2021 Nissan Sentra spied with interior exposed, showing off manual transmission

The Nissan Sentra is due for a full redesign soon, and we just caught it out testing without much of a disguise on. Not only that, but our spy photographer got some great, detailed photos of the interior.

To begin, we sort of already know what the Sentra is going to look like. Check out our post on the 2020 Nissan Sylphy reveal. The Sylphy is what Nissan calls the Sentra in China, and it's identical to the car we're looking at here. Feel free to try and dissect what you can see through the camouflage, but everything is revealed in full via the Sylphy already.

The bit we're most interested to see is the interior. This is sometimes where manufacturers try to differentiate the most from market-to-market, but this Sentra looks identical to the Sylphy's interior. Nissan is moving things upmarket for the compact sedan, and we can see it in the design. The center stack takes some inspiration from the new Altima, and it's generally way better looking than the current Sentra's interior — keep in mind, that's not a high bar to surpass.

Also, there's a manual! The 2019 Sentra offers a manual in the base trim and slightly warm Nismo trim, but it's great to see the next-generation won't be giving it up. Even if it isn't the most engaging gearbox to row through, the ability to shift gears ourselves is still very much appreciated when the other option is a CVT.

We hope to see the new Sentra soon, with current projections showing it will arrive as a 2021 model year car. That means one more year with the underwhelming Sentra of today, but greener pastures appear to be around the corner.