Before I began this crazy journey as an automotive journalist, I was a regular, run-of-the-mill university student with lofty hopes and dreams of all kinds (oh, how things change). Back in those simplistic, daydreaming days of academia when my biggest concern was what flavour muffin to bring to my Writing & Reporting 101 class, I had a car.
It was my first car. It was not my choice, but was kindly “given” to me by my parents who wanted me to learn how to pay for a vehicle by contributing $100/month towards the payments for driving it – oh, and covering the cost of gas, of course, which meant it was perpetually running on empty.
It was beige – inside and out. It was automatic. It had a spoiler off the trunk, but that was the only “sporty” feature it offered. It had a CD player and a functional radio and an exhaust with a tiny hole in it so it rattled every now and then.
The car that took me to and from class every day and was, essentially, my first car. It was a 2001 Nissan Sentra GXE.
When I was handed the keys to the 2012 Nissan Sentra 2.0 SL I couldn't help but smile, just a little. All these great university memories came flooding back from various road trips in the Sentramobile (as she was affectionately called) to leaving my lights on more times than I can count and having the university parking attendant patiently waiting for me each time to give me a boost after class. Ah, good times.
But that was then, and this is now. A decade later and the Sentra isn't what it used to be – well, not quite.
Uninspiring outside and in
Unfortunately, the “new” Sentra hasn't seen a significant facelift since it was redesigned after my GXE's generation for the 2007 model year. So, six years running off the same styling and it's beginning to look a little, shall we say, stale. It's not that it's an unpleasant exterior, just that it's a little dry. What might have been viewed as modern, clean and sophisticated five or six years ago is now rather dull and boring.
From the squared headlights to the chopped rear end, the Sentra looks a bit like a 2007 Altima that went through the wash and shrunk. Not an ideal look, especially not when it's a 2012 model. I'd like to think the designers at Nissan were so focused on the uber-cool Nissan LEAF and hot-blooded GT-R that they decided to put the Sentra on the back burner for a bit and that it wasn't actually a conscious decision on their part to leave a redesign so long. Please, say it's so.
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| In the hands of someone like me, there was very little the $23,278 (starting price) Sentra 2.0 SL could offer besides pleasant memories of simpler days. (Photo: Sébastien D'Amour/Auto123.com) |
It was my first car. It was not my choice, but was kindly “given” to me by my parents who wanted me to learn how to pay for a vehicle by contributing $100/month towards the payments for driving it – oh, and covering the cost of gas, of course, which meant it was perpetually running on empty.
It was beige – inside and out. It was automatic. It had a spoiler off the trunk, but that was the only “sporty” feature it offered. It had a CD player and a functional radio and an exhaust with a tiny hole in it so it rattled every now and then.
The car that took me to and from class every day and was, essentially, my first car. It was a 2001 Nissan Sentra GXE.
When I was handed the keys to the 2012 Nissan Sentra 2.0 SL I couldn't help but smile, just a little. All these great university memories came flooding back from various road trips in the Sentramobile (as she was affectionately called) to leaving my lights on more times than I can count and having the university parking attendant patiently waiting for me each time to give me a boost after class. Ah, good times.
But that was then, and this is now. A decade later and the Sentra isn't what it used to be – well, not quite.
Uninspiring outside and in
Unfortunately, the “new” Sentra hasn't seen a significant facelift since it was redesigned after my GXE's generation for the 2007 model year. So, six years running off the same styling and it's beginning to look a little, shall we say, stale. It's not that it's an unpleasant exterior, just that it's a little dry. What might have been viewed as modern, clean and sophisticated five or six years ago is now rather dull and boring.
From the squared headlights to the chopped rear end, the Sentra looks a bit like a 2007 Altima that went through the wash and shrunk. Not an ideal look, especially not when it's a 2012 model. I'd like to think the designers at Nissan were so focused on the uber-cool Nissan LEAF and hot-blooded GT-R that they decided to put the Sentra on the back burner for a bit and that it wasn't actually a conscious decision on their part to leave a redesign so long. Please, say it's so.
 |
| From the squared headlights to the chopped rear end, the Sentra looks a bit like a 2007 Altima that went through the wash and shrunk. (Photo: Sébastien D'Amour/Auto123.com) |