Adventures in Radspotting!!

First generation ABS is nothing to write home about.  You aren't loosing much. If the tape really bothers you, pop out the cluster, remove the bulb, (and replace all the other bulbs while you're in there) and enjoy the G20 radness.

Appleseed said:

First generation ABS is nothing to write home about.  You aren't loosing much. If the tape really bothers you, pop out the cluster, remove the bulb, (and replace all the other bulbs while you're in there) and enjoy the G20 radness.

Tape doesn't bother me, and neither does the non-working abs, but if I was going to have my son drive it I'd Ike it to be working. 

So I have a bit of a question for you guys. I really like this car, and agreed to buy it when the seller is ready. I really don't need it, but would hate to see it get traded in.  My oldest son has a car already, and we have 5 driveable cars between my wife an I. I don't think it would fit as a replacement daily driver from my Sienna. Of course it would be more fun to drive, but it's not as convenient a vehicle as the minivan. My oldest sons good friend needs a car as he just got his license after the RMV opened up for more business here in MA during the reopening of our state. He's a car kid, and wants something sorta cool, and manual if possible. My son told me  this friend  was planning on going to look a Celica about 1.25 hours away with my son and another friend. The car looks like a real E36 M3box to me, and needs a clutch as well as other things. My son was asked to go along as he's the only one who has had any experience driving a manual vehicle. He's only driven my REPU, and RX-7 around the high school parking lot(poorly, and only in two gears). The plan was not to have my son ride with him, but just sorta show him the ropes of what he knows, which is little. I told him this was a bad idea for all parties involved aside from the seller of the Celica.  Of course I probably would have done the same thing at his age, but that's neither here nor there.

Do I offer the G20 to this kid? Do I ask him to please take care of it, as it seems to be well cared for? Knowing full well he's a kid, and will probably destroy it. Of course the car isn't perfect, but for a New England car that is 25 years old it is really clean. I've also been asked to show a couple of his friends how to drive a manual, as this one particular kid doesn't have a father, and the others don't have manual cars. I am known by my son, and this group of friend as "magic dad", because I'm the only one that owns manual cars, and can wrench on them. If these kids really knew what a hack I am, lol. Maybe teaching them how to drive a manual on this car would be better than trying to do it in either the REPU, or the RX-7, two vehicle I hold dearly in my fleet of misfit toys.

I'd have a hard time selling a car to somebody else's kid that I wouldn't give to my own. I think it sounds better suited to your upcoming "manual drivers-ed" hobby... Maybe teach them how to change a tire, and perform other basic automotive maintenance like changing oil, bleeding the brakes, pads/rotors, etc, while you're at it.

Driven5 said:

I'd have a hard time selling a car to somebody else's kid that I wouldn't give to my own. I think it sounds better suited to your upcoming "manual drivers-ed" hobby... Maybe teach them how to change a tire, and perform other basic automotive maintenance like changing oil, bleeding the brakes, pads/rotors, etc, while you're at it.

It's not so much I wouldn't give it to my own kid, but rather he already has a car that is better than this in many ways. 

Sure, if you don't need it, have this kid buy it. 

Look at it this way, it's safer than some POS Celica.

It has air bags right? Spend a lot of time teaching him threshold braking since the ABS doesn't work. 

CyberEric said:

Sure, if you don't need it, have this kid buy it. 

Look at it this way, it's safer than some POS Celica.

It has air bags right? Spend a lot of time teaching him threshold braking since the ABS doesn't work. 

I know it has at least a drivers side air bag. I assume it has the passenger side too, but I don't remember. 

Probably does. 

I want my kids to have ABS if I can help it. If it's between a POS Celica and this G20, go G20. But if you have a bad feeling about it, either get the ABS fixed somehow, or don't recommend he buy it, but the thing is you probably can't stop him from getting some other POS without ABS.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to Mazdax605 :

IMO, a manual might take a driver's head and keep it inside the car instead of paying attention to the world around.

 

And if you "NEED" ABS, you were already going to crash into something.  ABS is nice to have but it's not going to save you.

Before ABS if you locked the brakes you lost complete control of the car until you unlocked the brakes; no steering, no brakes. With ABS you keep both brakes and steering if you lock the brakes. Obviously it's not going to be enough to save you in every possible situation, but it's saved me more than once when inches mattered.

Also, I learned how to drive on standard brakes and have the presence of mind to be able to unlock and reapply in an emergency, but I'm not going to pretend that I can outperform a modern multichannel antilock brake system.

Teaching oldest son's friend how to drive a stick today in my REPU. It was rough, and only around the local high school, but it's a start. 

In reply to Mazdax605 :

You are a brave man,  no way I'm taking someone else's teenager out for a driving lesson.... God bless you. 

imgon said:

In reply to Mazdax605 :

You are a brave man,  no way I'm taking someone else's teenager out for a driving lesson.... God bless you. 

It was only around the parking lot of the high school. 

4 months later it's in my driveway. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I don't think my son wants it, so I might pass it along. It's really a cool car though. Simple, well handling and pretty peppy. 

Sorry for the bad picture, but it seems to get dark at like 3 pm now. 

Original keys 

Nice score,  Chris' home for wayward 80s and 90s unicorns has another great addition. 

Generally, the G20 is a Nissan Sentra SE-R in sedan form.  Fun little cars.  

Great thread!  I just wanted to throw out the street survival school that is held at Loudon.  My kids and some of their friends have done it.  Great teaching on panic braking, etc.  My son and daughter both drive manuals.  My daughter is so not the gearhead that my son is.  However it is wild to see her row through the gears and downshift without thinking.  I think even non car people are more in tune with a manual tranny.  It has been true for my daughter.  She has scofffed at her friends who complain about driving an auto and others who have said their car is a manual, "if they want it to be".

Great score on the car.  I am so worn out by what New England does to cars.

“It’s designed to give you breathing room and take your breath away, all at the same time.”

I must say I'm really impressed by this little car. I've only driven it home a few miles, but messing around with it in the driveway I have found it to be a well built car, and it has great proportions. Good visibility, nicely equipped, and very simple.  The simplicity is what I like best. It's nice, but not crazy with stupid options.  Just perfect really, aside from my fondness of steering wheel radio controls. I've never been impressed with the feel of manual shifters on FWD cars, but this one is very positive in it's engagement, and not super floppy like so many others I've experienced. Perhaps it's due to the low mileage?

I haven't seen a G20 that nice in a long time.  Nice find!

Thinking about doing a "tune up" on the G20. Owners manual calls for a few different types of spark plugs. I sorta remember a sticker under the hood calling for platinum plugs. They're listed in the owners manual too. Should I go with those? If so, what brand do you guys like? I've always liked NGK plugs in my RX-7. 

I've never found anything import that didn't run well on NGKs.  For a 4cyl, might as well get the iridium, they are usually around $7ea at rock auto. 

Great G20. Love those little things. 

Nissans like NGK's in general. For something like that, the basic copper is fine. If you want to buck up, Iridium is good but not really needed. 

Hey guys,

  I posted basically this whole adventure in buying a sorta rare car that I don't need on FB back when I picked the G20 up a couple of weeks ago. A good friend of mine basically learned to master the manual transmission while working at an Infiniti dealer (more on that later) as a teenager.  Said friend contacted me, and expressed some interest in the car. Of course not knowing what I was going to do with it anyway I said well if you want come down and see it. In the meantime I went to Rock Auto, and purchased a few things I wanted to replace for peace of mind, like plugs, wires,cap, rotor, and an oil filter. My friend and his father came by on Sunday to check out the car, and said he'd buy it once I get the paperwork sorted.

I still have to transfer title to my name which in lovely MA requires paying sales tax on either the sale price or NADA clean value which ever is higher. I had yesterday off, and decided to go to a semi local RMV office for what the call "drop off service" during the Covid pandemic to transfer title only. This includes a title fee of $75.  Surprisingly I received an email with the link to payment only a few hours after dripping it off. $169 later I will receive title in a few weeks.

Now I'm sorta torn. I have roughly  $1800 invested in it so far. I did a quick Hagerty quote, and can insure it for a year at $272 according to their web quote, or perhaps even less as I have 3 cars on a policy with them already so maybe they would give a discount for a 4th car. Plates would probably add another $60, and an inspection would run me $35. I could have this on the road for a little over $2k. It will need a battery soon as it is slow turning over, or at least it was on Sunday which was pretty cold. I need to run my battery analyzer on it to make sure though. Probably add the battery to the equation, and it's still pretty inexpensive for a running, driving, inspected, and insured  car in New England.

Do I just pass it on to my friend as he really liked it, and it turns out it was sold new at the exact Infiniti dealer he worked at during the same time period? Or run it around a little bit, and then sell it off?  Honestly I am really bad at cars.

Sell it to your buddy at cost.................your original aim was to rescue it and now you have.