I have a friend who wants to sell me his '91 black Sentra SE-R. It has 79K miles on it, 5 speed tranny, sunroof, no cruise control but it does have ABS brakes. He's asking $2,500.
Should I or should I not buy it. He wants to sell it to me cause I work at a Nissan dealership, so he knows it'll be taken care of and NOT hot-rodded...

 

Hmm..$2,500 is alot of money for a 91..see if you can get it cut down to $2,000 - $2,300. But thats just me.

 

look up the kelly blue book on it first. then since you ARE nissan mechanic, you should know how well built it is mechanically and what kind of condition it is in and what upcoming costs you can expect to encur. also check the interior and ofcourse some rust.

79k miles for a 91 car is extremly low mileage for a car that is almost old enough to drive itself.

lastly, do you realy want one? do you see yourself really enjoying this car, or just want a second car if your xb is in the shop? i think that would be a great secondary car, and the price isn't too bad either. $2500 is alittle high though, but i depends on how comfortable you are haggling with your friend. if he needs the money, do him the favor and pay the full price he asked, and make him throw in a tank of gas.

 

nah, if you went to a dealership to buy that same car, they would charge over 10k for it, friend of mine bought(stuck with) a 93 mazda mx6 with 100k+ miles, he paid $1400 down and owes 10k, also I've seen nissan's and hondas, base models going for around 3k here locally, all 80's models to early 90's


plus you can keep the miles down on the box

 

Sounds like your friend went to a buy here pay here lot, because banks don't loan money out on 100k mi, 15 year old cars, and if they do, they don't loan that much money out on it.

IOW, your friend is a credit criminal (or dumb as a bag of rocks), went to a place with a sign out front that says "Your job is your credit!" or something like that, and now pays for his vehicle on a weekly basis, probably something like 75 - 110/week, and there may even be a little box in the car somewhere that will shut it off if he misses a payment. So, his situation is not the same as other folks.


$2500 for this car sounds good if the car is in top notch shape. Meaning, little to no body damage, new/newish tires (don't need replacing for a while IOW), belts and hoses are all taken care of, and the interior is clean with little or no damage.

When the car was released, it was the best rice rocket of the day for the price. Outstanding handling, accleration, and braking. Car and Driver was in love with the car for years, as nothing could touch it's performance at the then $16k price tag. You had to spend $4k more and get Mustang 5.0 or Camero to get better acceleration.

 

The '91 SE-R was my first car. Good memories. I wouldn't mind having one again as a third car. As long as it's in great condition I think it's a good buy. But most were driven pretty hard.