Old Road Apples

The old Datsun/Nissan–when, for a few years, the company couldn’t make up it’s mind what to call itself.  I traded a giant Oldsmobile Delta 88 with a 403 V-8 that got 9-11 miles per gallon and had the biggest back seat in the history of drive-in movies for the comparatively thrifty  Sentra Hatchback, which took some adjusting but was one of the better cars I ever owned–I would drive it about 53,000 miles in the next 3 years, including across the country and back twice, and all over midwest and east coast, then straight into the ground.  It always started on the first turn, but when it developed a shimmy at 124,000 miles and I took it to the shop the guy looked at all the rust on the frame and suspension and shook his head.

“Well,” he said. “You’re looking at twice what its worth to fix it.”

“Any shortcuts we can take, to keep it going for another year?”

“Son,” he said, a thin whistle playing through the gap in his teeth as he inhaled. “People die in cars like this.”

I posted this because somebody from college asked me about it the other day and said he’d seen one just like it on the net here:

http://www.oldparkedcars.com/2012/02/1982-datsunnissan-sentra-hatchback.html

Mine was better. It had a sunroof.  Of course, it died in Spring, 1991, so there’s that…. Still, this was a nice trip down memory lane.  The Sentra was a fun little car, fairly peppy with the 5-speed and would cruise along the highway at 80 with no trouble.  It wasn’t a great hit at the Drive-In, alas, but by that time I had my own place, so….