Nissan Sentra - Worst Car Ever Produced

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Travis

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 23, 2014
Messages
78
Location
Tampa, Florida
I had an accident with my leaf. For a loaner they gave me a Nissan Sentra. I just wanted to post online just how awful this car truly is in every single aspect. The car is a 2015 with less than 3k miles on it.

1> The transmission is total BS. It makes AWFUL noises. At times I think there is an ambulance or another emergency vehicle approaching because it sounds like the whine of a siren.

2> The engine is so wimpy it cannot even move out of its own way. I swear this car must have a 20 horse engine under the hood. I've always driven economical vehicles for the most part but this car takes the cake. I didn't attempt to measure a 0-60 time however I bet its 20 seconds (or close to it). The car has so little power I would consider it to be a hazard on the road.

3> The car vibrates constantly. I know coming from a leaf that every gas vehicle shakes. However this car shakes so much its like getting a back massage as it runs. The whole drivetrain is garbage.

4> Every time the AC cycles the car lurches forward. Doesn't matter how hard I press on the brakes every single cycle makes the vehicle lurch.

5> The radio...... Normally I wouldn't complain about a factory sound system however this one is so far beyond crappy its unbelievable. It distorts at anything even approaching a decent listening level on the highway. Its so crappy that its frustrating to listen to. It honestly gives me a headache.

6> The road noise. Honestly I've driven motorcycles that are quieter than this car is. To save 20 bucks they must have left out all sound deadening materials.

7> The gas mileage. For all the sacrifices they made with this car it really doesn't get good gas mileage. My chevy cobalt (previous car) got nearly the same mileage and was a MUCH better car.

This is the 2nd loaner vehicle that I've had since I purchased the leaf. Both of them were total disappointments.

Does Nissan make ANY quality cars other than the Leaf?? I've said this before on the forum but it seems like a TOTALLY different group of engineers made the Leaf. The leaf is just such a wonderful car and all their other models seem to be utter and total garbage.

How do they sell these cars?? Do people honestly test drive before they purchase? I wouldn't even make it out of the dealers parking lot to even take the test drive its that awful.
 
Funny I've been pretty content with my Sentra. Then again, I was just looking for a cheap option to get around in, having concluded that cars are all bullshit anyway. Mine seems fairly smooth and quiet, and haven't noticed the problems you describe. I don't care about acceleration any more.

Any gas car is going to feel low tech after you've been driving electric. Good thing it's just a loaner; hopefully you can suffer through it.
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
Mine seems fairly smooth and quiet, and haven't noticed the problems you describe. I don't care about acceleration any more.

Any gas car is going to feel low tech after you've been driving electric. Good thing it's just a loaner; hopefully you can suffer through it.

You don't notice the massive surges as the AC cycles making the car lurch?? Or the strange out of this world sounds the transmission makes? Or the vibrations that resonate through everything from the steering wheel all the way to the seats?

I'm going to survive with it. Its only for a week or so while they fix my bumper after getting rear ended. My leaf is my baby and I've never loved a car more.

It sucks that the OLD lady who hit me couldn't wait to send that text message. Just goes to show that wisdom does NOT come with age. The OLD lady posted a selfie driving just before she hit me.
 
I rented a Sentra when I was out in Reno, last week. Pretty typical low-end econo-box.

The engine does make a real odd high-pitched whine, I've never heard with ICE cars, before. That was weird. Otherwise the only challenge was getting used to it not having immediate torque. A lot of times I'd press down on the accelerator and not get the immediate response I'm use to with the Volt (or the LEAF) only to press down harder and have to pull back when the car lurches forward with it's delayed response. Saw the same thing when I rented a Versa on my prior trip to Reno five months ago.

Sometimes I think I just like to torture myself with low-end Nissan ICE cars when I have to rent to remind me of how nice it is to drive electric the rest of the time.
 
Travis said:
You don't notice the massive surges as the AC cycles making the car lurch?? Or the strange out of this world sounds the transmission makes? Or the vibrations that resonate through everything from the steering wheel all the way to the seats?
Maybe my standards have just been ratcheted down, but actually no, I haven't noticed any of that. In fact my impression from driving the Sentra has been more like a reminder of why 99% of the world couldn't care less about EVs. We've had it on trips several hundred miles in length that would have been a nuisance with a Tesla and totally impractical in the Leaf and it seems fine.

The CVT is a little out of the ordinary, just for laughs sometimes I see how close I can come to accelerating at a constant (not all that high) rpm. A few times I've floored it and it does get up and go adequately, certainly not setting any records, and making a bunch of noise in the process but not more than I've noticed with comparable cars.

Maybe the loaner they gave you has been beaten up.
 
I had a 2004/2005 Sentra with the 1.8L engine and it was way worse than my 2005 Prius. Apparently the higher trim has a 2.x L engine that isn't as gutless.

Either way I wouldn't want to drive another one.
 
None of that is possible or even exists in a modern vehicle. It is all controlled by the IAC which is in turn computer controlled and nonadjustable. What you are describing is technology from many years ago...

I've had an Altima as a loaner on occasion and the CVT on it was quite good and returned very good mileage...

LeftieBiker said:
It sounds like the loaner has a dead A/C idle compensator solenoid, and the dealership just raised the idle to mask it.
 
When I was still driving Maxima, I had some cheap cars as loaners. Each time I thought the car was broken and took it back to the rental place to be told, that is how they sound.
 
evnow said:
When I was still driving Maxima, I had some cheap cars as loaners. Each time I thought the car was broken and took it back to the rental place to be told, that is how they sound.
So somebody told you what they thought would get you on your way away from them as expeditiously as possible with zero effort expended on their part? I really wouldn't have expected that. Surprised they didn't want to dispatch a technician to accompany you on a test drive so they have you reproduce the problem, then pour through technical service bulletins to identify possible causes, or maybe tear down the engine and tranny to see if any parts on the loaner were out spec.
 
None of that is possible or even exists in a modern vehicle. It is all controlled by the IAC which is in turn computer controlled and nonadjustable. What you are describing is technology from many years ago...

Not as ancient as you think, although I don't in fact know that they (A/C idle compensators) still use them. My EFI Civics had them on the throttle body, doing the same thing they did with carbs. The Sentra strikes me as the kind of car that might have TB injection.
 
Sentra and LEAF both share the wheelbase and track (width)
along with the Pulsar hatch.
hmmmmmm

If the LEAF was a Sedan with a Nissan badge and a Nissan name, it would be called the Sentra EV.
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
Travis said:
You don't notice the massive surges as the AC cycles making the car lurch?? Or the strange out of this world sounds the transmission makes? Or the vibrations that resonate through everything from the steering wheel all the way to the seats?
Maybe my standards have just been ratcheted down, but actually no, I haven't noticed any of that. In fact my impression from driving the Sentra has been more like a reminder of why 99% of the world couldn't care less about EVs. We've had it on trips several hundred miles in length that would have been a nuisance with a Tesla and totally impractical in the Leaf and it seems fine.
Agree w/the bolded part. That's the problem. Probably 97+% and possibly as high as 99+% aren't willing to put up w/the inconveniences, range limitations or wanting to spend any extra effort: research on public charging stations, joining charging networks, using Plugshare, extra planning, waiting, etc.

As for worst car? Well, FWIW, at http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/nissan/sentra.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (you'll need a subscription to see it), it was definitely not the worst current car. It got a overall test score of 65, while the highest in its category (compact cars) was 82, while the worst was 44.

Here are some vehicles the CR considers to be crap (the scores in the latter 2 links are obviously lower than 65):
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/04/cars-you-d-be-foolish-to-buy/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/12/top-cars-in-our-tests/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/12/worst-cars-of-2014-in-consumer-reports-tests/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, the Sentra does have the worst owner satisfaction dot (solid black circle) and worst dot for reliability as well. For New Car (reliability) Prediction:
Much worse than average
Based on the latest survey, we expect reliability of new models will be 87% below average

Side note: I do find it funny that a few (very few) Smart ICEV Fortwo fanboys sing the praises of their car. I've not driven the ICEV version but have read enough terrible reviews of it and even had a non-car person friend of mine (w/o prompting, she posted about it on Facebook) complain about how terrible her rental ICEV ForTwo was, mainly the ride and horrible transmission.
 
evnow said:
When I was still driving Maxima, I had some cheap cars as loaners. Each time I thought the car was broken and took it back to the rental place to be told, that is how they sound.
LOL! I one time received a 4-cylinder Chevy (formerly Geo) Metro as a loaner for my 255 hp V6 02 Maxima.

UGH!!! It wasn't broken but arghh, it was gutless, noisy, small, had a terrible ride and crap interior. At least it had 70 hp instead of the ~48 hp 3-banger...
 
cwerdna said:
Here are some vehicles the CR considers to be crap (the scores in the latter 2 links are obviously lower than 65):
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/04/cars-you-d-be-foolish-to-buy/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/12/top-cars-in-our-tests/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/12/worst-cars-of-2014-in-consumer-reports-tests/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, the Sentra does have the worst owner satisfaction dot (solid black circle) and worst dot for reliability as well. For New Car (reliability) Prediction:
Much worse than average
Based on the latest survey, we expect reliability of new models will be 87% below average
Of course "satisfaction" is a relative term, what one person finds satisfying may not satisfy others. Case in point, that list of top cars includes models from BMW, Mercedes and Audi. They're very pretty, but I've heard far too many horror stories to even consider them. $400 for a battery, $2000 for a set of tires, routine repair bills well into four figures, mysterious electrical problems, parts and service prices that are from another planet... I don't find any of that very satisfying, but I know that people who buy those cars wouldn't be caught dead in $14k sentra.

As for my sentra experience, time will tell. So far the only problem was a steering angle sensor that was out of alignment causing a warning light on the dash to come on. Dealer fixed it in a few minutes.

The game plan is to move back into an EV or PHEV once some better options are available, but I suspect the sentra will be in the family until the wheels fall off. If it goes 15 years like we've gotten out of Hondas it will have done its job. We'll see.
 
LTLFTcomposite said:
cwerdna said:
Here are some vehicles the CR considers to be crap (the scores in the latter 2 links are obviously lower than 65):
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/04/cars-you-d-be-foolish-to-buy/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/12/top-cars-in-our-tests/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/12/worst-cars-of-2014-in-consumer-reports-tests/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, the Sentra does have the worst owner satisfaction dot (solid black circle) and worst dot for reliability as well. For New Car (reliability) Prediction:
Much worse than average
Based on the latest survey, we expect reliability of new models will be 87% below average
Of course "satisfaction" is a relative term, what one person finds satisfying may not satisfy others. Case in point, that list of top cars includes models from BMW, Mercedes and Audi. They're very pretty, but I've heard far too many horror stories to even consider them. $400 for a battery, $2000 for a set of tires, routine repair bills well into four figures, mysterious electrical problems, parts and service prices that are from another planet... I don't find any of that very satisfying, but I know that people who buy those cars wouldn't be caught dead in $14k sentra.

As for my sentra experience, time will tell. So far the only problem was a steering angle sensor that was out of alignment causing a warning light on the dash to come on. Dealer fixed it in a few minutes.

The game plan is to move back into an EV or PHEV once some better options are available, but I suspect the sentra will be in the family until the wheels fall off. If it goes 15 years like we've gotten out of Hondas it will have done its job. We'll see.

The Sentra I had a few years ago as a rental car was not even close to the quality of my Honda Pilot. It was a cheap rattle trap. But it was what the insurance company supplied while my car was in the body shop.

In my opinion German cars should only be kept while under warranty. Mercedes will not get to overcharge me since it will always be under warranty for the whole lease period. My 2014 B Class was heavily discounted just to get it out there for emission credits. If I had waited until now I could have leased a 50K car for 30K instead of the 36K in January. Obviously the choice is now more limited.
 
Back
Top