2003 Nissan Sentra SER Spec-V 2.5 from North America
Summary:
I absolutely love with this car, but it does have problems!
Faults:
Bought the car brand new in 2003.
By 38,000 miles, it was sucking a lot of oil. After calling Nissan corporate and complaining that they were about to lose a loyal customer (this is my 5th Nissan), they replaced the engine at 50,000 miles on the powertrain warranty.
Check engine light came on 2 years later, and was told it was an EGR valve (vehicle emissions) and a hard-starting issue that would only get worse. The car starts every time.
Fast forward 4 years after engine was replaced... The car is burning a quart of oil every other week again. Compression check of cylinders was good. Got the exhaust replaced after 8 years, and 2 months later was told the oil issue has something to do with a bad catalytic converter (which I had not replaced, everything but) so to replace that would be $800, and that wouldn't necessarily fix the issue in engine, so another new engine would be $3,500. The car now has 167,000 miles on it, so the 2nd engine lasted 117,000 miles.
General Comments:
I absolutely love this car, it's the most fun to drive out of any I've had. Test drove other cars, and just couldn't part with this one. It has lots of speed and corners well.
I didn't know when I bought it that the 17" low pro tires wouldn't drive through snow (I live in WI) so I had to purchase 15" snow and ice tires, plus RIMS for them, so I swap every winter.
Rockford Fosgate stereo is great!
The steering wheel and how the car responds right away is awesome. As is the 6-speed shifting, everything is tight, not loose and wobbly.
I love this car, wanted to keep it another 2 years as typically, Nissan's go forever, but with all the problems of the 2.5L that I read about when having the first engine problems 4 years ago, I wouldn't get another unless I found they had fixed the problem in later models.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 30th December, 2011
30th Aug 2017, 02:54
A junk Renault with a lot of features... yeah, I'll pass.