When it comes to cheap sedans, the Nissan Versa is pretty much where it’s at. In contrast, the Nissan Sentra is supposed to be at least one slot upmarket, with a sticker price over $20,000 to match. And yet, if you know where to look, you can apparently score one for under $17,000—lower than even the Versa’s sticker price!
Normally, when we’re looking at ultra-discounted cars, we’re talking about tired old stock or unpopular models that just won’t move. That’s when dealers and automakers usually get antsy, and start heaping cash on the hood to get vehicles off the lot. But the Nissan Sentra is a special case—we’re seeing 2025 model year cars selling at major discounts.
We got a tip from Thad this week that Chicago is the biggest hotspot for cheap Sentras. There is a ton of stock in the state, and two main dealers looking to shift it. Brand-new examples are listed for big discounts exceeding $8,000—over a third of sticker price in some cases!
A great example is this beautiful red 2025 Nissan Sentra SV, up for sale at Liberty Auto Plaza in Chicago. It’s listed for $16,290, a full $8,350 discount from the $24,640 MSRP. For that money, you’re getting a front-wheel-drive sedan with a 2.0-liter, 149-horsepower engine, good for 30 mpg in the city and 40 mpg on the highway. At that price, it’s significantly cheaper than even the now-discontinued Mitsubishi Mirage, which started at $17,965.
We have some indication that these deals are legit, as our reader Thad has direct experience of buying from Liberty Auto Plaza. “I helped my assistant get one last August and prices have gone even lower since then,” he says. With lots of stock on the ground, they should be easy to get. However, there is one thing worth noting. “The only catch is they won’t do it unless you take their financing,” Thad explains. “We did that and immediately paid it off with no headaches so there was no extra net cost.”
Meanwhile, if you head across Chicago to Arlington Nissan, you’ll find similar deals on the lot. They’ve currently got one example selling for just $16,370. In fact, both Arlington Nissan and Liberty Auto Plaza have quite a few of these cars listed for just over sixteen grand. These aren’t even base models—the SV sits one level above the S. It gets you a nicer 8″ touch screen, four wheel disc brakes, alloy wheels, and some additional USB ports for your convenience. The rest of the country isn’t so lucky; the best deal outside Illionis is at Kenosha Nissan in Wisconsin for $17,496—still a nice $7,054 under sticker.
If you’re feeling thriftier, you might expect to get a better deal by downgrading to the Sentra S. You’ll suffer with steel wheels with wheel covers, a smaller 7″ infotainment unit, and you’ll only get four speakers instead of six on the SV. You’d think that might add up to some cost-savings compared to the slightly-nicer SV.
What’s funny is that S models are barely any cheaper, if at all. Again, Chicago has the best deal—Arlington Nissan has one for $16,244. You can also snag one at Kenosha Nissan in Wisconsin for $16,941—still a great deal at $6,484 under sticker. Further afield, you can find one in Georgia for $17,966, with while the rest of the country has to pretty much pay $18,000 and up.
If your tastes are more refined, though, you might prefer the Sentra SR. It’s not any faster or more powerful, but you get some nice upgrades. You score 18-inch alloy wheels, up from 16-inch rims on the lesser models. Nissan also throws in heated seats for driver and passenger, automatic climate control, remote start for your convenience. Arlington Nissan will charge you just $17,798 for a brand new 2025 Nissan Sentra SR in Electric Blue Metallic. Woodfield Nissan in Illionis has one of their own for $18,449—still a healthy discount from the $26,455 sticker price. The cheapest example I could find with the black roof option was $18,897 over at Glendale Nissan, at $8,048 under sticker. Beyond Chicago, though, it seems you’re out of luck for now. You won’t find an SR for under $21,000.
What’s especially weird is that there’s such a concentration of cheap Sentras in Illionis, specifically. Flicking around the dealer websites, there is some cash on the hood from Nissan corporate, but it rarely exceeds $1,o00 or so. The bulk of the discounts are apparently coming from the dealers themselves. Perhaps it’s a local price war, or perhaps the Sentra starred in some obscure Chicago music video the rest of the world has yet to catch on to. We’ll keep digging and report back if we find a believable answer.
I wish I could tell you these were the cheapest sedans currently on sale in the US. That would be a great headline for SEO, at the very least. Ultimately, though, there are a handful of sub-$16,000 Nissan Versas out there to spoil the party.
Regardless, these cheap Sentras present a compelling case. They’re quite a bit nicer than anything else in the sub-$20,000 range, and if you buy one, you could stunt on your Versa-owning lessers every day of the week. If you pick one up, let us know how you go—and if you’ve got any insight into the Chicago Sentra underworld. Enquiring minds want to know.
Image credits: Nissan, Cars.com via screenshot
I’m looking at this now since my parents are in the market for a new car. The deals apply to Rogues as well ($9k off the SVs), which is a great deal. It looks like there a big differences in the financing as advertised at each dealers website:
Arlington: 11.99% (!)
Kenosha: 6.5%
Liberty: 3.39%
I think I will call each and try to get some final numbers to compare, but we are not local so hoping there are no surprises if we decide to go through with it. If anyone else goes through the process from out of town would love some feedback.
It’s amazing how those rate numbers line up with what I’ll call the Dealer Dishonesty Rating. I’ve dealt with all three and they are pretty accurate.
Nice catch on the Rogues. I never looked because I despise them with a fervor only matched by my dislike for Compasses.
Ha that’s good to know, we will try with Liberty first…
If you get any BS, ask for Max in fleet sales and tell him Thad sent you. If he doesn’t remember my name, tell him we talked a lot about Wake Boarding. He’s all about it and will talk about his boat forever. Nice guy.
I’m going to call and warn him he may be hearing from our fellow readers/members. It may not do anything, but maybe it will grease the skids.
It is strange it’s all in Illinois and Wisconsin. You have to love the weird regional prices wars at a model level. Must be something driving it. I guess it could just be they have stock and they can make $500 selling a loan and that’s better then nothing.
I am the source for this article. We went through Liberty Nissan and there was no real bullshit. We did have a younger salesman try some of the cliche tactics at first but I blew through him to a manager who was very reasonable.
If anyone here goes after one of these and you run into friction, I’ll be happy to let them know you were referred and they need to behave. Not that I have any clout or anything, but I’m pretty sure I made an impression and they will remember me. I have finally reached the point in life where I don’t give the teeniest shit about being friends with dealers so I am completely unafraid to be a real jerk to get things done.
Beware of Arlington Nissan. They’re owned by one of the scummiest people around, Bob Rohrman. Stealership doesn’t begin to describe him. To top it off, he’s got one of the most annoying commercials on TV.
I second this emotion.
Used to work there, can confirm. Can’t tell you how happy I was when I heard He Who Shall Not Be Named finally kicked it a few years ago. With 11.99% APR it looks like the tradition lives on, sadly.
Oh, happy day! But more like oh, crappy day for anyone who sets foot in one of his godforsaken stealerships.
Bob is dead.
About 15 years ago I responded to a car accident between a Dodge Calibur and another car. When we got on scene, none other than Bob Rohrman popped out of the Dodge (on dealer plates). He was dressed like Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack and had an ENORMOUS Lexus branded golf bag in the back seat of the Dodge.
He ended up being very at fault and he gave everybody there his business card and promised we’d all get a fabulous deal on any new car we wanted.
Bob fuckin Rohhhhhhhhhrrrrman.
IIRC, one of his sons has a yellow LFa.
(Not that I’ll ever be able to afford more than a Tomica version, but I think they’re cool. My Japanese brother was a support person for the Toyota F1 team, and wrote a good deal of the transmission and steering code for the LFa.)
TIL that 4-speaker stereos are still a thing.
The SR gets six speakers!
Rented one of these Sentra SVs last year for a little road trip and honestly it was a perfectly fine car. On my 4 hour road trip I averaged about 44 mpg which I thought was fantastic. Comfy with the 1″ wheels and lots of sidewall. Even had full speed adaptive cruise control. Car was a bit gutless when trying to overtake on a two lane road but other than that, at these prices, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend one to family and friends.
No shit. I am genuinely impressed with the car for the money. It’s nice.
Ditto. Hired one in Vancouver in 2023 and was amazed at how nice it was. I’m a Brit. We don’t get them here .
How long is the CVT usually good for, even with excellent maintenance?
Interesting question. I’ve seen some on forums where they changed oil every 25000 miles and got well past 150,000. Due to the physics these are much more susceptible to bad fluid than a planetary. As a DIY job it’s pretty simple.
Well if you spend $17k on a new car and get 150k relatively trouble free miles out of it, that really isn’t such a bad proposition. I’ve not read about Nissan being a complete crap can for other stuff.
Since it has a weaker, less torque-y engine in a lighter car, the CVT is likely to last a but longer than something like a V6 Pathfinder. CVT reliability seems fine in lower power cars under 150hp, like you often get outside the US.
Jatco has a few CVT flavors. The V6 vehicles use/used the JF017E which was good for 280 ft-lbs while 4 cyl Altimas and Rogues used a medium duty transmission, Versa and Kicks used a light duty transmission and so on.
Personally the biggest failure rate I’ve seen was on the previous gen Sentra which used the same JF015E found on the contemporary Versa and Mirage. Makes sense there are little to no Mirages with failing CVTs but Sentras with bad transmissions are fairly common.
Current Sentra uses a beefier transmission, though
The engine isn’t powerful enough to wipe out the CVT. You have nothing to worry about.
With 30K mile fluid changes it should have no problems exceeding 150K miles. For the record I’m not fan of CVTs but on a pinch I owned a used 2016 Sentra SV from 110K to 140K. Last fluid change according to service records was at 83K. I did one right after purchase and another one before selling. It never gave me any issues, although it felt a bit gutless.
Last I saw the current Sentras have a beefier transmission (JF023E), while mine had the smaller JF015E shared with Versa and Mirage. My educated guess is the previous Sentra had an undersized transmission, but even then if maintained properly you could get some decent mileage out of them.
This generation (B18) got a new CVT over the last gen (B17). Last gen Sentras had CVT issues, but I’ve not really heard any on this generation much yet!
If you could get a Sentra with a manual I’d be intrigued. As is I might pay the same or slightly more for a Versa manual.
But if my wife was still driving 65 miles to work each way one of these would probably be in my driveway by end of the weekend.
She put 165k on a manual Saturn Ion bought new that was remarkably reliable. Then I picked up a used Prius with 100k on it and she took that up to 240k with just fluid changes and a set of tires. For awhile between the Ion and Prius I even got her a manual first gen Honda Insight. That car was actually pretty fun to throw around if you stopped caring about efficiency once in awhile. It’s undoing was having to pick up both kids on the way home a couple times.
I was gonna ask, do they still offer the manual.
Upvoted for the manuals. There’s dozens of us! Cheers brother, “no manual, no care”.
I will add to this and say I BOUGHT one of these with a manual back in December (Electric Blue Metallix 2022 Sentra SR with a 6-speed)
It genuinely is a very good and lovely car to be in. The engine is not the most powerful. but the manual makes it feel a bit more peppy and it’s a pleasant transmission to use. I find the shifter a LITTLE rubbery, but it’s not bad – gears are easy to find, the clutch is comfortable and easy to use. I’ve only stalled it once since I bought it and apparently it even auto restarts itself if you stall, which is handy..
My “theory” is that Nissan Sentras are popular in the latino community (top seller in Mexico), and with this administration making threats to cities like Chicago, people will not spend money on things like this. You dont have to be illegal, you could have a immigration process and have some sort of status but this administration does not care.
Plausible. It’s a good reminder that it’s not always just about the car itself. There are other factors at play. See also Tesla sales.
now that you mentioned top seller in Mexico it reminded me you can get a brand new Sentra with a 6 spd. Maybe another reason why it’s a such good seller south of the border
So the Sentra has a CVT. Not good. Does it have a plastic oil pan too! No wonder Nissan is going out of business.
I think my F150 I picked up recently has a plastic oil pan. I know the trans pan is plastic. Already eyeing a skid plate to add for protection and to thwart cat thrives. It’s all ridiculous.
This is just wrong. The car is not junk and for the money it’s an absolute steal.
AGreed – I own a 2022 of this gen with a 6-speed and it is genuinely a very good car. Very well-made, no creaks or rattles, comfortable, very fuel efficient. I also think the styling on these is really nice. Modern, but not overdone.
They are a lot of car for the money!
it’s the same 2.0 non-turbo from the Rogue Sport. Aluminum oil pan.
Yeah the CVT is slow but it’s quite improved over previous Nissans and should provide good-ish service with 30K intervals.
If I was in the market with a $20K budget I wouldn’t hesitate going with one of these. CVT fluid is cheap now and easy to do.
The fact that you can get one of these for less than my folks paid for their base Civic in 2008 is bananas.
This is about same we paid for a manual Saturn Ion with no AC in 2007. We may have paid just a bit less.
And if you buy from Arlington Nissan on Wednesday: “Wednesday’s are ladies apprciation day, receive a free manicure, lunch, and carwash!”
Given that my Sentra SE-R was $15,000 out the door in the spring of 1993, $16xxx for a 2025 Sentra is remarkable.
I just looked at the sticker I’ve kept for decades – $16,938 list price for a ’96 200SX SE-R (B14 Sentra). Ironically purchased at whatever Kenosha Nissan was called at the time.
I’ve still got my car’s sticker, too!
That’s $34k inflation adjusted!
I dunno man. We got a Sentra for a rental in Vegas last year and I hated that thing after just one day.
My assistant’s car is really nice for the money she paid. It drives well too. It is not a penalty box.
To go old school Chicago, Sentras are where you always save more money.
I bet it’s sheer supply, an absolute greater quantity of Sentras being built (and now offloaded). Like Ford in the 90s, dumping cars on Hertz as fast as it could.
HA! There’s 2/3 of an old Celozzi-Ettleson billboard showing on RT 83 southbound, between St. Charles and Roosevelt Rd. I’d post a picture, but we can’t.
Remember their Pizza Hut ad? “Where you always get more pepperoni.”
Oh man, I totally forgot about that!
That ad campaign, along with Victory Auto Wreckers telling me that old car is worth money, will live in my head the rest of my life for sure.
At these prices, even the most jaded former Nissan owner (like me) has to be interested. The Sentra is no Corolla or Civic, but it’s better than the Koreans and probably better than a VW too. And I would hope that after almost 20 years they’ve figured out that damned CVT.
Anyone who scores a brand-new Sentra for under 20k is killing it.
“And I would hope that after almost 20 years they’ve figured out that damned CVT.”
Update: they haven’t
CVT. That is all.
Canada gets a 6MT in the base S trim, but it looks like $1000 discount is the most that’s advertised on AutoTrader.ca
You could get the 6-speed in higher trims up until recently as well!
I live in Nova Scotia, Canada and picked up a 6-speed 2022 Sentra SR in December…really liking it so far!
These discounts are on the steeper side, but goes back to something I’ve said before, the larger more expensive car might have more margin and more incentives and wind up the same or even cheaper than the car with the lowest MSRP. And you see that with the prices on the base trim vs. higher trims too.
There are some crazy discounts on other models too, like over 9k off Rogues. 11k on some loaded Platinum ones even. Either Nissan just dumped a bunch of the product on them or they all said yes to every shipment with the plan to firesale (or both). And as mentioned the disclaimers and info sections say available to all.
Suppose there’s a chance they all have an overpriced Trucoat stuck on to every car but I think there’d be some angry reviews about the bait and switch if that were the case.
Huh, I’d consider an S. I would pay more for less features (especially steelies), to be honest.
Yeah me too, to get exactly what I want. Which is why a Versa S with steelies is my choice, so I could get the manual and the minimum of gadgetry.
I love a base model too, but there is no manual trans available in the US.
So last MY was it, huh? Damn.
I think the model switch might’ve been missed in your comment, the Versa you can still row your own, although if this is the last year maybe they’ve produced all the manuals they plan to.
A return of a manual Sentra (as seen north of the border) after the Versa is dropped would be nice, although there’s certainly no reason for them to do that there is no other “regular” small car with manual on offer that I can think of with the Jetta and Civic having dropped theirs.
Yeah. Same with the Civic (except for SI and Type R). I was really tempted to buy a new Civic Sport this year, but CVT only.
I suppose I could swap my alloy wheels with steelies and hub caps and not worry about curb rash. Some steelie/hub cap combos look pretty decent. After 8 years, my wheels are still in pretty good shape, but I cringe on that rare occasion I do kiss the curb.
The Sentras I’ve rented were fine. There have certainly been worse.
Saw yesterday that the Sentra was listed as a best buy by Consumer Reports.
Considering I paid ~$10k for my 1992 Sentra SE this is an incredible deal.
Hope some good people get to take advantage and certainly hope they don’t get screwed.
Ah, the good ol’ GA16DE… I can still smell that car and watch the seatbelt slide up the door as I close it.
Good times.
Nissans need to get more expensive, not less expensive. I come within inches of getting killed by them every time I commute. Pretty much all highways in and around DC are overflowing with Nissans and Infinitis being used as intercontinental ballistic missiles. I think Nissan should charge MORE for them and the people that commit multiple moving violations in Nissan products should be given an unlimited Metro fare card, some Uber cash, and a medal for winning the Nissan Wars.
A quick check of the big Nissan dealer within the Chicago city limits finds Sentras still priced north of $20K … so whatever deal this is seems only to be available in the suburbs.
Great Mr. K.’s ghost! The is a sweet deal! Prices are generally still at sticker on the East Coast because of course!
Interesting. That’s a good deal for a new car. Yeah, it’s a Sentra. But 36k miles of warranty is compelling…
I hate to say this (either because it’s too obvious or just rampant speculation) — but when I see one specific group of dealers in a single metro area offering crazy discounts, and there are no state-level incentives in play, it absolutely reeks of some level of collusion, trickery, or other fine print games.
But if the deals are valid, this is about the best deal out there. Maybe in the history of modern cars. I do know that a lot of dealer-sourced financing has fine print that you have to make “X number of payments to retain the deal or else pay back all discounts” but it sounds like that might not even be the case.
That sounds difficult to enforce or possibly even illegal.
“How do we make a prepayment penalty sound extra sketchy?”
prepayment penalties are real.
Buy Here, Pay Here, Pay Here Again, Keep Paying Here, First Child Born, Continue Paying Here, First Day of School, Still Paying Here, Sweet 16 – here’s a car but I’m still Paying Here, Happy Graduation you can keep the car… But you have to Pay Here.
I agree, but I saw it at both VW and Chrysler the last two times I shopped new cars (and ultimately bailed).
I think they skirt the lending laws by tying the incentive on the car to the financing arm itself (which is usually an asterisk in the ad).
So in that sense, it’s not much different than those 0% for 24 months appliance or furniture deals you see where missing a payment results in a full repayment at max interest. It’s also common with mortgage brokers who are on the hook for 3-6 months if the customer defaults.
Prepayment penalties are still legal and common in aggressive financing across the board. I work mostly in commercial loan risk, but I spent a bit of time in mortgage and auto around the Great Recession. Whatever tricks they can pull, they’ll do it.
Too bad legality doesn’t matter anymore. Well, in the US at least.