2022 Toyota Corolla vs 2022 Nissan Sentra

The Toyota Corolla needs no introduction. With 12 generations spanning over five decades of production, the Corolla is the bestselling nameplate in automotive history. And it continues to be a popular choice for new car buyers looking for a reliable and sensible compact car, competing against other established names like the Honda Civic, the Hyundai Elantra, the Kia Forte, the Nissan Sentra, the Subaru Impreza, and the Volkswagen Jetta for sales.

The only significant change for 2022 is the addition of two new colours: Ruby Flare Pearl and Wind Chill Pearl. What hasn’t changed is the number of other choices buyers get. Toyota offers sedan and hatchback body styles, manual and automatic transmissions, and multiple powertrain options—including a hybrid. The Corolla Cross SUV also launched for 2022 but, while it shares a basic platform with the Corolla sedan and hatch, it’s effectively a different vehicle.

Finally, you get the expected array of trim levels. The Corolla sedan is available in L, LE, XLE, SE, and XSE grades, plus Apex Edition and Nightshade Edition versions of SE and XSE, with more limited options for the Corolla hatchback and hybrid (both of which will be covered separately). For this review, we tested the Apex Edition sedan, which is based on the SE grade (US model shown). The Apex is the sportiest Corolla variant, at least until the GR Corolla hot hatchback arrives for the 2023 model year.

A lot is asked of small sedans. It’s not just that they are expected to be competent, affordable machines that can accommodate a buyer on a budget. For the automaker, the small sedan body style is also the intended entry point for the brand. This is the car that is supposed to convince shoppers to keep buying from them as they move into different vehicles. The 2022 Nissan Sentra is the perfect entry point for Nissan, but it wasn’t always this way.

The 2022 Sentra sedan is two years removed from a significant 2020-model-year redesign. With such a focus on small crossovers and tight competition in the small-car segment, such a redesign sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of new vehicle debuts. So, two years into its new generation, how is the Sentra doing? And how does it stack up with a very competitive collection of new small sedans? Read on to find out.