Just because a car does not have a soul of its own does not mean that you can’t tell when the people behind the car are mailing it in/working just for their paycheck/trying fruitlessly to keep up with Honda and Toyota. Some cars are true to their mission statement down to the very last bolt, the very smallest spot weld. Some cars are so true to their identity that their very name (…Jeep…) comes to describe the entire class of vehicle, so honest in their presentation that they transcend time. And some cars are the 1998 Nissan Sentra Coupe- oh, excuse me, I mean 200SX. Sigh.
I originally intended to have separate entries for both of these vehicles, but I owned them for such short periods of time that I’m mashing them together into this here COAL. I guess let’s call this one a CsOAL. Also, these two vehicles were covered very recently here, so I’ll be brief. Okay, let’s get down to it. First up, The Cherokee.
At Northern Michigan University, first year students were not allowed to have a car, so when I got a place off-campus a vehicle was needed for me to get around. Not having enough money to get one on my own, I was loaned my brother’s 1991 navy blue Jeep Cherokee Laredo for an undetermined period of time. Crashing it on I-75 near Saginaw at around 11PM decided the end of my ownership of that car, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
Look, the XJ Cherokee is an icon. It is the real deal, as capable as you could possibly want, and if it’s not up to your lofty standards, well, that’s why God invented the aftermarket. I am really not sure how much I can add to what’s already been said about this vehicle but let’s see what I got.
It was rough and tough, all square lines and flat planes, and I wonder now if it wasn’t the exact opposite of my Hyundai Accent with its jelly beans shape and cheerful face. It didn’t so much handle as it did amble, its tires might as well have been communicating to you from beyond the grave via psychic broadcasting her message on AM radio in a tunnel. Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it did not compare well to the relative immediacy of my Hyundai. Its vagueness extended past its handling characteristics, too. My friend at college drove a slightly newer Cherokee, maybe a ’94, and his key would unlock and start mine, a process that did not work in reverse. It was fun, though, driving a car that had some character.
Since it was with me only briefly, we did not have much of a bond. My wife says that she didn’t really care for it much when we started dating. I can see why, now. Not only was it the opposite of the Hyundai in terms of styling and purpose, it was also as unromantic as the blunt way I asked her out. I guess it worked at the time, but when the Hyundai rejoined me back up north it was absolutely the right car for the job.
*sigh* I crashed it. The Cherokee was equipped with Jeep’s Selec-Trac 4WD system. This meant that in addition to high- and low-range 4WD, there was an option for full-time AWD as well. This made the 4.0 thirsty, so thirsty. What a shock that was, only 14-16 mpg compared to the Hyundai’s 30 around town. Because of this, I was afraid to use the AWD more than a handful of times when the snow started falling in December. I thought that perhaps I could save some gas that way, but I’ve since learned that it made little or no difference at all since the damage was already done by simply having the weight of the system on the car to begin with.
Then, perhaps a week before Christmas, I began my journey home. The snow slowly gave way to what I thought was rain as I traveled south. With the cruise control on and the Jeep in RWD, I was making decent time and mistakenly hoping to save a gallon or two of gas by forsaking the AWD. Then I came up on a semi truck. I signaled to follow the cars ahead of me around the truck and the back end swung the Jeep sideways down the slick highway. I sawed at the wheel, trying to be as relaxed as possible, but guys, even just writing this my pulse has quickened.
Anyway, the cars around me disappeared and we swung left and right down I-75. Finally gaining a modicum of stability, the Jeep took a final, smooth arch to the right side, making contact with the concrete barrier along the side. I sat still, shaking for several moments before getting out into the rain to check the damage. The corner was caved in, but the headlight was still on and the tire had plenty of clearance for turning. It made it home and died in my driveway, a sad sight to see as the joyful red Hyundai and I left once again for college.
Okay, now that I’ve covered my Jeep Cherokee, let’s look at another car that was with me for only four months: the 1998 Nissan Sentra Coupe- oh, uh, excuse me, 200SX SE. Well, I had the Hyundai a second time for about eight months following my destruction of the Jeep. Then I started my third year of college in Japan for a semester of study abroad at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities. After I came back for the winter semester, I was once again without a car, and once again, a sibling’s car was offered up. In this case, it was my sister’s.
Look at that shade of green. I’m glad it was that color. If it was not that color, I’m pretty sure that there would be nothing memorable about that thing at all.
I don’t remember it being a particularly fast car, nor was it especially spirited on the Upper Peninsula’s curvier roads. It accelerated with a twang, like a moonshiner showing off on his banjo to a guitarist at his riverside home in really rural Georgia. Weird enough on its own, but in a Japanese car? Well, whatever, at least there was something interesting about it. The rest of it was utterly uninspired, perhaps a symptom of Nissan’s suffering during the second half of Japan’s Lost Decade.
They tried to dress it up a bit, but it just came across as a dorky kid wearing his favorite athlete’s jersey. Cheesy flat, body-color grille and a spoiler, with white-face gauges inside were simply not enough to help it compete with a contemporary Civic, or even one of the hot Neons Chrysler was making. It had fog lamps, and I remember that because it also had no ABS. I locked up the brakes on our way to school one day and steered it into a snow bank on the side of the road, bringing the littlest Nissan to a halt and covering one of the fog lamps in snow. It also had a sunroof, but I only had it in wintertime in Upper Michigan. It stayed shut.
So, eight months of motoring divided pretty evenly between two cars, a pair of cars as different as can be. I miss the Jeep, and if I had a chance, I would love to drive another XJ. Being from Toledo, I suppose I have a bit of a soft spot for them, but even so. Those Cherokees are icons. The Sentra- I mean, 200SX? It was so ill-suited to us and our lifestyle that the next car we bought usually steps in for it in my memories.
NOTE: Images from kakau.com (Jeep) and google image search (Nissan).
That Nissan just defines “appliance” for me. We have endless supplies of similar blob-o-wagon ex JDM vehiclaes on our roads, and I just can’t tell Nissan from Honda from whatever. Inside they’re all the same – bland-o soggy automatics, velour seats, smelling of cigarette smoke and with peculiar Japanese In Car Entertainment (they can have up to 3 screens scattered around the dash). On the outside they’re so generic that I don’t even see them.
Just a way to get from A to B. Functional, efficient and mind-numbingly dull.
The characteristics you describe make sense to a certain type of person. This person doesn’t necessarily hate driving, but they probably don’t get any particular pleasure out of it (to me, this is as foreign as people who don’t like music…until I realize that I get almost nothing out of most paintings, and then I begin to understand).
Anyway, driving to them is at its best something you have to do, like laundry or dishes. Even if they can appreciate styling, handling, luxury, or any combination of them in the abstract or in someone else’s ride, they themselves don’t care. They just want something that will keep up with traffic and not break much.
This is my mom. My many big old cars have brought a smile to her face. She can appreciate classic styling touches and a smooth ride. She can also appreciate a stylish sports car or a new S class. But even if she won the lottery (as far as I know she’s never played) she would probably just keep driving dull Toyotas. They aren’t dull to her because she doesn’t care. Driving one is merely an incident that occurs on the way to doing something she wants to do. It is not an experience in itself. In fact, driving for her is only an experience when it involves something bad. Like an accident or breakdown.
It’s taken me years to understand this but finally I do.
At the risk of being labeled “sexist”: It appears that the Sentra is the ultimate “chick car”; purchased by gals who don’t know a single thing about a real car, ….and don’t want to know.
Not just chicks: None other that Robert McNamara shocked his Ford colleagues with his indifference to what he drove. He was an ambitious Harvard man on a mission; he had bigger fish to fry.
McNamara drove a Sentra? Wow … ahead of his time!
In its own way, the B13 Sunny/Sentra/Tsuru is as much of an icon as the XJ.
The B14 was considerably less iconic, in the same manner that the Liberty is something considerably less than a Cherokee. That said, a sporty coupe variation of the same platform is kind of pointless but not as offensive as this piece makes it seem. Single women need cheap wheels to drive too.
The B13 Sentra SE-R especially. I remember the rave reviews it got back in the day.
It seems like Nissan swings between interesting and dull far more than any other Japanese company and has always done so – look at the Bluebird 410-510-610 progression…
Nissan certainly got their money’s worth from that platform – big sales in most major (and many minor) markets, and still selling strongly almost two decades after its debut.
You could call it the XJ of FWD compact cars – a lot of virtues, no major flaws and a great rep for value and durability.
Yup, the B13 Sentra was something great, but the B14 was… less so. It wasn’t a horrible car by any stretch of the imagination, it was more comfortable than my first car (the 1997 Hyundai Accent I wrote about last week), but it was only with me for four months and we had no chances to go on any really good adventures together.
I had a 2005 Sentra SE-R Spec V. Nice car. Six speed. 175 hp. Wish they still did a sporting compact like that now.
I always thought a Spec-V Versa would be interesting – roomy, practical vehicle with some performance.
Renault makes a car like that, the Clio RS 2.0 (Not to be confused with the Renault Sport Mid-Engined Clio V6). Very popular hot hatch in many markets.
Like several other B-segment hot hatches these days, the Renault Clio R.S. has a 1.6 liter turbo engine, 200 hp.
…in the early nineties there was this special Renault Clio (Mk1) Williams with a 150 hp 2.0 liter engine, dark metallic blue with gold-colored rims. That color combination sounds familiar, doesn’t it ?
They have something like that here in Japan, some kind of NISMO Tiida (the Versa is called the Tiida here). There was one in the neighborhood I used to live in back in Izu. They keep all kinds of cars secret from us here.
Funny. My best friend is from the U.P. and drove an identical 200SX in the same color. I called it “Little Booger”.
Pretty gutless, but well made and I always liked the styling of it. Seemed heavier than it actually was. Seemed like there were hundreds around at the time and many in the same shade of snot.
Cheesy flat, body-color grille and a spoiler, with white-face gauges inside were simply not enough to help it compete with a contemporary Civic, or even one of the hot Neons Chrysler was making.
It also wasn’t competitive against the Ford Escort ZX2, which was a screaming bargain in that segment at that time.
Toyota had the Paseo at about the same time. Nothing more than a “sporty” Tercel. It appears as though both Nissan and Toyota copied from the same paper and both failed the test. The cars are virtually indestiguishable from each other and neither one stood out.
I can’t say much about the Jeep other than they seemed to disappear quickly around here and finding one in decent shape is a rare occurance now. I was surprised by the one next door. Thsy moved out a couple of years ago but I’m sure the jeep is still doing it’s duty.
I remember the TV ads for the Paseo, back in the day. when the narrator got to the line “Of course, it has some muscle” and they flashed “100 HP” on the screen, I was like “huh?”
I can’t say much about the Jeep other than they seemed to disappear quickly around here and finding one in decent shape is a rare occurance now.
Considering that the newest XJs are now 15 years old, the way they still hold their value is impressive.
Personally I think it’s a shame that Auto Regs aren’t written with a form of Grandfather Clause where popular vehicles can remain in production so long as demand exists. It’s one of the reasons why vehicles like the B13 remain in production in markets like Mexico (Or why the Beetle remained in production there for so long).
Unlike the XJ which was discontinued in the US because it didn’t meet the new-for-2002 Side Impact Standards – Chrysler would have gladly kept making them since the tooling had long since been amortized and they sold +100,000/year right to the end.
Since the factory is in Toledo, you can still find plenty of them for sale in all conditions for all kinds of prices there.
So obviously the 200SX was basically a Sentra coupe, but I’m wondering if they were also (unsuccessfully) trying to make it a successor to the NX 2000. Or, considering how few of those were sold, perhaps that train of thought never even left the station. While I’m not knowledgeable enough to discuss year overlap, I’d say the Paseo when it arrived on the scene, was targeting cars like the NX, the MX-3, and the del Sol, and the 200SX was a year or two afterward I think.