2024 Nissan Sentra Review: The Good And The Bad Of A Very Cheap New Car

What is a car's primary purpose? That's not a philosophical question relating to personal freedom and the ability to experience the joys of the open road at a whim. Nor is it a query into the automobile's role in giving the proletariat a means through which to carve their way into society. There are other articles for exploring those quandaries. I'm asking what a car's given goal is: That is, at its most basic, transportation. The 2024 Nissan Sentra fulfills that role and exactly nothing else.

I've driven a number of high performance and even higher dollar cars in my journalistic career. I'm not going to lie and say that it's a great burden to drive sports cars (including the Nissan Z, the Sentra's very angry sibling) and get paid for it. However, I was a little excited to get behind the wheel of a new Sentra. The 2024 Sentra is one of the least expensive new cars offered for sale (the second least expensive Nissan behind the Versa) and I would be doing actual journalism in seeing whether or not a normal person car is any good.

Not every car tries to be a performance car. The Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys of the automotive world essentially act as washing machines and dehumidifiers, in that they're utilitarian in the strictest sense. The Sentra isn't really any different, at least in stated purpose. The Nissan Sentra I was tasked with driving was at least visually distinctive in its "Monarch Orange" paint scheme and SR trim package and fancy wheels. At its core, though, it was transportation at its simplest.

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You only get one drivetrain option with the Sentra, a 2.0-liter four banger paired with a CVT. At 149 horsepower and 146 pound-feet of torque, I can personally attest that it is exactly an internal combustion engine that's capable of providing enough power to the Sentra to propel it to highway speed in a "not dangerous" amount of seconds. It's not fast, and may actually be one of the slower cars I have reviewed recently. But Nissan doesn't advertise a punchy engine nor race-ready credentials. 

In fact, Nissan's website states "Sentra's 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder engine and responsive transmission will get you moving." It does exactly that and I can't fault it for not ripping the tires off or strutting around corners like a Porsche or blasting down the drag strip like a Dodge Challenger. Fuel economy is rated by the EPA at a combined 33 miles per gallon. I achieved a little lower than that, but I probably drive a little more expeditiously than the Sentra's normal clientele.

I did not have a particularly exciting week in command of the Sentra. I drove it to a park with a friend who commented that it was "nice" and exactly nothing else. I also ate sushi near it. If you're looking for a car with which to take to the park and eat sushi, the Sentra is certainly up to the task. It will not be a particularly exciting driving experience, but the gas pedal will in fact propel the car forward at speeds exponentially faster than walking and, if local laws allow, much faster than a horse. That's what a car is supposed to do, after all.

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As far as the actual driving experience of Nissan's second least expensive car, it's really not that hateful. It's not pulse pounding or exciting, but it was smooth and sedate, just the way that I assume normal people enjoy. The CVT tried its best to imitate a more archaic automatic transmission by making up shift points. The tachometer followed by flailing around a bit up and down. But I can't blame the Sentra for wanting to have a little fun. 

Handling characteristics were exactly "fine." It wasn't like driving a Rolls-Royce, but it didn't break my spine either. The ride quality is unexceptional, but in a good way. It's not even a little bit interesting to drive, but it doesn't need to be. You don't need your fridge to thrill you every time you open it to grab a tub of french onion dip, you just need it to do the job. 

This particular Sentra was the SR trim, currently the highest grade Nissan offers. As such, it gets a few aesthetic changes like a meaner grille, a little lip spoiler, and a number of other small touches. It's not meaner in that it offers any performance upgrades over a standard Sentra. It's meaner like you told it that its favorite sports team wasn't very good. 

This specific Sentra was fitted with a premium paint job, "Leatherette" power front seats, a sunroof, an eight-speaker Bose sound system, and more charging ports than you would have thought necessary. It was also equipped with a new set of kicks, namely 18-inch black alloy wheels.

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I don't know if I'm going to lose any "street cred" among my speed-demon peers, but the Sentra SR, at least in Monarch Orange, looks pretty good. The proportions are all correct in at least giving it the illusion that it isn't an economy car. Other people in Southern Pennsylvania must have thought the same, as I saw a number of orange Nissan Sentra SRs driving around during the week.

With it being an economy car, price is an important metric (if not the most important). The base model 2024 Sentra starts at $21,180. The SR trim will set you back $23,980. My Sentra had a number of optional extras that brought the price up fairly considerably. The orange paint scheme totaled in at $645, floor mats added $280. Nissan's "SR Premium Package"–that includes leatherette seats, a heated steering wheel, the Bose sound system, and a 6-way power front driver's seat–clocks in at a pretty hefty $2,490. 

The black alloy wheels round out the Nissan at $785. Add in a destination charge of $1,140 and you're looking at a grand total of $29,320 for the privilege of driving a Nissan Sentra. For what it's worth, the Nissan Altima, a larger and more powerful car, has a base price of $26,370.

The SR package with all its bells and/or whistles just plain isn't worth it, if price is your primary concern. And, if you don't mind price, then an Altima might be a better deal. To borrow a phrase from J.R.R. Tolkien, not all that glitters is gold (or in this case Monarch Orange) with the Sentra. Its purpose of inexpensive transportation, then, is defeated somewhat by the comparatively expensive trim. Strip off all the aesthetic charms the Sentra SR is festooned with, though, and get it back down to a more reasonable price, then it's a fantastic deal for a relatively comfortable way to have four wheels, an engine, seats, and a 3 year / 36,000 mile warranty.