Vehicle: 2007 Nissan Sentra 2.0SL with Sunroof Pkg
Price as tested: CDN$26198

Performance: The new Sentra shares the same MR engine series with its smaller silibing, Versa, which is another all-new Nissan this year. In Sentra’s case, its an MR20DE which means its a 2.0 liter instead of a 1.8 in the Versa. Unfortunately, it suffers from the same fate as its lesser silibing. Despite its 140 horses, 147 lb/ft of torque and Xtronic CVT in our uplevel SL tester. This is one unremarkable engine unit. Its not only unrefined and unresponsive, its very noisy during acceleration. Even with the Xtronic, which is a pretty decent Continuously Variable Transmission. It just doesn’t feel like this racket has 140 ponies under the hood. Its rough and unrefined at any rpm, its simply horrid when revving at high rpm even with Nissan’s variable valve timing or CVVTCS. The fortunate fact is the standard 6-speed stick provides better use of this engine. Its shifting feel is much better than expected.

Handling: When Sentra shares the same chassis as Europe’s Renualt Megane, it already got an excellent fundamental to begin with. Unfortunately, the rest of the dynamic package is nothing to write home about. The suspension doesn’t have any suppleness that associate with the French-derived platform. The rough ride over expansion joints and washboard pavement make you want a kidney belt. On the other hand, its Town Car-esque dynamics doesn’t inspire any sorts of confidence with pushing through corners. The whole car feels cumbersome while numb during quick transitions. Its electric power steering is featherweight, while providing zone feedback at all. With its high driving position, the level of understeer and body rolls felt much more excessive. In a nutshell, its a terribly unimpressive dynamic package.

Brakes: On our uplevel SL tester, Nissan provides front discs/rear drums with standard ABS. The pedal feel and modulation are better than average. Even under today’s heavy rainfall, ABS doesn’t kick-in until absolutely necessary. The stopping distance is much better than expected consider how unremarkable the whole dynamic package is.

Interior: The interior materials have been a huge improvement over the cheap predecessor. That’s despite the minor details are still fall short of its competitions. The seating position feels like seating “on top” instead of “in” the vehicle. The instrumentation gauges are clear and analog, for the most parts. Stereo is smartly placed on top of HVAC for ergonomics, which is a smart move on Nissan’s behalf. Unfortunately, the orange little screen inside the instrumentation gauges and infocenter on the dashboard tend to got washout during sunlight. The shifter position feels awkward.

The high trunk liftover and narrow cut-off don’t help the space much, even with the standard 60/40 split fold-down rear seats.

Conclusion: Nissan has made countless promises when launching the new Sentra. They have promised it will promote the also-ran econocar into one of the best in the segment. Those were the myths. The truth is there is nothing to write home about. The unremarkable powerplant, unspectacular driving dynamics with a very uninspiring styling. The worse thing is it doesn’t cost any cheaper than comparably-equipped Rabbit, Civic and Mazda3. If Versa is the worse car I have driven this year, Sentra has to be the second. We have waited 6 years for a truly competitive Sentra, and Nissan came out with this crap!!!

OVERALL VERDICT FOR 2007 NISSAN SENTRA
==================================
Performance: 1/5
Handling and ride/fun-to-drive: 1/5
Interior/ergonomics/user-friendliness: 2.5/5
Fit-and-finish/build quality: 2.5/5
Cargo/accessibility/layout: 1/5
Value-for-money: 1/5

Overall rating: 1.5/5