Joined
·
1,771 Posts
Hey B15 Forum members,
I haven't posted in well over a year, due to the economic situation and job market, but I did take a peek on the B15Sentra Forum every so often to see how things were going. Well, this is what happened to my ride.:
My trusty 2006 Spec had for the past year or so developed the nasty oil consumption problem that many earlier 02-03 Sentra & Altima owners with the QR25 know so well. Oh yes, Nissan "claimed " they fixed the problem by 04 with redesigned piston rings, but we all knew it was the entire design of engine coupled with the pre-cat location that contributed to many issues.
Despite this issue, my Spec V never lost power or getting about 30mpg hwy. It was still a blast to drive. I just had to add a quart of oil every 400 miles or so. Not a check engine light ever came on. Sadly, by July I started to encounter a bad stalling problem. It often took a good 15 to 30 minutes until the car would start again.
After a job interview I almost had to get her towed back home, but no quite. Sadly, there was one morning when she wouldn't start at all. The easiest guess a was that I had another crank sensor failure or possibly the timing belt slipped all together. That would be an easy $300 out the door minimum. I knew that the real problem was the engine and that would cost me $2200 for a rebuilt installed here in King City. Since my Spec V was a salvage purchase back in the Fall of 2007, I made the hard decision to bury her for salvage scrap. I bought her back then for $8K and only 29K miles on the odometer. She ended her life accumulating 161,755 miles on August 8, 2012.
I wanted to look for another B15 Spec V, but my wife can't seem to drive a manual trans and my car caused her much frustration. I didn't see anything from Nissan that could be within my budget of $7K and offer the performance with an auto. I also needed to keep the mileage close to 100K or lower and not salvage title this time. A V6 Altima SE or Maxima was impossible to consider.
I wanted a car that is not found everywhere, like the B15 Spec V and had a nice balance of power performance. So I was thinking of an 99-02 Audi A4 or A6, but the issues were high mileage or salvage title to be under $7000 The Avant model (wagon) was really interesting to me. I would have loved to snag an A6 with the 2.8T. Just couldn't find something close with reasonable cost/mileage.
I then remembered SAABs. Not too common and they turbo everything imaginable. Hey, we all know about the 2005-2006 "Saabaru" 9-2x. Better in many ways than an Impreza WRX. However, those are way out of my budget. I did find out that the 9-5 is a great used car deal. This is a car when new sells at about $40K. So I started looking.....and found a Silver 2002 SAAB 9-5 Aero Wagon auto with just over 107,000 here in CA. The guy selling it on the SAABnet classifieds had a few other SAABs (an 04 ARC Wagon and a 07 9-5 Aero sedan), but those were much more than I could afford. He agreed to let me have the 02 Aero Wagon for $6K plus the tax and DMV fees. I was lucky his dealership was in Sacramento and he was moving down to Lompoc, CA.
So now I have a 250hp fwd car with tons of cargo area and 5sp auto and is not around every stinkn corner like a Honda or Acura. No, its not a Spec V. And that sucks....I wish Nissan would figure it out with the 2013 Sentra, but it looks like no new SE-R.
I'll still be around to see what goes on.
I haven't posted in well over a year, due to the economic situation and job market, but I did take a peek on the B15Sentra Forum every so often to see how things were going. Well, this is what happened to my ride.:
My trusty 2006 Spec had for the past year or so developed the nasty oil consumption problem that many earlier 02-03 Sentra & Altima owners with the QR25 know so well. Oh yes, Nissan "claimed " they fixed the problem by 04 with redesigned piston rings, but we all knew it was the entire design of engine coupled with the pre-cat location that contributed to many issues.
Despite this issue, my Spec V never lost power or getting about 30mpg hwy. It was still a blast to drive. I just had to add a quart of oil every 400 miles or so. Not a check engine light ever came on. Sadly, by July I started to encounter a bad stalling problem. It often took a good 15 to 30 minutes until the car would start again.
After a job interview I almost had to get her towed back home, but no quite. Sadly, there was one morning when she wouldn't start at all. The easiest guess a was that I had another crank sensor failure or possibly the timing belt slipped all together. That would be an easy $300 out the door minimum. I knew that the real problem was the engine and that would cost me $2200 for a rebuilt installed here in King City. Since my Spec V was a salvage purchase back in the Fall of 2007, I made the hard decision to bury her for salvage scrap. I bought her back then for $8K and only 29K miles on the odometer. She ended her life accumulating 161,755 miles on August 8, 2012.
I wanted to look for another B15 Spec V, but my wife can't seem to drive a manual trans and my car caused her much frustration. I didn't see anything from Nissan that could be within my budget of $7K and offer the performance with an auto. I also needed to keep the mileage close to 100K or lower and not salvage title this time. A V6 Altima SE or Maxima was impossible to consider.
I wanted a car that is not found everywhere, like the B15 Spec V and had a nice balance of power performance. So I was thinking of an 99-02 Audi A4 or A6, but the issues were high mileage or salvage title to be under $7000 The Avant model (wagon) was really interesting to me. I would have loved to snag an A6 with the 2.8T. Just couldn't find something close with reasonable cost/mileage.
I then remembered SAABs. Not too common and they turbo everything imaginable. Hey, we all know about the 2005-2006 "Saabaru" 9-2x. Better in many ways than an Impreza WRX. However, those are way out of my budget. I did find out that the 9-5 is a great used car deal. This is a car when new sells at about $40K. So I started looking.....and found a Silver 2002 SAAB 9-5 Aero Wagon auto with just over 107,000 here in CA. The guy selling it on the SAABnet classifieds had a few other SAABs (an 04 ARC Wagon and a 07 9-5 Aero sedan), but those were much more than I could afford. He agreed to let me have the 02 Aero Wagon for $6K plus the tax and DMV fees. I was lucky his dealership was in Sacramento and he was moving down to Lompoc, CA.
So now I have a 250hp fwd car with tons of cargo area and 5sp auto and is not around every stinkn corner like a Honda or Acura. No, its not a Spec V. And that sucks....I wish Nissan would figure it out with the 2013 Sentra, but it looks like no new SE-R.
I'll still be around to see what goes on.
