2022 Toyota Corolla vs. 2022 Nissan Sentra: Price, Features, and Fuel Economy Compared

Nissan offers a straightforward compact-car lineup, while Toyota gives buyers a lot to think about.

Mike Hagerty | 

Apr 11, 2022 | 3 min read

Nissan/Toyota

Both the Nissan Sentra and Toyota Corolla deliver solid mileage and decent feature content, but while Nissan keeps choices to a minimum, Toyota offers a dizzying number of ways to spec its compact car.

Toyota

Price

The Corolla comes in two body styles: a sedan and a hatchback. The entry-level sedan has a 139-hp four-cylinder underhood and opens at $21,200. If you want a larger-displacement four-cylinder with 30 additional horses, you’ll need to select at least the midrange SE trim, which opens at $23,650. The hatchback lineup starts at the SE level, with a base price of $21,940, and uses the latter engine exclusively. Both that model and the one-step-up XSE hatch come with a six-speed manual transmission, though Toyota offers a continuously variable transmission (CVT) for a higher price tag. In the sedan lineup, it’s the opposite: Toyota equips models with a standard automatic, but offers an extra-cost manual on the Corolla SE and SE Apex. It also gives shoppers the option of spec’ing a 121-hp hybrid powertrain in the LE sedan for $24,775.

Meanwhile, Nissan offers a lot less choice for about the same cost. Every Sentra has four doors and a trunk, a CVT, and a 149-hp four-cylinder engine. There are three trim levels (S, SV, and SR), the lowest of which starts at $20,635, or $565 less than the base Corolla.

Nissan

Features

The Corolla and Sentra largely mirror each other in the feature department, with 4.2-inch instrument-cluster screens and 7-inch infotainment displays on base models. Those screens are upgraded to 7- and 8-inch units, respectively, on higher models. Both cars offer leather-trimmed seats on a mid-level trim and leatherette upholstery at the top of the lineup, and both have standard automatic high-beams — though, all Corollas have LED headlights, and the Sentra’s lower models rely on older-tech halogen lamps.

As for driver assistance, the two mostly align. While every Corolla comes with adaptive cruise control, Nissan reserves that tech for SV and SR Sentras. Although both vehicles have standard lane-departure warning, only the Toyota’s system provides corrective steering. Nissan earns points for equipping all Sentras with blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert (two features that are unavailable on the base Corolla), but Toyota specs each Corolla with road-sign recognition which Nissan doesn’t even offer.

Sedan to sedan, the Sentra has a larger trunk than the Corolla (14 cu.-ft. to 13) and offers more passenger room (96 cu.-ft. to 89).

Toyota

Fuel Economy

The Sentra returns up to 29 mpg in the city and 39 on the highway. Most Corolla trims fare about the same, coming within a point or two of those numbers.

The best nonhybrid variant is the CVT-equipped Corolla hatchback, which sees 32 mpg city and 41 highway. Interestingly, that’s with the more powerful 169-hp engine. The worst-performing Toyota — returning 28 mpg city and 36 highway — also has that engine and comes in hatchback form, but it uses the manual transmission. The Corolla Hybrid outdoes them all, with estimates of 53 mpg city and 52 highway.

Mike Hagerty

Sorting through the hundreds of new car, truck and SUV choices on the market to find the right one for your needs gets tougher all the time. I'm here to help. I've been writing and talking about new vehicles for 25 years on TV and radio, in print and online. And my passion for cars and driving goes back even farther than that. I love design and performance, but the second-largest purchase most of us will ever make (for some of us, the largest) needs to be based on more than good looks and quick zero-to-60 times.