5 Questions About The 2020 Nissan Sentra Answered

The Nissan Sentra is Nissan’s best-selling vehicle overall in North America historically
Eight-generation 2020 Nissan Sentra will arrive in January 2020
Pricing hasn’t been confirmed yet

The 2020 Nissan Sentra unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show is new in every single way. It gets a new design, a new interior, a new engine, and will apparently be more fun to drive.

The Sentra is a little late to the party in the compact vehicle segment with most of its competitors having been redesigned over the last 18 months. Still, the Sentra is now the new kid on the block in a very important segment.

2020 Nissan Sentra Brings New Design And Sportier Personality to Los Angeles

What’s New About The 2020 Nissan Sentra?

As stated previously, everything. The new Nissan Sentra is a new generation of Nissan’s compact Sentra which has been around since 1982.

There’s a completely new design featuring the V-Motion grille that puts the Sentra in the same design boat as the redesigned Nissan Altima and Maxima. The interior gets its own design, however, that ups the refinement and quality level. Nissan’s goal with the Sentra is to make it one of the most upscale compact sedans you can buy, and it looks like they have succeeded when you step inside.

The car looks sportier with a lower overall height and wider track, and there’s a completely new engine under the hood. The 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine now offered provides 149 horsepower and 146 pound-feet of torque. That represents a 20 percent increase in total power.

That’s still not as powerful as many compact sedans, but it will help the Sentra be more competitive. Let’s call a spade a spade, the previous Sentra was a fairly boring car to drive. The new one hopes to change that.

How Much Will It Cost?

No word yet on pricing, but Nissan will offer a base S version with a manual gearbox which means they will likely offer a low starting price for the new Sentra. Think about $15,000 in Canada. That said, most versions of the Sentra (there will be three in total) will get an Xtronic CVT and a starting price which should be closer to $18,000 (in Canada).

We don’t think Nissan will overprice the Sentra compared to the Civic, Corolla or Mazda3 which all start in that price range.

When Will It Be Released?

The 2020 Nissan Sentra will arrive on the market in January 2020.

Which Models Will It Compete With?

There’s some pretty stiff competition in the compact sedan segment. The Honda Civic, the Mazda3, the Hyundai Elantra, the Kia Forte, the Toyota Corolla, the Volkswagen Jetta, and the Subaru Impreza are all waiting for.

What Do We Think About The 2020 Nissan Sentra?

The interior is really well executed. The exterior is typical Nissan stuff and it’s fine. We’re looking forward to seeing the upgraded engine in action.

To be honest, we we’re expecting a bit more than a straight new model. All-wheel drive, maybe? Nissan says they thought about it, but in the end it wasn’t worth it. There will be no hybrid version and no sportier Spec-V (now that would have been nice) model, either.

The 2020 Nissan Sentra is a worthy new competitor, but Nissan didn’t do enough to increase market share.