sciamop
12-16-2009, 03:51 PM
Last week, I was on vacation in the Mayan Riviera (south of Cancun) region of Mexico. I rented the cheapest car I could find -- which according to the website would be a micro-size Dodge (Hyundai) Atos.
When I got to the car rental place, they surprised me with a silver 2009 Tsuru (4-door B13 Sentra) w/ 5spd transmission and 40K km on the clock! The rental guy started giving me the walkaround on the car, and I was like Yo tengo noventa y uno Sentra en Estados Unidos, senor! He really didn't care or, more likely, he thought I was just another loco American.
The interior of the Tsuru is really stripped-down from the SE-R: no center console, double spoke plastic steering wheel, cheap/bubbly silver overlay on the gauge panel, weak turn signal indicator. The mildly supportive cloth seats had a fun 1980s style pattern on them. The door panels are hard, cheap looking plastic.
The driving dynamics of the Tsuru are for the most part the same as the SE-R (if it had 165mm tires!). The clutch had a very high release point and, I think, it was hydraulic as it lacked much of the feel of the cable job on the US car. The manual steering offered great road feel and turn-in and the manual transmission felt extremely tight (think I need to change the bushings on my car). The GA16DE was peppy but lacked power and didn't like to be rev'd up. I was able to chirp the tires in second gear a few times though! Finally, the brakes (although in good working order) were so poor that they bordered on dangerous!
A couple years ago, I was on vacation on the west coast of Mexico (Puerto Vallarta) -- I saw many Tsurus being used as cabs but few being used by private owners. In the Mayan Riviera, I think every other car was a freaking Tsuru!
If you are a true B13 fan, you owe it to yourself to book a vacation, and arrange a week long rental of a Tsuru, in this part of the world! The topless beaches and all you can eat/drink hotel part is pretty cool too!
When I got to the car rental place, they surprised me with a silver 2009 Tsuru (4-door B13 Sentra) w/ 5spd transmission and 40K km on the clock! The rental guy started giving me the walkaround on the car, and I was like Yo tengo noventa y uno Sentra en Estados Unidos, senor! He really didn't care or, more likely, he thought I was just another loco American.
The interior of the Tsuru is really stripped-down from the SE-R: no center console, double spoke plastic steering wheel, cheap/bubbly silver overlay on the gauge panel, weak turn signal indicator. The mildly supportive cloth seats had a fun 1980s style pattern on them. The door panels are hard, cheap looking plastic.
The driving dynamics of the Tsuru are for the most part the same as the SE-R (if it had 165mm tires!). The clutch had a very high release point and, I think, it was hydraulic as it lacked much of the feel of the cable job on the US car. The manual steering offered great road feel and turn-in and the manual transmission felt extremely tight (think I need to change the bushings on my car). The GA16DE was peppy but lacked power and didn't like to be rev'd up. I was able to chirp the tires in second gear a few times though! Finally, the brakes (although in good working order) were so poor that they bordered on dangerous!
A couple years ago, I was on vacation on the west coast of Mexico (Puerto Vallarta) -- I saw many Tsurus being used as cabs but few being used by private owners. In the Mayan Riviera, I think every other car was a freaking Tsuru!
If you are a true B13 fan, you owe it to yourself to book a vacation, and arrange a week long rental of a Tsuru, in this part of the world! The topless beaches and all you can eat/drink hotel part is pretty cool too!