| + Used Car Home + Used Cars for Sale + Car Reviews + Auto Repair |
| 2007 Nissan Sentra Review | |||
| Whether you're about to spend $40K on a brand new car, or half that on a used car, it is always important to learn as much as you can about the used car. Read these car reviews to learn about all aspects of the vehicle. Each of the usedcar reviews cover interior and exterior features, options, road tests, and more. | |||
|
Introduction
| Road Test
| Inside & Out
| Other Thoughts
| Last Word
|
|||
| Inside & Out | |||
Oddly, one senses that the Sentra's making its most valiant effort to look sporty, and despite being 2.3, 3.2, and 4.0 inches longer / wider / taller, it succeeds. It's hard to put your finger on it at first - the hard angles and raked headlights are nothing new - but then you sit in and realize how little you can see out. When you step back out again, it hits you: the Sentra has one of the fastest-rising beltlines of any sedan, leaving pretty stingy glass area for back seat passengers and somewhat of a mail-slot view out the rear window. Good for rigidity, I suppose.Inside, the Sentra becomes the final car to adapt Nissan's post-financial crisis design template. Orange dominates the instruments while black and wannabe metal govern the rest of the land. The mighty 8% of Americans who still specify a manual transmission with their new car purchase might care that the Sentra took a cue from the last Civic by mounting the shifter right up there under the radio. Indeed, it falls right to hand. Maybe it could take some Civic courses in class and tactile satisfaction. "Low rent" comes to mind when touching certain items - radio buttons, both center consoles, steering wheel cover - or just by looking at the relentless monotony of the whole place. Also, someone accidentally stitched cargo net material into all the seats. On the functional side, turning the driver's door keyhole twice doesn't unlock the other doors like it should - might be Nissan's way of hinting "buy keyless entry!" - and Nissan caught the GM disease of making map pockets that can't fit maps. Is the laptop-swallowing glovebox supposed to make up for all sins? Can't complain too much. The remainder of items and switches feel well-made enough (love the snappy locks), the instrument cluster looks perfect for every reason, there's actually some real-looking aluminum around the shifter, and you'll find a few more storage compartments than you'd expect. The stereo doesn't sound at all distinctive, but it's decently powerful, largely thanks to the big 6x9 drivers on the rear shelf. And while Nissan stratified speakers and MP3 CD playback among the Sentra's trim levels, at least even the base model gets a standard iPod input jack. Drivers of all sizes should find a sweet spot quickly, and will in short time find a soothingly soft material lining the doors and comfortable center armrest (Nissan says "suede cloth"). They might also notice a lot of stretch-out room and that the roof and windows are a bit farther away than in any previous Sentra. Again, this car has been growing like a weed. From the subcompact Sentra of the 90s to the compact Sentra of 2000, this iteration dug up a massive 9.2 extra cubic feet of space and became a bona-fide mid-size. That's not something you have to tell back seat passengers. The Altima still comes out a little ahead in the numbers, but with the Sentra's high roof, tap-your-toes foot space, 70.5-inch wide body, and a cushion of such generous height, big brother better watch his turf. The Sentra's inclusion of curtain airbags for everyone, and side air bags and active head restraints for front passengers doesn't hurt at all. If rear riders didn't have to put up with the occasional unsettling motions of the Sentra's non-independent rear suspension, it would be a close call. Even your cargo gets to enjoy more capacious quarters. 13.1 cubic feet stand in total, and the pricey struts upholding the lid keep space-robbing hinges out of the picture. Sentra veterans will also note that for a change, the folding back seat opens up the entire wall instead of a restricted portal, greatly expanding the feature's usefulness. The back seat takes three steps to fold - front cushion forward, head restraints out, backrest down - and then the load floor isn't completely flat, and it ain't pretty. At least it works, and it earns this new Sentra more points to its scorecard for Maximum Bigness. |
|||
| UsedCar.us.com - Copywrite - All Rights Reserved |