2008 Nissan Altima 2.5S

[ElectroGhandi]

(10 Point scale)
Ride, comfort, and handling - 3
Fuel economy - 8
Reliability - 3
Fun - 6
Practicality – 7
Style - 9
Power - 4
Value - 5
Overall - 5

Ride, comfort, and handling: The ride quality is very poor on this Altima. Every little bump can be felt. The 4 cylinder is very buzzy and can be heard and felt through the car which is a big no-no. Handling wise, this car feels twitchy all the time and very bloated. The steering is heavy yet numb and the wheel itself is awkward. The brakes are overly sensitive. The cloth seats are at least comfortable.

Fuel economy: Probably good for a car of this size. However, I really don't know.

Reliability: What a nightmare. These 2.5S Altimas have Nissan's 2.5 liter I-4 which has a history of failing at 100k miles due to particles flying back into the combustion chamber and scoring the cylinder walls among other bizarre issues. Nissan says this has been fixed. I still wouldn't trust this engine. The CVT transmission is kinda cool I guess but I can totally see this failing early on even with proper care.

Fun: It has a sunroof and a good radio. The CVT makes it sound like a motorboat which is kinda amusing. It has the sequential shift mode. Too bad it's not actually sporty.

Practicality: It's a nice big family sedan. Trunk space is ok.

Style: It's a very nice looking car in my opinion. The tail light design is beautiful. It manages to look modern yet unique. Style is definitely the only reason to even slightly consider this car.

Power: It's no good. The throttle response is shit and there is so much dead space. Very poor get-up-and-go. You can almost feel the CVT wasting power.

Value: The price isn't bad but there are many cars in this class and many of them are better.

Overall: I thought I would like this car a lot more than I did. The ride was really disappointing. The quality in general was not up to par. The relatively new CVT transmission coupled to an engine with a history of premature failure kills the reliability factor. I would say to stay away from this car. If you like the way it looks, get an Infiniti.

[theholycow]

The CVT makes it sound like a motorboat which is kinda amusing.

It has the sequential shift mode. Too bad it's not actually sporty.

Why would a CVT have any kind of shift mode? That's silly. At most it should have a knob that you can turn from maximum fuel economy to maximum performance, but even that should just be the go-pedal anyway.

[ElectroGhandi]

It's just for fun. It has a simulated 6 speed.

[theholycow]

I've found Toyotas and Fords to have very sensitive brake pedals with no dead space.

Then there's GM. People complain because they think GM brakes suck, but really they're just linear with some dead space at the top. It doesn't inspire confidence if you're used to Ford/Toyota style but my GMs always stop as short as anything else on the road. Of course, if you want to stop severely short you have to use all of the available pedal travel, but just as with gas pedals people refuse to use all of it.

[AHTOXA]

I have an opposite experience. My girlfriends 07 camry's brakes have a decent amount of dead space on top, engage slower and require more force to be applied. I have driven a lot of GM vehicles as rentals when the goat was being fixed and the brakes were grabby with no dead space. The goat has very linear brakes with solid feel and good grab.

[ElectroGhandi]

I agree. When I drive the 04 Camry from my other recent review, I find the brake pedal to be very soft and it does travel a lot which is different from my Rodeo in that its brake pedal hardly travels at all and you have to press it hard for the brakes to work. The pedal in the Altima, however, is both soft and grabby which is a weird feel.