Nissan has long been an underdog in the automotive market. Many car manufacturers have a de facto car that their competitors try to benchmark against. The Toyota has the Corolla, the Honda has the Accord, and the Nissan has… well…

Although Nissan’s products compare very well to the competition, they just don’t garner the same level of attention. They have yet to experience an automotive breakthrough – like what KIA and Hyundai experienced earlier this decade with a shiny new line-up.

So while we wait for Nissan to shine through, let’s review its latest rendition of its mid-size sedan, the Altima. We had a chance to test drive the Altima 3.5L SV, which is the top-of-the-line fully loaded variant.

Here are the specifications of the base model Altima:

-2.5-litre four-cylinder engine

-182 horsepower

-CVT engine

-Anti-lock brakes with Electronic Brake force Distribution

-Traction control, Vehicle Dynamic control, and Understeer control

-Push-button start

The model we drove was the 3.5 SL, and sports the following specs:

-3.5-litre V6 engine

-270 horsepower

-18-inch wheels

-Leather seats

-14-speaker Bose sound system

-Heated seats

LIKES

Design

The mid-size segment is notorious for being too conservative. The result has been some semi-boring products in this category. Aside from Hyundai and KIA, Nissan has always broken out of this paradigm with every single Altima they have designed since the beginning of the 21st century. From the sleek roof, blacked out headlamps, and chrome tail lamps on the 2001 model to the stretched out tail lamps on the 2007 model – they’ve always managed to be different. This generation is no different. 

In Asia, there exists this beautiful stretched out Nissan called the Teana. In 2013, Nissan decided to rebadge the Teana as the Altima and bring it to North America. The result is a nice long platform that’s marginally longer than the Accord and Camry, and almost two inches longer than its predecessor. Add Nissan’s ground-breaking styling to that – with those stretched out lights, sloping roofline, and curvaceous rear deck lid – and you’ve got a stunner that sends the competitors back to the drawing board.

Fuel economy and Performance

The tested model sports a V6 engine that claims to deliver 9.4 litres in the city and 6.4 on the highway. Like most cars, the numbers are overcompensated and our test model delivered a city and highway average of 10.7 liters. This figure is pretty impressive, and we found it achieve better efficiency than the 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder Ford and GM engines that claim to achieve better fuel economy. The Altima’s decent fuel efficiency can be credited to the Xtronic CVT, the only transmission choice in the Altima line-up. As for performance, the Altima delivers decent throttle response and average acceleration. Under heavy throttle, there is some wheelspin, but it’s reasonable considering the size of the car.

DISLIKES

CVT Transmission

There’s nothing wrong with the CVT transmission – especially considering its role in the car’s fuel efficiency. It would just be nice to have the option for an automatic transmission. The model we tested was a V6, and most drivers who buy a V6 are looking for a balance between power and performance with fuel efficiency not being a big priority. Hit the throttle hard and you will get decent performance, but it will be accompanied by an ascending pitch – the trademark sound of all CVT transmissions.

Gear Shifter

Like most cars, the Altima has a tiptronic shift mode for semi-manual shifting using the paddle shifters. While most cars require you to move the shifter horizontally from “D” to enter the tiptronic mode, the Altima is simply linear – in-line with all the other shifts (P, R, N, D). Upon many instances and out of habit, we pulled the gear shifter all the way down, causing us to accidentally enter Tiptronic mode.