The 2025 Nissan Sentra Doesn’t Make You Feel Bad For Not Having A Lot Of Money

I spent most of my life growing up in a place where my family’s household income was well below the average. My friends lived in houses while we lived in a series of apartments built so that the suburb’s developers would qualify for an affordable housing tax credit. My classmates would spend Spring Break in Aspen or Telluride, whereas I wouldn’t see a real mountain until I was in my 20s.

There was always an awareness that I did not have the resources of most of my peers, but I rarely felt bad about it. The fun trick about kids who get everything they want is that they don’t want whatever it is for long, so I regularly got to play with that season’s hot toy before its first set of batteries had to be replaced. My parents also did the best they could to provide me with attention, which isn’t something all of my rich friends could really say.

I had a great childhood and got to take advantage of incredible schools, mostly paid for by property taxes on the McMansions owned by someone else’s mom and dad. This isn’t to say I think there’s any particular dignity in penury. I’ve had money and I’ve not had money, and between the two outcomes, I think I’d rather have it.

At the beginning of this year, I decided I wanted to drive cheaper cars, if I could find them in the press fleets. Vehicles have gotten so expensive. According to Cox Automotive, it now takes the average family more than 37 weeks of their entire income to afford the average new car. That’s not good. The average transaction price for a new car approached $50,000 during the pandemic and has barely come down since.

One of our readers, Crank Shaft, sent me a window sticker and a quote for a Nissan Sentra that was just sold to one of his employees. The total price was under $23,000 out the door. The carmaker has had its share of woes lately, and this has resulted in impressively low prices. But a low price doesn’t make a great deal. It’s only a great deal if the car is good.

Around this same time, Consumer Reports named the Sentra to its yearly 10 Best list, citing the car’s “exceptional value.” This made me even more curious, so I asked Nissan if they could send me one, and they quickly obliged.

Cheap Cars Used To Suck

With the benefit of hindsight, you can go back to almost any era and find a reasonably nice, cheap new car for sale. For the last three decades, most of those cars have been Japanese appliances like the Civic or Corolla. No-frills vehicles that would outlast the next two popes.

Those were largely the exception, though. For every Civic, there’s a Kia Rio or Ford Aspire or godforsaken K-Car. Vehicles that let everyone know that your credit score was subpar. My parents couldn’t afford a new car until they were in their 30s, and that was just a base model Ford Escort three-door hatch. Other than A/C (this ain’t Quebec), the Escort lacked a passenger-side mirror, painted bumpers, and cruise control. It didn’t even come with a radio.

I learned to drive stick on that car and have fond memories of it, but it was a regular reminder that you did not qualify for the nicer things in life. Not that the underlying, Mazda-based car was bad. It’s a solid platform, but to hit a price point, it had to make you feel just a little bad.

Again, ascetism is only laudable when it’s a choice and it’s not a choice most people want to make (Piper, no!)

I believe this has shifted a bit. The cheapest Chevy Trax is still a good car, with a decent number of features. A base Mitsubishi Mirage, though? I don’t have the Mirage hate that many do, but it’s not a car most people purchase because it’s their favorite. It’s cheap and, next to any other car, looks like a Cozy Coupe. Actually, a Cozy Coupe might have bigger wheels.

When the Nissan Versa and Mitsubishi Mirage finally disappear from lots this year, the Sentra is likely the cheapest car you can buy. Does it suck?

The Nissan Sentra Very Much Does Not Suck

There was a lot of wind-up to this particular review, so if you don’t want to get to the end of it I’ll just tell you that the Nissan Sentra SR that I reviewed is legitimately a good car. It’s the “sporty” trim, and it is not at all sporty, really, and that’s ok. I’m willing to give the Sentra an awful lot of grace because there are many cars that cost twice as much that are not twice as good.

As the man once famously said, money isn’t everything, but not having it is. There are better cars in this class, and all of them cost more money. If you have that coin to spare, perhaps buy the Civic or the Envista or whatever. Maybe an extra $3-$4k is a lot of money to you. That’s ok! A Sentra does what needs doing and with suspiciously few penalties.

It has its shortcomings, and I’ll discuss those below, but nothing is really a dealbreaker for me. If your local neighborhood Nissan dealer has a Sentra on the lot and is willing to deal, it’s worth your time to consider it if what you want is something safe and efficient.

The Basics

Engine: 2.0-liter DOHC inline-four naturally aspirated

Transmission: Continuously variable transmission

Output: 149 horsepower, 145 lb-ft of torque

Fuel economy: 30 city, 38 highway, 33 combined

Body style: Compact four-door sedan.

Base price: $22,370 base, delivered. ($28,320 as tested with the $2,590 Premium Package)

How Does It Look?

I’m a sucker for weird cars, which is why the somewhat similarly-priced Kia K4 is more my style. Maybe you don’t want a weird car. Maybe you just want a car. Presenting the Nissan Sentra. It’s a car.

In some ways, the Sentra is the most car-looking automobile on the market right now. At least in the United States. You want headlights that go where headlights should? It has those. What about a grill in the front, a greenhouse you can see out of, and a trunk that just opens like a trunk? It has those, too.

Even in the nicer SR trim, the Sentra is just a car, albeit one garnished with a little brightwork along the lower edge of the window and the thin strip of black on the C-Pillar that’s one of Nissan’s design signatures. Under the skin, all the Sentras are mechanically identical. This means that any aesthetic additions you want and can afford, you can get, but it won’t change the performance in any significant way.

In fact, the biggest aesthetic and performance difference comes in the wheels, ranging from 16-inch steelies with nice covers in the base S up to black 18-inch wheels on the SR Midnight Edition. From my perspective, the 18-inch alloy wheels on the SR look the best. Given a choice, I’d go with the 16-inch aluminum alloys on the SV for the improved fuel economy.

When my daughter saw it, she said, “It’s blue. It looks fast. I like it!”

What’s The Interior Like?

Congrats, you bought a car. It looks like a car on the inside, too.

From the driver’s seat, you stare at two real mechanical gauges with a small screen in between. There’s an 8-inch infotainment touchscreen attractively floating above real vents and real buttons (on the cheapest version, there’s a 7-inch screen). I even took a picture of myself using the HVAC controls because it’s rarer and rarer these days to have real dials.

The fake leather seats can be a tad squeaky, but are otherwise comfortable and nicer than the seats found in some more expensive crossovers I’ve driven. The plastics aren’t the best on offer, nor are they the worst. Everything feels durable.

Because it’s an SR, you have the optional red stitching and hilariously fake carbon fiber. It’s fun, though. If you’re 20 and this is your first car maybe you convince yourself it’s real carbon fiber. I won’t tell anyone. Live your life.

Do you want rear legroom? In the ’90s, your best way to be comfortable in the backseat of a compact car was to pray you yelled “shotgun” first. Did you know that this supposedly compact car has more rear legroom than my supposedly midsize luxury BMW sedan? Indeed, it does. It’s nice back there.

The trunk, too, has a ton of room. Enough for me to stuff all my sports gear, groceries, a wagon, and all the crap of modern life without having to readjust anything.

How Does It Drive?

Did I mention you can probably get one of these for under $25,000 out the door, depending on your local taxes? It’s a naturally aspirated motor connected to a mediocre continuously variable transmission, so adjust your expectations a little bit. Just because it doesn’t make you feel bad for buying it, doesn’t mean that it’ll give you a shave and a haircut.

It’s not powerful. It’s not particularly fast. The best I can say for it is that the CVT isn’t as noticeably bad as previous Nissan CVTs. If all you’re looking for is a nice car to get you to where you’re going, you might find the Sentra pleasingly forgettable.

Can it turn? Of course. The four round wheels on the edges of the car are connected to the slightly smaller wheel on the inside, and given a reasonable amount of force applied to the small wheel, the two slightly larger front wheels will move in a corresponding direction. It does this neither enthusiastically nor begrudgingly. It just does it.

It’ll predictably thrust you onto a highway and, once there, the actual car will mostly disappear into the background.

Are There Enough Gadgets To Make Me Feel Like I’m Not Being Penalized?

Even in its most poverty-spec form, the Nissan Sentra gets Apple CarPlay integration, a touch-screen display, remote keyless entry, and Nissan Safety Shield 360 (lane departure warning, high beam assist, emergency braking, blind spot warning, and cross traffic alert). Step up just one level to the SV or SR, and there’s the optional Around View monitor with full camera coverage around the entire car (something I wish my nicer Honda had).

My tester had the optional Premium Package with the eight-speaker Bose premium audio system, which wasn’t half bad. It also offered a heated steering wheel, power sliding glass moonroof, and a six-way power adjustable driver’s seat. These are all nice to have items, but nothing that’s absolutely required.

This is why I think the cheapest SV you can find with the dual zone climate control package, which is almost bang-on $24,000 delivered in most places, is the best deal.

Does It Have One Annoying Foible?

While I think most auto stop-start on modern vehicles is fine, there are still cars with the older/bad style of the technology. This is what the Trump Administration is complaining about and I have to admit it is crappy. This isn’t because the car is cheap, it’s just because Nissan doesn’t offer a 48-volt or hybrid system here in America.

Most annoyingly, the system isn’t always sure when the car should shut off, and if you start to roll away from a stop and then change your mind, you might lose a little brake pressure. This happened to me more than once and, while it’s not a huge issue at the low speeds I was driving, it does feel a bit disconcerting.

This is bad calibration, and I’ve spoken with at least one other person who had the same experience in a different Sentra, so I don’t think it’s just this car. Overall, the brakes on this car are dynamically the weakest part. The SR weighs just a hare (a small, furry one) over 3,100 pounds, so 11 inches up front and 10.2 inches in the back should be sufficient and they are, but the brake feel is notably memorable in a way the rest of the car thankfully isn’t.

Does It Fulfil Its Purpose?

Hell yeah, it does. A Civic Hybrid is more efficient. The Kia K4 is more pleasingly strange. And a Chevy Trax is a crossover, which is a body style that’s popular right now. You might be able to get a good deal on any of those cars. Neville Chamberlain should be able to negotiate a great price on a Sentra.

There are currently more than 10,000 of them listed for sale on Cars.com, and some of the prices are truly silly. Adjusted for inflation, many of these Sentras are a lot cheaper than the Escort my parents bought, and all of them appear to have passenger-side mirrors.

If that’s not luxury, I don’t know what is!

All photos by the author