Nissan's freshly-minted North American sales chief reckons it's time to address the English patient in the automaker's model line: the Sentra. Mark McNabb tells Wardsauto that he's trying to figure out why, why dear lord, Sentra's sales are on a slippery slope to nowhere. And no wonder; year-to-date sales of the refreshed model are down 10.9 percent to 91,463 units. Helpfully enough, Wards' suggest that the Sentra falls between two stools (so to speak). They report that U.S. compact car sales (e.g. Nissan Sentra) are down 4.3 percent, while sub-compact sales (e.g. Nissan Versa) have increased by a whopping 37.3 percent. Is the Versa– up 364.3 percent in the first 10 months to 67,688 units– cannibalizing the Sentra? McNabb doesn't know and doesn't really seem to care. "He says his first priority with the Sentra will be 'to make sure dealers are engaged with the vehicle.'" Nissan dealers actively await McNabb's wedding plans. “There’s a big market here for that car," says Walter Dolan, senior sales consultant at Pinnacle Nissan in Scottsdale, AZ. "But we’re not seeing a lot of support behind the car coming out of Nissan." Rsponding to the crticism, McNabb promises to see “if there’s something [in Sentra advertising] we can tweak to get the car going a little bit stronger.” Anyway, it may be a big problem, but it's not a major concern. “It’s definitely, from a profit standpoint, not that bad,” McNabb said. Definitely.
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
Maybe it’s because the Sentra is one of the most boring vehicles currently on the road?
I was appalled when they redesigned the Sentra. It’s like they took a Maxima, shrunk it, took out anything that was unique or good about it, and named it Sentra.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ad for this car. I also visited a big car show in upstate NY and the Nissan dealer didn’t bother to bring one. It’s a shame. I assume it’s a bigger/better Versa, and that was an impressive little car for the money. I don’t like the feeling of sitting so low my butt with drag on the road, so the Civic’s out for me (that, and I don’t care the Lumina MPV windshield rake). The Sentra appears to have a more acceptable (to me) seating height. The Corolla is as boring as the 200th Democratic debate this month, that’s out.
There’s nothing wrong with the Sentra that RWD, better handling, and an extra 100 HP couldn’t fix.
The Sentra redesign was a slight improvement over what was one of the nastiest looking cars in the segment, but it still pales in comparison to the Mazda3 (for my money one of the best proportioned, cleanest, and nicest looking sedans in any price range). And love or hate the Star Wars landspeeder Civic, it has serious brand cred and it can’t be mistaken for anything else on the road.
The Sentra has to offer something to prospective buyers, and I don’t know exactly what that is. So maybe there is room for some advertising to grow sales.
i always felt there are better cars in the class than the sentra. like fit civic corolla and even focus
Yeah, all it needs is RWD, 300hp, weigh 2,000lbs, cost $15,000, have a luxury interior, get 40mpg, and then it’d be great.
Its a new design yet it fails in comparison to its competition the Mazda 3, Civic or even the old standby the Corolla.
So it sales are anything but surprising. The versa is also a good choice in it’s segment and is cheaper.
Carlismo, i think you are confusing this with th new Hyundai. Granted a NEW one won’t be $15,000 but as soon as one rolls off the lot it will be.
The Civic is growing on me, although I prefer the Mazda3 (I bought one) — I like the extra torque of the 2300MZR, but the Civic would probably be giving me 10-15% better real-world mileage, which is appealing with regular unleaded at $3.40/gallon.
The Sentra, though…good lord. I’m not a big fan of the Altima, but it doesn’t bother me. Shrinking its styling cues into bonsai form, though, was just silly. I can’t think of anything that would make me even test one, because they don’t have exceptional performance or value, either.
The important bit in this is that compact sales across the board are down, and subcompacts are up. The Versa (and its kin) have grown so much, that they (as a class) are replacing the (not so) compacts as typical economical entry-level cars.
Because it’s ugly? Very seriously ugly? The design team hopefully didn’t make the move from SoCal to Nashville. How can a squad design some awesomely proportional, tasteful designs like the Z, Pathfinder, Altima and even the Versa, and then turn around and release the Armada, Maxima and Sentra? WTF?
Excuse my language but it drives like cr@p.
The Versa is such a good little (big) car that it vastly outshines the Sentra and it’s reflected in the sales figures.
The Sentra has been ugly for years now. Even with the great performance of the SE-R, they were not great sellers. They should go back to making it look plain if they can’t do any better. Then at least the tuners can make it look better.
There’s nothing wrong with the new Sentra. Keep repeating that to yourself. There’s nothing wrong with it. It isn’t because ugly. People buy the Civic and that’s ugly. If we only wanted pretty cars than we’d be buying every Mitsubishi Lancer made. It isn’t poorly made. People buy Cobalts. it’s lack of sales is entirely because the Versa exists and there is no good reason to pick the Sentra over the Versa.
I think if Nissan wants to sell the Sentra as an “upscale” compact they’re going to have to deal with having lower volumes
It’s ugly and it has one of those awful CVT transmissions. Sorry, I’ll let others be guinea pigs on that lousy technology.
I would guess that its Nissan’s own fault. The sedan version of the Versa must cannibalize Sentra sales. Offer the Versa as 5-door only and perhaps Sentra sales would increase.
I hate to argue in favor of limiting consumer choice, but Toyota didn’t introduce the 5-door Yaris (which is available in Canada, I believe) for fear of stealing sales from the (first generation) Scion line. And although they’re both boring cars, I suppose there is enough difference between Yaris sedan and the Corolla to warrant them offering both.
The Sentra is a great offering in this space, with respectable gas mileage. It’s real claim to fame is its interior space, both for humans and for cargo. It puts the Mazda 3 to shame here, and has more user space than the Civic.
For a compact with a family in mind it’s hard to beat. Perhaps the only competitor in terms of interior size is the Elantra.
Too many compact cars are still cramped inside (Cobalt, Mazda 3), so it’s good to see an intelligent use of interior room.
I test drove the Sentra, and while it is not for me it sells at a nice discount over the Civic, and should be considered by those needing to fit themselves and their crap into a little box.
If you want vanilla, you buy a Corolla. If you want chocolate, you buy a Civic. Between those two flavors the majority of the segment is covered. The rest of the flavors fight for what is left.
Mazda 3 is an interesting choice for someone who wants something different and the Jetta/Rabbit/GTi are even more so. Hyundai is for the I just want it cheaper crowd. Where does that leave Sentra, not to mention Cobalt and Focus?
I don’t know about that. The Corolla and Civic have more or less served as an ‘automatic choice’ in this segment for those who want a reliable and don’t want to put too much thought into alternatives. I’ve always thought the Mazda, VW, and Hyundai (especially the GT) represented the more chocolate flavor to the Toyonda’s mostly vanilla line-up.
The Sentra has lost it’s way. From a semi-sporty vehicle in the late 80’s and mid-90’s to a meaningless bland blob of a jellybean.
I think it’s utterly amazing that compact sedans that aren’t from luxury lines are selling all that well in any form these days.
The subcompact market has shed the penalty box image in a big way and rising gas prices have transformed “your daughter’s first car” into “my daily driver”…if you want to save gas you can do it in a Fit, Versa, etc. and save a lil coin to buy something “fun” for weekends, etc. If you’re going to a smaller vehicle to be more practical, the gas sipping lil hatchbacks make more sense anyway IMO.
The Sentra is a tweener car now..and tweener cars = Jan Brady.
Happy Turkey Day folks.
I used to sell Nissans and Mazdas
I could not in good conscience sell the Sentra to ANYONE, much less when I had the sublime Mazda3 on my lot right next to it.
It truly is a miserable piece of crap car.