1982 Nissan Sentra 2-door sedan review from North America

When I bought it, the previous owner had replaced all CV joints and the alternator. Standard maintenance for an older car.

The brakes shriek the first couple of times I use them after starting the car. It's really embarrassing, but they work very well.

Miscellaneous wiring problems... digging around in the steering column and dash fixed most of them. The headlights wouldn't always come on when the switch was flipped, the heater wouldn't switch between floor/dash/defrost, etc.

The rear window defroster doesn't work.

The car slips out of fifth gear over about 65mph. It's a pain, but not really a safety issue.

This car DOES NOT like to run cold, and the choke doesn't stay on long enough to keep the car from stalling, so I have to sit and partially depress the gas for about five minutes in order to warm it up enough to drive without killing the engine.

The speedometer is about 10% off.

This car has all the power of a riding lawnmower, but it gets really great gas mileage (around 40 miles to the gallon).

It's reliable. Even if I do drive it when cold and accidentally stall it, it restarts immediately.

The handling is pretty good for a car without power steering, but the tires are narrow, which means gusting winds really drag the car all over the place.

The whole car is basically a thin metal box, which means there's quite a lot of road and engine noise while driving.

It really bothers me that this car has no tachometer. But then, neither did my last one. :)

The windshield wipers only have two settings: off and fast, which is a royal pain when it's only sprinkling outside. I have to constantly turn the wipers on and off. On the flip side, the wipers work really well with none of the water smearing you see in a lot of cars.

The seats are comfortable, but there are no armrests on the doors. What gives with that?