2016 Nissan Sentra SR

Text and photos by Cor Steenstra

The Nissan Sentra has grown up. From this original vehicle that almost seemed to shy to want to be seen at all, with styling to enhance it, it has now grown into a very visually attractive and very usable sedan. No longer does it seem to be hiding on the side of stage. The current styling clearly makes it want to be seen, push it in the public’s eye, and why not?

Nissan is clearly experimenting with a very sculptural design language, and to see that translated on this size of vehicle is very interesting indeed. The conventional wisdom was to leave the bread and butter cars as neutral as possible so as not to offend anyone and give a car the widest reach possible. Marketing loves that since it is the easiest to work with, but these days it is also a risky one, since there are more and more players in the field, especially coming from China and the former East Block countries that deliver just that.

This is very much not bland. The Sentra shows a very confident design over a well balanced package which offers enough interior space in the front and the rear. This goes to prove that you can actually produce interesting styling on a relatively small package and not have the package compromised by the styling.