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Car Fanatics
Photo credit: Nissan
May 17, 2012
By: CF staff


Although the 2013 Nissan Altima is not yet in showrooms – production only commenced this week – I had the opportunity to drive a 2013 Altima 3.5 SL today. And for a bonus, Nissan was kind enough to provide a 2013 Toyota Camry XLE V6 and a 2012 Hyundai Sonata 2.0 Turbo Limited for comparison.

Our test route took us through the backroads and highways around Freehold, NJ. I had the opportunity not only to drive all the cars aggressively, but also to sample them as a backseat passenger (mainly for Doc's benefit – I know how important this is to him.) Following are my impressions, first with the walk-around of all three cars and then the drive.

Note – I only have a few pics of the Altima; We were on a tight time-frame and I didn't have the opportunity to stage a photo shoot. However, I think it's safe to say you guys all know what a Camry and a Sonata look like. So without further delay, here we go...

The Altima:


Naturally the first car I set eyes on was the Altima. It has changed for the better, and in a dramatic fashion. In person it has a sleek, raked appearance. It is instantly identifiable as a Nissan with the new corporate “face” and a very aggressive stance. The car sits low to the ground and gives the visual impression of being biased toward the sporty end of the midsize class. Our Altima was Dark Slate Gray with Charcoal leather. The interior is very nicely finished with faux aluminum elements. At first glance, the interior seems almost understated. It's a very clean design that will age well. Of particular note are the gauges – they have a high-end watch face look to them, almost as though Nissan benchmarked Breitling. Every surface you touch is padded, from the door armrests to the angled center console armrest lid, to the door cappings themselves.

The seats deserve major kudos! Easily the most comfortable seats I've encountered in years. I'll put them up there with Volvo's thrones. I don't know what Nissan is using for seat stuffing but it sure feels like Temper-Pedic foam. You sit in these seats, not on them. The leather is completely perforated and is of a high grade in terms of softness. I suspect this new Altima will make the Maxima a tougher sell.

Back seat comfort is excellent although rear headroom, at 37.1 inches, is tight. The car we drove was equipped with a moonroof but according to Nissan, rear headroom is the same regardless of whether the car has a moonroof or not. I would have preferred a little more room but I could live with it. The fold-down armrest disappoints. I don't understand why carmakers have such a hard time designing a center armrest that you can actually rest your arm on, and why it cannot be of the same height as the corresponding door armrest. You wouldn't buy a chair for your house that had armrests of two different heights, right?

Legroom is good – I was sitting behind a 6'2” driver and was perfectly fine. The view out is good – Nissan has done a good job of making the Altima a car that you can actually view the world from.

Driving impressions were outstanding! Seriously, I was not prepared for how good this car feels on the road. The 3.5 V6 is very smooth and very quiet. The Nissan factory guys showed us the lengths Nissan has gone to in its efforts to keep this car quiet. Extensive sound deadening everywhere, rubber seals galore... the car is almost a rolling anechoic chamber. Road noise and wind noise are minimal. On the broken surfaces of Freehold's back roads the Nissan holds its composure well. The multilink rear suspension doesn't allow the car to become disturbed over large bumps at speed through corners and there is very little torque-steer. Also, the steering is beautifully weighted. Nissan employs an electro-hydraulic system that retains road feel, never feels overly light and provides good feedback. I much prefer this to a pure electric system.

A note about the CVT: this is hands-down the best application of the CVT I have driven yet. Smooth, quiet, linear, always in the right ratio. Nissan has nailed it with this car. I've been a skeptic up to this point but not any longer.

Now – The competition:

First up – Hyundai Sonata Limited 2.0 Turbo:


I have to give Hyundai some props here. The Sonata is a striking looking car. Our Sonata was also gray with a dark gray leather interior and the colors looked good. The chrome spar that the Sonata has running the length of the car really stands out on a darker color. This design is aging well; the first impressions it makes are good and there's a reason the car sells so well. It offers a ton of style at a bargain price and this formula resonates well with American consumers. But...

The Sonata is the automotive equivalent of a Potemkin Village. Everywhere you look, if you choose to look close, you see where the corners were cut. The gaps of the body panels; the “perforated” leather that really is solid leather with embossed dimples. The quality of the plastics, while okay, just don't measure up to the Altima. Or, I suspect, just about every other car out there.

The front seat is comfortable enough but I found the driver's seat cushion to be too short. The dash design is attractive and functional but some of the buttons and switches have a cheap tactile feel. The back seat, however, is a mess.

Our Sonata was equipped with the panoramic roof which provides a good view out on the world but it comes with a terrible price – no, absolutely no rear headroom. My head was squashed against the roof of this car. It would have been impossible to slip a business card between the headliner and my skull. Also, the Sonata's dramatic windowline, while attractive from the outside, makes it impossible to see out the back window. I was literally trying to see out the doorframe; if I wanted to look out the rear window I would have had to duck my head. Not good in a “family” sedan.

The 2.0 Turbo suffers from significant lag if you floor it from a standing start, but once rolling it is very powerful and pulls very strong. Transmission shifts were acceptable, decently quick. Torque steer is evident all the time; I took my hands off the wheel on a straightaway at 40 mph, gunned it, and made an unexpected beeline to the right. We almost became a permanent part of Battleground Memorial Park. Also, the Hyundai suffers from a lack of ride composure. Bumps in mid-turn upset the car, and it has this weird combination of firmness and float that makes me think the suspension engineers were having some sort of feud when they designed the car – like the spring guys had one way of doing things while the shock guys were on a totally different plain.

Road noise, particularly in the back seat, is... unacceptable. It's bad. Really bad. I'd expect this level of noise in an Accent but not in a Sonata. You hear everything going on with the tires. It sounds unrefined. Maybe Hyundai went cheap on the insulation and undercoating, I don't know, but I would have found it acceptable if the car were 5 years old and had 100K on the clock. After driving it I give it a solid “meh”. My money would never be spent on this car.

Now – The Camry XLE V6:


I'll just cut right to the chase and ask “What the EFF is Toyota thinking?” I know the answer and I'll reveal it later, but this car is a mess. It does not measure up to the Hyundai, and the Altima flat-out annihilates it. When the new Fusion comes out, the Camry is done.

And let me be clear – I really tried to be objective and to find something, anything positive to say. Can't do it. Let's start with the exterior:

Toyota is playing to its current Camry base and isn't taking any chances. Unlike the avante-garde Sonata, the sleek Altima, the Aston-inspired Fusion... Toyota knows what a Camry is and they aren't messing with the design. Next to the two hardbodies from Nissan and Hyundai, the Camry is a boring middle-aged accountant with a paunch.

Our Camry XLE V6 was finished in a khaki/camouflage green with a beige leather interior. Er... a two-tone beige leather interior with black door caps, black dash cover, gray floormats, brown accents on the seats.

WTF??? Seriously, it's a strange mish-mash of colors and for the life of me I don't understand why Toyota did this. If the dash and door cappings were the same color as the brown accent strip on the seats, the interior would have been a much more pleasant place. About that dash cover and those door cappings...

The dash cap is weird. It looks like Toyota was trying to create the effect of an aftermarket dash cover that doesn't fit quite right and they succeeded. Seriously, it looks like a manufacturer's defect. It really bugged me and I remarked on it more than once. And the door caps? HARD PVC-GRADE PLASTIC! For this alone I give Toyota an epic fail. It hurt my elbow just to have my arm resting on the door. I think at this point I just gave up on the car. The engine is quiet, okay. The suspension is a blunderbuss. Both the Sonata and the Altima will shred the Camry on a winding road. The brake pedal is mushy and the steering had no feel at all. The V6 seems refined enough but the transmission lets it down with slow shifts.

From both the front and back seats, there's a lot of road and wind noise. I thought this would be one area where the Camry would impress but I was wrong. Road noise is not as bad as the Sonata but then again, nothing in this class is as bad as the Sonata so that's not really saying much. The Camry is comfortable for the driver but the whole driving experience is anodyne. It's more like a driving simulator, but with less feedback. From the back, the seating position was comfortable but there is no room under the front seats for your feet, and getting out of the back seat was more difficult than either the Sonata or Altima.

One thing I found amazing is that with the premium JBL Nav Radio, if you want to eject or insert a CD while driving, the whole radio face has to rotate out and downward. Really? Both the Altima and Sonata give you direct access to your CD's with none of that BS. Their infotainment systems are much better integrated with their interiors while the Camry's system feels like an afterthought, or perhaps aftermarket. It doesn't feel or look good.

I said earlier that I knew what Toyota is doing, and here it is: They are playing to their own base. Toyota is not going for the conquest here. They've done just enough to say “This is good enough for a Camry buyer.” In this regard they have succeeded. But in today's competitive world, and in the most hotly contested market segment, “good enough” is not.

Conclusion:


Nissan has spared no expense with the 2013 Altima and it shows. It is vastly superior to the Sonata and Camry. The Nissan guys have now set their sites on the 2013 Ford Fusion and 2013 Honda Accord and it will be interesting to see how Round 2 plays out. They are justifiably proud of their product and I look forward to the official launch in about a month,

Also – if the new 4-cyl achieves its fuel economy objectives of 27 city / 38 highway / 31 combined, that will be the car to buy. That kind of economy in a car of this size, with an 18-gallon fuel tank and the best seats BY FAR in this class, will make it an outstanding long-distance road-tripper. Nissan really has not raised the price of the Altima and now, even base model cars will be equipped with Bluetooth. S, SV and SL cars all get remote start as standard equipment (it works up to 197 feet from the car!). The tire pressure monitoring system is really cool. When you add air to the tire, the car will beep at you once the proper inflation has been achieved. You no longer need a pressure gauge! The technology available in this car is staggering and I promise to provide an overview once we have them in stock.

As for Hyundai – they are determined, no doubt about it. I don't like Hyundai. To me, their cars are like those fake cakes you see in supermarkets where they cover a cardboard box with frosting. It looks good but you wouldn't want to eat it. I do think that Hyundai will grow past this philosophy and mature into a first-tier manufacturer but right now, their new cars are still only on par with pre-owned vehicles from other automakers.

As for Toyota, it seems like they have just given up. How they could let the Camry fail in so many areas baffles me; the fact that there are so many lemmings that buy them is equally baffling. But this just shows the level of contempt Toyota has for its customers. Toyota provides only the minimum required to satisfy its current CR-swilling sycophants and if they can get away with decontenting their cars, so be it. “They're sheep, they're sheep!”

Nissan wants to be #1. They want to own this segment. The current Altima is six-years old and it is still the second-best selling car in the country. But the Nissan guys are not satisfied with that result. And that is why the new Altima is so good.

The new Altima is the car that Ford needs to take aim at and since the Altima will hit the lots before the Fusion does, Ford will have the opportunity to make some last-minute tweaks before launch. Either way, Fusion vs. Altima should be the Automotive Super Bowl of 2013.


































More photos:

:worthless:

kamikazeKID;205808 Wrote::worthless:

Really? Is reading really that difficult for you? I was only able to take a few pics of the Nissan; we really did not have the time for me to shoot pics of all the cars and everybody (but you, apparently) on the planet already knows what a Sonata and a Camry look like.

Pimptastic man, I remember taking a test drive in an old 2.5 sedan a few years ago, it was really nice, glad to see it's gotten even better

Glad to see it has no (current) competition; got any more reviews coming up btw boss?

Meh we don't see eye-to-eye on the Camry but I must say that new Altima is a sharp car and reminds me of the more expensive Infiniti G37 both inside and out.

It sounds like Nissan addressed its historic weakness -- cheap interiors while keeping the beautifully smooth V6. I haven't decided if I like the wave in the front fender line, so I've decided to reserve judgment to see it in 3D. Pictures don't always tell the whole story in sculptural design. I don't know why it is so, but Nissan is the only company that seems to know how to use CVTs well. This review is promising. It also begs the question, why do so many people still buy Camry with truly better choices available?

At least part of the answer may be the differences in dealer networks. While products have upended the traditional order of the compact and midsize markets, the same is not true on strength of dealers (both volume and service reputation).

How would we rate the strength of and quality of the various brand's dealer networks?
For instance Suzuki is starved for oxygen with hardly and dealers left and those low volume. VW's dealers are notoriously bad at service even with good product to sell. Hyundai dealers are aggressive. Toyota USA built a strong dealer network with a good reputation. We forget how much loyalty goes to the dealer and not just the manufacturer. Where's Nissan fall on the dealer spectrum and will a stronger Altima give them a chance to improve market share and elevate their dealers?

Nice read.

The Altima looks great on the inside, but I seriously hate that face and that stupid swoosh that they have going on the side there. Nice ass, though.

Camry and Sonata... well you summed up my thoughts on those pretty damn well. Except I hate the styling of the Hyundai.

Burg - what's your take on the 3.5 versus the 3.7. It seems that when they went to the 3.7 the motor lost some of it's celebrated smoothness? Have you had a chance to sample both motors?

Also, fully agree with your take on the electro-hydraulic versus pure electric steering. The Astra has the electro-hydraulic setup and the feel is much better.

Nice review!

G8mike;205858 Wrote:Burg - what's your take on the 3.5 versus the 3.7. It seems that when they went to the 3.7 the motor lost some of it's celebrated smoothness? Have you had a chance to sample both motors?

Also, fully agree with your take on the electro-hydraulic versus pure electric steering. The Astra has the electro-hydraulic setup and the feel is much better.

Nice review!

I agree that the VQ 3.7 feels rougher. The VQ 3.5 is a very smooth and impressive engine but as a 3.7, or as a 4.0 in our trucks, it's definitely lost some refinement.

Brown_Pride;205818 Wrote:Meh we don't see eye-to-eye on the Camry but I must say that new Altima is a sharp car and reminds me of the more expensive Infiniti G37 both inside and out.

Let's see, the person that started this post actually DROVE the cars in question, has been selling cars for more years that little BP has been walking on this earth, can drive a MANual transmission, AND isn't obsessed with labels. Gee, which one do I think knows what he's talking about..............

I love the current Altima although it is getting a little stale.... with this I'm not much liking the exterior look of the new but will say the interior is WORLD'S better. I love that they kept the V6 option... HUGE HUGE mistake by GM with the Malibu.

So did the backseat of the new Altima pass my test? Seems like it did great in just about every other category, and looks like good competition to the new Malibu and Fusion.

I think Toyota knew that it a lot of old Camry customers would be back to their dealers anyway, so they didn't really care to win. They haven't really cared about being best in class in about a decade, all Camry's have been lackluster, but people are still dumb enough to buy them.

The Sonata really is just a pretty face and not much else, that goes for everything coming from Hyundai and Kia. They look like they have the quality, but on inspection they feel cheap, unrefined and downright hollow. And a spot they always cheap out on is tires, which is why they always have more tire roar than other cars.

ncguy;205911 Wrote:I love the current Altima although it is getting a little stale.... with this I'm not much liking the exterior look of the new but will say the interior is WORLD'S better. I love that they kept the V6 option... HUGE HUGE mistake by GM with the Malibu.

I'll admit that when I first saw the photos of the car I was underwhelmed, but in person it looks really good. This may also be a car that is color-sensitive. We shall see...

In any event, the V6 offers outstanding effortless performance, but I am impressed by the 2.5L 4-cyl. In the current 6-year-old Altima the 2.5 is a strong engine. It's equally strong in the prev-gen Altima (from 2002-2006). In the new car, they made the car lighter, got 7 hp more out of the engine, and reduced friction in the transmission by 40% so the 2.5 will be a very strong player in this segment.

Either way the car is a winner.

As for the Malibu, I'm not sure what to think because I have not driven the car. If the 4 is strong, that's really all that matters. I think the traditional import buyer is more accepting of a 4-cyl in this segment whereas the traditional domestic buyer wants the larger engine, so I can understand your hesitation. Ford will not have an issue with this as the 2.0 EB in the Fusion will light that car up like a rocket, but the 1.6 will be the volume engine and it may be a concern.

Only time will tell.

docCarter;205915 Wrote:So did the backseat of the new Altima pass my test? Seems like it did great in just about every other category, and looks like good competition to the new Malibu and Fusion.

I think Toyota knew that it a lot of old Camry customers would be back to their dealers anyway, so they didn't really care to win. They haven't really cared about being best in class in about a decade, all Camry's have been lackluster, but people are still dumb enough to buy them.

The Sonata really is just a pretty face and not much else, that goes for everything coming from Hyundai and Kia. They look like they have the quality, but on inspection they feel cheap, unrefined and downright hollow. And a spot they always cheap out on is tires, which is why they always have more tire roar than other cars.

The Altima definitely passes your back-seat test provided the occupants aren't taller than 6 ft. Anything over that and they might be squawking at you. Your comments about Toyota and Hyundai are dead-accurate. Toyota is content to be "good enough" for repeat Camry buyers, and the Hyundai is very cheap beneath the surface.