The other day I was at the dealership having my car maintained and I figured I'd just walk around a few dealerships and check out some cars.

I stumbled across the Nissan dealership. I noticed the new Sentra. I'd never seen it before and being it's so new, I hadn't seen any one the road.



Actually, I was quite pleasantly surprised. It's a nice looking car in real life.
Particularly in white.

It has some nice lines and looks like a miniature version of the Maxima...and in some wierd way perhaps even better proportioned? That could just be my bias towards small cars. Hec the new Altima looks like the Maxima but better....BUT it's too large of a car for me IMO.

Anyway, I sat in the car and was quite impressed by the overall fit and finish. Nothing fancy...very functional, very clean, no nonsense...not bizzare layouts or anything like that. The cabin had nice "aluminum" colored accents in all the right places, dash felt good (not too soft but not very hard).

http://wikicars.org/en/Image:2007_Sentra_dashboard.jpg

Onto the drive. The car comes standard with CVT. It feels VERY smooth...both the engine and the transmission. The car feels quite firm in ride but still gives over hard bumps with a nice feel. Overall, it's a VERY VERY quiet car. Particularly at speed (i.e.70 or so). In comparison, the Civic Hybrid I drove had an incredible amount of tire and wind noise....which seems like a common trait in Hondas. The ride was also tighter than the Hondas or Prius.

On average, I was driving the car reasonably gently and got around 28 MPG on the streets...but that quickly shot up to around 34 MPG on the highway for the brief 5 minute highway ride. I figure I could easily obtain mid-30's with no issues.

Interior room was good...rear legroom would be adequate with me driving the car...getting somewhat cramp if there's a 6ft driver in the front.

Performance-wise it's OK....with 140 HP and 147 ft-lbs of torque, it won't work wonders but it's a NICE cruiser...revving a leisurely 1900 RPM at a steady 70-75 MPH.

NEGATIVES (for me):

- no NAV available
- no HID's available
- no Hybrid option
- could do with better standard options for the price

OVERALL:

Nice car, decent feel, great transmission, good fuel mileage, bit different from the rest.

I would consider this car over the Civic Hybrid were it offered in hybrid form...which I think Nissan really should consider since it has this option for the Altima...and it's missing a big boat by not doing so.

 

Any opinions??