The internet loves to tell people small sedans are dead in the United States, but the reality is far from true. Cars like the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla are some of the best-selling vehicles in the country. The humble Nissan Sentra—the second-cheapest new car in America, behind the Versa—is among those best-sellers. And it’s just received a huge update.
The 2026 Nissan Sentra gets a new design and a modernized interior, but keeps the same 2.0-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder powertrain. Most importantly, the Sentra’s dimensions haven’t changed much, which means it’s still a small, economical sedan that’ll have mass appeal. Let’s get into it.
The Sentra’s design reminds us a lot of the updated Nissan Sylphy, the Sentra’s sister car made for China. Unsurprisingly, the proportions are the same. The only real difference is the grille area—as was the case with the last Sentra. For the SR trim, most of the frontal area is blacked-out plastic, with a red nose piece that flows into the hood up top. Go for the top-level SL, and you get more body color in the nose, bringing it closer to its Chinese-market counterpart.
The looks do more than bring the Sentra into the modern era. A lot of these updates have economic benefits, too. From the release:
Nearly every part of the vehicle’s exterior plays a role: the shaping of the trunk and rear fenders helps control air flow to reduce the rear wake behind the vehicle, the wheel opening areas have been reduced and the side-view mirrors are specifically shaped to reduce drag. Underneath, flat floor covers and tire deflectors further enhance aerodynamic efficiency.
Thankfully, the Sentra’s size will remain small. Overall length is up just 0.6 inches to 183.3 inches, while height has grown by just 0.1 inches, to 57.1 inches. The Sentra’s width is exactly the same, at 71.5 inches. The wheelbase is actually shorter, down from 106.8 inches to 106.5 inches. In a world where every car seems to grow by feet with every lifecycle, these are welcome figures.
As nice as the exterior looks, it’s the inside of the Sentra I’m most excited about. The outgoing model’s cabin was acceptable at best, but this one is a huge step up. The design of the doorcards flows into the dashboard nicely, culminating in a standard 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment display in the middle—a gigantic leap forward from the outgoing car’s eight-inch display.
The steering wheel reminds me of something you’d see on an electric Audi, with its widely shaped airbag module. The gauge cluster screen is a seven-inch unit as standard, but if you opt for any trim above the base model, you get a 12.3-inch unit instead. Similarly, you’ll have to go for the SV, SR, or SL trim to get wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Choosing the base S trim means you’ll have to go wired.
For what will likely be a very cheap car, some useful features come as standard, including a suite of active safety systems, including adaptive cruise control, emergency braking, pedestrian detection, and forward collision warning. Stuff like a heated steering wheel, a wireless phone charger, and a sliding sunroof are also optional. Go for either of the highest trims, and you even get an eight-speaker Bose stereo system.
For all of the exterior and interior updates, not much has changed under the hood of the 2026 Nissan Sentra. The only powertrain available is the same 2.0-liter naturally aspirated inline-four, making the same 149 horsepower and 146 pound-feet of torque. It gets power to the front wheels via a CVT. The only other updates sound like they’d be undetectable unless you drive the old car and the new one back to back:
Thanks to significant reinforcement of the unibody, the all-new Sentra has 6% greater rigidity than its predecessor. The steering wheel features an enlarged dynamic damper that effectively reduces road vibrations, ensuring a more composed driving experience. New shock absorber valving helps better mute impact harshness from bumps. Finally, engineers reduced the size of body openings throughout the vehicle to help reduce sound levels.
Nissan has yet to release fuel economy figures for the 2026 Sentra, though considering the powertrain hasn’t changed at all, I suspect the new car won’t deviate wildly from the old Sentra’s 32 mpg combined EPA rating. The new Sentra is set to hit dealers later this year, but there’s no pricing available right now. With no big changes under the skin, I don’t think this new car will stray too far from the current Sentra’s $22,785 base price. And that’s a good thing.
Top graphic image: Nissan
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I think the blacked out friont looks better.
Wondering what the rear seat expereince is like for an adult.
Maybe it’s just me, but that top shot made me think Honda Clarity.
They current Sentra isn’t a bad car for what they are priced at.Not every one wants to or can spend $40-60k on a new ride.Change the CVT fluid every 35k and it will live a long and happy life.
Glad it’s not a turbo. However, a hatchback option would be nice.
Waiting for Jatco Xtronic CVT to appear 😛
That front end looks very low and way ahead of the front wheels, I cant imagine the amount of damage they will get.
It looks like they are taking a page out of Mazda’s book on the interior. Color me impressed for doing a tastefully clean interior in this segment.
I have no respect for Nissan products beyond 1974 but I think this looks good. I prefer the up-market body color front end. It’s a bit too busy but better looking than most cars these days. The black over red scheme is especially attractive (minus the black grille area).
Thing is, these things are still quite ab it bigger than they once were. I saw one the other day with temp tags, so it was probably a 2024 or 2025. I thought it was an Altima at first.
The size of it compared to the price will likely firmly cement any and all that are lamenting the Mirage going away and cross shopping something to replace that little feller.
Did they intentionally go for an underbite?
I expect a great many of these in the next few years to have the bottom lip of the nose scraped/scuffed/bumped/broken as people misjudge the nose.
Decent car for less than half the average new car transaction price.
I think this looks pretty nice on the inside and outside, and the seats will likely be quite comfortable. However, having had the current generation one as a rental car recently, the engine and transmission are… unpleasant to drive. The engine is very thrashy, and the transmission takes forever to respond to a request for acceleration.
The front end is unsettling. I don’t like it. Aside from that it’ll look fine doing typical Nissan things, like swimming through traffic at whatever speed it’s electronically limited to.
Physical controls for most things except AC is something I can live with.
Too bad it still has the same powertrain as last year’s model. Even just a transmission swap would probably improve this thing. Especially the reliability side.
I think it really looks quite nice. I’m in my senior year of college and this will definitely be warranting a strong look after graduation. I hope they make some of the bright colors from the Kicks available on it as well
Looks perfectly cromulent. I’ll see a fleet of these in white at the local Enterprise used car lot soon enough.
Right next to the White Corolla’s and Gray Forte’s
I liked the classical Euro cockpit feel of the outgoing interior better, but I know wall of screen thing is what people want now b/c “premium”.
Looks nice – I’ll report back when I undoubtedly rent one of these on a business trip
I almost want to drive this. The touch controls for HVAC isn’t great, but it looks nice enough and looks like it would be fairly comfortable for an economy car (looks can be deceiving, though–the Mitsubishi Outlander looks comfortable enough and it is not.)
I’m definitely happy that they seem to care about the low end of their lineup. It’s good to see them not just make it the penalty box.
COLORS on the interior!1!!
Overall, not too bad at all. I really don’t think the design will age well (trying a little too hard to be trendy), but for now, I kind of dig it.
Yeah, that’s the first thing i noticed, white and blue? in the interior? this alone makes it a good choice for me.
CVT….ugh. But then again this is for people to get to point A to B as annoyingly boring as possible.
You were expecting a dual-clutch in this $22k Nissan?
It might happen if Nissan gets out of the financial trouble they are in. At least a 3 pedal set-up. They did it with the Z and especially if they want to poach Honda/Toyota owners.
The 3 pedal ones don’t sell. Honda no longer offers it in anything but the performance Civics and the Corolla will follow suit soon enough. I understand why people want a manual in an economy car. I also understand that much of this commentariat are so all encompassing and cultish in their adoration of driving stick that they would literally sacrifice themselves if it came down to their own demise or saving manual transmissions (I don’t get it, but it’s fine), but there’s just no business case anymore.
Normies don’t want manuals, and normies are the ones who actually buy new cars. No enthusiasts are buying new cars anyway, let alone new Sentras. It is what it is.
The Corolla hasn’t offered anything other than their CVT since I believe the 2022 model year. Pretty sure the 2021 was the last one to have a manual. (Obviously excluding the GR Corolla)
I get it. I have only owned manual cars, I’m only 32 so that’s not a lot of cars at this point, but it was always a requirement for me. That said, I totally understand why automakers have dropped manuals, particularly in the economy car segment. There’s just not a lot of people who can drive a stick these days. I’ve only known a handful of people who have daily driven a manual car, and most of them have since bought automatics. My fiancee and I have been together for eight years and he still can’t drive a manual. It’s a skill that takes practice to acquire, and most people aren’t willing to roll the dice on a car they have to learn a whole new skill to drive.
It also doesn’t make sense in an economy-focused car anymore.
Manuals aren’t really any cheaper, (considering the cost to amortize development and regulatory compliance over a small number of cars), they don’t provide better fuel economy, and in general (Nissan CVT maybe excepted) automatics last the life of the car now.
30 years ago, a stick shift was cheaper up front, got you better mileage, and was much cheaper to maintain than an auto that needed a rebuild at 100k. They made a ton of sense for cheap cars, even apart from any driving dynamics or enthusiast appeal. Now the latter is all that’s left, so there are literally zero manuals in non-enthusiast targeted vehicles anymore.
When I looked into numbers on the prior gen Civic when the 6MT was offered across a wide range of models the Honda Civic was, in America at least, the highest volume manual transmission vehicle in sales numbers.
Proportionately, however, it was low take rate for Honda.
Conversely: the VW Golf GTI & R models (along with the Subaru WRX) were all hovering near the 50/50% mark. And, yet, VW unilaterally cancelled the 6MT in the GTI & R despite their impressive sales numbers.
At least I can argue Honda had some logic. It feels VW just did it out of spite.
the Jatco CVT reputation though is nearly as big of a deal as the old Lucas Electrics concerns. Though I will say Cheap DCT options are equally heinous. Right Ford PowerShift?
Seems pretty OK! Can’t say I’m a fan of the black roof treatment though. At all.
My initial response to the red car in the top shot was one of revulsion (I’m not a fan of making a slow budget car look fast as I feel it’s disingenuous in the world of ‘Sport’ models that aren’t). But then I saw the silver car further down and…not bad, Nissan. Not bad at all.
Agreed. I’m a fan of colors but the silver works, the red is heinous. Is Nissan clawing back from ‘almost dead?’
I think it’s the red with the black roof that is ruining it for me. But yeah, the silver one works.
That top level interior looks genuinely nice.
I don’t know who the person is who wants quilted seats but also finds themselves looking at a Nissan Sentra, but I’m happy for them that they still have something.
Quilted seats have somewhat become shorthand for luxury, which is great, because it’s really cheap to mimic, whether with leather or vinyl. Reminds me of the recent article about Restomodded Defenders, with their inevitably quilted headliners and doorcards.
If you want to give small cars as a chance, you’ve already cursed the segment out of the gates with this one. This is a Nissan.
I applaud Nissan for continuing to make cheap and cheerful sedans while every other manufacturer is trying to force everyone into a $60,000 SUV. I think it’s cool that affordable cars no longer force you to make the compromises they did just a few years ago and honestly I don’t think it gets talked about enough.
I agree. While the interior is veering into a bit too much tech (screens everywhere), they still have a basic 4 cyl that gets over 30 MPG and a traditional shifter. God bless.
I can’t speak for how it drives, but the appearance certainly looks refined for what it is. Regardless, having something available still listed at a true entry level price is a breath of fresh air. Either way, it does looks pretty nice…not the penalty box you’d normally think of.