A Sentra by Another Name Appears in China

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

As journos pack themselves into cramped regional airliners headed for New York, Auto Shanghai 2019 is already delivering the goods, providing a taste of global-market vehicles to come. We showed you a brace of Buick Encores yesterday, but Tuesday brings another model destined to arrive on your doorstep, albeit with another name: the 2020 Nissan Sentra.

It’s not called that in China and other Asian markets. There, the compact Nissan sedan bears the name Sylphy. Meet Sylphy.

As the photos show, the next-gen Sylphy adopts every contemporary Nissan passenger car styling cue in the book, from the floating roof to upward-sweeping beltline to corporate V-motion grille — all traits that appeared on the recently unveiled 2020 Nissan Versa.

Like the previous-gen (B17) Sylphy, it’s widely assumed that this vehicle will become the North American-market Sentra — a model introduced for 2013 that finds itself in dire need of some excitement (sorry, NISMO fans).

In debuting the new Sylphy, Nissan boasted of better fuel efficiency, a wider stance, lower center of gravity, and a heavily upgraded interior. It’s slipperier, too, with a drag coefficient of 0.26.

Powering the revamped sedan is a third-generation version of the 1.6-liter HR16DE four-cylinder found in today’s Sylphy/Sentra, though Nissan neglected to offer power figures. An Xtronic continuously variable automatic returns in the transmission role.

Nissan designers aimed to make this generation a touch more engaging to drive, recalibrating the steering, upgrading the suspension, and boosting chassis stiffness. Suffice it to say the sumptuous interior seen here won’t greet you at the rental lot, but will be available for buyers who tick the box for a top-level trim. Three-outlet A/C allows occupants to determine who gets the cold blast, while an 8-inch infotainment screen now protrudes from the top of the dash, freeing up center stack space for other controls. Manly controls. Just look at that setup. Ahead of the driver, a 7-inch information display keeps tabs on the car’s many sensor readings.

Among other tech must-haves, Nissan promises smartphone connectivity and intelligent voice command, as well as Integrated Dynamic Control Module, which applies various brakes to level the car’s body following road surface upsets.

While some changes might accompany the car to North American production, what you see here is probably pretty close to what you’ll get. Expect news of a new Sentra later this year.

[Images: Nissan]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Conundrum Conundrum on Apr 16, 2019

    What a sad-looking little plodder. Every styling geegaw ever known has been ladled onto the basic uninspiring shape. There are more folds and creases than great granny's neck. Lost. Completely lost this thing is. The interior somehow gives off the vibe of an era past even though the iPad is velcroed to the dash. Sentra. The car for those who've given up completely.

  • MKizzy MKizzy on Apr 16, 2019

    Oh look! Another car with a grill that doubles as a front bumper. And this one's cheap enough for GEIGO to declare totaled if a shopping cart slams into it at just the right angle.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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