Excellent !

Touch wood. I never got any serious problem since I owned it in September 97. The engine run smoothly. It gets noisy at high speed(over 75mph). But I spend more time in stop-and-go traffic than racing(I live in city).

I bought the new battery 5 years later from Autozone. Those Nissan genuine part is good if you wanna spend more and wait(They don't carry all parts for all Nissan vehicles). Mine is cheaper than those genuine and got 8 year free replacement warranty.

No timing belt! That save me a few hundred bucks because no need to change!

Fuel economy is not as good as other Japanese rivals(those names starting with C). Yet the MSRP is lower than those and so is the price of part(Fuel filter is about $10 cheaper than the popular sport compact). The official web site says 27(local) and 36(highway). I usually get 20-22mpg with a mix of local+highway. A bit exaggeration but it's one of the sales pitchs among auto makers, I guess.

Speaker is barely okay(no bass). But Sentra is not alone. Many entry level compact cars have cheap speakers.

If you simply wanna get a reliable and budget friendly car, Sentra should not be left out in your list.