We purchased a new Nissan Sentra in 2009 on the basis of a new Nissan factory that had been built in our state. We believed we were helping state workers maintain well-paying jobs. Sadly, we were greatly disappointed in our purchase. From the beginning, we began to experience problems. One of the first problems we noted was a rather irritating rattling sound coming from the front end of the vehicle. The rubber stripping around the driver and passenger windows also came loose and had to be tucked back in each time we opened the door. We also had an incident where 2 of the motor mounts cracked and had to be replaced at our expense. In a previous Nissan vehicle, also purchased new, we experienced the same motor mount problem with all 4 mounts. Again, we had to repair the vehicle at our expense.

The vehicle was my father-in-law's, and my husband and I purchased it from him. The Nissan Sentra is a decent car, but if I were to buy another car, it probably wouldn't be a Sentra. Firstly, I will never again buy a black or dark-colored car. The state I live in is extremely hot, and the black exterior and the black interior materials make it sometimes unbearable. On sunny days, my hands have been burned on the steering wheel, which can be very frustrating. The air conditioning is not powerful enough to make up for the heat inside the car. Otherwise, the car performs all right. The brakes are very powerful, but it is difficult to bring the car up to speed when traveling on the highway. The car has lots of mileage on it and is still going strong. I expect we'll have it for at least two more years.

I purchased this car new in 2005 for under $15,000. I was looking for reliable and reasonably comfortable transportation at a moderate cost. I have owned the car now for more than 10 years and it has met my expectations. Since I am retired, I don't do a lot of driving. I have put less than 5000 miles per year on the car. So I can't say that I've put the car to heavy use. But at the level I have driven it, it has performed almost perfectly. There were no major repairs needed. I didn't go out of my way to maintain the car much. I just changed the oil once a year and checked the fluid levels and tire wear. I replaced the battery once and also replaced the tires once over the time that I have owned the car. There was one very minor malfunction and that was that the gas gauge stuck and stopped showing the gas level. I found that I could fix it by tapping on the gauge on the dashboard. After about a year the problem fixed itself and it's been working fine for years since then. For a low priced car it's surprisingly comfortable. I like the seats which are soft and the car has well functioning air conditioning, motorized windows, remote door locks, and a remote trunk release. Overall, I've been very happy with this car.