Winner: Upscale Nissan Sentra Surprises and Delights

Small-car shoppers might temper their expectations of the vehicle type’s interior, but sometimes the industry delivers a surprise.

To say our Wards 10 Best Interiors judges were surprised by the 2020 Nissan Sentra compact sedan is an understatement: They were floored.

Why? The little car delivers big on luxury and style when you open the door, thanks to our SV Premium grade’s class-above touches.

Our astonishment begins with the color mix. While Nissan says the interior is black with tan, tan is far too mild a description for the shade we encounter in our test car. It’s richer than mere tan thanks to reddish undertones, more like butterscotch or caramel.

But the real showstopper is the pattern Nissan uses on seating surfaces. While we’ve seen a lot of diamond-pattern quilting, it’s a rare sight on the leather seats of an affordable car like the redesigned Sentra.

To add even more flair, there are diamonds within diamonds, and the inner and outer diamonds have a slightly different shape, providing even more of a departure from the bland cloth upholstery typical in the segment.

The colorful, inviting seats, accented by black stripes along bolster edges and seat backs, nearly are impossible to find in vehicles at this price point. While opting for tan leather in the redesigned Sentra necessitates purchasing a premium package for $2,460, the overall price of our tester still came in below $25,000.

“It’s somewhat shocking that an automaker can deliver this much style and content at such a low price,” says judge Tom Murphy of the SV Premium Sentra.

But the Sentra isn’t just about handsome seats. It also has soft-touch surfaces on areas where many compact cars apply hard plastic: the upper front doors, instrument panel and sides of the center console.

Our test car has good ergonomics thanks to its large climate-control buttons, placed low on the center stack, knurled vent knobs, plus good-looking faux carbon-fiber trim, spot-on fit-and-finish, a large, colorful touchscreen and “surprisingly good rear legroom and headroom,” says judge James Amend.

EMBED 1 Nissan Sentra gages

Great attention to detail is demonstrated throughout the Sentra’s interior, such as a tab on the pulldown armrest in the backseat and on its partially soft seat backs (not fully hard plastic as we tend to find in the class).

Our Sentra tester also boasts a wide array of standard driver-assistance features as part of Nissan’s Safety Shield 360 suite, including lane-departure and forward-collision warnings and blindspot detection.

Standard is Nissan’s rear-door alert technology, designed to keep kids and pets safe in the backseat. Adaptive cruise control was not on our vehicle but is available.

As Judge Dave Zoia perfectly sums up, the Sentra “takes some chances, which you can do with a sedan these days.”

Yes, because of the rush to crossovers and decline in sales of sedans, designers are viewing car interiors as an opportunity to be bold aesthetically, while integrating more content, to woo buyers.

We can only hope the Sentra’s outstanding interior is a sign of things to come in cars and crossovers – at Nissan and from the rest of the industry as well.

Small-car shoppers might temper their expectations of the vehicle type’s interior, but sometimes the industry delivers a surprise.

To say our Wards 10 Best Interiors judges were surprised by the 2020 Nissan Sentra compact sedan is an understatement: They were floored.

Why? The little car delivers big on luxury and style when you open the door, thanks to our SV Premium grade’s class-above touches.

EMBED 2 Nissan Sentra seat closeup

Our astonishment begins with the color mix. While Nissan says the interior is black with tan, tan is far too mild a description for the shade we encounter in our test car. It’s richer than mere tan thanks to reddish undertones, more like butterscotch or caramel.

But the real showstopper is the pattern Nissan uses on seating surfaces. While we’ve seen a lot of diamond-pattern quilting, it’s a rare sight on the leather seats of an affordable car like the redesigned Sentra (photo above).

To add even more flair, there are diamonds within diamonds, and the inner and outer diamonds have a slightly different shape, providing even more of a departure from the bland cloth upholstery typical in the segment.

The colorful, inviting seats, accented by black stripes along bolster edges and seat backs, nearly are impossible to find in vehicles at this price point. While opting for tan leather in the redesigned Sentra necessitates purchasing a premium package for $2,460, the overall price of our tester still came in below $25,000.

“It’s somewhat shocking that an automaker can deliver this much style and content at such a low price,” says judge Tom Murphy of the SV Premium Sentra.

But the Sentra isn’t just about handsome seats. It also has soft-touch surfaces on areas where many compact cars apply hard plastic: the upper front doors, instrument panel and sides of the center console.

Our test car has good ergonomics thanks to its large climate-control buttons, placed low on the center stack, knurled vent knobs, plus good-looking faux carbon-fiber trim, spot-on fit-and-finish, a large, colorful touchscreen and “surprisingly good rear legroom and headroom,” says judge James Amend.

Great attention to detail is demonstrated throughout the Sentra’s interior, such as a tab on the pulldown armrest in the backseat and on its partially soft seat backs (not fully hard plastic as we tend to find in the class).

Our Sentra tester also boasts a wide array of standard driver-assistance features as part of Nissan’s Safety Shield 360 suite, including lane-departure and forward-collision warnings and blindspot detection.

Standard is Nissan’s rear-door alert technology, designed to keep kids and pets safe in the backseat. Adaptive cruise control was not on our vehicle but is available.

As Judge Dave Zoia perfectly sums up, the Sentra (pictured below) “takes some chances, which you can do with a sedan these days.”

Yes, because of the rush to crossovers and decline in sales of sedans, designers are viewing car interiors as an opportunity to be bold aesthetically, while integrating more content, to woo buyers.

We can only hope the Sentra’s outstanding interior is a sign of things to come in cars and crossovers – at Nissan and from the rest of the industry as well.

2020SentraRide-0 6-source