Apparently, I'm the one they want. Gen X-ers are the Payment Makers in the Sentra's marketing crosshairs. They're up at 6 to work out, put in slave hours at the Jay-Oh-Bee, and hit the nightlife till 1 in the AM every night. According to the PowerPoint, they're also gorgeous, with one percent body fat. They view their vehicles as a 'mobile backpack', demanding connectivity with their gadgets, as well as a place to stash all of them. What they appear to want is 'smart' space. They could go Big. There's plenty of room with Big, and it's usually way too much. They don't want their stuff to bounce around. They want to haul stuff, without advertising their purchases or hobbies to the rest of the world. What they want, quite simply, is the perfect car.

The six-speed manual stick is the first shifty solution, a lighter unit with improved synchronizers. It's borrowed from another Renault; the Scenic. I'm thinking about changing my automatic transmission slang for the CVT. It's not a slushbox; it's a beltbox. Nissan loves CVTs, and they just keep getting better. The Sentra's optional XTronic boasts reduced friction qualities, better shift response, and a new controller for improved scat.

With all of the talk surrounding nooks and crannies, I think I was driving the Sentra for about 67 seconds before I pulled over to fold and tumble. My favorite interior manipulator to date is the Honda Fit. The Sentra is a close second. Leave the trunk open in the woods in November, and you run the risk of a bear crawling through the cavernous passage for its yearly hiatus. The ad-nicks don't lie; you could live in one for a week. The true-flat fold floor, coupled with wide rear door openings, makes for easy box stack when yet another one of my relationships goes sour. The headrests folding feature on the seatbacks is so slick, you'll actually want to help friends move just to show it off. Unfortunately, ultra-function doesn't mean ultra-finished. The seat bottoms feel uber-flimsy, while the upholstery underfoot looks like something I stapled. An ABS-plastic finisher would fix/hide this easily, and hopefully provide some needed rigidity. A nifty trunk divider is part of the S Luxury Package. It's a trunk within the trunk, creating a secret cubby between the rear seat backs and the main trunk. (Customs agents take note.) Great for trunk monkeys.