In may of 1997 we purchased our second Nissan Sentra. We owned a 1987 model Sentra XE and got almost 200,000 miles out of it without any problems. Well, in May we purchased a new Sentra, which was also our first automatic. I am a police officer and do a lot of driving. We had approximately 1200 miles on the car when the transmission wouldn't come out of second gear. We drove it to the nearest dealer, that was approximately 30 miles away in second gear at speed near 70 miles an hour. When we arrived we demanded either a new Sentra that was a standard or our 1987 model back. We purchased our third Sentra that day, another standard and we have not had any problems since then.
So if you are looking for a Nissan Sentra, think twice before you trust their transmissions and don't go to Moses in Huntington, W.V. they were rude and very inconsiderate to us as return Nissan customers.
Lastly about Nissan in the West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio area. On the older Nissans there is a light that comes on the dash, demanding "service". Well, the dealership charged us $45.00 to turn this light off, I was mad when I found out all you have to do is take the kick plate off of the passenger side and press a button and put the kick plate back on. This process takes one phillips screwdriver and about 5 minutes of your time.
Good luck in your car search.