I'm really hating on Nissan for doing these ugly face-lifts and not doing anything for the powertrain or chassis.
Absolutely agree. To me, the last time a "new" Nissan product came out with an interesting or updated powertrain was the Juke (1.6L turbo).
New Altima? Same 2.5L (I guess we should be happy they kept the 3.5L as an option...)
New Sentra? Regressed to the old 1.8L (from the lacklustre 2.0L)
New Versa? Regressed to the old 1.6L (from the lacklustre 1.8L)
New Rogue? Same 2.5L
New Pathfinder? Same old VQ35 (actually, that's probably an improvement over the old 4.0L)
New Titan/Frontier/Xterra - oh, wait...
It really pains me as a life-long Nissan fan. For a company that USED to be all about high-tech, class-leading powertrains and engineering, to have ceded the technological lead to, well, basically the entire field. And no, the CVT doesn't count in my books!