Nissan Sentra

The Sentra has a traditional gear-selector lever instead of the annoying buttons used in the Armada and Murano SUVs we recently tested. It’s easy for the driver to use without diverting their attention, such as when making a three-point turn or reversing into or out of a parking space. “Overall, it’s quite good in terms of most of the commonly used controls,” a tester said. “There’s a lot of physical stuff, like the auto stop/start button, window controls, traditional stalks, and pretty high-quality-feeling buttons on the steering wheel.”

“This was, without question, the best thing about this car,” was another comment. It isn’t as if the previous Sentra was a floppy, sloppy mess when it comes to handling. But the new Sentra’s handling, at least the SR trim we drove, has taken a step closer to the exemplary Mazda3.

It starts with the steering, which does a good job sending feedback about tire grip and road texture to the driver. It has a nice heft when on center and feels natural, with appropriate weight as the driver turns into a bend or corner.

The suspension does a good job of keeping body roll to a minimum, and there’s respectable tire grip for a small car running all-season tires. As a few testers noted, the car doesn’t make a lot of power, so momentum is important when taking corners. The Sentra made it fun to find its limits in those situations.

Even though the lower trims have a smaller wheel and tire package, all versions of the Sentra have the same multilink rear suspension, which isn’t common in this class of car. Handling is likely similar between them.

Our testers found the brakes were easy to modulate and had a strong, linear response.“Anyone can adapt to the brakes immediately,” and “I am realizing now that I hardly thought about [the brakes]. Perfect for this vehicle’s intent,” were just two of the numerous positive comments about the brakes.

Nissan told us that the opening for the trunk is both wider and lower than the previous-generation Sentra, and we don’t see any reason (without measuring) to doubt this. There’s generous trunk room with the rear seats raised, and folding the 60/40-split seats allows for carrying longer items.

There’s a deep glove box, and the storage bin under the center armrest is extremely spacious. Testers appreciated the holder for sunglasses at the front of the headliner, a nice feature that’s becoming increasingly rare. The door pockets are deep but narrow and not long. The only things that stood out as problematic are the lack of storage space for small items (such as keys) on the center console and the omission of storage pockets or nets on the front seatbacks.

One of our testers said, “Along with added features, this is where the money is going.” Yes, this is a higher-trim SR, and it included options such as a $2,300 Premium package with sport leatherette seating, a six-way adjustable driver’s seat with four-way power lumbar, as well as a carpeted floor and trunk mats for $290. But Nissan has been doing a commendable job with its interiors lately. The materials feel like they’re of good quality, and the various parts and panels fit together well. There’s a good contrast between the textures and colors used, and the dashboard and interior trim are interesting. While the windowsills on the front doors have light padding, the rear doors are hard plastic. And we found a few rough edges and mold lines on the door bins.

The SV, SR, and SL trims feature capacitive-touch and onscreen controls for the climate system (fortunately, the base S retains manual controls), a move that some of us found, frankly, a terrible choice. The touch-sensitive controls on the dashboard are part of a piano-black panel that runs the width of the center console. The positives are that they respond quickly when touched and are well-lit when activated. But it’s downhill from there.

The panel sits low beneath the air vents and is slightly recessed, which makes it a challenge for the driver to see at a glance. It’s not easy to do tasks such as turning the seat heaters on and off, raising or lowering the temperature, or using the defrosters because it requires a precise stab at the icon. Furthermore, there’s zero feedback when the icon is touched: no buzz, vibration, sound … nothing. So it requires the driver to look down to see whether they actually did the task they intended to. Some drivers found that their seating position meant the steering wheel rim would block them from seeing the driver-side seat heat control.

All climate functions can be done via the center screen, but that comes with its own set of headaches. As in the Armada and Murano, the driver has to press a tiny climate icon at the center bottom of the 12.3-inch infotainment screen. There’s an expanse of available space for a larger icon, but Nissan chose to cluster the small icons together. As one tester said, “So much screen real estate, yet so many buttons are tiny.” Once the climate screen is opened, the small buttons present a different challenge to use while driving.

The Sentra is yet another example of function following form, and the consumer loses out. Manual controls are easier and less distracting to use. As one tester summed up, “I don’t care if the controls look slick in a brochure or showroom, maybe consider the other 99.99 percent of the time when someone will actually be living with the vehicle.”

The consensus on the optional sport leatherette front seats was negative. Many testers said it was weird to have power-adjustable seats that came with four-way lumbar adjustments but lacked the ability to tilt the leading edge of the bottom cushion. This caused discomfort for a number of us. The seat bolsters on the bottom and back cushions were narrow, which gave the sensation of sitting on the seat rather than in it. Those who were okay with the bolstering found that the back cushion bolsters didn’t go high enough to support their torso during aggressive cornering.

While a few testers said the seats were better than the cloth ones in the entry-level Honda Civic, that isn’t a ringing endorsement, considering these seats are part of a $2,300 option package.

While the CVT does a good job of keeping the engine from flaring noisily, the car feels underinsulated from road and wind noise. Road noise is omnipresent and worsens as pavement quality deteriorates. Wind noise starts to become intrusive at 40 mph or so, and gets particularly tiresome at 65 miles an hour and faster. The engine can drone at highway cruising speeds, but some of that is expected in the category. The Sentra may not be any louder than a Civic, although that isn’t a particularly high standard to meet.

While a majority of comments on the 149-hp four-cylinder engine and CVT were positive, there were a few that said the powertrain would be annoying. For example, the Sentra had a noticeable shudder when the stop/start system would restart the engine. It also appears that Nissan used a small battery for the system, and it can’t power many things, such as the climate system and power steering motor, when the engine is turned off.

A number of testers said that the power came on in a surge that was too strong when starting up from a stop. There wasn’t any delay; it was just an immediate rush that felt abrupt.

Otherwise, the engine and transmission worked nicely, with the CVT’s new ability to simulate shifts doing a good job of impersonating a conventional automatic transmission. “The average driver wouldn’t realize that this is a CVT,” a tester put in our logbook. There’s little revving of the engine, even when accelerating on the highway.

Because the Sentra we drove was a preproduction model, we’ll pay close attention to the version we purchase and test to see whether there have been fixes to the stop/start system or the overabundance of initial power.

Complaints primarily centered on the limited range of adjustments for the steering wheel, as well as its potential to obstruct the instrument panel in front of the driver. The thinly padded armrests and wide, hard center console also proved annoying for some testers.

On the positive side, there’s generous headroom and a good amount of foot room. We’ll have more insights when we have additional drivers, who range from 5 feet tall to well over 6 feet tall, take their turn in the Sentra we purchase.

It took some drivers several attempts to connect their Android or Apple phones via Bluetooth, a situation we experienced in the Armada and Murano. But unlike those SUVs, the Sentra doesn’t have Nissan’s Google-based software, so there isn’t a native voice assistant. This wasn’t a major problem because most testers relied on their phone.

We were really bothered by the cluttered, pencil-eraser-sized icons that sit at the bottom of the infotainment screen. It’s incredibly difficult to perfectly tap the correct one when driving. Again, we’ll see whether there are any improvements to connectivity when we buy our own Sentra.

Notable available upgrades include an eight-speaker Bose stereo system, satellite radio, a power sunroof, 64-color ambient lighting, a heated steering wheel, heated front seats, a wireless phone charger, and an onboard WiFi hot spot. A smart proximity key is also available that unlocks and locks the car when it detects the key coming near or walking away from the vehicle.

The new Sentra includes the Nissan Safety Shield 360 suite of active safety and driver assistance features as standard, which includes automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic, lane departure warning, and automatic high beams.

Adaptive cruise control also comes standard. Both the SL and SR are available with Nissan’s ProPilot Assist 1.0 active driving assistance system, which can take over acceleration, steering, and braking on longer trips. Our borrowed Sentra had this feature as part of the Premium package. Drivers said it generally worked well but had a tendency to wander slightly off-center, even on straight stretches of the road. But it kept the Sentra centered in the lane in a series of sharp, tricky curves on a local highway without requiring driver intervention.

Reverse automatic emergency braking and a surround-view camera with moving-object detection are available on the top trims.