple shopping cart size dings on the driver's door and
some cracks in the paint on the front bumper, which I'll take care of as
soon as I sell my old car. No bodywork or paintwork at all, that I can
see. The interior has very little wear. There are a couple of small
holes in the headliner - I'm guessing these are from where their test
equipment was rubbing. Other than that the interior's easily in as nice
of shape as my wife's 2 year old car.

So how did I find it, I hear you asking? Glad you asked. I was shopping
for a more reliable daily driver, since my '87 Alfa Spider with 170k+
miles is spending more time on jackstands than on the road. (shameless
plug alert: it's on eBay right now - item 2412844806) I looked around
here locally and was getting pretty depressed, since it seemed I'd need
to spend 8-10 grand to get something even halfway decent. I nearly
bought a '92 SE-R with 8X,XXX miles about a year and a half ago, but the
guy was asking too much and wouldn't negotiate. As I recall, he wanted
$4000 minimum and I wasn't willing to go more than $3500. I had been
kicking myself ever since, so I decided to see what was out there on the
internet. I checked eBay and there were a bunch of miley cars but
nothing really nice. Then I checked Autotrader.com. You can't search for
keywords on autotrader, and there were very few SE-R listings, so I
searched for all 1991-1994 2 door 5 speed Sentras in the country. After
sifting through a bunch of E/XE/GXE listings, the very first "basic
listing" was for a white with gray interior, 5 speed, 2 door sentra SE-R
with 36,XXX miles. Asking price? $3900.

I nearly wet my pants.

I looked up the ZIP code on Mapquest and found it was in South
Carolina, about an hour from where my mother-in-law lives. I live in
Utah. It was at a little mom and pop car lot. I ran a carfax right away,
so I knew it really was an SE-R and hadn't been wrecked. I called the
guy, who explained the history (he had bought it directly from
Michelin). He also said there was a guy who worked at the BMW test track
that wanted it for a commuter, so I'd better decide quick. I offered him
$3600, sight unseen. He accepted. I faxed a copy of a cashier's check
over to him so he would hold the car for me. Once it arrived, I had my
mother-in-law drive the car to the Atlanta airport and leave it in a
long term parking lot with a hide-a-key. I flew in on a red eye, checked
the oil, and drove the 1900 miles back to Utah over the next two days.

Yeah, I know it was a risk, but I also figured the next guy that saw
the ad on Autotrader would probably buy it. I plan on leaving it bone
stock, other than replacing the original NGK PFR5B-11 plugs (which still
look great!) with the PFR6B-11s recommended on se-r.net and advancing
the timing to where it should be. Oh, and I'll probably try to find an
original Nissan add-on CD player so I can keep the stock head unit with
cassette. I'll replace the blown stock speakers ASAP too. I'll replace
fluids, belts, and hoses this weekend. I figure I can probably do some
simple maintenance, drive it for 50k miles or so, and still sell it for
what I paid for it. Or, maybe just keep it ... I can't think of anything
I'd like as much for under $20k or so. I sure like driving it better
than my sister's '00 Sentra SE 5-speed (sorry, B15 owners. It just feels
too big.)

Well, that's all for now. Looking forward to many miles in this great
little car.

-Jason
'93 SE-R 5 speed w/ 38,6XX miles (now)