A few months ago I purchsed a 01 se sedan with a 5 speed and every now and then I am having [problems getting it into first or second gear. Any suggestion on what this might be? The car only has 36k miles on it.

sounds like maybe the shifter cable might not be tight enough. Or could be the slave or master cylinder. Any other symptoms?

The car runs great . I f I run it through the gears when this happens it will shift fine after that.

sounds like the shifter cable isn't tight enough. Mine done it going into 5th and the dealer said that they just tightened the shifter cable and that fixed the problem. I would also check all of your fluids and make sure they are full, plus change out your fluid in your transmission as well. I'd take it to a trany shop if this is too much for you to do.

Thanks for your help I will look into this. Of course when I took it into the dealer they said there was nothing wrong with it . And this was right after I bought it .