Is a 1997 200SX SE-R any good?

[cynic]

This weekend I saw a 1997 Nissan 200SX SE-R for sale. It looked really good, slightly dressed up (looked like a very sublte body kit, not one of the outrageous kind, maybe even stock, I don't know) the body was mint, interior looked like a brand new custom (black with red knobs, shifter, trim, seatbelts, etc..) nice 17" rims and tires. don't know what's been done to it (the dealer was closed) performance wise. the mileage was like 47k or so. thay wanted $8k for it. it looked a lot like this:
http://www.se-r.net/about/200sx/motor_200sx_review.html

Can anything be done with a car like this? would it be an alright purchase?

 

[Ser0119]

If it is in good shape, and it has all those extras, with those miles, it sounds like an ok price. You can pretty much do anything you want with the car. The stock engine can hold plenty of boost with stock internals, or you can go the n/a route with some cams from Jim Wolf Technologies. Its also a somewhat rare car, so not evryone and their grandma has one. Check out www.sr20deforum.com for more info on the 200sx Se-R and other cars with the sr20de engine.

 

[-Fred-]

nice handler, nice performer, a bit short on power (only 140hp)... but,IIRC, it has a Limited Slip Differential, something "rare" on small fwd cars back then.

if it's in good shape, get it!

 

[JohnnyTran]

i thought that the states dont get sr20's

 

[-Fred-]

we didn't get the SR20DETs... but we did get FWD SR20DE's, transversely mounted, in the NX2000, the Sentra SE-R, the Infiniti G20 and another one i can't remember...

 

[Sertsa]

I don't know about his model, but I've owned two reasonably-performing Nissans. They were very good but not quite great. I did put over 250K miles on one of them, though, but it had to visit the shop a lot.

I did take a look at cars.com; it has some reviews of the '95 model, and it doesn't look like there were many changes to it through '97. They're pretty positive, and one said it was built on the Sentra platform.

This is probably obvious, but just in case, see if you can find a good mechanic that really knows these cars (and you trust), and have him/her inspect the car (the dealer's going to make sure the body and interior are nice).

Also, if you're serious, you might want to get the car's VIN number and check carfax.com. Last time I used it, I had to pay for the service, but it was pretty handy (it gives the car's ownership history, checks odometer listing for signs of fraud, and tells you about any accidents/insurance claims the car may have been in).

 

[CrackHoor]

If you want lots of Sentra info (or any Nissan info, for that matter) check the forums at www.freshalloy.com. They're not very chatty or friendly, but if you want info you should check it...