Junkyard Find: 1983 Nissan Sentra Deluxe MPG 2-door sedan

The Nissan Sentra has been with us through eight generations, first appearing on North American shores as a 1982 model. The rust-prone Sentras from the first couple of years are very difficult to find in junkyards now, so I was pleased to run across this '83 in a Northern California yard recently.

Jun 2, 2025 - 16:10

Junkyard Find: 1983 Nissan Sentra Deluxe MPG 2-door sedan

The Nissan Sentra has been with us through eight generations, first appearing on North American shores as a 1982 model. The rust-prone Sentras from the first couple of years are very difficult to find in junkyards now, so I was pleased to run across this '83 in a Northern California yard recently. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

The rear-wheel-drive Nissan Sunny (badged as the Datsun B210 and then as the Datsun 210) sold very well in the United States during much of the 1970s and into the early 1980s, but it was clear that the future of economy cars would be front-wheel-drive. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

So, the Sunny went to a brand-new front-wheel-drive platform for 1982, and this car was named the Sentra here. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

Nissan was about halfway along in its "The Name Is Nissan" rebranding effort in 1983, and the new Stanza and Sentra were officially Nissans here from the beginning. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

However, the dealerships were still covered with Datsun signs and full of Datsun cars and trucks, so the first couple of years of the Stanza and Sentra had Datsun emblems next to the Nissan ones. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

This is the gas-sipping Sentra MPG, so it has the 1.5-liter engine and its 67 horsepower. This enabled the Sentra MPG to get an impressive 59 miles per gallon on the highway, according to the EPA. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

However, that mileage was what you got with the four-speed manual transmission. The original buyer of this car paid $350 extra ($1,126 in 2024 dollars) for a fuel-economy-killing three-speed automatic. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

The MSRP for this car was $5,699, or about $18,329 after inflation. The current Sentra is a lot more expensive in inflation-adjusted dollars, but it's also much bigger and more powerful than this 1,840-pound car. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

At some point, the hood from a 1985 Sentra was swapped onto this car, which must have made for some Kafkaesque times when emissions inspectors eyeballed this underhood sticker and saw that it didn't match the year of manufacture on the car's paperwork. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

It's always sad when such a happy little car faces The Crusher. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

However, this Sentra's final weeks appear to have been rough ones. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

The final mileage tally: 259,462 miles. That's nowhere near enough to make the Murilee Martin Junkyard Odometer Hall of Fame, but it is the highest-mile first-generation Sentra I've found. The best-traveled junkyard Sentra I've documented was a third-generation (and Smyrna-built) example with 440,299 miles; the highest-mile Nissan overall was a 1980 Datsun 210 wagon with 445,440 miles. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

Aside from the automatic transmission, this car doesn't seem to have any options. No tachometer. No right-side exterior mirror. No air conditioning. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

There is a radio, but it's aftermarket. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

The second-generation Sentra first showed up in the United States as a 1987 model, and it began the process of Model Bloat that resulted in the current Sentra scaling in at well over 1,200 pounds more than its first-generation ancestor. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

1983 Nissan Sentra in California junkyard. junkyard find 1983 nissan sentra deluxe mpg 2 door sedan

1983 Nissan Sentra in California junkyard.

[Images: The Author]

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