SAN FRANCISCO, California -- If the hoary adage that people and their pets eventually come to resemble one another rings true, then perhaps the same can be said for folks and their cars.
My elderly neighbours, quiet and frugal and eminently respectable, own a Nissan Sentra that looks exactly the way it did when they brought it home back in 2006. Beige and unassuming, it sits on the blacktop beside their nondescript yet perfectly maintained two-storey, only venturing out on Monday afternoons to get groceries and Sundays, promptly at nine, for church. As a four-wheeled appliance, it couldn't fit more seamlessly into their well-ordered lives.
In the six years since Nissan last remade their top-selling compact sedan, the segment has gone through some major changes. It's a market that's growing, with empty-nesters and young marrieds realizing that they really don't need a full-size sedan, or giant crossover. Newly overhauled offerings from all major players in this increasingly competitive segment feature more sophisticated styling and improved interiors -- on top of the requisite low fuel consumption.
The release of the
2013 Nissan model marks seven generations of Sentra since its introduction 30 years ago, a car that has sold 320,000 units in Canada alone.
According to Tim Franklin, Nissan's Sr. Manager of Product Planning, the top purchase requirements of buyers in this category are value --without being cheap -- fuel economy, worry-free quality, and durability.
"[Sentra is] a premium vehicle for the compact segment," says Franklin. "Sophisticated styling doesn't cost extra."
For 2013, the Sentra trades its nerdy-cute, jelly-bean looks for a more grown-up and polished exterior, featuring the familial trapezoidal front grille. A lower roofline, and beltline give it a more forward-moving appearance, while standard LED head and tail lamps add an upscale touch. Its new streamlined appearance is more aerodynamically slippery, too. And while the new Sentra is slightly larger overall, it's 68 kg lighter than the model it replaces due to the use of high-strength steel, and a smaller gas tank made possible by its improved fuel economy.
There's a new 130 hp/128 lb-ft 4-cylinder 1.8L engine in the 2013 Nissan Sentra that comes with either a "next-generation" continuously variable transmission (CVT) or a 6-speed manual (available on SV models only). When mated to the CVT, the smaller, lighter engine helps the Sentra achieve a combined fuel economy rating of 5.8L/100 km -- compared to the
Toyota Corolla's 6.6L,
Hyundai Elantra's 5.9L,
Honda Civic's 6.2L and 6.0L/100 km for the
Chevy Cruze Eco.
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| There's a new 130 hp/128 lb-ft 4-cylinder 1.8L engine in the 2013 Nissan Sentra (Photo: Lesley Wimbush) |
Recently, we drove the newest 2013 Nissan Sentra over San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge and into the lush hills of Sonoma wine country. Our tester, a top-spec SL CVT worth $22,998 featured plenty of soft-touch surfaces, leather upholstery, a 5.8" touchscreen with nav, and an 8-speaker Bose premium sound system. There was a shopping list of tech gadgetry, including a rearview monitoring system, Bluetooth and "NissanConnect" which offers hands-free text and speech-to-text functions, Google POI and send-to-car, real-time fuel prices, weather on demand and speed warnings.
"Fine Vision" electroluminescent gauges in the 2013 Nissan Sentra look like they belong on a far more expensive European luxury sedan; however, the shiny wood trim (faux or not) just looks cheesy, although it's infinitely preferable to the silver-painted plastic that was once de-rigeur for this segment.
The 2013 Nissan Sentra boasts 950mm of rear legroom, more than the Corolla with 922mm, the Civic and Mazda3 with 920mm, but less than the VW Jetta with 968mm.
The suspension remains largely unchanged, up front is an independent strut set-up, behind is a simple beam axle layout with sway bars fore and aft.
Over the picturesque roads of the Napa Valley and the serpentine loops of the Sonoma Hills, the Sentra comported itself in a mannerly fashion; that is to say, it's no sports car, but it goes where you put it. The steering is light and numb as expected in this segment, but accurate throughout the tightly wound curves.
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| Over the picturesque roads of the Napa Valley , the Sentra comported itself in a mannerly fashion (Photo: Lesley Wimbush) |
The 2013 Nissan Sentra's only real misstep is visible during highway passing where its rather modest power output coupled with the CVT causes the powertrain to moan in protest when the gas pedal is enthusiastically applied.
Overall, the 2013 Nissan Sentra is a well-behaved, utterly drama-free vehicle whose cushy leather seats were broad enough to accommodate more ample backsides than mine, and whose cabin is replete with all the available luxurious non-essentials that we tech-addicted Canadian drivers can't seem to live without.
While the new Sentra has considerably evolved from my neighbour's humble runabout, it's still impeccably understated: a nice looking, middle class compact that will no doubt become a familiar sight outside churches, PTA meetings and grocery store parking lots, wherever respectable people are found.
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