SA Road Tests

Welcome

This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.

*To read one of our archived road tests, just select from the alphabetical menu of manufacturers' names on the left. Hover your cursor over the manufacturer's name, then choose from the drop-down menu that appears.

*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We drive the 2014 Nissan Sentra CVT

Subdued and conservative

This vehicle is called Nissan Sunny and Nissan Latio in other markets

Published in Witness Wheeels on Thursday December 19, 2013

Back in my dark and chequered past I sold early, square-bodied Sentras at a dealership in Mobeni. They offered a choice of 1300- and 1600cc engines, were comfortable, quite sprightly, bullet-proof and very well made. In that respect they surpassed those upstart new Hondas of the time, notwithstanding that make’s tenuous alliance with Mercedes-Benz. And despite not having quite the same cachet as contemporary Corollas, Sentras sold pretty well.

A second (for SA) generation followed before the nameplate was withdrawn from our market in 2005. Now they are back. They still use a 1600cc engine, albeit updated and now offer a choice of manual or CVT transmissions. The new one is very comfortable, indecently spacious provided you aren’t too tall, quite sprightly provided you don’t expect too much, has a huge boot, is hopefully equally bullet-proof and is well put together. The Corolla’s cachet has faded somewhat, but some upstart Koreans, well established Hondas and a few others are running hard in the same price band.

The new Sentra is well equipped with filtered, single channel air conditioning, power windows and mirrors, remote central locking with autolock, speed-sensitive electrically boosted steering, a respectable audio system with the usual sockets, Bluetooth, remote buttons on the steering wheel, rather smart suedette upholstery, automatic openers for the boot, rear fog lamps and an onboard computer. Safety measures include six airbags, ABS brakes with BA and EBD, ISOFix anchors, a full set of three-point belts with pretensioning for those in front, an immobiliser and a high-mounted extra brake lamp.

The boot, as I said, is huge although the wheel arches intrude somewhat and the hinge arms could bump up against luggage. Its sill is at mid-thigh height and it’s 21 centimetres deep, so loading and unloading should be easy. There is one light, but no lashing rings or power point. The spare is a spacesaver. There’s a load-through hatchway that opens after the rear armrest is put down, but the seatback doesn’t fold.

Passengers back there will find almost limousine-like knee room, but headspace for those over about 1,83 metres tall is restricted by the sloping roofline. Shallow sills and wide door openings make entry and exit a breeze. The overall ambience, light grey over black with satin chromed highlights, is very subdued and conservative. Whether one likes it or not would be a matter of personal taste.

In an earlier paragraph, I said something about it being quite sprightly provided you don’t expect too much. The CVT box is typical of its breed. It feeds in power satisfactorily as long as it’s driven gently, it gets the car up to 100 km/h in just over 11 seconds and, as advertised, it can be decently economical. Do not, however, try to accelerate quickly for any urgent reason because kick-down takes ages and is accompanied by uncertainty and embarrassing sound effects. Given the choice, I’d buy a manual.

Like others before it, Nissan’s cute little yesteryear Sentra has been moved upmarket into very competitive territory. While this new one has a good foundation and does many things right, I feel it needs a more assertive presence, more energy and a gearbox that can justify its new price tag.

Test car from Nissan SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R253 600
Engine: 1598 cc, DOHC, 16-valve, four-cylinder, naturally aspirated
Power: 85 kW at 5600 rpm
Torque: 154 Nm at 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 11,7 seconds
Maximum speed: 180 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 7,4 l/100 km
Tank: 52 litres
Boot: 510 litres (VDA)
Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km; with roadside assistance
Service plan: 3 years/90 000 km; at 15 000 km intervals


For our report on the manual transmission version click here

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

My reviews and launch reports appear on Thursdays in the Wheels supplement to The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles each month, most months of the year (except over the festive season) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.



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