Our neighbors both work at the Nissan plant, and this weekend she won the use of a new Altima over the weekend. Well, she's obviously seen me obsessing over my Max, so her husband told her that he had to bring it over for me to see. So she did.

My first reaction was wow! The car looks sooo much better in person and this time I got to get up close. It was the blue-green color that you've seen in press shots. The interior is their black, which is actually charcoal grayish. It was the 4-banger; the badge read "2.5 S". Because this is one of many Altima's that the plant is dolling out for workers and dealers to push hard during early production tuning, it had a few minor bugs..most noticeable was the metal strip that runs the length of the front glass across the roofline was loose. And I noticed some of the door panels showed some gaps(minor, but there). She commented that they had already changed the manner in which the stripping is applied, so shouldn't be a problem with those that hit the show room.

This model had cloth interior, sunroof, power driver seat, in-dash CD, the new-fangled trip computer (which is actually just some mpg, distance to empty, average speed type of information), radio controls on the wheel (along with redundent trip computer mode select), adjustable center arm rest, similar to our max's, to name a few things. I have to say that although I like the layout of the interior, I get what so many auto reviewers are saying about the look and feel of the materials. They don't come close, at least in this model, to the look and feel of our max's, and I've even been critical of the materials used in our cars. The parts look a bit too plasticky, especially the door panels, as they had the seat upholstery fabric set in as inserts. And the seat upholstery was a type of material that appears to be a lint magnet. I had trouble just pulling stuff off of it...definitely go for upgrade cloth or leather.

It was very roomy, and although they say it is slightly bigger than the max, it wasn't obvious. I did sit in the back and it was very comfortable. I'm 6' and they cut areas into the headliner that makes room for your head w/o it bumping. Very nice...not even a taurus I was in recently had that...my head hit the roof line.

The new-design Nissan badging is going to have to grow on me. It is HUGE, and is almost overwhelming. I don't like it, but I guess we gotta live with it. I begged for a test drive, but she said they were told no one else is to drive; she said she would give me a ride tomorrow.

Overall, the car looks sporty and elegant all at once, and is leaps and bounds more attractive than either the camry or accord.

However, the interior on this model was lacking. I would expect the SE and GLE to appear a bit more refined. Let's hope so.

Bottom line...I wouldn't be rushing to trade in my max...not by any stretch of the imagination. However, the car, properly outfitted, would be a very attractive alternative, guess that is why it is the Alt-ima, right?

Oh, the gauge cluster is very neat. Although it was daylight, this particular "environment" or "atmosphere" or whatever they are calling it was orange-yellow back-lit. Looked nice, although I don't like as well as what is in our Max.

If I manage to get driving, or riding impressions, I'll let you know how it goes. Outside of that, all I can share is touch and feel. Aside from the complaint about lowballing on the quality of the interior trim, I think Nissan will have a good seller. Don't know if it will meet their expectations, but should do better than the model it will replace. And, I don't think anybody that wants a Max is going to go for the Altima. They are very different cars.

srm

 

Cool dude maybe some pics if possable....

Like you said it's an Altima

Anyway I love you maroon color with the AE body kit it's like my favorite color....