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Nissan Sentra vs Honda Civic
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Cheers,
MidCow
But honestly, who in their right mind would pick a Sentra over the current gen Civic, aka 2006 Car of the Year? I say this as someone who's actually slightly more interested in getting a Mazda 3 hatch when I spring for a new car next year.
Protestations of its fans aside, the Sentra simply isn't even competitive right now (hence the major league incentives) and won't be until the next-gen one comes out early next year.
Right now the compact class is ruled by the Civic and Mazda 3, period. Even the Corolla is getting very long in the tooth, and the re-design for it has been pushed back to calendar year 2008, after Toyota execs' collective jaws dropped when seeing the '06 Civic. They wanted to re-work the 'rolla's styling, reports say. I guess so, but does anyone really buy a Toyota for the styling? You can find exceptions, but Toyota really tends to cater to mainstream tastes here, i.e. bland. And it hasn't hurt their sales one bit.
There are alternatives to these of course... Rabbit? A driver's car to be sure, but VW's reliability has been deep in the crapper the past few years, so only go there if you want to roll the dice. Impreza? Nice, competent, but a step behind the leaders. The Koreans? Catching up, but still not quite there yet, especially in long-term quality. The warranty's great and all but what's so much better is never having the car in the shop in the first place. Cobalt? Don't make me laugh. Focus? Don't make me fall off my dinosaur laughing. Re-design needed... STAT! Ion? Not even playing in the same league. PT Cruiser? Like the hot rod look, but slower than molasses and burns a lot of gas doing it. Caliber (which I'm not even sure is a compact)? Umm... no.
Honestly, until the new Sentra arrives in early '07, and the new Corolla (finally) shows up in '08, this segment is so owned by the Civ and the 3 that's its not even funny. At least Nissan is competitive in the segment below this one (lower-priced compacts/quality subcompacts), with it's new Versa.
But for premium compacts in the $15-20K range, I'm just astonished at how far everyone else has let Honda and Mazda run away from the pack. This simply shouldn't happen in a global industry this viciously competitive. What gives? :surprise:
Sentra's and Civics are either owned or leased, what are you trying to say?
Defender is a Land Rover model, there is no Sentra Defender model, what are you trying to say?
There have been no fan protests in either the minor or the major leagues of any sport concerning the Civic or Sentra?
Not even NASCAR has leagues and Sentra and Civic are not raced in NASCAR.
You are right, Sentra does NOT compete in leagues.
Your entire post contains absolutely zero content of substance for or against the Sentra or Civic.
After all, AMC/Renault Alliance, Chevrolet Citation, Ford Taurus, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Chrysler Cirrus and Chevrolet Vega are all past Car of the Year winners. :P
>>Sentra's and Civics are either owned or leased, what are you trying to say?
Defender is a Land Rover model, there is no Sentra Defender model, what are you trying to say?
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=owned
Sorry if that confused you.
Producer's note to moparbad: Be 20% more 'street'.
>>There have been no fan protests in either the minor or the major leagues of any sport concerning the Civic or Sentra?
Not even NASCAR has leagues and Sentra and Civic are not raced in NASCAR.
You are right, Sentra does NOT compete in leagues.
Oh, now you're just being a tad pissy, mopar. You understand exactly what I'm saying, and are just trying to have some fun. I get that.
Your entire post contains absolutely zero content of substance for or against the Sentra or Civic.
Well, on the second point, that's a matter of opinion, actually. I believe I did say that the current-gen Civic is a class-leader, and the current Sentra isn't, but that a Sentra re-design is arriving early next year, which holds the promise of making the Sentra a class leader. That IS info, actually.
And I guess it brings up the larger point that Civic vs Sentra, as it stands, isn't even a fair debate, and won't be until the Sentra's redesign arrives.
The first point was tied into the 'class leader' discussion of the Civic and Sentra. You may not agree, but I have no regrets about including it, especially since the point of my post was primarily about the Civic and Sentra and their current relative standing in the segment. :shades:
Well, you usually don't win MT Car of the Year for being awful, now do you?
I'd say that looking at a CotY winner is a smart place to start when shopping for a new car, assuming that the winner is in the segment that you're shopping in. Given that the discussion is about Sentra and Civic, two compacts, and the CotY winner for '06 was also a compact, its not too much of a reach for you, is it?
After all, AMC/Renault Alliance, Chevrolet Citation, Ford Taurus, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Chrysler Cirrus and Chevrolet Vega are all past Car of the Year
Certainly. But most of those cars are decades old. Call me crazy, but I don't think most of us are shopping for a Chevy Vega currently. I'm sure we could also list a lot more (and lot more recent) examples where MT got it right. And I think its fair to say that Nissan would be tickled pink and then some if their Sentra redesign wins Car of the Year. It ain't exactly a negative.
I do understand that you're just playing devil's advocate here, mopar, and I get that CotY is not the 'be all end all' arbiter of car comparisons. But hey, it sure don't hurt.
On a side note: What's interesting to me is that you found my initial post so objectionable that you felt the need to fire off not one, not two, not three, but four posts mocking and/or attacking it. Come now mopar, its just a discussion board. No need to go on the warpath, my good sir.
I hope I've addressed all your points adequately. I suspect that you still won't agree with what I've said, but I hope that you'll at least understand where I'm coming from and can respect that I took the time out to respond to your (many) comments, even as flippant as some of them were.
That's ok though... I can be a bit flippant myself at times. Nothing wrong with it so long as one keeps it in moderation. :shades:
Firstly, let's not make this personal - we're comparing cars and not challenging each other as individuals, okay?
Secondly, this is indeed about the Sentra and the Civic, so let's stick to those two cars in this specific topic.
We do have a much broader comparo where a lot of these recent comments would be most appropriate: Economy Sedans (~$16k-$20k). And there are others which can be located using the Browse by Vehicle search function on the left.
Okay, now you can come out of your corners and play nice.
I could not agree with you more on your breakdown of the current compact market with one exception. I think that the 2007 Hyundai Elantra will rival the Civic and Mazda 3 (and the 2007 Sentra if it measures up). As far as long term quality, well Hyundai did just win all those JD Powers initial quality awards. I think that initial quality is goes a long way towards long term quality. The Koreans have made some outstanding progress in the last few years.
Thanks lone.
Trying to keep this to one post (since we do need to get back on the Sentra-Civic track, as Pat says)- I do agree with you that the Koreans have improved. I do not agree that you can equate initial quality with long-term quality.
Its great if initial quality is high, but that's not the tough part. Even two to three years into the life of a car, its not super-difficult to avoid having a lot of problems (unless you're VW, haha). GM and Ford vehicles, for instance, are still reasonably reliable on average going 2-3 years out, according to Consumer Reports figures.
But the REAL quality challenge is the vehicle holding up long-term, i.e. eight years or so. Again, according to CR, makers like GM and Ford, who have decent quality short-term... well, the reliability figures show their quality dropping off a fairly steep cliff long-term. VW is even worse.
So who does do well eight years out? You guessed it, Honda and Toyota, by a pretty large margin over the other makers listed.
So, its not the hardest task to have good quality early on. The difficult part is having good reliability through the ENTIRE life of the vehicle. And in that regard, the Koreans still lag Honda, Toyota, and likely some of the other Japanese makes.
That's likely a big part of why the Koreans continue to trail in depreciation/holding their value long-term, which in turn is a lot of why I'm not really looking at the Korean makes when putting together my short list, as improved as they are.
And the Elantra specifically? The latest figures show its reliability as average. Not bad at all. But no Civic or Corolla.
Again, they've improved. But its entirely fair to say they still have a-ways to go. Look forward to them getting there, as more competition is always good for we the consumer.
ps- Pat, thanks for your patience, I will not be continuing any further discussion of this point in this topic - I simply wanted to address lone's (interesting) point and move on.
Try going into the "Hatchbacks" forum - select "Mazda3". Under the list of threads available is one titled "Honda Civic vs Mazda3. Select it and BINGO - here is where you land.
Strange thing is, I see zero discussions regarding the Mazda3? :confuse:
Sorry, not sure what happened, but it has been un-happened now. Thanks, rorr, for posting how you got here. That led me straight to the problem.
JD Powers initial quality test is only based on the first 90 days of ownership. Not a very telling award.
Nissan and Honda have proven reliability over the long haul. I would give Honda the edge a bit.
Safety: Civic has award winning safety, Sentra has 2 star side impact (there are no 1 star currently sold).
Styling: a matter of opinion, but I think the Civic is a much more attractive car inside and out.
Reliability/Resale: the two go hand in hand. Honda has a better reputation for reliability (though after 6 or so years the difference is negligible) and higher resale.
The Civic has 5 star ratings for both driver and passenger in frontal impacts. It has only a 4 star rating for front driver and passenger side impacts.
The Sentra has 5 star ratings for both driver and passenger in frontal impacts. It has a FIVE STAR rating for front driver and passenger side impacts.
The Buick LaCrosse has a 1 star side impact rating.
Can't seem to find the logic in that.
At the track is where the Sentra smoked the Civic.
Don't get me wrong, i actually like the se-r alot! (has an engine with enough torque to justify an auto) but i don't thinkt the numbers were so amazing that it merited a 'smoked' on the si's part.
All the performance numbers look pretty good, and Nissan has shown us plenty of compelling video of the SE-R Spec V being tested at the Nürburgring. We've driven the Spec V at a racetrack ourselves, and can report that it's terrifically stable in long, sweeping bends. But like the Renault Mégane from which it's derived, the Sentra always feels a little too big for what it's trying to be.
I'm not a real big fan of numbers myself, but just looking at the 07 SE-R you can tell that it won't exit a corner as well as the si. Maybe on a relatively straight track the sentra will "smoke" the civic, but I can't see any reason why the si would not be able to out run the sentra in an actual course.
Besides, the si was not really meant for true performance; I find driving Si's(98, 02, 06) to be much more enjoyable if you ever find a place to go all out. otherwise the SE-R (04 and probably 07) is a much funner car to drive in the city since it has that goody-goody torque that most of us crave.
I like the styling of the SE-R, its very... non-overly modern, unlike the si or tC, I guess I must be getting old... not much to look forward to after you're 21, except retirement and senior citizen benefits. However, its that UGLY gear box that appeared on the last gen si's. Personal preference, but it looks like a rod went through the bottom the car... The back reminds me of a tC/prius mix.
Overall, the SE-R (I think) shares the same problem as the last gen si, its height to bottom width ratio is too high. Makes the car look like it'll turn over under heavy steering, AND makes it look awkward, or in this case, ugly. Notice how ALL/perhaps most super cars are short and VERY wide?
What did you mean about the ugly gear box? you mean how its right on the middle?
Well, number of lack of power can be fixed and tires can be made slightly wider via after market parts, but the overall height of the car, even w/ lowering can't be changed much... unless if you chop off the top. =P
Two weeks later the car was history and have been a happy camper ever since. Civic does everything an economy car should do without any drama and lots of fun. When I really want to "zoom zoom", I just get behind the wheel of the wife's Mazda 3s and I'm gone!
The Sandman