Day-by-Day Review: 2013 Nissan Altima SV

Photo Gallery:
2013 Nissan Altima

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Click Image to Enlarge

Ah, this week I am behind the wheel of one of Canada’s bestselling mid-sized sedans. The all-new 2013 Nissan Altima is the bestselling Japanese mid-sizer in Canada — yes, Nissan sells more Altimas than Honda sells Accords or Toyota sells Camrys, believe it or not.

Although Nissan will say this is an all-new model — and there certainly are many changes — there are still many things that stay the same, including the drivetrain for the most part. Although there are a few tweaks to the engines and transmission, they are not wholesale changes.

Click Image to Enlarge

The 2013 Altima starts at $23,698 for the base 2.5 model. My tester is a 2.5 SV, which adds a few nice features for a starting price of just $26,998. The only other options on the SV are a navigation package that was included on my tester for $900, paint colour, which was a $135 option on my tester and the free choice of charcoal or beige fabric seats.

The SV model adds the following to a basic 2.5 Altima: Nissan’s intelligent key, heated outside mirrors, automatic headlights, dual exhaust with chrome tip, trunk switch, 17-inch aluminum-alloy wheels, power sliding glass moonroof, six-way power adjustable driver’s seat, heated front seats, remote engine start system, rearview monitor, upgraded audio system with five-inch colour display, USB connection, XM satellite radio and hands-free text messaging assistant.

That is quite the package to be honest and from what I can tell from my short time with this new Altima in SV trim — unless one desires leather, jumping up into a higher trim seems cost prohibitive.

MSRP as tested (including destination): $29,862

For more information on Nissan and the Altima visit Nissan Canada

For even more on this car FOLLOW James on Twitter

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Click Image to Enlarge

Lots of comments on this Altima and it seems like the peanut gallery is a tough crowd, that is for sure. On the inside the Altima is a nice place to be. Despite not being the fanciest or most luxurious of interiors, it does its job, which is to make the driver and passengers comfortable with a ton of interior space and easy to access controls.

Probably the most notable is the easy to read gauge cluster with a set of dials that are clean and crisp white on black. The navigation and entertainment LCD screen is a little low, which does reduce the glare on it, but makes it difficult to use as a back-up camera. And of course my pet peeve – it cannot be switched completely off and it is not controlled by the standard dimmer for the rest of the interior lighting.

Click Image to Enlarge

The rest of the interior lighting does not match the crisp white on black theme though, as a reddish orange is used for the remaining switches, which I find difficult to read at night, although certainly easier on the eyes in terms of distraction.

The generous tilt and telescopic steering and power adjustable driver’s seat make it easy to find a comfortable driving position quickly. Moving on back, the rear seats offer a ton of legroom and plenty of head room, just what consumers are looking for in this category.

The trunk is large as well and provides a large opening for large items. The 60/40 split seats help if one needs to load longer items but the seats do not fold anywhere close to flat. The actual opening cut-out behind the rear seats is also on the small side, so do not expect full car-width or trunk-width packages to fit. I also noticed there is no interior handle to close the trunk… another pet peeve of mine. The lid itself is nicely carpeted, a $2 handle would be nice to have in our salty climate.

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Click Image to Enlarge

Some of my readers and forum participants believe the Altima is a boring car to drive – I’ll agree that perhaps it isn’t the most sporty and exciting vehicle on the market, but most mid-sized family sedans are not. What are most mid-sizer buyers looking for, anyway? They are looking for comfort, features, reliability, cargo and passenger capacity, fuel economy and various other metrics. I’m sure some have fun-to-drive on their list but that is typically further down.

Comfort: This is one area the new Altima shines. With NASA-inspired zero-gravity seats, the Altima offers excellent comfort for the front passengers. The rear passengers are perhaps not treated as well but still have more than adequate room and comfort.

Cargo capacity: The trunk space is plentiful as mentioned yesterday and fold-down seats extend that even further.

Features: Well, as mentioned in day one, the Altima SV that I am testing has quite a few for a rather reasonable price. Some of the technology features such as Bluetooth sync with text-message reading and google integration are unique and could be a plus for many buyers with technology a key factor in their decision.

But how a vehicle drives should be near the top of the list for a buyer. The Altima is a comfortable cruiser with a soft suspension that soaks up road imperfections pretty much flawlessly. The suspension is not floaty or cumbersome, though, and the Altima still takes a set nicely and rebounds quickly, instilling confidence.

The 2.5L four-cylinder engine is torquey and offers great acceleration when needed. Although I subscribe to the theory that one can never have too much power, the 2.5L four in the Altima is plenty powerful for this vehicle and offers brisk acceleration when called for. I’m not sure upgrading to the 3.5L is really necessary unless you crave that extra grunt daily.

The CVT transmission is smooth as it should be, although when cold it seems to whine a little. And when the wheels are spinning in snow it feels like it is slipping while it whines – I’m not sure if that is intended or not. The traction control and stability control are effective but are also forgiving as they let you get a little loose before reining you in – the perfect balance for our snowy roads.

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Click Image to Enlarge

Wow – that’s how I feel about the fuel consumption I achieved with the new Altima. I looked back at my weekly test drives to find other vehicles to compare with, unfortunately most of the mid-sized sedans I have driven recently have been hybrids. But last winter I did drive the new Camry and averaged 8.5L/100km in the cold weather.

This week was perhaps not as cold as previous weeks but still somewhat on the chilly side until the end of the week. I managed to eke out an incredible 7.5 L/100 km with the Altima and more time on the highway would have easily dropped that down even further. Last week with the Equinox it cost me $100 for just over 500 km of travel — this week with over 400 km travel only $30 – impressive!

Overall, I do like this new Altima. It has a quiet ride, lots of space and is easy to drive and easy on the pocket book at the pumps — next up is its little brother, the Nissan Sentra.

*Rating out of 5: