2008 NISSAN Sentra

Warm Slippers

Comfort Rating: 5 Performance Rating: 3 Interior Rating: 4 Reliability Rating: 4 Safety Rating: 4 Technology Rating: 4 Value Rating: 5

We bought the car new in 2008 and now have 111,000 miles. Normal maintenance, replaced part of exhaust system. Otherwise totally reliable.The "expert" review is critical of the ride smoothness. Let me be clear. This is the most comfortable riding car I have ever owned in over 40 years of car ownership. I attribute it to the French, Renault heritage of the chassis platform. If I have a criticism of the suspension it may be that the smoothness of the ride does sacrifice some handling characteristics in that it is not nearly as sure footed as my Honda Civic or Subaru Legacy (rock solid). Build quality appears cheap but is functional and durable. Exterior I believe is classic. Smooth lines. Subsequent model years have messed up a fundamentally clean style. Interior is nothing fancy but comfortable seats, roomy with well placed controls. We bought a hybrid Honda Civic the same time we bought the Sentra for about $8,000 more. Honda was built better with higher quality components, inside and out and better gas milage but we sold the Honda and kept the Sentra for "around town" transport. It's just more comfortable, easier access, more capacity and almost as reliable and trouble free. Like an old pair of well worn slippers. Update: April 2016- still going strong at 115,000 miles. No issues. Great for around town. Maybe I'm too conservative but it probably is still OK even for long trips. An additional thought. I have experienced relatively poor handling in snow despite using winter tires. A tire store (which has also done repairs and has an incentive to find things wrong) did note an alignment problem in the back end which they said could be fixed with shims but the process of fixing it could rapidly escalate if they broke any of the fittings which were corroded. I opted not to fix and drive on, being careful in snow (with winter tires) and not noticing any appreciable, unusual tire wear. I mention this as there have been other postings which refer to the same alignment problem. At October 2016, 119000 miles still going strong. Headlight burned out and I had garage replace all front lights because change meant removing headlight assembly, not just twisting out a socket as on other cars. Also developed hole in exhaust ahead of catalytic converter. Garage rewelded and saved me $1900 for new converter. My old Honda had stainless exhaust which is significant. Passenger side auto door lock now buzzes when I unlock. Annoying. It will fail at some point. Repair isn't worth it as it would require disassembly of inside door panel.