PHOENIX — Cars, olive oil, even the cheapest Netflix plan — everything is expensive these days, and it sucks. Fortunately, Nissan hasn’t entirely lost the plot. They’re selling the old Kicks alongside the new one for $25,000, the Frontier is hands-down the best midsize pickup that won’t break at $50,000, and with how much cash Nissan’s putting on the deliciously long hood of the Z Nismo, it’s suddenly a surprisingly good deal in the sports car world.
Baked somewhere into that value cake is the 2026 Nissan Sentra. It’s completely redesigned for 2026, entering its ninth generation with a whole new look inside and out. We wouldn’t call the outgoing Sentra ugly; in fact, we liked it a lot when it first came out. But Nissan didn’t change much over the years, and so the Sentra languished as competitors like the Civic, Corolla, Elantra, and Kia K4 got facelifts and redesigns of their own.
No more! Nissan is finally getting in on the action with a thoroughly redesigned Sentra. The new look is very angular and much more mecha-Godzilla than before, bearing more than a striking resemblance to the Elantra from more than a few angles. The visually spiciest of the bunch is this Sentra SR, complete with flared-out side skirts, a faux rear diffuser, and a lot of two-tone going on. All SRs have 18-inch wheels, but Canadian-spec models have a different design than the U.S.-market cars pictured here.
Inside, Nissan says they went for a “balance of premium quality and usefulness” with the 2026 Sentra. It’s certainly useful; the outgoing Sentra was one of the roomier options in the compact segment, and this new model keeps that going with plenty of space no matter where you sit. The infotainment also gets a big update; the twin 12.3-inch screens for the digital gauges and infotainment are much more useful, more responsive, and sharper than before. It’s too bad the 2026 Sentra loses the buttons-and-knobs for the A/C controls, but the rest of the cabin is well-laid-out and there’s still a good amount of physical switchgear elsewhere.
We’re not quite sold on the 2026 Sentra’s premium-ness. It feels solid and well-built overall, but some aspects of the car you regularly come in contact with — like the ka-thunk of the doors when you open and close them, or the turn signal and wiper stalks — sound hollow and don’t deliver a feeling of solidity. Our ears also picked up on more pronounced road noise than the outgoing Sentra, but the optional Bose sound system now gets an upgraded subwoofer and a central dash speaker to drown it out. Beyond all that, the rest of the Sentra’s interior is well-laid-out, visibility is excellent, the seats are comfortable, and the 405-litre trunk now features a lower floor and a wider opening.
All 2026 Sentras use a 2.0-litre normally aspirated four-cylinder engine. It’s the same powertrain as before, putting out the same 149 horsepower and 146 pound-feet of torque as before, and paired to the same continuously variable transmission as before. It’s not the most scintillating powertrain combo; it’s peppy around town, but flooring it on the highway seems to elicit more noise than extra forward motivation on the highway. Sadly, the Canada-only six-speed manual Sentra is no more, thus lending some uncertainty to the future of the Sentra Cup. Unlike many of its competitors, Nissan doesn’t offer a hybrid Sentra or a more powerful turbocharged engine. What you see is what you get.
So, what did Nissan mess with? Well, Nissan says they’ve tweaked the 2026 Sentra’s sport mode with better steering response, sharper throttle response, and tweaked “shift” points for the CVT. As well, despite using largely the same platform as before, Nissan says the 2026 Sentra’s structure is stiffer than before, the suspension dampers are new, and there’s a revised steering damper as well.
For all intents and purposes, the 2026 Sentra drives great. Sure, it’s not what we’d call quick, and more road noise fills the cabin than before. But the new Sentra’s tweaked suspension and chassis still soaks up bumps and potholes well, the CVT is invisible, wind noise is well-controlled, and the Sentra’s light and quick steering makes living with it a breeze. Nissan’s suite of active safety and driver assists worked well; adaptive cruise control is now standard across the lineup, and Nissan’s ProPilot 1.1 suite of active safety and driver assists is now available on the Sentra.
Refreshing as it is to see Nissan sticking by regular cars, we think the success of the 2026 Sentra hinges on two unknowns at this very moment that tie in with affordability: pricing and fuel economy. Pricing for the outgoing 2025 Sentra ranged from a hair under $24,000 to just about $34,000, with the sweet spot being the SV Moonroof and SR trims for about $30,000. That’s a far cry from the compacts getting all too cozy with the $40,000 threshold.
As for fuel economy, Nissan’s still working on it, but they say it’ll be “very close” to the outgoing Sentra’s ratings of 7.4 L/100 kilometres in the city, 6.1 highway, and 6.8 combined. If Nissan can hit those two targets — keeping the price reasonable and avoiding too much of a fuel economy penalty, if any — then this ninth-generation Sentra has the goods to be a hit.
The 2026 Nissan Sentra is set to hit dealers any minute now, with Nissan promising it’ll go on sale late 2025.
