Revenge of the Nerds, At Least Someone’s Listening!

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b13 sentra se-r
The B13 Sentra SE-R was a handsome mini BMW 3 series.  It under promised and over delivered in performance as well.

The Nissan B13 Sentra SE-R was a small, light, affordable and powerful little car that looked like a Japanese version of a 3 series BMW when it was introduced in the early 90’s. It has evolved into a mini tank, the size of an early Maxima weighing nearly 3000 lbs and costing over twice the amount as the original. It is butt ugly to boot. Amazingly it looks like Nissan must have hired ex Communist bloc stylists to pen their latest small cars. They are seemingly intentionally designed to look ugly! 

B14 Sentra 200sx
The B14 Sentra lost a lot of its appeal with cost cutting measures like a beam rear axle and deletion of the LSD diff.  It was also not styled as nicely although the 200SX coupe was still relatively OK looking.

Every generation of Sentra since the B13 has been a worse product for the enthusiast than its predecessor. Nissan has been steadily losing performance fans in the compact market since the B13. The new car drives them away in droves. In Southern California I see way more GTR’s than late model Sentra SE-R’s. Heck, I have seen exactly 4 of them on the street since they were introduced 5 years ago.

b14 sentra
The B14 Sentra Sedan was pretty horrid even though the heavily modded Dog II looks sort of OK.
 
Likewise the Nissan 240SX was a lightweight good looking RWD coupe. Unfortunately Nissan hit themselves with the stupid stick and decided to neuter the car before bringing it to North America by not offering the SR20DET motor that it came with in Japan. Nissan also chose not to bring over the fast, moderately priced, lightweight, good handling and handsome S15 Silvia. Instead Nissan brought us the 350Z, which is a capable car but heavy and expensive.
b15 sentra
The B15 Sentra was yet another step downward, bigger heavier and uglier, it takes a lot of mods to make one look OK.  We will spare you pictures of Nissan's latest compact car offerings, they are simply horrible.

 

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