Faults:

Nothing that is not general maintenance! This poor little car was given to me, and after doing things that were not done by other owners to keep it healthy, it's a great car!

I did have to replace the door hinges.

General Comments:

The mpg is great, even with the air on full blast. 42.2 mpg!

It has over 160,000, and I still have no problem with this little guy. I use it for my daily commute of 60 plus miles both ways, though I can feel the clutch slip ever so slightly on occasion. I ordered a new one; I'm not about to let the car get in the shape it was when I received it.

Faults:

Other than the starter going as a result of C.A.A. the vehicle has been excellent.

General Comments:

Vehicle has been extremely reliable with no unnecessary repairs. Car is cheap to operate, but can be very uncomfortable to drive on highway. As I do a lot of city driving in winter and summer this has been an excellent economy car. Stands up well to cold winters.

Faults:

When we bought the car it was not in the best of conditions. I do not think the previous owner took good care of it, and therefor lead to the problems that ensued.

Paint enamel was almost completely gone. I guess the factory paint didn't stand the test of time well at all.

The passenger side window seems to rattle a lot for some reason. This fault was present in both of the sentra's we've owned.

Brakes and rotors needed to be replaced, but that's pretty standard.

The starter randomly failed about a year after we got it. There was no warning, just one day it wouldn't start. The starter is a pain to replace, cost about 180$.

Soon after the starter failed, we noticed that when turning the car made a clicking sound, steering was horrible and there was a lot of shuddering. CV joints and axles had to be replaced.

Lots of electrical problems, the panel lights were dimming randomly, the other lights flickered and made a strange whining sound. The radio stopped working soon after. This lead to the car eventually not wanting to start, some electrical part under the alternator had to be replaced along with the battery which it had ruined. The whining and flickering however continued.

Front seals leaked severely, had to be replaced. However, instead of fixing the problem it lead to a whole slew of other problems, including the oil being dropped into the exhaust, car will now not accelerate beyond 30mph.

General Comments:

The interior is a little cheap looking, but what do you expect from an economy car. Its nothing that can't be lived with. For some reason all of these cars come equipped with the most drab color of paint/interior upholstery possible.

This is a tight car, easy and fun to drive and has a lot of pick up. Its great on gas, puts the newer economy cars to shame in this respect.

Despite all the problems we've had with this car, I am still a firm believer that these cars are one of the best and most reliable you can own for their age. We have owned two of these cars at different times, and I would swear by them. I think we were just unlucky as to have bought a car that the previous owner did not take the best care of. Change the oil and get a tune up every once in a while and these cars can last forever.

Faults:

The previous owner (a family member that gave the car up after deciding to purchase a new one) had overheated the engine extremely, burning almost everything within the engine. Still, the car started up and ran fine, with the exception of very bad timing (which I later fixed, just for fun) and extreme knocking.

General Comments:

First off, I would like to say that I respect Nissan greatly. They, along with Honda and Toyota, are number 1 in reliability, overall performance, design, etc.

The previous owner of this didn't care much about the interior; dirt everywhere, dust, spills, stains, etc. It was given to me for me to decide what to do with it. I already had three other running cars at the time - a 2001 Subaru Outback Wagon, 2000 Honda Odyssey LX, and 1990 Infiniti M30. The Sentra did not replace any of my other cars; it just sat in the yard to be tinkered on for no actual reason at all.

The 1.6L inline-4 ran strong prior to the previous owner (a fellow family member of mine) ignoring the rising engine temperature and overheating it drastically. Even after he gave the car up to me with the extremely damaged engine, it started up easily and ran like nothing had happened, aside from some bad knocking/misfires, and offset timing. Still, it would pull itself out of it's little spot in the yard and refused to give up on itself; Nissans never do :).

Sadly, just last year I was forced to have it towed to a local junkyard. I needed to free up some space in the yard/driveway, and with the condition it's engine was in, I couldn't let anybody use it daily. I'll miss the Sentra dearly, and I'll always remember how every day it started right up and just ran regardless of the bad timing or misfires. It was strong, even until the end...

RIP SENTRA.