I do not understand the Altima.

[Jesda]

I'm talking about the sedan, the car with dubious reliability (friends of mine endured thousands of dollars of problems on their 2.5) and performance that's... just adequate.

The coupe has a look inspired by the G-coupe/Skyline but the sedan... who keeps buying these things? So many of my young neighbors own them and I just don't get it. I also see a lot of them in poorer neighborhoods. Is Nissan being really generous with credit? Are they throwing thousands of dollars of discounts at them?

[Rogue One]

I'm talking about the sedan... Is Nissan being really generous with credit? Are they throwing thousands of dollars of discounts at them?

YES. Believe it or not, sometimes it's easier/cheaper to get a 2.5S Altima, rather than a Versa or Sentra.

[Bubba1]

I think you don't understand because you're an enthusiast and they're transportation appliances. I bought one of the early ones new, 2002, which had among the more dubious reliability records. I bought an SL, which had all the luxury stuff and the 2.5L. I was attracted to it for several reasons. While the 4 banger lacked grunt, it was as you said "adequate" for my non-enthusiast wife & son. It was also significantly larger than it's 2002 competition at the time (Accord/Camry) , with a big trunk, comfortable roomy interior, all the luxury goodies, was priced very cheaply, and it got well over 30mpg on the highway. It was a very good family hauling transportation appliance, which is why it got so popular. The fact it was not a canyon carver didn't bother me as I had other more fun vehicles.

Reliability was very good for me for the first 7 years but ultimately Nissan's refusal to cover the widespread catalytic converter disintegration/oil consumption problem under warranty meant a premature death to the engine (about 175K miles). That oil consumption was the main reason I (and many other owners) got rid of it. But since my kid got 2 yrs out of it before it got real bad, I was little less annoyed. But it reduced my confidence in buying another new Nissan.

Fast forward a few years and Nissan switched the Alti sedan to an awful CVT, eliminated the man pedal, eliminated the SE-R, and the only real investment they put into it was the gimmicky memory foam...er wait...I mean "NASA inspired zero gravity" seats. Like the rest of the Nissan/infiniti lineup, they haven't done much development, which means they've fallen well behind the rest of the industry who have chosen not to be so stagnant with their sedans. No surprise that it's now a low ranked car. I suspect appliance buyers might finally begun noticing Nissan's laziness.

As far as the coupe goes. I'm sure younger non-enthusiast folks have been liking them because they're cheap to buy, cheap to operate, cheap to insure (not sports cars), handle okay, roomy, and look good. A winning combo when it first came out with the same downside now: Nissan went cheap on development and killed the fun by making it CVT only.

[Ace2cool]

We're not making the coupe anymore at Smyrna. Every now and then I'll see one ship out of the lot, but it's probably just old stock.

But as far as Bubba's "transportation appliance" comment, that nailed it. Brooke tells me I should sell my Z all the time because she doesn't understand why I keep it around and work on it. To her, it's unreliable, and is jsut another car, and is a lesser car than her 2.5S Altima Sedan with a CVT. She's content with her car.

I remember reading this article a while back and this convo is reminding me of it:
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/i-used ... 1464717649

[PapaSmurf2k3]

1st gen altimas (all the way up to 2001) were fan fuggin tastic cars. The only thing that could kill them was 12+ years hard labor in the rust belt.
Even then, the bodies went before the mechanicals.

No one appreciates a KA until they have to live with a QR.

[RicerX]

1st gen altimas (all the way up to 2001) were fan fuggin tastic cars. The only thing that could kill them was 12+ years hard labor in the rust belt.
Even then, the bodies went before the mechanicals.

No one appreciates a KA until they have to live with a QR.

This... all freakin day long.

[numbnuts240]

I also see a lot of them in poorer neighborhoods.

along with high mileage luxury vehicles, altimas are one of the main choices for a sedan amongst minorities.

[Desert Rat]

17k is the advertised price on a base model around here. Dirt Cheap. That's why they sell.

I've had some later model ones as rentals and they're pretty uninspiring, but that goes for nearly everything in Nissan's lineup right now.

Nissan is on a long, sad decline. When they start losing their brand loyalists like the type of guys you find here on Nico, it's all but over for them.

Short list of grievances:

CVTs...make them available, but don't make them the only option
Trucks....Extremely dated. Frontier / Xterra have eggshell aluminum front axles. They put stouter pieces under the low power D22s. I won't even talk about the Titan....and the new one looks equally uninspiring with boring styling and nothing that makes it stand out save for a diesel engine made by Cummins.
Cars....boring styling, bad reliability, lack of anything sporty, lack of manual transmissions.....

Renault killed the old Nissan we all knew and loved. It's too bad they went through the financial troubles in the late 90s and interpreted that it was their drivetrains that caused it. They had some flashes of brilliance about 12-15 years ago, and now they've become extremely vanilla. All the things that made Nissans what they are (reliable, high resale, bulletproof drivetrains) are gone.

The 2012 Murano we have will almost certainly be the last new Nissan we ever buy.