2013 Nissan Sentra from North America
Summary:
The nonsense
Faults:
Brake light goes off when braking.
Rear suspension got soft (rolls).
Clunk in the left front suspension.
Erratic and noisy CVT transmission.
Trunk rattles like cheap metal when closed.
General Comments:
Radio sound is quite good for the price.
Steering buttons are totally confusing, have to look a few seconds to find the needed one, while keeping an eye on the road.
Horrible transmission after only 20000 miles. Slips for a second when moving from a stop, meows up until 20mph. Worse, when engaging on the highway, depressing the gas pedal half way feels like the transmission is unsure what to do.
The lower door rocker is so wide, it looks like a Lamborghini design. You have to make a wide step to step in or out of the car. Guaranteed to mess your pants because this rocker gets very dirty. The vertical portion of the trunk lid also gets completely dirty and you must absolutely put your hands on this mess when closing it.
Great gas mileage, gets 23 MPG average in heavy city driving across residential areas with stops every 100m or so.
The steering wheel feels like a limb when you have been sleeping on it and you have lost all sensation in it.
Front seats have zero to insulting lumbar support. I don't mean this to be a Lexus, but the lumbar portion of the seat is depressed and very soft. The rest of the seat is fine and comfortable enough. I remember an older Sentra with the same seat design (but even more atrocious) with the lumbar portion being totally recessed. Maybe it's designed for hunchback people?
Nissan has made in the past some great cars, not to mention the Infiniti series. But half the engineers of Nissan know what they are doing, while the other half are simply the worst of the promotion. The design of Nissan cars has been constantly among the worst of the industry for several of their models; the seats in their least expensive cars have been designed by people who can't draw an apple. Nissan either makes a sweet car, or makes the most boring and dysfunctional product on the market. That's what happens when you keep hiring the least talented engineers and designers like you want to support some social program to lower the unemployment numbers. I feel Nissan must disappear in North America. Their trucks never took off, their minivan failed miserably, the Sentra hasn't sold since 1999, the customers got disappointed with Altima, and the only models that sell are the Micra and the Rogue (this last one with a waiting to blow CVT transmission that Nissan had to extend the warranty to cover for repairs). Maybe they should just keep selling some 370Z and the Infiniti brand (which is doing quite well), and for the rest just give up.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 2nd February, 2017
30th Aug 2017, 02:58
These Nissan's are aging just like Renaults. Which is no surprise seeing how Renault's alliance with Nissan has since brought Nissan's reliability down big time.
16th Mar 2017, 14:51
A warning about all Nissan cars with small 1.6, 1.8 or 2.0 gas engines. By all means be regular with the oil changes. These engines are very sensitive with oil changes. They have hydraulic lifters that will get stuck if the oil is not replaced religiously. When the hydraulic lifters get stuck, they will make a slight knocking noise on the upper engine part. If you have this noise, DON'T keep driving the car. Have it booked soon at some garage or at the Nissan dealer: they need to remove the hydraulic lifters (remove the top engine cover), disassemble the lifters and clean all oil sludge inside them. You can't buy new lifters, but the old ones can be disassembled easily and cleaned - like in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8be-KD4hroo
Do not keep driving the car if one lifter is noisy! We just had one Nissan at my job with a burnt valve - needs a new top engine, and another Nissan with just 50000 miles is already making the lifter knocking noise.