Journey's Beginning

[Jim Wright]

It has been said that when one door closes, another opens.  I have  
been known to slam doors closed with great gusto, sometimes causing  
others nearly to pop open, and objects to fall off walls.  But I  
digress...

I am proud to say that tomorrow I take delivery on a black 2006 Sentra  
SE-R Spec V.  This was a totally unexpected turn of events, as it was  
not my original intention to look at a used vehicle, let alone an  
older model Sentra.  The Sentra styling in recent years is just not to  
my liking, I would go so far as to call them ugly, and I had totally  
forgotten that the earlier 2000's had some decent looking models.  I  
was actually seriously considering a new Versa, it didn't have the  
power I was used to, but my daily driving basically involved getting  
the kids to school, and a short drive along back roads to get to my  
office, with rare sprints up to the legal limit, tasks the Versa would  
easily have handled.  But after test driving an automatic 1.8 (no  
sticks on the lot, or in the city at all from the search I had done),  
my wife asked me if it was the car that I really wanted.  Without  
hesitating I quickly replied no, I wanted the GT-R on the showroom  
floor that we had just seen.  She then asked if I could be happy with  
the Versa, and after some thought, I could only say maybe, but that it  
would definitely fit my current needs.  But later, my late night  
internet surfing found my looking up performance parts, and finding  
few options, I started to wonder what other choices might be out there  
in the price range we had set.

I found a 350Z in my price range, but unfortunately needed something  
with more than two seats.  My suggestion that I could take the kids to  
school and make two trips fell on deaf ears, I moved on.

The Sentra I found in an internet listing simply listed it as a 2006  
Sentra.  No mention of SE-R, and certainly no mention of Spec V.  It  
did though list the engine as a 2.5, more than my '91, certainly more  
than the Versa.  There was a closeup of one of the wheels, and an  
angled shot of the back, another from the side, various interior  
shots.  Nothing there to indicate that this was an SE-R.  It wasn't  
until I started researching that model further that I found that the  
2.5 engine was only on the SE-R.  Surely, this was a sign that this  
was the car I was meant to have.

Black was not my first choice, in fact, it was a color that I had  
specifically eliminated.  Having just had a black car and wanting to  
make a change, I had ruled out black, white, and wasn't too hot about  
red (the only three colors the '91 SE-R was available in), and was  
quite fond of a blue or possibly silver model.  But of course, with  
used cars, you don't always have the option of being choosey about  
color, but after seeing the car up close, black just seemed like such  
an obvious color.  I wish it had been the Sunburst yellow, which my  
wife would have hated, but black we could both agree on.

The car was listed for just under $12k, after haggling over price,  
this dropped down, then after TTL, was strangely back up to about  
where we started from.  The price was right in the range for what cars  
of this type should sell for, the mileage was relatively low, just  
under 23k, new tires from the dealer, no mods that I could tell (lack  
of an intake was a sure sign that nothing had been done), so I knew  
that there was nothing riceboy there that I would have to fix, and  
there were actually a few months left on the original factory warranty.

All in all, I'm quite happy with the purchase, and am proud to say  
that I am, again, going to be an active daily driver SE-R owner.  I  
will still shed a tear when I say goodbye to my '91 for the last time,  
but knowing that another SE-R awaits in the driveway at home should  
have me smiling again in no time.