2025 Nissan Sentra SR Review: Cheap Sedan Is Great, But There's A Better Option

With the average selling price of a new car in the U.S. drifting ever-northward, along with the prevalence of crossovers and SUVs, it's easy to forget that relative bargains can still be found elsewhere on dealership forecourts. Take, by way of excellent example, the 2025 Nissan Sentra.

Priced from $21,590 (plus $1,140 destination), it's not only one of the automaker's most affordable models — only the smaller Versa undercuts it — but one of the cheapest new vehicles on the U.S. market today. It'd be easy to assume, then, that the Sentra experience is one of hair-shirt sacrifice.

Chris Davies/SlashGear

Certainly, if you go in expecting all the bells & whistles from luxury cars, you'll probably be disappointed. Yet the standard equipment list for a 2025 Sentra includes features that were paid extras on new models only a few years ago, spanning infotainment, comfort, and active safety. There's clearly more here than just a value play.

You can't knock Nissan's paint options. Where other automakers are grudgingly offering one or two bright finishes among a sea of silver, gray, black, and white, you can have the 2025 Sentra in an array of fun hues. Well, aside from the base Sentra S, which comes in only black, metallic silver, or white.

Higher trims, though, offer metallic red and metallic blue, a handsome scarlet tintcoat, and even a handful of two-tone finishes where the roof is black but the body is a contrasting color. No, it's nothing new in auto world terms, but to have that option on a car like the Sentra — and with two-tone finishes from just $250 — is worth calling out.

Chris Davies/SlashGear

The SV (from $22,290 plus destination) swaps the base S trim's 16-inch steel wheels for alloy versions. The SR and the SR Midnight Edition (from $24,590 and $25,285, respectively, plus destination) get 18-inch alloy wheels.

There's a single drivetrain — a 2.0-liter inline-four with 149 horsepower and 146 lb-ft of torque, paired with a continuously variable transmission (CVT). Front-wheel drive is standard; sadly, unlike with the larger Altima, there's no all-wheel drive option on the Sentra. That's a shame, because I suspect there's a fair few people in cold weather states who'd still jump at the option of a compact and affordable AWD sedan.

That said, faced with some good old-fashioned Michigan snow and ice, the Sentra's combination of FWD and standard all-season tires wasn't a recipe for disaster — at least with some sensible caution from behind the wheel. When the ice had cleared, meanwhile, I can't exactly say that the Nissan was a thrill to drive, but it's not the slowpoke that the power numbers might imply.

Chris Davies/SlashGear

The only drive mode option is an ECO button which, when pressed, dials things back to soporific levels. Ignore that, though, and "adequate" describes the Sentra nicely. Nimble enough around town, not entirely laggardly on the highway, and — while the CVT can waver around, and nobody is going to call the drivetrain sweet-sounding — overall this isn't the dreary, punch-pulling disappointment that I suspect some would expect.

Neither is the Sentra's cabin a spartan place that Nissan's price tag might leave you assuming. Yes, the base spec S only gets a 7-inch touchscreen, cloth seats, and four-speaker audio, but SV and above upgrades that to 8-inches of screen and six-speaker audio — with an optional Bose system, and triples the S's single USB port (there's USB-A front and rear, and a USB-C in the front). Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, albeit wired and not wireless, and there's no wireless charging available.

Chris Davies/SlashGear

An upgraded cloth is used on SV and SR trims, with optional leather or leatherette respectively in the $2,590 Premium package. That also adds power adjustment to the driver's seat, a heated steering wheel, and heated front seats to the SV (they're standard on the SR), plus the Bose Premium audio.

Chris Davies/SlashGear

There's a surprising number of soft-touch and fabric-wrapped trim pieces, and the red contrast stitching helped lift the interior of this SR. Some of the plastics feel a tad basic, but not brittle with it, and the profusion of physical buttons and knobs are sturdy and actually surprisingly tactile. No cheap-feeling, brittle steering wheel switchgear here.

Space in both rows is just fine, for the segment, and the 60/40 split rear seat folds down to expand the reasonable 14.3 cu-ft of trunk space. That's less than a cubic-foot down from a Subaru Legacy, a similarly value-focused sedan, but from the category above.

Chris Davies/SlashGear

I can't fault Nissan's economy numbers, either. The 2025 Sentra SR is rated for 30 mpg in the city, 38 mpg on the highway, and 33 mpg combined (the S and SV, on smaller wheels, nudges the highway number up to 40 mpg, and 34 mpg combined). Sure enough, in my own mixed driving of the SR, I saw 33 mpg.

Chris Davies/SlashGear

All Sentra trims get forward collision warnings with pedestrian detection and auto-braking, rear automatic braking, blind-spot warnings, auto high-beams, rear parking sensors, and cruise control. All but the base trim upgrade the latter to adaptive cruise, and can be had with an optional 360-degree camera.

Honestly, I expected to be not-so-much disappointed by the 2025 Sentra, but left uninspired by it. Instead, I'm impressed by just how much value Nissan packs in here. That said, unless your budget is incredibly, unwaveringly strict, I'd skip the base-spec Sentra S.

Spending $700 more to step up to the SV trim gets you so much more: from variable intermittent wipers, to nicer seat upholstery, SiriusXM, a bigger touchscreen and bigger driver information display, more USB ports, keyless entry, and cruise control. Yes, the A/C is still single-zone and manually controlled, but if you really must have dual-zone automatic climate control, then $670 adds it (plus remote start, heating for the front seats and steering wheel, and heated side mirrors) with the All-Weather Package.

Regardless, you get a reasonable 3-year/36,000 mile basic warranty, the first two years (or 24,000 miles) of scheduled servicing, and that all-important new car smell. Could you get a lot of used vehicle for the 2025 Sentra SV's $22,290 (plus destination)? Certainly, but if forecourt-fresh is non-negotiable, Nissan's affordable sedan is far from the low-cost compromise you might expect it to be.