The Nissan Sentra was first unveiled to the world in the year 2000 and for some reason it is still soldiering on in our market, keeping the latest new style headlamp facelift first shown to the world in 2004, even though its ‘replacement’ the Sylphy is already on sale.

First introduced in Malaysia in December 2000, the Sentra has been around for 9 and a half years and by the end of this year it would mark a decade that the Sentra has been sold on our shores. That’s a seriously long time for a non-Malaysian make to be sold here. A normal car typically has a 5 year lifecycle while more upmarket cars like BMW and Mercedes-Benz have 7 year lifecycles. There are currently over 47,000 units of the Sentra on our roads.

The latest ‘update’ to the Sentra is the new Nissan Sentra tuned by Impul, which equips the Sentra with some Impul bits and pieces. You get a complete Impul aerokit which features a new front grille, front and rear bumper lips, side skirts and a rear wing. You also get an Impul sports suspension system which drops the ride height by around 25mm.

At the rear end you get an Impul Blast II Exhaust Muffler which is made of polished stainless steel. The wheels are 16 inch Impul FS-16 alloy wheels with a bronze finish. Of all these Impul components, only the 16 inch wheels are imported from Japan, while the rest are ‘localized’.

Here’s the prices for the Impul Sentra:

  • Impul Sentra 1.6L MT Comfort – RM94,500
  • Impul Sentra 1.6L MT Luxury – RM98,500
  • Impul Sentra 1.6L AT Comfort – RM98,600
  • Impul Sentra 1.6L AT Luxury – RM102,600

These prices are actually quite a margin over a ‘regular’ Sentra. For example a Sentra 1.6L MT Comfort goes for RM86,750 OTR with insurance in Peninsular Malaysia. That’s a RM7,750 premium for all the Impul stuff. But if for some reason you really want a Sentra with an Impul kit it’s cheaper to buy the pre-packaged Impul version than add the bodykit for RM3,000, the grille for RM800, the wheels for RM4,000, the tyres for RM1,200, the wheel nuts for RM250, the suspension for RM2,500, and the exhaust muffler for RM1,800.

But really, we come back to the question of WHY? And how long more do you think the Sentra will soldier on in Malaysia?