by "E90M3" (e90m3)
Published 02/08/2017 at 15:02
by "E90M3" (e90m3)
Published 02/08/2017 at 15:02
Tags: E90M3 Rents
STARS: 7
First off, no we’re not going to be comparing it to the E90, that would be an unfair comparison. A fair comparison to the E90 M3 would be a 1M, and sadly I didn’t rent one of those.
Before you say “well did you check Turo?” the problem with Turo is mileage. I put a total of 620.9 miles on the Sentra, which would mean I would need a car with a mileage limit of more than 300 miles per day and that’s near Roswell GA. When I looked there were 3 with that limit near me, here’s the only one available as of now.
Also, I have to trust that vehicle to get me to and from just south of Savannah Georgia. I had an interview to get to, I really don’t want to deal with someones personal car breaking down on me. In addition to this, we have to talk about the real reason I rented a car, cost. While I love my M3, it’s not cheap to run. The Sentra in total cost me $95.34, that’s rental cost and gas; or $0.154 per mile. The M3 costs about $0.15 in gas alone per mile, at current prices. That’s assuming 18 MPG on the highway, and that’s been about the average I’ve gotten on the highway in the 2.5 years and 25,000 miles I’ve put on the car.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, how is the car. Well lets start with the inside. Despite not having lumbar support, like the Chevy, the seat was pretty good. It would have been better if it had lumbar support, but I found it supportive enough and wasn’t sore after my 4 hour trip down to Pooler on Monday. Atlas M was right about the seats:
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
I like to plug my phone in, I’m not a big fan of bluetooth, so that’s what I did. I had no problem using the interface to play music from either my iPhone or my iPod. It handled the amount of music I had on my iPod about as well as the M3, it wasn’t as good but it was still decent. However, the quality of the stereo was shit. The bass was terrible and anything with a lot of bass sounded extremely distorted. I have to say the stereo in the Chevy was so much better. The Chevy had me thinking “damn this is a stereo in a rental car?!?!” the Nissan had me thinking “damn, this is a stereo in a rental car.”
I think my problem with electric power steering (EPS) is that my first experience to it was in a Hyundai. Once again, the EPS in this car wasn’t bad, it didn’t require much input to keep in a straight line, it’s not overboosted. I mean it’s an not M3, but it’s also not a Sonata.
Honestly I think I just hate Hyundai/Kia products, which is based on my experience with them. Today I had to replace the tail light in my sister’s Sonata for the second time in less than 6 months, and yes last time I replaced the pair. The only thing I will say about them is that since they’re so terrible to drive, it convinced my dad to get a BMW, so I will thank them for that. Before this turns into a rant about how much I hate Hyundai, let’s get back to Sentra, and we’ll talk about the drivetrain.
Actually before we talk about the drivetrain, lets talk about another Sentra first. The B14 Sentra was released in 1995 and came with the GA16DE. This engine produced, according to wikipedia , 115 hp at 6,000 RPM and 110 ft-lbs of torque at 4,000 RPM which would propel a 1995 Sentra with a manual transmission from 0 to 60 in 8.5 seconds and return 30 mpg around town and 40 on the highway.
22 years later, how much more power does the 2017 have? 40? 50? No, it has 9 more horsepower. 9, for a total of 124 . This engine, MRA8DE, has a larger displacement and variable valve timing and doesn’t even make double digit gains on a 22 year old Sentra. So yeah, it’s slow. It does 0-60 a full second slower than the 1995 car. That’s right if you took a 2017 Sentra and drag raced it against a 1995 Sentra, the 1995 Sentra would win. So yes on everything but safety, the 1995 Sentra wins. You had to make it safer so you added weight but it needs more power.
I had to pop the hood to make sure someone hadn’t swapped the motor from this:
It’s pretty underpowered. The Chevy I rented had a total 39 more horsepower than the Benz Patent Motorwagen Sentra. The only upside to this was the Chevy used a total of 22.579 gallons of gas to do 717 miles, whereas the Sentra used 18.728 gallons of gas to do 620.9 miles. For those of you without your trusty TI-84 handy, that works out to 31.8 mpg for the Chevy and 33.2 mpg for the Sentra. I should note, this was on the same roads, with the same lead footed M3 driver, with around the same traffic, the Chevy just had to go a little further south than the Sentra. So sacrificing 39hp gets you 1.4 more mpg.
For the first part of my journey, I didn’t really notice the CVT. I mean, during highway driving, it’s not like it’s doing much. I did notice that there would be times it would grab some revs as we were going up some hills. I didn’t really do much city driving, but in some more heavy traffic it felt really lurchy and was searching for a ratio to use. I think if I had done more driving in the city I would have more of an opinion on it, but for the most part I didn’t really notice it.
I did notice that the brake pedal was shit. As soon as I started driving, I noticed it took like half of the pedal travel before anything happened. Maybe they needed to be bleed or something but it felt like I was stepping on a sponge. I think I actually liked the brakes less than the power.
I’m not sure how they managed the body roll to feel like you’re driving an SUV, but they managed it. So if Nissan was going for 1997 Explorer through the corners, they nailed it. Actually that might be hard on the Explorer.
So in conclusion, don’t buy a Sentra. Save your money buy something else, as long as it’s not a Sonata, fuck that car.
Too bad the SV doesn’t stand for “superveloce”
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
02/08/2017 at 15:09, STARS: 0
Too bad this one wasnt available! https://turo.com/rentals/cars/ga/kennesaw/honda-s2000/201774?s=twmuBoCl
S2k with unlimited mileage for ~$40 a day!
Also, why the hell is the Sentra bigger than an M3?? I thought that was the whole point of having an Altima and Maxima for larger cars and the Sentra being the small one. I guess the same thing has happened to the Corolla and Civic though as well.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 15:13, STARS: 0
Says delivery would be $80, so over 300% the price of the Sentra, and this was all about economy. If it wasn’t, I’d probably rented from Sixt and gotten a Benz, only problem is Avis is 10 mins from my house, Sixt is 45.
"avalonian" (avalonain19)
02/08/2017 at 15:14, STARS: 1
Hopefully the job interview went well though?
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 15:16, STARS: 4
It seemed to go well, I’m really hoping that’s actually how it went. They did seem really interested and one of the people I talked to were like yeah your skills are basically exactly what we’re looking for.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
02/08/2017 at 15:17, STARS: 0
So then, buy a Sonata. Got it.
Seriously, I had a rented Altima for a couple weeks and hated most everything about it. I see these and Sentras all over the place, and I wonder what people are thinking. It makes me think the higher trims must be significantly different somehow.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 15:21, STARS: 0
I didn’t really care for the Sentra. I hated the Sonata. The worst car I’ve ever driven was a 2015 Kia. It was the cheapest car you could rent at enterprise and I needed a cheap car since I was on furlough at the time and not getting paid. I don’t understand how people pay money for these things.
Maybe the higher trims are better, the only postitive things I’ve heard about Nissan recently have been about their SUVs.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
02/08/2017 at 15:22, STARS: 0
Haha I had no idea what the geography was or where things were. Too bad you really dont like the Hoondai stuff. I kind of thought both the Accent and Sonata I have rented were pretty nice. The transmissions didnt piss me off at least (the silly manual mode actually was kinda fun) and they were not slow. I did find the interiors to be overly cheap and one of the Accents I rented had no cruise control. But otherwise, pretty decent crap boxes.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 15:24, STARS: 3
The only reasons people buy Hyundais:
You have no interest in cars.
The warranty.
You’re Wobbles the Mind.
"SPAMBot - Horse Doctor" (spambot2002)
02/08/2017 at 15:26, STARS: 2
For those of you without your trusty TI-84 handy
TI-84?? Pshh. TI-89 or bust. And yes, I keep it handy.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
02/08/2017 at 15:27, STARS: 0
But I could probably apply that to any current econobox. My perspective is probably skewed but the Accent is actually kinda fast when you just floor it all the time. And the automatic actually let the thing get near the redline occasionally. The brakes worked well and it steered kinda where I wanted it to go. Sure I hate the EPS also (my arms felt like I was trying to steer through cement when I got back in the Miata) but I could certainly find worse rental cars. Like the Chevy Spark!
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
02/08/2017 at 15:29, STARS: 1
Well, in support of that theory, we have a 2015 Kia Sedona. Obviously it’s a world away from a compact car, but it’s loaded, and I like it a lot. Its steering is so boosted as to have zero feel and is feather light, but that’s appropriate on a minivan. The same on a small car would make me homicidal.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 15:29, STARS: 2
I knew I was going to get a comment about that, mine severed me well in college I saw no reason to get a new one.
Here it is next to my broken computer, fracking wells on night shift.
"J_P_Cars10s" (jpcars10s)
02/08/2017 at 15:34, STARS: 0
I’ll never give up my TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition. Together, we have conquered SDSMT’s ME program.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 15:36, STARS: 0
That got me through Georgia Tech’s ChBE program.
"J_P_Cars10s" (jpcars10s)
02/08/2017 at 15:42, STARS: 0
The extra pixels and colored plots really make all the difference!
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
02/08/2017 at 15:43, STARS: 0
Nissans mostly stink lately, but of all the assorted rental cars I’ve had over the past year or so, I actually kinda liked the Altima, at least for highway trips. No way I would buy one, but it’s a comfy boat that gets good mileage, and had a super smooth and quiet ride. In the city it’s more problematic because the transmission and throttle calibration basically ignore anything you do with the accelerator short of flooring it. Trying to squeeze into a gap in city traffic with part-throttle acceleration just doesn’t happen, it’s all or nothing.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 15:46, STARS: 0
Now that I think about it, I was to the floor a lot anytime I wanted to make a gap.
"SPAMBot - Horse Doctor" (spambot2002)
02/08/2017 at 15:56, STARS: 0
Fancy!!
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
02/08/2017 at 15:57, STARS: 1
That’s a common problem with many economy-minded cars nowadays. They want to stay in the tallest possible gear, and the motor doesn’t have enough grunt to do anything without kicking down a gear. But the only way to get them to kick down a gear is to floor it, so when they finally do kick down it’s like NOW I WILL UNLEASH THE FURY OF MY 153 HORSEPOWER and it’s maybe more acceleration than you need.
It’s not exclusive to Nissan or CVTs, but Nissan CVTs are some of the worst offenders. The early SkyActiv Mazdas were also terrible at clinging to the absolute highest possible gear no matter what unless you totally mash the gas.
My wife’s Impreza is slow and has a CVT but I do think Subaru’s CVT and throttle calibration is pretty decent at avoiding that all-or-nothing feel. It’s much more progressive.
"SPAMBot - Horse Doctor" (spambot2002)
02/08/2017 at 15:58, STARS: 0
Funny thing, I have a broken TI-83 next to my functioning computer right now. I got the 83 for free in High School (I don’t remember why) and I got the 89 used off eBay for ~$80 in college. Both have served me well. At least until I broke the 83 last month :(
"jdrgoat - Ponticrack?" (jdrgoat)
02/08/2017 at 16:05, STARS: 1
This largely matches my thoughts on the rental Sentra I had! At least yours was red. Looks a lot better than the cheap-o white one I had.
"pjhusa" (pjhuskinja)
02/08/2017 at 18:35, STARS: 0
^ As crappy as everyone says it is (and it truly is unimpressive), it is hard to resist when it’s a free company car...
"avalonian" (avalonain19)
02/08/2017 at 18:53, STARS: 1
Ayyy, nice! Those are good ways to end interviews! That means you’ll be moving to the Savannah are I presume?
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 19:18, STARS: 0
My TI-83 broke after my freshman year of college and I found the TI-84 lying around my fraternity house. It belonged to another brother who had failed out of school, and well he wasn’t using it.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 19:22, STARS: 0
At first I didn’t think it was too bad but after a while I was like no, this is shit.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 19:24, STARS: 2
That’s understandable, I mean I guess I would drive one if it was given to me. I wouldn’t willingly buy one though.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 19:25, STARS: 0
If I do get the job, then yeah I’ll be somewhere around there. Have to figure out exactly where’d I want to live.
"SPAMBot - Horse Doctor" (spambot2002)
02/08/2017 at 19:29, STARS: 0
That is awesome! It’s always good putting something long forgotten to good use. My 89 mostly adds and subtracts these days. Sometimes, when I’m feeling spicy, I’ll divide haha
"pjhusa" (pjhuskinja)
02/08/2017 at 19:34, STARS: 0
We’d probably have an i3, or at least a Golf, if this wasn’t given to us for free...
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 19:34, STARS: 0
My calculator did 0.0212*”MD top perf” and that was about it, or maybe 8.34*0.52*TVD, if I got a little wild. Those are both super basic frac calculations, first on is for flush second was for hydrostatic pressure.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 19:35, STARS: 3
Those are hub cabs right? Go to walmart and get some plastic spinners, that’ll make it 200% better.
"SPAMBot - Horse Doctor" (spambot2002)
02/08/2017 at 19:48, STARS: 1
I convert feet of head to psi a few times a day so I guess I should give it some more credit. But yeah, nothing more complex than your frac calcs haha
"avalonian" (avalonain19)
02/08/2017 at 20:08, STARS: 0
I’ll take care of the M3 don’t worry! you can borrow my avalon lol
"pjhusa" (pjhuskinja)
02/08/2017 at 20:32, STARS: 1
pls no
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 22:15, STARS: 0
I’m assuming you’re in the Savannah area?
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/08/2017 at 23:42, STARS: 0
NOW I WILL UNLEASH THE FURY OF MY 153 HORSEPOWER
Is about the most accurate description I’ve heard about a CVT. I will agree you needed more than normal throttle input to get it to move.
"jdrgoat - Ponticrack?" (jdrgoat)
02/09/2017 at 01:40, STARS: 0
Funny that my experience was a little bit the other direction. I knew I didn’t want it when they gave it to me. hen my first experience driving it was in stop and go traffic, where I thought having the “sport” mode on and running in L would be a good idea.
That was the wrong idea...
Once I got used to not caring about the car, and always just mashing the throttle, it got better.
Also, don’t bother with “sport,” “eco,” “o/d off” (which only just bumped the rpms up at every speed), or “L.” No combination reduces the suck.
"avalonian" (avalonain19)
02/09/2017 at 06:23, STARS: 0
Heck no. Lol, in the norcross, doraville area. Couldn’t live in savannah, ain’t nothing out there
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/09/2017 at 08:37, STARS: 0
It’s not metro ATL, but there is actually a good amount of stuff out there, plus no open container law in Savannah.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/09/2017 at 08:43, STARS: 0
I pushed the sport button once. That was in conjunction with the traction control to see if it’d spin the tires in the wet. It won’t, it’s so underpowered that it can’t. Once I realized I had to mash the throttle for anything, it at least made sense how to drive it.
"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
02/09/2017 at 12:54, STARS: 0
And dee-preesh on the Beamer.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/09/2017 at 12:56, STARS: 0
I’m more worried about wear and tear, I really don’t plan on selling it.
"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
02/09/2017 at 15:17, STARS: 1
In my mind, same difference.
"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
02/09/2017 at 16:54, STARS: 1
Look closely at all those Sentras and Altimas and I bet you’ll notice that like 50% have rental barcodes. About 25% of the rest are probably private fleet/company cars. I’m exaggerating a bit, but the reason they sell so many is that they compete like crazy on price. On paper, an Altima and an Accord have the same sticker. In reality you can get a mid-trim Altima 2.5SV with a sticker of $27k for something like $17k all day long, while you can’t get a $27k Accord EX for less than $22k. A lot of people will look at both and say that the Honda is $5k better (especially when resale and reliability are factored in), but for a lot of others that is a huge price difference - we’re talking about $100/mo. difference in payments on a loan.
"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
02/09/2017 at 16:56, STARS: 0
I love Sixt. Nothing but good experiences with them (in Europe). I wish they would build more of a presence here in the US.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/09/2017 at 16:57, STARS: 0
They’ve got some places in the US, but the closest one to my parents house is like 30-45 mins depending on traffic, farther than my dad would drive to bring me to it.
"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
02/09/2017 at 17:00, STARS: 0
It’s easy to forget that all the way through the E90, the 3-series was a compact car. Same class as the Sentra. It’s really only with the F30 that the 3-series is a midsize. So it isn’t really the Sentra that is big, it’s just that the E90 M3 is smaller than you think.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
02/09/2017 at 17:51, STARS: 0
You may be right about the number of rentals overall. But, I see a bunch of them owned by people I know. In our part of town, we have plenty of families who need to buy on price, but geez it sure seems you can do better for the same coin. I figure they don’t know better or don’t care.
"Under_Score" (tomtheatum)
02/09/2017 at 18:19, STARS: 0
Renting a wheelchair van would’ve been AWESOME though.
"FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com" (alphaass)
02/09/2017 at 20:12, STARS: 1
Probably don’t know or don’t care. It’s amazing how many people I meet who just go out and buy a new car with very little research or comparison. But if you want a mid-size sedan out the door for $18k-ish your options are pretty limited to stuff even more questionable like the 200. These Altimas sell for Civic/Corolla/Jetta/Mazda3/Focus money. Most of us here would agree those are better cars, but a lot of people would prefer to get the extra interior space.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
02/09/2017 at 20:30, STARS: 1
Yup
"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
02/09/2017 at 20:40, STARS: 1
You have a lengthy post here, but I’d expect it to be relatively comfortable, relatively underpowered, though likely a bit peppy with one adult on board, and relatively decent gas mileage.
"JDMatt" (JDMatt)
02/09/2017 at 22:25, STARS: 1
I rented a Sentra about a year ago, and I have the same grievances you have.
I did mostly city driving and the CVT transmission gave me a headache. Trying to drown out the noise of the CVT was futile because the stereo had crappy speakers. I couldn’t wait to fly home and return to my 9 year old mazda 3 with a normal automatic transmission and a better stereo.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
02/09/2017 at 22:39, STARS: 1
The stereo was as bad as the CVT. I was really impressed by the stereo in the Chevy Malibu I had last week, this was like oh so this is what a rental car is supposed to be like.
It also blew my mind how gutless the engine was. Nissan had 22 years on the B14 Sentra and still only got 9 more HP out of a bigger engine with modern things like variable valve timing. I know it’s designed for economy, but the B14 also returned better fuel mileage.
"BenStone04" (benstone04)
06/18/2017 at 22:11, STARS: 0
Have you driven the Genesis 5.0? Faaaaaaast
"BenStone04" (benstone04)
06/18/2017 at 22:13, STARS: 0
Dude, the 200 destroys the Altima/Sentra. Not even close.
"Klaphunk" (klaphunk)
11/30/2018 at 11:25, STARS: 0
I’ve had my 2017 Sentra Sr Midnight for awhile now. Yup, it’s a dog, and yes you need really need to mash that pedal to the floor to get it to give you any kinda reasonable response. After driving it now for a 1 1/2 years, and putting it through the paces I can give you some great feedback. Handling is great if you know how to drive a car properly/ Braking has been spongy, and the brakes squeal when stopping at low speeds. acceleration is a joke, and passing on the highway forget about it. car struggles to go past 105 mph in “ sport” mode. Although, I did just remove the “cold air pipe” from the intake, and it seems to have freed up a few small ponies. The sound it makes is quite nice. I’m not a fan of “warm air” intakes, but for this car it seems to like it.