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| Home » Nissan Sentra News » The 2007 Nissan Sentra. (SHNS photo courtesy Nissan) | ||
12/08/2006
I made the drive in a 2007 Nissan Sentra, a redesigned compact that turned few heads in Beverly Hills but certainly appeared apropos on the parking-constrained campus of UCLA. Indeed, the college crowd is the targeted demographic as Nissan pitches the Sentra with its "Seven days in a Sentra" campaign that portrays a young comedian and photographer's assistant living in the sedan for a week. While I would hold out for a minivan if I were asked to live in a car for a week, the Sentra made a pretty good companion as I negotiated the notorious L.A. traffic that thinned out through the wealthy neighborhoods and congested once I hit the famous Sunset Strip in Hollywood. Lacking an XM or Sirius satellite radio, I tuned in to the FM dial, which lacks a single country station but features some of the best pop and indie music and, by far, the best public radio. In the hub of Hollywood, you can make a left off Sunset and hit the famous Hollywood Boulevard, cruising past tourist sites such as Grauman's Chinese Theater and what appears to be the world capital of the Scientology community, complete with museum devoted to founder and science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Beyond the souvenir stores and the storied Vine Street intersection, the boulevard dissolves again into a residential thoroughfare that intersects with another famous byway, Laurel Canyon Drive. From there, the drive up through the Hollywood Hills places steep demands on the Sentra's 2-liter, 140-horsepower, 4-cylinder engine harnessed to a continuously variable automatic transmission. Despite the steep grade, the Sentra climbed with enthusiasm. The transmission does not have easily identifiable shift points, so there is no sense of "hunting" for the right gear. If you like the Sentra but want more power, wait until March, when Nissan introduces the 200-horsepower SER version that will retail for about $20,000. At the top of the Hollywood Hills, Laurel Canyon meets Mulholland Drive, the inspiration for a surreal David Lynch movie that has attracted a cult following, including yours truly. Please don't confuse it with the mediocre "Mulholland Falls" starring Nick Nolte. Twisting mountain roads like Mulholland Drive give drivers a chance to observe certain characteristics about their cars. Does the steering feel crisp? Is the acceleration available when you need it? Do the brakes slow and stop the car with confidence? Do the seats hold you in place on curves so that you do not feel you are fighting to maintain your center of gravity? To all these questions, the Sentra gets a "yes" vote. On a road where the view is competing with the dashboard, it helps to have a car ergonomically designed for easy use. In the redesign for 2007, the Sentra got a new interior to go with the Altima-like exterior, with rounded corners and new honeycomb grille. The black dash features circular gauges, intuitive controls for the sound system and ventilation and easily located switches for the power side mirrors, windows and locks. For a car that retails for about $15,000 at the entry point, the Sentra feels remarkably upscale. Atop the Hollywood Hills, Mulholland Drive provides several scenic pullouts where you can pause to take in the breathtaking views of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Beyond the skyscrapers of downtown L.A., the horizon vanishes in the haze, obscuring the Pacific Ocean. From an environmental point of view, the vista provides a graphic example of why California -- and Los Angeles in particular -- is so determined to reduce tailpipe emissions. While on this spectacularly beautiful day the smog has been reduced to a thin dingy strip in the bottom of the geological basin, the number of cars traveling roadways in the immense sprawl is staggering. Knowing that the fuel-efficient Sentra can cover 29 city miles per gallon and 36 on the highway allows me to take in the view with minimal guilt pangs. Perhaps the new Altima hybrid would have been an even better modus transportatus. WHAT'S NEW: Complete redesign. PLUSES: Styling, price, fuel economy, comfort. MINUSES: Modest power. BOTTOM LINE: A star is reborn. Richard Williamson writes about automobiles for Scripps Howard News Service. HNN Huntingtonnews.net |
