2002 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V | Retro Review

Nissan's iconic Sentra SE-R...which gen did it better?
Show 2121 | Original Airdate 01-23-2002

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[TheRealSmithFamily]

Ahh.. the years before Nissan gave us a rubber band as a transmission. Those were the days.

[MrMACHINE]

Rear wheels lifting off the ground in the slalom like older VW Golfs. Crazy!

[blue_lancer_es]

This car made honda put 200hp in the next SI. And mitsubishi came out with the ralliart. Oh those were the days. 20 years all ready? Damn I feel old 😔

[frailgeek]

Been daily driving a 04 SER Spec V for the past 6 years. Shout out to my grandfather for selling it to me and keeping it clean in his garage for all those years.

[ohhsoofreeman]

A car I always thought I'd own at some point. A friend of mine got an SE-R as her first car, but it was the automatic. Still was fun to drive though.

[yessitsme]

Had one of those back then! The torque steer was immense and the rear suspension was horrible on bad road surfaces. But it was a lot of fun!

[rookietoprobuildz]

Not the quickest car, but something was special about this car. Looks great to this day.

[kowalski]

My brain still can't comprehend how these cars are 20+ years old.

[morrij]

The Spec V was the first car I bought new and I put almost 250k miles on it before having to junk it. I have a 370z now and still miss my Spec V.

[Gunsforfreedom]

Bought a brand new 2004 SE-R Spec-V. One of the cars I miss.

[piston_slap]

Came up reading stuff like Sport Compact Car in this period before I could even drive lol. Such a great time for cool small cars. EP3 SI, DC5 Integra, SVT focus, SRT4, Mazdaspeed Protege and this...I'll take one of each

[daszx]

My dad bought one new in 2002 and still has it. He used it for commuting and it has something like 300k miles on it. Still runs great, hardly anything has gone wrong with it. Driving this car in autocross competitions made me realize that fwd cars can be a ton of fun!

[SmangItDrums]

This was the first Motorweek review I ever saw. I've been hooked ever since.

[BCJDM]

Back when the Sentra was really competitive with the Civic, these cars were the shit they'd smoke civic si's of the era. Early 2000s Nissan was so damn good. One of the reasons why I bought my Altima SER

[kjrey]

Still have my 04 Spec V I bought in 2006. She's still going strong @ 195k miles on the original N/A engine (with a few bolt ons).

[texan]

These ended up just like Civics and Preludes of that era. Nearly all of them were beaten to death and destroyed because they were inexpensive enough to make that possible very quickly. It was still great that Nissan offered them. No one makes cars like this anymore where they slap a huge cylinder head on a small engine, 6 speed manual, and a reasonable price.

[vaughngraves]

Still have my 2003 Spec-v today- once you sort out the butterfly valve screws in the upper intake manifold and change the header with the pre-cat they are reliable little cars. Tons of affordable fun, and even better with the optional Brembo 4pistons from the 2004 that I swapped in.

[SilverScarletSpider]

4:37 my favorite part is when motorweek lists the market rivals

[CaliforniaKonaN]

Man this car brings back memories! Had a Spec V in silver and was my first manual car in college. Loved it!

[laowhy]

This car always felt so much faster than it was. I still can't figure out why.