The Nissan Sentra lives on as one of the very last small four-door cars on sale today. In fact, less than ten of these exist in the segment and until recently, the Sentra clearly sat at the aft of the group. Nissan refreshed the Sentra for the 2024 model year and that’s important. The last time this car had a full generational update was in 2020.
While it still has to go toe-to-toe with really good cars like the Honda Civic and Hyundai Elantra, it’s coming to the battle with more tech, more refinement, and more comfort. To find out if it’s now a true competitor, we tested one for a week by treating it like the everyday driver it’s designed to be.
What we found out is that Nissan still has a few big opportunities to improve the Sentra. At the same time, this little sedan wants to prove something interesting: that cars that don’t qualify as the very best in any one category or segment can still be quite good. The Sentra is a small but very value-focused car, so how does it fare in its mission?
QUICK FACTS
Efficiency Over Excitement
Let’s immediately get this car’s biggest issue out of the way. The powertrain in the Sentra is a letdown when compared to the rest of this field. No matter how much one pays, they’ll get the same 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine in every single trim. It makes a measly 149 horsepower (111 kW) and 146 lb-ft (197 Nm) of torque.
Those figures make sense against something like a base Honda Civic, that puts out 150 hp (111 kW) and 133 lb-ft (180 Nm), but fall flat against every other trim and against most other competitors in the segment too. For example, the Mazda3 comes standard, in base form, with 191 hp (142 kW) and 186 lb-ft (251 Nm) of torque. Granted, the Mazda and Honda start at over $25,000 but our test version of the Sentra costs $29,635.
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On top of the meager output on offer, the Sentra comes exclusively with a lazy continuously variable transmission. It’s no help to an already asthmatic engine. That said, the combination exists in this form mainly to accomplish two goals and we can sum each up with the same phrase: be economical.
Not only is this drivetrain inexpensive for Nissan to produce, but that means it’s also cheaper for the end customer. On top of that, it’ll get up to 30 mpg in the city and 38 mpg on the highway. Combined, it’s good enough for 33 mpg should you keep your foot out of it.
That makes the Sentra almost as good as the base Honda Civic when it comes to fuel economy and considerably better than the Mazda3. These tradeoffs are intentional and Nissan is targeting a customer base that focuses on practicality over athletic driving prowess.
At the same time, the Sentra is genuinely fine to drive. In fact, given the engine and gearbox, it’s somewhat impressive. The chassis is well-balanced, the brakes are linear and easy to modulate, and the steering, while not exactly sharp, is predictable. A person interested in this car for its cabin, safety features, and fuel economy will likely be pleasantly surprised by its on-road manners.
It’s also good at soaking up bumps and imperfections on the road. While it’s not what I’d call quiet or serene, the cabin also isn’t disturbed by excessive road noise. In our testing we managed to get 31.7 mpg over a mix of highway but mostly city driving.
A Well-Built And Laid-Out Cabin
The Sentra is a car doing everything it can to eek the most value out of every penny put into it. Our top-trimmed example blended a lot of soft-touch materials in places where they weren’t expected. The dashboard, door cards, and center console are mostly devoid of hard cheap plastics. Instead, one gets soft foam or faux leather with red stitching. It’s a great look for any car under $30,000.
That same attention continues to Nissan’s Zero Gravity seats. I’ve raved about them before and I’ll do it again here. They’re excellent and I wish more car companies would license the technology from Nissan or come up with something similar on their own. In a nutshell, the seat is designed to fully support a person’s upper body so that no one point feels excessive pressure. We’re all shaped a little differently so I’m certain some folks don’t love these seats like I do, but they’re a highlight anytime I get to drive a car with them.
Moving onto the controls, Nissan incorporates a bevy of real physical knobs, switches, and buttons that all work very well. Rather than having to hunt around on a touchscreen, just about every vital control is available via a physical switch. In fact, every single button on the steering wheel is a physical one – as it should be. There are also a few buttons that sit just below the infotainment system for important actions like skipping tracks, going to the home menu, or hanging up the phone.
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Speaking of the infotainment system, it’s maybe the most middling part of the cabin. It sort of looks as if Nissan forgot it and then tacked it on at the last minute. Gripes about the design of the system in the dash aside, the actual user interface feels dated and a bit slow. It’s not Subaru Crosstrek slow but it’s far from what most modern infotainment systems offer. The menu layout is at least easy to navigate and understand.
In terms of the general design in the Sentra, it’s mostly cohesive and Nissan doesn’t just slather everything with piano black trim either. Is faux carbon fiber better? That’s up to you, but at least it doesn’t gather fingerprints so easily. The cabin space is laid out to prioritize front seat passengers.
That said, there isn’t much space in the rear seats for taller adults. At the same time, it’s more than enough for an everyday trip around town. Nissan includes Zero Gravity outboard rear seats in every Sentra. Those in the aft seats get access to a single power port but no climate controls or vents of their own. Behind the 60/40 split-folding seats you’ll find 14.3 cubic feet of cargo space in the trunk.
Comparisons
The Nissan Sentra is up against a lot of stiff competition these days and none of it is easy to beat. What it leans on most is a very low price. Starting at just $21,590, it’s more accessible than most of its rivals. In addition, where most of the cars in this class have top trims that cost well-north of $30,000, the Sentra’s top trim, the SR, starts at $24,590. At that price, it comes with 18-inch wheels, LED headlights, dual-zone automatic climate control, heated front seats, leather upholstery, and adaptive cruise control. All Sentras come with two years of complimentary maintenance too.
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It’s worth noting though that as the Sentra gets more expensive, the value proposition isn’t as good. Sure, our $29,635 test car feels great, but that same cash could net a Honda Civic Hybrid with more power and far better fuel economy. For those who seriously prioritize fuel economy, it’s a bit too close to the base price of a Toyota Prius too. On the flip side, those who want a sporty car do better to look at a Hyundai Elantra N-Line or a Mazda3 for that kind of cash.
Final Thoughts
On paper, there aren’t any big wow moments for the Sentra. Sometimes it can be easy to forget that wow moments sometimes come in a negative context though. Not every car is great, but very few are sincerely bad today.
The Nissan Sentra isn’t a game changer, but then again it was never intended to be one. It’s a sincerely practical sedan that focuses on economy and comfort over athleticism and gadgets. It won’t excite you in any way but for the money, it’s a very reasonable value in the greater automotive landscape, where that’s rarely true.
