ANY PROS & CONS ON NISSAN ALTIMA???

[chuchu]

I THINKING OF GETTING A NISSAN ALTIMA 2.5SL '06. ANY ADVISE OR ANY PROS AND CONS FOR NISSAN ALTIMA 2.5SL '06?? BESIDES, WHAT'S THE REASONABLE PRICE AFTER ALL THE FEES AND TAXES FOR ALTIMA 2.5SL '06??? I REALLY NEED ALL YOUR HELP HERE........ .. :?

[Pritch]

I drove one and liked it.

Peppy engine, nice interior (though I know many dont care for it), roomy enough, and one of the best looking cars in the class.

my review is in the test drive archives if you wanna check it out.

cons? I hear they are bad on gas.....and I hate to say it, cause i love the altima...but check out the sonata 4 cyl youll probably save money and its every bit as good, if not better (not as quick though)

Pritch

[XTrail1]

The Altima is a beautiful car, the revised interior is very well done. The QR25DE engine has a lot of torq and quite fun when pushed. Interior space is huge and so is the trunk, the ride is sporty and not "floaty" like the Sonata. As far as being hard on gas it's the first time I hear that, but since it's kind of fun to do some spirited driving in this car using more fuel could be expected. Check out the Sonata forums, noisy V6 valvetrain, brake squeal, road noise, suspension k-thunk over bumps, fuel economy also comes up often on many Hyundai models, cheap plastics inside.

[jww]

I have a 2002 S with the convenience package (read Extra package in today's trim levels), OEM leather and a 5spd manual transmission. Let me say that unless Nissan have improved fit and finish on the long term, you don't want this vehicle. I would say that I have a love-hate relationship with this car. Sure it goes like stink, and is very comfortable, yet there are tons of niggling little issues that annoy me like crazy. I'll list a few below to give you some sense of what I mean.

1. Interior Seat quality: After 3 years of ownership, the side bolsters of the driver and passenger front seats are both cracking. Nissan and the dealer won't do anything about that. Strike one against Nissan.

2. Had a whinning engine for almost 3 years before the dealer would agree to change a couple of belts which solved the problem.

3. Brakes are expensive - cost me $1500 back in September to do a full brake job - and I have been faithful with my maintenance and service schedule.

4. Torque Steer: It's horrendous - the worst of any car I have driven - especially when there is any wetness on the road - even snow tires make little difference there. Luckily with a standard, I can manage that much more easily, but a colleague of mine who just got a 2005 3.5 SL and hates the torque steer. Strike 2 against Nissan

5. Interior: While the interior is much better now than the original, it's still not up to snuff with some others - heck, the Hyundai Sonata I checked out the other day has better fit and finish. The driver's seat whines and groans whenever I adjust it in the winter (not so in the spring through fall). It's incredibly annoying - attributed to mouldings rubbing against each other. Stirke 3 against Nissan.

6. It's a very noisey cabin - you get way too much sound from the road. The engine noise of the 2.5 doesn't bother me that much, but road noise is annoying as is wind noise along the door panels.

Having said all this there are a few things I really like:
1. Convenience features such as fully automatic headlights (these are great), automatic volume leveling - it reduces or increases the volume of the stereo depending on road noise and speed, electric driver's seat - if you have more than one driver, this is a boon for sure, auto-down windows via key-fob, auto up/down driver and front passenger windows. tilt/telescopic steering wheel, steering wheel mounted audio controls, etc.

2. Spartan Interior: While the fit and finish leaves something to be desired, I do like the way Nissan takes a simple approach to the interior of the Altima - although it's much more spiffed up now, it is still a nicely designed dash with the motor cycle like gauges, etc.

Personally I am glad I only leased rather than bought, as I am not near as happy 3 years down the road as I thought I would be. I will be moving to a new vehicle this spring/summer, and while I was first looking at an X-Trail, I have moved off of that notion and am looking in other directions. I have had new Nissans before, and while they are possibly some of the best looking cars on the road, they simply aren't great vehicles when compared to the likes of Honda/Acura or Toyota/Lexus.

Just to comment on a couple of earlier posts. I find that mileage is not bad at all. I average around 8.4l/100km on highway and about 11.5l/100km in city. Ride is indeed sporty-ish but it doesn't hold corners as well as I would like. The 2.5 engine is indeed a perky little box, it loves to be revved and is most comfortable between 2500 and 2500 rpm cruising. The SL does have a bit of history with electrical problems in the upgraded stereo, sunroof and seat heaters. Not really common, but 2 friends of mine who both have 02 and 03 SLs respectively have had repeated electrical problems. Oh yeah - and the trunk might look big, but space is severely impaired by the trunk joists taking up space when closed. You can pop the trunk out of alignment if you are not careful to keep the bays clear for the trunk joists to lower into when you close it.

In all it's a very seductive looking car - and I would say that's what is influencing people to buy this car more than it's reliability.

[chuchu]

thank you for all the advise. but i really like the Nissan Altima 2.5SL '06, any reasonable price for the car for financing and lease???

[amorak]

Don't buy the Nissan, they have horrid build quality, get the Sonata...


Sonata > Altima.

:wink:

[Pritch]

A little biased dont you think.....

[XTrail1]

Don't listen to amorak alias jd, his post are geting deleted and edited here and there. Life in the forums is pretty rough for you lately...hey JD. chuchu, if you like the Altima get it, I know I would. It's a very fine car and for my taste looks far better inside and out than the Sonata. In the Ottawa area I've actually seen more Tribecas on the road than Sonata, they are not visible and I don't know why that is. Visit hyundai-forums.com and you will see that the Sonata is not perfect either, lately people talk about a floaty ride with suspension noises in the rear, squealing brakes etc. There is a lot of hype and stuff because of their past. Don't get me wrong, the Sonata has improved a lot but I find they should copy less on others, I don't respect that from any manufacturer. jww experiences are not unique with the 02, new model woes, yet many others did not experience that. I think Nissan learned it's lesson here, the 06 should be the last model of this series and is vastly improved over the original release. As far as price goes, this time of the year should be good as things are a bit slow everywhere, so go hard and see what happens.

[The General]

I won't quote jww but his post pretty much sums up what I have heard about the Altima. The car is a great drive, roomy and quick but there are too many drawbacks.

The real answer is a Honda Accord. The 4 cylinder is nearly as quick but it is much smoother, better on gas and the build quality is far superior.

I've driven 4 Altimas since 2002 (latest an 05) and I'm simply not sold on styling over quality and reliability.

BUT! If you like it, buy it and keep us posted on your experience.

[jww]

thank you for all the advise. but i really like the Nissan Altima 2.5SL '06, any reasonable price for the car for financing and lease???
December is good timing - not alot of people buy/lease new cars close to Christmas so salesmen are eager to book the sale and get the commission. I would think you are looking between $500 and $550/mo on a 48 month lease for the SL.

I do know where you are coming from in your liking the Altima - I really liked it as well at first - but - consider yourself well warned if you do jump in and things don't go quite as well as you had hoped they would. Be especially cautious where the torque steer is concerened - you can get into some very dangerous situations pushing the car too hard just because the engine revs high and with winter coming on, you can loose control totally very easily - ABS doesn't save you in every situation, and with an automatic transmission, it's pretty difficult to cut power to the engine with no clutch to disengage. Anyway - I know I have been a bit doom and gloom, but you asked opinions and so I gave freely :).

BTW - I opted for the extended warranty, and am I ever glad I did. Other than the brake job which was not covered (wear and tear), I have had a number of things break that were covered under the warranty at the 60K km mark where the standard warranty drops off.

Oh - and for those interested - my test drive list to replace the Altimat currently includes the Acura TSX and CSX, Accord EX-L (even though I am not a big fan of Honda styling per se), Mazda 3GT, Volvo V50/S40 - the list will likely grow between now and spring.

jww

[chuchu]

thank you very much for all advise. i really appreciate that. i have a dealer offer me $352/mo(taxes included) for 48months Lease with $5000 down. good deal or not???

[jww]

thank you very much for all advise. i really appreciate that. i have a dealer offer me $352/mo(taxes included) for 48months Lease with $5000 down. good deal or not???
Is this taxes included?
24,000 km/annually?

This should then mean that if you put zero down, you'll pay another $150 - $180/mo which is probably about right - depending on the rate. Are you sure you want to make a downpayment on a depreciating asset? If you can afford higher payments, rather than put $$ into a car lease, why not put your dp into an investment somewhere that will grow over the course of the 48 months instead of losing it the moment you drive off the lot.\?

Also - be careful when negotiating the lease - dealers like to work with monthly payments because they can play with residuals, etc. If this is in writing, then you may want to move on this. Most importantly - does the dealer have the car for you today?? If not, watch out - you're in for a fleecing on further negotiations. Try to put your final offer on the table then walk away. If you are happy putting $5K into the deal, then I would go back to him in writing at $345 payment irrevocable valid for 24 hours (don't forget to date and time stamp the offer). That means he can't dicker the price any further and has to either accept your deal within 24 hours or it's dead and you walk. Gutsy move - I know, but whenever I have tried this I have always walked away with the deal I wanted rather than an offer from a salesman. It's better for you to be in control of the negotiations than let him control it. Unless of course, you want the car so badly that you can taste it - in which case you probably should reconsider a new car altogether until you can remove youreself emotionally from the transaction.

Good luck.

jww