Back in the early 1980s, Nissan and Toyota began producing American-sized cars, vehicles that were meant to compete with contemporary domestic vehicles in terms of size and interior content. To that end, vehicles like the Toyota Cressida and Datsun/Nissan Maxima reached our shores, with spacious interiors and plush, somewhat more modern dashboard layout, and cushy upholstery meant to elevate those manufacturers’ offerings  beyond the “econobox” mold of former products, and onto the shopping lists of Americans looking for a competent, comfortable family sedan. The optimistic imitation of American tastes found in the large Japanese sedans from that era has a distinct feel, that of an ersatz, 7/8 scale near-luxury sedan that pre-dates the current  “perforated-leather-and-driving-dynamics” definition of that term.  It seems to me that the English language is missing a word to describe cars like that, with that feel and ambience of the early ‘80s Cressida and Maxima – which is really a shame, because that word would be the one I would use in my description of the 2013 Nissan Sentra SV. Continue Reading →