2019 Sentra rental. Ask away!

[Daschicken]

So my accord got rear ended, just dropped it off at the shop. Crash video to come when it is repaired and everything paid for. Not my fault, car TWO cars back neglected to brake, then slammed into the car behind me, who then hit me. Back two cars probably totaled.

I specifically requested an economy class car, instead of the intermediate one that they usually give. Was hoping for something along the lines of a nissan versa, chevrolet spark, or mitsubishi mirage. Was surprised when it turned out to be a sentra, whether than it a pleasant surprise is not really clear. This sentra still pulls down some pretty decent mileage though. I was supposed to pick it up the one day a week that I have my long school commute, but apparently they don't accept provisional licenses. I didn't have time to go to the DMV real quick, so I missed out on what likely would have been a 60+ mpg highway trip. Its gonna be returned before the next week comes around unfortunately.

Broke my V6 Accord's 52.0 mpg record on the first drive. Is the lie-o-meter accurate? Who knows.


Not a bad looking car.


Its got an engine. Yep.



Car is rated at 29 city, 37 highway. I wasn't expecting it to be that high when I saw it had a 1.8 liter engine, not the 1.6 I thought it had. Car has a CVT of course, like many new cars, the rubberbanding is real. HOWEVER, when you get up to speed you can coax it to drop the rpms by reducing throttle, and they will stay down to an extent. I was seeing 1250 RPM at 45 mph. To compare, my V6 accord does around 1500 at that speed.
This is my first time driving a CVT car.

Tires were between 35-38 PSI, I bumped them all to 45.

[Piotrsko]

Needs a temporary air dam and blue tape wheel covers.

[Daschicken]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

Needs a temporary air dam and blue tape wheel covers.

I forgot to grab my scan gauge, so no melting the rental car, ambient temp is around 85F. Probably don’t have that much blue tape either.

Edit: I interpreted air dam as grill block. Still no, i only have it for today unless I make a call.

[niky]

Been a while since I drove one of those. Nice cars, but don't stand out in any way from the crowd. The 1.8 with CVT is pretty sweet, all things considered.

[Daschicken]

Originally Posted by niky

Been a while since I drove one of those. Nice cars, but don't stand out in any way from the crowd. The 1.8 with CVT is pretty sweet, all things considered.

Yeah, the cvt is alright once you get moving. Dreadfully slow away from a stop, but easy to coax to lower rpms. I’m doing a highway trip today, will update mpg in a few hours. Looks like it does 1800 rpm at 65 mph. I wish my car would do that..

Oh and yeah, it’s definitely a mass market car.

[Daschicken]

Did my highway trip, lots of miles to try it out. Turns out it works well in town, but highway speeds aren’t necessarily better. I got 51.0 mpg over probably 140 miles, will be filling it up tomorrow when I return it. That should tell us if the gauge is accurate. I was surprised to see the gas gauge drop as far as it did over those miles. Fuel economy.gov says it is a 13.2 gallon tank. I thought it was going to have more range than my accord would when hypermiled, but that does not seem to be the case.

Ambient temperature ranged from 90-95F, highway speed usually 65 mph, 50 mph on rural roads, and no A/C! No fan either, I just cracked the windows. Sweat was beading up on my arms.

When you shut the car off, it shows your trip mileage (since last restart), and gives you the option of saving the best mileage. So future renters and owners will just stare at that 57 MPG and wonder what the hell someone did to make that happen!

[Daschicken]

Okay, turns out I don’t have to return the car until the 13th, which is great cause I don’t have my car back yet. I filled it up expecting to have to return it. The lie-o meter turns out to be quite optimistic, it was saying 50.5 mpg and the fill showed 44.6.

More info on the CVT:
If you accelerate at a normal pace, it will pretend like it has gears, but if you accelerate slowly it seems to shift once(2 speed CVT?) and then acts like the CVT it is.

[Xist]

I kept hoping that I would get the Sentra when I rented a car, but I was surprisingly pleased with my lunchbox. I would not go as far as saying that I like it, but I do not need to like things.

I need for them to work and it did everything that I needed, while claiming to get 55 MPG at or slightly below the speed limit, although I am sure that I would get less than 50 on an actual road trip staying near the speed limit.

I do not know how relevant Niky's data for a 2013 5-speed was to this 2019 CVT, but I extrapolated that it should get 46 MPG at 65 MPH and 39 MPG at 75.

I always enjoy driving Nissans, but the only rentals that I have not liked were tiny cars like the 2017 lunchbox, a Hyundai Accent, and a Kia Rio.

I had a 1997 Altima and it was great. Would you believe that I blew the head gasket on that Japanese car?! Me?! No!

I paid a shop for that one and had it back in a few days.

[Daschicken]

I got my car back a while ago, figured I should post the crash video, cause who doesn't like watching crashes? Also to add more information about the sentra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcTF-hOy_EA

So on the second tank, I got 42.8 MPG actual, while the gauge said (I reset it throughout trips, so I had to calculate the average..) 45.8 MPG.
The first fill was 12% optimistic, this one was 6.8%. Average those together and you get 9.4%. That "52.2 MPG" trip at 9.4% optimism would be 47.3 MPG. I have beaten that trip in the V6 accord. Given that my accord is modified specifically for fuel economy and the sentra wasn't, it should be possible to get better mileage with the sentra. But as it stands, my car can be ever so slightly more efficient than the little 4 banger sentra.

The sentra did great around town, and not bad on the highway but I was hoping I would see closer to 60 MPG indicated. Its a little car with a smallish engine and tall gearing, so it should be able to beat my car on the highway, but it didn't.

The sentra has an Eco button on the left side of the dashboard, which when pressed has a throttle guide meant to keep the engine at or below 1700 RPM. Coasting in neutral worked fine, I think I remember it liking being revved up when going back into gear. Driving around town at low speeds, the transmission doesn't let the engine drop below 1100 RPM, meanwhile I will go down to about 900 RPM with the accord.

I'm glad to have my car back, driving a manual is a lot more fun!

[Xist]

I rented two Mirages, a Sentra, and an Elantra while I was fixing my car.

The Sentra had the smallest screen.