My New Daily Ride - Nissan Sentra 1.6 SG Manual

Finally got my car on Thursday June 1st. In case you guys wanna know I finally bit the bullet and booked a 1.6 manual Sentra with full Nismo bodykit. Looks fierce and is the only non-national sedan car still available with a manual gearbox option.
Took more than 4 friggin weeks for my car to be delivered. Must be record wait time for a Sentra. Apparently this is due to not many people wanting the manual version. Sigh! Apparently out of every 10+ Sentras sold, only 1 is a manual. What a crying shame. Sad country we live in. Also splurged 150 smackers to get the switch to fold in the side mirrors. Every new Sentra sold in this country comes with the side mirrors already fitted with the folding motor but only the 1.6 SG-L (luxury) and 1.8 XG-L models have the switch to activate the folding fuction. Picture below shows the stock switch console without the folding rocker switch . As you can see the bottom half of the switch console is blanked off. Part number listed on the packaging is for the switch with the folding option. Sorry for the confusion. And NO the Sentra does not come with 17" OZ Supertourismo wheels despite what the crappy brochure shows. One of these days TC is gonna get in trouble. You get micro 14 inchers on the SG and only the SG-L and XG-L come with acceptable 15 inchers.

Upon delivery found that the one side of the instrument panel was properly lit and the other side/half only dimly lit. Suspected blown bulb or connection problem. Oh ya.. and they forgot to connect back my speedo & odo cable so both were not functioning. Called SA and arranged with him to visit TCEAS on Friday. Had to take leave. Bummer!

Arrived @ TCEAS Patani Road Friday 10+ am. Was promptly told by the Service Manager to come back next week as they’re fully booked for the day. WTF! So much for great service. My SA calls his Manager who promptly takes the car to TCEAS in Bayan Lepas (near airport next to Chevie Service Centre). In the meantime my SA shows me where to plug back the speedo connector on the engine block. With my speedo fixed I drove the car back to the showroom where the Manager took my car to be fixed. Got it back to around 4pm in the late afternoon. Proceed to go get some nice rubber matts. Settled for black 3A variant similar to what my wifey is using on her Optra.

Saturday was pretty exciting. Spend morning waxing/cleaning da car. Took it to Sg Bakap and back (fetchin wifey to watch movie). Tyre roar from the Goodyear Ducaro GA was pretty atrocious but otherwise no other complain. Smooth, quiet and refined as any other Jap sedan. Pretty stable at 120km/h. Quite a lot of wind noise though but the same can be said for the Focus which I test drove. Heard the Civic’s really quiet though. Steering feels a way bit too light for me. Guess most of the newer cars (Focus exempted) feels that way. Brakes are pretty decent despite rear drums. For road use can’t imagine why anyone would still want the Brake Booster Assist option. Nuts! Manual shifter feel is pretty precise and has a nice feel than stock Wiras/Satrias. Since it’s directly connected to the gearbox (unlike cables for the Wira) you don’t wanna place your hand continuously on it for long periods as it vibrates and tingles.

Spend Sunday doing research on replacement tyres as I'm pretty irritated with the tyre roar. These are not semi-slicks dammit! Wifey comes to Penang in her Optra so I get to drive both cars back to back for comparo. As expected the Optra has way better ride and handling but the Sentra’s more comfy and cushy soft. With a manual gearbox, Sentra’s also way more powerful and responsive too. At this point I decided on either the Michelin Energy XM1s or the Yokohama Aspec DBs.

On Monday went to see my regular tyre shop and was promptly offered 15” new Nissan Sentra SG-L/XG-L rims with the XM1s. After trade in my stockies have to only top up around 900 smackers. Offer too good to refuse. Sorry Yokohama. With the 15 X 6"” wheels fitted the car does look way better aesthetically. The 14 X 5.5” was too narrow and looked like it was hidden behind the bodywork. Too much offset. BTW.. Sentra is using 40 offset and 114.3 4 lug PCD. Oh ya.. and 4-5 of my stock lugnuts had signs of rust on them. WTF again. Gonna complain and get the lugnuts replaced during my 1000km service. The XM1s are really comfy but at the expense of a softer sidewall. Can feel more bodyroll. Might try the Pilot Preceda PP2s later. Overall I’m pretty satisfied with the car. Especially the refinement, build quality and comfort. And how does it compare to the SP? No comment!!! Pixs of car to follow..