Sentra Makes Consumer Reports’ 2025 Annual 10 Top Picks List

The Nissan Sentra is on a roll. By the end of calendar year 2024, Sentra’s sales had surged by a remarkable 40%, for a total of 152,659 units, making it the brand’s second best-selling model. Now, Dick Smith Nissan of Columbia is pleased to announce that the Sentra has been selected as one of Consumer Reports’ Top Picks and is its top pick among all small cars.  

The non-profit Consumer Reports, famous for not accepting advertising, conducts and publishes tests of automobiles throughout the year and is known for its purely objective and emotion-free evaluations. It considers a wide range of factors, including performance, safety, reliability (based on reader feedback), comfort, space, value, and how well the automobile competes against its peers in the category.  

Every April, it devotes the entire monthly issue to automobiles. As part of that issue, editors name their top 10 vehicle picks among the entire industry—one for each category. They describe the endeavor aptly in their subtitle: “These are the 10 cars, SUVs, and trucks that shine brightest in our tests.” 

The Sentra is a compact sedan that competes in Consumer Reports’ Small Car category with models like the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic. Every Sentra model is powered by a 149-hp 2.0-liter inline-four engine that is connected to a continuously variable transmission. It seats five, and the rear seatbacks fold for greater cargo capacity. Nissan’s Safety Shield 360 suite of safety technologies is standard across the model line and includes forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, blind spot warning, and lane departure warning. It has a starting MSRP of $21,590, which is thousands less than most of its competitors. 

Consumer Reports’ road test report states: “This is the best Sentra we’ve ever tested, with its comfortable ride, nimble handling, great fuel economy, roomy cabin, and intuitive controls.” The editors also describe the rear seat as “surprisingly roomy, which is not a given in this category.” 

Without the cost and complexity of a hybrid drivetrain, the Sentra is rated to return 40 mpg on the highway in its S and SV grades. The magazine also noted that Nissan includes three complementary oil changes during the first two years of ownership. All of this explains why the editors begin their Top Pick description with “The Sentra is an exceptional value” and reiterate toward the end that “Sentra is proof that you can still find a good all-around new car for under $25,000.” 

You can read more about the Sentra here. We welcome you to visit Dick Smith Nissan of Columbia, home of the Dick Smith Advantage 200-mile EasyCare Powertrain Warranty, to check out this great compact sedan for yourself.