Topic: Test Drive: 2013 Nissan Sentra SR

[Autos_Editor]

The 'comfort king' of small sedans, the new Sentra is surprisingly roomy, quiet, and comfortable, but not particularly powerful.

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[OliverD]

130 hp? LOL.

That was barely competitive 10 years ago, let alone today.

[mixmanmash]

No kidding.  Plus, the only reason they offer a manual on the lowest trim is to get a low starting price.  Nissan is becoming more an appliance manufacturer (except for the 370Z and GTR).  Th Sentra still looks unbalanced.

[Fobroader]

130 HP.....bwahahahaha....oh thats good. Come on Nissan, tell us that was really a joke, please....

[SaskSpecV]

No kidding.  Plus, the only reason they offer a manual on the lowest trim is to get a low starting price.  Nissan is becoming more an appliance manufacturer (except for the 370Z and GTR).  Th Sentra still looks unbalanced.

Unfortunately, as a Nissan fan I have to agree with this assessment.  Ten years ago Nissan led the way with "fun" mainstream cars - maybe not best in class overall, but definitely had some enthusiast appeal (i.e., 350z, Maxima, Altima V6, Sentra Spec V).  370Z, GT-R, and Juke are all still "enthusiast" vehicles, but they are niche products.  The mainstream vehicles - Maxima/Altima/Sentra (even Versa too) - have all been fun-neutered, compared to their predecessors.  The new Nissans may be "better" cars (NVH, fuel economy, features, passenger space, etc.) than the earlier models, but I have no desire to buy any one of them. 

But Nissan/Renault is selling more vehicles and making more money.  So Carlos is happy, and he doesn't really care that I'm not interested in his brand anymore, as long as someone else takes my place!

[ChaosphereIX]

sorry, if I want to drive a dishwasher, I will call up Maytag...

this car could make you want to kill yourself with its lack of character. Many Japanese manufacturers are going this way, and people are buying them in droves. Makes me very, very, sad.

This car, along with the Civic and the Corolla, define beige-mobile.

I would not be caught dead driving one of these.

[SaskSpecV]

this car could make you want to kill yourself with its lack of character. Many Japanese manufacturers are going this way, and people are buying them in droves. Makes me very, very, sad.

Many, but not all. 
Mazda is still holding out, a bit of a beacon for "mainstream" enthusiasts. 
Honda was definitely going down the path you mention, but the new Accord seems to be back on track.
And Subarus still have some "character" - maybe less than their previous models, but they've still got the WRX, STi, and BRZ
I'd include Mitsubishi too (for the Evo alone), if they weren't on death's door in North America...

[redman]

The 17" optional wheels are a bit overkill on a 130hp A-B vehicle of this caliber. Pricing seems right. I was surprised to find the authors fuel rating but then again he did mention that it depends how you drive.
Pricing and a dependable CVT are strong points on this vehicle.

The concern I have is that other competitors such as Mazda3 and Honda Civic are adding more than just A - B meeting market demands for some fun and sportiness.
Nissan decided to continue the path of the Corolla but was never able to keep up.
Oddly enough it seems that even the new Corolla may take a different route and ad something beyond it's appliance tag.
Competition in this market in Canada is fierce and a competitor can not be type cast as just a commuter or just a fun car but has to play many roles in order to be successful IMO.

[hemusbull]

After the intro is a eight lines gas mileage numbers for all competitors given by NRC. And then comes this killer-sentence: "Real-world fuel consumption for the Sentra, as for the other cars, will be higher than the official figures." What the hell is this ? Isn't it better to have "driving impressions" comparing "real-world fuel consumption"? I didn't get it! And I'm even more confused each time when in addition EPA ratings appear. Just "real life" ones for all competitors gona be good for comparison. Period.

[Snowman]

Big improvement over the last model but it is a competitive market. Nothing here makes it stand out in the segment but neither does anything else.

[aaronk]

What does horsepower matter if it has competitive acceleration with everything else in the segment? At the same time it betters them all in terms of fuel economy, and it has one of the lowest MSRP's on the market. I'd say good job Nissan, this seems like a very good commuter/A-B car for those shopping the 'thrifty' end of the market.

[ChaosphereIX]

What does horsepower matter if it has competitive acceleration with everything else in the segment? At the same time it betters them all in terms of fuel economy, and it has one of the lowest MSRP's on the market. I'd say good job Nissan, this seems like a very good commuter/A-B car for those shopping the 'thrifty' end of the market.

then if that is all you are shopping for, then drop the "SR" from its trunklid. It is a disgrace. Sporty badges should come with sportier engines...no excuses.

[Fobroader]

What does horsepower matter if it has competitive acceleration with everything else in the segment? At the same time it betters them all in terms of fuel economy, and it has one of the lowest MSRP's on the market. I'd say good job Nissan, this seems like a very good commuter/A-B car for those shopping the 'thrifty' end of the market.

then if that is all you are shopping for, then drop the "SR" from its trunklid. It is a disgrace. Sporty badges should come with sportier engines...no excuses.

Ok, see if you can get Dodge to drop the R/T moniker from minivans and such, Toyota to drop the "S" from its Corolla, Chevrolet to get rid of such crap as SS Malibus and Impalas.......

[Blueprint]

Only detail that the author failed to mention is that none of the options packages are available on the Sentra SV if you want the manual tranny. At least, Canadians get a manual SV (only the base trim gets the stick in the US).

[dkaz]

What does horsepower matter if it has competitive acceleration with everything else in the segment? At the same time it betters them all in terms of fuel economy, and it has one of the lowest MSRP's on the market. I'd say good job Nissan, this seems like a very good commuter/A-B car for those shopping the 'thrifty' end of the market.

then if that is all you are shopping for, then drop the "SR" from its trunklid. It is a disgrace. Sporty badges should come with sportier engines...no excuses.

No objections to the engine, I have objections to the only transmission available with this "SR".

[ChaosphereIX]

What does horsepower matter if it has competitive acceleration with everything else in the segment? At the same time it betters them all in terms of fuel economy, and it has one of the lowest MSRP's on the market. I'd say good job Nissan, this seems like a very good commuter/A-B car for those shopping the 'thrifty' end of the market.

then if that is all you are shopping for, then drop the "SR" from its trunklid. It is a disgrace. Sporty badges should come with sportier engines...no excuses.

Ok, see if you can get Dodge to drop the R/T moniker from minivans and such, Toyota to drop the "S" from its Corolla, Chevrolet to get rid of such crap as SS Malibus and Impalas.......

I am trying, but to no avail. Oh, and the SS Impalas DID have bigger engines, or superchargers in the case of 2004. So the SS was somewhat appropriate there...

[Thinking Out Loud]

What does horsepower matter if it has competitive acceleration with everything else in the segment? At the same time it betters them all in terms of fuel economy, and it has one of the lowest MSRP's on the market. I'd say good job Nissan, this seems like a very good commuter/A-B car for those shopping the 'thrifty' end of the market.

then if that is all you are shopping for, then drop the "SR" from its trunklid. It is a disgrace. Sporty badges should come with sportier engines...no excuses.

The 'SR' moniker is a carryover from the US branding.

I had a 2009 Sentra SE-R with the mid-level 170hp engine.  When I was down in Vegas later that year I saw a bunch of Sentras that LOOKED like SE-Rs (smoked headlight and taillights, fog lamps, trunk spoiler, different rims though). 

THEY were branded SR which was basically an SE-R external appearance package - the interior was non-SE-R specific, and motor was the base engine.


 

[aaronk]

I'm sure there would be more objections to the horsepower if they called it an SE-R or SE-R Spec-V, which has typically been Nissan's moniker for a higher performance model. "SR" is just the replacement for the "SL", which was a luxury edition and never a performance model to my knowledge.

[Factger]

No kidding.  Plus, the only reason they offer a manual on the lowest trim is to get a low starting price.  Nissan is becoming more an appliance manufacturer (except for the 370Z and GTR).  Th Sentra still looks unbalanced.

Unfortunately, as a Nissan fan I have to agree with this assessment.  Ten years ago Nissan led the way with "fun" mainstream cars - maybe not best in class overall, but definitely had some enthusiast appeal (i.e., 350z, Maxima, Altima V6, Sentra Spec V).  370Z, GT-R, and Juke are all still "enthusiast" vehicles, but they are niche products.  The mainstream vehicles - Maxima/Altima/Sentra (even Versa too) - have all been fun-neutered, compared to their predecessors.  The new Nissans may be "better" cars (NVH, fuel economy, features, passenger space, etc.) than the earlier models, but I have no desire to buy any one of them. 

But Nissan/Renault is selling more vehicles and making more money.  So Carlos is happy, and he doesn't really care that I'm not interested in his brand anymore, as long as someone else takes my place!

As a maxima owner for the last 14 yrs I agree.

[Vanstar]

What does horsepower matter if it has competitive acceleration with everything else in the segment? At the same time it betters them all in terms of fuel economy, and it has one of the lowest MSRP's on the market. I'd say good job Nissan, this seems like a very good commuter/A-B car for those shopping the 'thrifty' end of the market.

then if that is all you are shopping for, then drop the "SR" from its trunklid. It is a disgrace. Sporty badges should come with sportier engines...no excuses.

No objections to the engine, I have objections to the only transmission available with this "SR".

I would wager that a Sentra buyer is looking for a comfortable, reliable and economical car to go to Superstore on the weekends. They type of automatic transmission won't mean a thing to them. As for manual transmissions grocery getters, well, the take-up on them in this segment is less than 0.5% and if car forum posters wish to see manual transmissions in grocery-getters, they had better go to their friendly dealership and order one as their dearth is due to a lack of customer interest.