'84 The best car I ever owned

I got (ie: didn't buy myself;) my first Nissan back in 1987 (the stone age) when I graduated High School and went off to college. Both my parents took turns hauling me and my junk 3.5 hours to my school and 3.5 hours back from my school. Pretty soon they found it very bother some to drive me back and forth. Go figure... So off to the used car lots we went.

After test-driving a bunch of lack luster cars we came to the Nissan dealership nearest my home. The first car I came to was the one I bought (ok. the one my father took out a loan for and bought for me) it was love at first sight with this 1984 Nissan 200sx. With only 65,000 miles a moon roof, power windows, power steering, bucket seats and REAR WHEEL DRIVE this car was a steal at $7000.

In our 11yr relationship I had very few problems with it. The biggest reoccurring problem was the brake system. I had 2 complete systems installed and reinstalled on this car. Both repair shops had told me that it might be the way I drive... riding the brake or hitting the breaks REAL hard. Other than that the only other problems were cosmetic.

Living in Cleveland, Ohio where the roads are made of salt caused for lots of underbody rust and external panel rusting. By the time I gave the car away most of the rear panel was rusted away, however, this panel had been replaced due to an accident where someone hit the car while parked at a McDonalds. The other problem was with the interior door coverings. Nissan used some sort of very light plastic or naugha-hide to cover the inside of the doors... the problem with this is it wasn't very heat resistant and could be dissolved by Ozone. By the time I got rid of the car most of the covering had cracked and the foam filler was exposed.

Size of the car... it's not a car for giants... being a little under 6' I found the car very roomy for me and 1 passenger. The back seats are made for kids or very small cargo.

Finally in 1997 the transmission started to show signs of failing and fearing that I'd have to replace it I opted to get a new car. I gave the car away, ok... sold it for $1, but it owed me nothing. I had put on 160,000+ miles, by driving to every state in the Union east of the Mississippi, all the providences in Canada, and several major road trips to California and back.

A few weeks after selling the car I got a call from the buyer saying that he wanted to thank me for the car and that it was really cool. He then continued to say how he had taken it to his mechanic to check on the transmission and that the mechanic told him there was a problem and the problem was it was out of fluid. A simple fill up of transmission fluid fixed everything.

This car sold me on the Nissan brand and I now drive a Nissan Sentra. Though not as loaded as my 200sx the Sentra has proven to be a good reliable car for getting from point a to point b without much fan fare or problems.