2019 Nissan Altima

2019 is the launch year of the sixth-generation (L34) Altima, and it replaced the previous generation's 270 hp 3.5-liter V6 with the 248 hp 2.0-liter VC-Turbo — so the model's peak output fell even as the volume 2.5-liter rose slightly to 188 hp. That figure is modest for a mid-size sedan in a field where rivals already fielded turbos and hybrids.

180 lb-ft arriving at 3,600 rpm is typical of the class's last naturally aspirated fours — usable but high in the rev range, where the turbocharged and hybrid mid-size sedans of 2019 delivered more and delivered it far earlier. Nissan's own VC-Turbo made 280 lb-ft at 1,600 rpm for 2019, a higher rating than the 273 lb-ft the same engine was quoted at from 2020 on.

Nissan publishes no 0–60 claim, so the figure is bracketed from instrumented tests of the PR25DD/Xtronic combination, which cluster at 7.5–7.9 s front-drive; the heavier AWD car (about 190 lb more) needs roughly another half-second. Adequate but unremarkable — reviewers described the 2.5 as going about its work 'with smooth but leisurely resolve'.

The new-for-2019 PR25DD is a clean, lag-free naturally aspirated unit — 12.0:1 compression, direct injection, a cylinder head with integrated exhaust manifold for lower NVH — and it responds tidily at part throttle. But reviewers of the launch car judged the combination merely adequate rather than eager, and the genuinely refined engine in the 2019 range, the variable-compression 2.0 turbo, is confined to the SR, Platinum and Edition ONE grades rather than the volume configuration.

Nissan's next-generation Xtronic CVT is standard across every 2019 grade and both engines, with a wide 2.631–0.378 ratio spread, and it is one of the better executions of the type — it tracks throttle inputs predictably for passing and corner exits. Launch-year reviews still flagged drone under hard acceleration, and paddle shifters were restricted to the single 2.5 SR grade (plus the 2.0 SR), so there is little driver control on the volume car.

2019 introduced Intelligent All-Wheel Drive to the Altima for the first time, and it is orderable on all five 2.5-liter grades — S, SR, SV, SL and Platinum — a genuine advantage in a segment where the Accord, Sonata and Malibu were front-drive only. It stays mid-upper band because operation is basic on-demand torque split (0:100 to 50:50) with no terrain modes, low range or torque vectoring, and because it cannot be paired with the VC-Turbo, which is front-drive only.

Two genuinely distinct gas engines — the 188 hp 2.5 and the world's first production variable-compression 2.0 turbo — plus a front- or all-wheel-drive choice on the 2.5 covers mainstream needs, and for the launch year the VC-Turbo appeared on three models (SR, Platinum and the Edition ONE) rather than the narrower spread of later years. What holds it mid-band is the complete absence of any electrified option in a year when Camry, Accord, Sonata, Fusion and Malibu all offered hybrids.

EPA rates the volume 2.5-liter FWD SV at 32 MPG combined, one of the best figures any non-hybrid mid-size sedan posted for 2019 and a clear gain over the outgoing generation, helped by a 0.26 coefficient of drag, active grille shutters and the new Xtronic's wider ratio spread. It remains well short of the hybrid Camry and Accord.

City is the weakest leg of the Altima's EPA line: with no hybrid assist to recover braking energy, stop-and-go running returns 28 MPG — strong for a naturally aspirated mid-sizer but roughly two-thirds of what a hybrid rival managed around town in 2019.

Highway is where the new-for-2019 body earns its keep — a 0.26 drag coefficient, active grille shutters and a very tall 0.378 CVT overdrive ratio yield 39 MPG for the volume SV, near the top of the non-hybrid sedan field that year and the core of the car's long-commute case.

EPA's published total range for the volume 2.5 FWD is 518 miles, and a steady highway run stretches that past 600 — comfortably above average for a mid-size sedan on an ordinary 16.2-gallon tank, though short of what hybrid rivals extracted from smaller tanks.

EPA's published annual cost for the volume 2.5 FWD is $2,050 at standard assumptions — cheap against the market as a whole, but a few hundred dollars a year worse than the hybrid mid-size sedans it competed with directly in 2019. (EPA restates this figure against current fuel prices, so it drifts year to year for a fixed vehicle.)

The 2.5-liter engine that powers every one of the five core grades — and the entire AWD lineup — is specified for regular unleaded, the cheapest and simplest fueling story available in the segment, and it covers the volume configuration outright. It falls short of a perfect score only because Nissan specified premium unleaded for the VC-Turbo: EPA rates that engine on regular, but its published 248 hp / 280 lb-ft figures are premium-fuel numbers, so the three turbo models carry a real running-cost penalty for full output.

The all-new L34 Altima took NHTSA's top 5-star overall NCAP result in its launch year, identical across the front-wheel-drive and Intelligent AWD builds. Side and rollover are both 5 stars; the combined frontal result is the weak leg at 4 stars, driven by a 4-star passenger frontal against a 5-star driver frontal.

All six crashworthiness tests IIHS ran on the launch-year Altima came back Good, but the award is a headlight-restricted TOP SAFETY PICK rather than TSP+ — a base S off the lot does not carry it, because only the LED-equipped grades reach Acceptable low beams. It scores below the 2021 car for two reasons: that year earned the full TSP+ once High Beam Assist had spread, and 2019 is the earliest example of the pre-reinforcement body whose side rating IIHS explicitly confines to 2019-21 models — the same structure rated Poor when the updated side test was applied to the reinforced 2022 car.

On the volume SV the launch-year car is already well equipped: Safety Shield 360 brings AEB with pedestrian detection, rear automatic braking, lane departure warning, radar blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert and high-beam assist, and ProPILOT Assist adds stop-and-go adaptive cruise with lane centering at no extra cost. It scores a notch under the 2020 car because 2019 has the narrowest availability of any year in the generation — Safety Shield 360 is standard only from the SV up, so both the base S and the SR below it go without it, and Nissan's own 2020 announcement was explicitly about widening that footprint.

IIHS rated both the standard and the optional forward systems Superior against vehicles, and the pedestrian-capable version Advanced against daytime pedestrians — the best results on offer for a 2019 midsize sedan. It stays mid-band because the pedestrian and rear-braking capability is confined to SV and above, so an S or SR buyer gets vehicle-only AEB, and the nighttime pedestrian dimension is unproven at best: IIHS had no such test in 2019, and when it arrived this same sensor-and-headlight combination earned No Credit on the 2022 car.

The volume SV gets radar blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert and rear automatic braking as standard, and that rear AEB is real intervention behind the car rather than only a chime — ahead of much of the 2019 midsize field. It sits below the later years because coverage starts one grade higher in the launch year: neither the S nor the SR has any of it as standard. The blind-spot system is also alert-only with no steering or braking correction, no safe-exit or rear-occupant alert is offered on any grade, and the 360-degree camera is locked to the single most expensive trim.

ProPILOT Assist's lane centering is standard on the volume SV and reviewers rated it above systems in far more expensive cars at launch, with Intelligent Lane Intervention alongside it. It is held mid-band because availability is at its narrowest in 2019 — lane departure warning itself only arrives with Safety Shield 360 on the SV, so the S and SR have no lane assistance of any kind — and because reviewers note the system needs clearly marked lanes and cooperative weather, while this generation's vague on-center steering makes its corrections hard to gauge.

ProPILOT Assist pairs full-speed-range Intelligent Cruise Control with stop-and-hold in traffic and lane centering, it is standard rather than optional on the volume SV, and at launch reviewers placed the calibration near the top of the mainstream midsize field. It misses the top band because the S and SR cannot be had with it at any price and the Altima fields plain ProPILOT Assist 1.1 with no map-linked speed adjustment.

No hands-free highway driving is offered on the 2019 Altima at any grade or price. ProPILOT Assist is explicitly a hands-on-wheel system, and Nissan fielded no hands-off-capable variant in the US midsize-sedan class for this model year.

No 2019 Altima headlight configuration reaches IIHS Good: the LED projectors on SR, SV, SL and Platinum rate Acceptable and the base S halogens rate Marginal for inadequate visibility on curves, which is exactly why the Top Safety Pick carries a 'specific headlights' restriction. High-beam assist arrives only with Safety Shield 360 on the SV and above, there is no curve-adaptive lighting, and these same low beams are what later cost the car all credit in the nighttime pedestrian AEB test.

Forward and side sightlines are good for a modern sedan thanks to the new generation's low cowl and relatively slim A-pillars, but the fastback-influenced roofline, high rear deck and thick C-pillars pinch the over-the-shoulder and rear views. The 360-degree camera that would compensate is Platinum-only, leaving the volume SV on the standard rear-view camera plus cross-traffic alert.

IIHS grades the launch-year Altima's LATCH hardware Good — its top ease-of-use rating — and Cars.com's certified technicians gave the new generation straight A grades for the anchors and every infant and convertible seat, with midsize rear width and wide door openings making two seats genuinely livable. It sits mid-upper rather than top because the booster fit is the weak point: fixed rear head restraints misalign the seat back and the buckles are hard for a child to work, and lower anchors are provided at only the two outboard positions.

Five seats across the entire launch-year L34 range — the top of the sedan band, and the only configuration Nissan offered in 2019 with no bench or captain's-chair variants anywhere in the lineup.

Nissan publishes front headroom both ways and this item asks for the without-sunroof figure, so 39.2 in is the value — near the top of the mid-size sedan range despite the Vmotion fastback roofline. The volume SV ships with the moonroof standard in 2019, which trims it to 38.0 in.

43.8 inches is at the generous end of the mid-size class and constant across every grade — front-seat stretch-out room is a genuine strength of the all-new-for-2019 L34, backed by 58.2 in of front shoulder room.

The sloping rear roofline that defines the 2019 redesign already costs second-row headroom, and the SV's standard moonroof housing takes a further 0.2 in — 36.7 inches sits below the middle of the sedan band and tall rear passengers brush the headliner.

The weakest dimension on the car and the single biggest drag on this category. 35.2 inches is well short of the mid-size sedans the Altima is cross-shopped against, and it is what turns a rear-facing child seat behind a tall driver into a real negotiation.

15.4 cubic feet is squarely mid-pack for a mid-size sedan, and a wide opening with low liftover makes it easier to use than the number alone suggests. What it does not do is extend cleanly — the trunk narrows between the wheel houses and the folded seatbacks do not give a flat load floor.

Conventional and adequate, with reviewers split on whether it is enough: a covered console bin with a 12V outlet, a lockable damped glovebox, four bottle-capable door pockets, four cupholders and front seatback pouches. Nothing here is an innovation — no underfloor trunk well, no fold-flat front passenger seat and no household outlet at any 2019 grade — so it sits in the competent middle of the band.

Nissan carried its NASA-derived Zero Gravity front seats into the 2019 redesign with added bolstering, and reviewers rate them among the segment's best; the volume SV backs them with an 8-way power driver's seat, 2-way power lumbar and standard heat. The rear bench is the limiter — flat, low-set and short on legroom — which keeps this out of the top band.

Struts front and multi-link rear with standard ZF Sachs monotube rear shocks, Intelligent Ride Control and Active Understeer Control give the volume SV on 17-inch wheels a good comfort-versus-control compromise, and the extra sidewall over the SR/Platinum's 19s matters. Secondary ride holds it mid-band: the compliance does not cover every bump type and big mid-corner hits unsettle it.

The all-new PR25DD 2.5 was re-engineered for NVH and reviewers consistently call the 2019 cabin quiet, but tire roar is the recurring complaint against class benchmarks and the 2019 equipment chart lists no acoustic laminated glass or active noise cancellation at any grade — the isolation is structural rather than engineered in, so it thins out on coarse surfaces and under hard throttle.

Unusually rich for a mainstream mid-size sedan at the volume trim's price: the 2019 SV bundles heated front seats, a heated leather-wrapped steering wheel, dual-zone automatic climate control, rear heating/cooling vents, a single-panel moonroof and remote start with Intelligent Climate Control — all standard, with remote start standard even on the base S. It stops short of the top band because ventilated seats, heated rear seats and rear climate controls are not offered at any price, and the base S and SR go without dual-zone climate, rear vents and heated seats entirely.

2019 is the launch year of the sixth-generation (L34) Altima, and Nissan opened the all-new car at $23,750 before a $895 destination charge — near the bottom of the mid-size sedan band despite a new platform, two new engines and the first all-wheel drive ever offered in a US Nissan sedan. The entry S grade can be ordered with Intelligent AWD for a flat $1,350, something no Accord or Camry four-cylinder offered at any price.

The SV is the retail volume grade for this generation: it is the lowest rung where ProPILOT Assist and the full Safety Shield 360 suite are both standard rather than unavailable. At $28,825 delivered it sits within $50 of what Nissan would charge for the same grade in 2020, and the whole thirteen-model ladder — including the 248-hp VC-Turbo Platinum and the limited Edition ONE — stays in the lower half of the segment band.

The naturally aspirated 2.5-liter PR25DD in the volume SV is inherently cheap to keep — regular fuel, no turbocharger, conventional intervals — and RepairPal rates the 2019 car above average with low repair frequency. Two things push it slightly above the 2020 car's estimate rather than below it: 2019 is a first-model-year build of an all-new platform and carries seven recall campaigns against the 2020 car's six, and Nissan includes no complimentary scheduled maintenance, so the first oil change is out of pocket. The next-generation Xtronic CVT is the component with the segment's worst out-of-warranty reputation and it comes off cover at 60,000 miles.

Resale is the Altima's structural weakness and the item that does most of the damage in this category, since the effective ownership-cost total is driven by depreciation dollars. Heavy rental and fleet placement floods the used market and lingering buyer wariness about Nissan CVTs suppresses private-party demand, so a car that is genuinely cheap to buy hands a good share of that discount back at trade-in. Being the launch year does not rescue it: the figure lands essentially level with the 2020 car and mid-band for the segment — better than the ALG forecast Honda published for a same-era Accord, clearly behind a Civic or Mazda3.

Nissan's New Vehicle Limited Warranty runs 36 months or 36,000 miles — the industry floor and the bottom of the framework band. It matches Toyota and Honda but is two years and 24,000 miles short of what a 2019 Sonata or Optima buyer got at the same money, and Nissan did not sweeten it to launch the new generation.

Powertrain coverage is 60 months or 60,000 miles, again the band floor. It matters more on this car than on most rivals because the next-generation Xtronic CVT is precisely the component Altima shoppers most want covered, and the goodwill extension Nissan later granted over CVT class actions stops at the previous-generation car — a 2019 L34 owner keeps the 60,000-mile term while a 2018 L33 owner was moved to 84,000 miles.

Nissan included no complimentary scheduled maintenance on the 2019 Altima — there is no ToyotaCare or Hyundai Complimentary Maintenance equivalent, so the first oil change is out of pocket. What is included keeps this in the "basic roadside only" band rather than the zero band: roadside assistance comes with the car, its towing benefit running a full 60 months / 60,000 miles, and SV and above carry a NissanConnect Services trial with remote start, remote lock/unlock and Alexa/Google Assistant access. The one launch-year extra, a first-ever Nissan Concierge service, was tied to the limited Edition ONE rather than the volume grade, so it does not move the score. There are no fuel or charging credits and nothing that offsets the floor-level warranty terms.

$28,825 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (49% retained, or about $14,124) leaves about $14,701 in depreciation. Add the projected $5,400 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $20,101 in total.

This is the launch year of the sixth-generation L34, and the forecasts read below average rather than merely mixed, which puts it just inside the bottom band. Consumer Reports' summary characterization is its below-average one — the 2019 Altima is less reliable than other cars from the same model year — and it places the car under the Accord, Camry, Mazda6 and Sonata by name, with trouble spots spread across in-car electronics, suspension/steering, fuel system/emissions, body hardware and leaks rather than concentrated in one system. The owner-reported volume agrees and is the generation's heaviest: 289 complaints and 266 TSBs on file, against 228/206 for the 2020 car and 51 complaints for 2021. RepairPal is the one voice in the other direction at 4.0/5, but it scores the nameplate on repair frequency and cost rather than this model year's owner experience. Scored a few points under the 2020 car: 2019's CR forecast is marginally the less harsh of the two, but that is outweighed by this being a first-year build of an all-new body, engine lineup and interior with none of the generation's running changes absorbed yet.

Brand-level item, and as with other model years there is a study that measures this one directly: J.D. Power's Vehicle Dependability Study surveys three-year-old cars, so the 2022 VDS is the study of 2019-model-year Nissans. That study put the industry at 192 PP100 and mass-market brands at 190, and Nissan sat below it — the 2023 release named Nissan one of the three most-improved brands with a 35 PP100 gain to roughly 170, which places the 2022 baseline near 205 and well on the wrong side of average. That is the same below-average position the brand held for the 2021 model year, so this is scored level with it. The strong counterpoint for this period is initial quality, where Nissan was one of only three Japanese brands above the 2019 IQS industry average — but initial quality measures the first 90 days, not three-year dependability, so it is credited under 6.2.2 where it belongs rather than double-counted here. Behind all of it sits the 2013-2018 CVT failure population, its class-action settlements and the extended powertrain coverage across Altima, Sentra and Versa, which was still the brand's defining dependability story when this car launched.

The worst item in the category by a wide margin and the clearest cost of buying a generation's first year. Seven federal campaigns name MY2019 — more than any other year of the L34 (2020 has six, 2021 has two) — and Consumer Reports' own page independently counts the same seven. Three of them are 2019-only assembly escapes of exactly the kind a launch year produces, and two of those three are fuel-leak fire risks: a retainer clip that may leave the low-pressure fuel tube unlocked, risking a leak or a disconnect that stalls the engine, and a fuel-pump lock ring that may not be fully engaged. The lock-ring campaign matters more than its 374-unit size suggests because it is scoped to FWD 2.5L cars — the volume configuration scored here, not an optional engine. The third names a misplaced brake-switch bracket that lets the shifter leave Park without the brake pedal, a rollaway hazard. Above those sit the 443,899-unit VC-Turbo engine-bearing recall, whose stated consequence is a block breach discharging hot oil and an engine fire, and a 1.2-million-unit backup-camera campaign. The framework reserves the bottom band for major or repeated recalls in powertrain, fire and safety systems; this model year is repeated recalls across all three. The TSB side is correspondingly heavy at 266 bulletins and two defect investigations, with the familiar CVT judder/reflash/fluid pattern underneath a class action that names 2019-2020 cars and has produced no recall and no warranty extension.

Scored below every later year of the generation because 2019 is the debut of this powertrain set, with none of its running changes yet applied. The volume configuration is the 2.5L PR25DD four — a low-stress, long-lineage unit with no high-mileage red flag of its own — but it drives through a Jatco Xtronic CVT, and the Altima is the model that did the most damage to Nissan's transmission reputation. The class action alleging jerking, shuddering, stalling and delayed acceleration names 2019-2020 cars specifically, and this model year has the worst standing of any: it sits after the settled 2013-2018 population, so no extended powertrain coverage, no settlement and no federal recall reaches it, while still being early enough to predate the control-software revisions later cars benefit from. Consumer Reports independently flags drivetrain-adjacent trouble and NHTSA complaints describe limp mode and loss of acceleration. The trim walk compounds it rather than relieving it: 2019 introduced the 2.0L VC-Turbo, the world's first production variable-compression engine, in its first year on sale — an unproven design at launch that has since drawn the 443,899-unit bearing-failure and fire recall naming 2019-2020 Altimas. That engine is not the volume trim scored here, but a buyer shopping this model year's showroom is choosing between a transmission named in live litigation and an engine later recalled fleet-wide.

Competitive for the money without being a reason to buy the car — the middle of the band, and scored level with the 2021 car because this is the same cabin in its debut year. The material split is the conventional one and reviewers describe it consistently: soft-touch above the belt line, hard black plastic below it and in hard-to-reach areas, with the hard plastic center console in near-constant contact with the driver's right knee and rear door panels noticeably plainer than the fronts. Several outlets say the preponderance of hard surfaces makes the car look and feel cheaper than rivals. Against that, this interior was all-new for 2019 and a clear step up from the outgoing car — cleaner, crisper and more cohesive — and the Zero Gravity front seats remain the cabin's genuine strength. It is the pre-facelift layout with the 8-inch screen, so it lacks the 12.3-inch unit that lifted the impression of the 2023 car, and is scored under that year accordingly.

Generally solid with scattered complaints, and the two signals point in opposite directions hard enough that the middle of the band is the honest answer. The favorable one is model-specific and unusually strong for a launch year: the 2019 Altima tied for the top ranking in the midsize car segment of J.D. Power's 2019 APEAL Study, level with the Accord and the Camry, and it did so inside a brand that was one of only three Japanese marques to finish above the industry average in that year's Initial Quality Study, with the Maxima and Titan taking segment wins. A first-year car matching the segment's two benchmarks on owner-rated execution is real evidence of a controlled launch. The unfavorable one is that the assembly detail does not fully hold up: Consumer Reports lists noises and leaks among the model year's trouble spots, specifically water leaks near the rear windows, which is a body-sealing fault rather than a wear item, and body hardware appears alongside it; reviewers pair their praise for the design with the direct judgment that fit and finish could be better. Scored above the 2020 car, which had no comparable award and carried owner-reported windshields cracking without impact, and below 2021, which won the IQS midsize segment outright rather than tying an appeal ranking.

Brand-level item, and physical access was never the problem: Nissan ran one of the larger US franchised networks when this car was new, roughly comparable to Honda in dealer count and behind Toyota, so a 2019 buyer had coverage in essentially every market. What caps it is mid-pack service satisfaction, well behind Toyota and Lexus, though Nissan's later top-among-truck-brands Customer Service Index placements argue the service side is competent rather than poor. Held level with the 2020 and 2021 scorecards and above the figures this dataset carries for later Nissans, because 2019 sits entirely before the US restructuring and the dealer-count contraction that followed — this model year was sold into the healthiest recent version of the network. That contraction is a live consideration for anyone buying the car used today, but it is not a fact about the car as delivered.

The category's clear strength and the one item here backed by a hard number, which is why it stands so far above the rest of a weak scorecard. RepairPal puts Altima ownership at $483 a year against a $526 midsize-car average and $652 across all models, with repair severity at the segment norm and repair frequency low — cheaper to keep than its rivals without being unusually fragile. Three decades as one of America's highest-volume sedans, built at Smyrna and Canton, means OEM and aftermarket parts are cheap and universally stocked and every independent shop knows the platform, which shares components broadly across Nissan's PR-engine and Xtronic range; at seven years old this car is squarely in the window where that abundance pays. It stops short of the Camry/Corolla tier because a CVT replacement is a four-figure big-ticket item that shows up disproportionately in this model's long-term cost tail — and on a 2019 car that item is long outside the 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain coverage, with no settlement or extension reaching this model year.

Nissan fitted one screen size for 2019: an 8.0-inch multi-touch display standard from the base S up to Platinum. Generous for a 2019 mainstream sedan, but it sits near the bottom of a sedan band that runs to 15.5 in and there is no optional upgrade.

The 2019 redesign brought a genuinely tidy system: a responsive screen, clean graphics and — importantly — retained physical tuning/volume knobs and hard climate controls below it, which reviewers repeatedly credit. It lands mid-band rather than higher because the underlying NissanConnect software looks and feels of its era next to the segment's best, and the menu depth for vehicle settings is unloved.

Wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard on every 2019 trim including the base S, which was ahead of several mid-size rivals that year — but wireless projection is not offered at any price, which is what caps this squarely in the middle band per the item's guidance.

The volume SV has no native navigation at all — NissanConnect with Navigation is restricted to SL and Platinum — so most Altima buyers rely on phone projection for maps. Onboard voice is basic command-and-control plus Siri Eyes Free / Google Assistant pass-through, and testers found it fussy, which puts this below the middle of the band.

The volume SV runs the base six-speaker AM/FM/HD head unit, which is unremarkable; the nine-speaker Bose Premium system is a real upgrade but is locked to SL and Platinum and cannot be optioned onto lower grades. Adequate audio with a premium tier most buyers will not reach.

Every 2019 Altima gets a 7.0-inch colour Advanced Drive-Assist Display between conventional analogue dials — a configurable, decent-resolution centre screen, standard even on the base S, but a partial-digital cluster rather than a full reconfigurable panel. That is exactly the middle band.

There is no meaningful over-the-air capability on a 2019 Altima. Map and firmware refreshes are a USB/Wi-Fi dealer-or-owner exercise, and the only connected-services channel — NissanConnect Services — is restricted to SL and Platinum and does not push whole-vehicle software. Nissan's OTA update programme arrived on later model years.

The volume SV has no telematics module, so there is no app control of the car — NissanConnect Services is standard only on SL and Platinum, and then subscription-gated after the trial. Remote start exists on every grade but via the key fob, not a phone. That is a barebones remote proposition for the trims most people buy.

Better than the 2019 norm for port provision — two illuminated front USBs and two illuminated rear USBs, each pair one Type-A and one Type-C, standard on every grade including the base S, which is generous for the year. It stays mid-band because there is no wireless charging at any trim, no household AC outlet, and the single 12V console socket is the only other power source.

Nissan Intelligent Key proximity entry with push-button start and fob remote start are standard on every 2019 grade including the base S, which is a strong showing for a mainstream 2019 sedan. It falls short of the top band only because there is no phone-as-key and no hands-free trunk release at any price.

A rear-view monitor is standard on every grade and the volume SV adds Rear Cross Traffic Alert and rear automatic braking, but Nissan's Intelligent Around View Monitor is reserved for the single top Platinum trim, and no automated parking assist is offered anywhere. Rear camera plus sensors as standard with 360 confined to the top trim is precisely the middle band.

No head-up display is offered on any 2019 Altima trim, standard or optional, which is the bottom of the band.

A competent but not class-leading family sedan: wide rear door openings, a 15.4 cu ft trunk with a low liftover that swallows a stroller, 60/40 folding seatbacks with releases in the cabin and the trunk, and Rear Door Alert standard on every grade. The limiter is 35.2 in of rear legroom — short of the Accord and Camry — which makes a rear-facing seat behind a tall driver a real negotiation, and the sloping roofline narrows the aperture for lifting a child in.

Strong credentials on the trim families actually buy: straight Good scores in every IIHS crashworthiness test, a 2019 Top Safety Pick, NHTSA five stars overall, and an SV that bundles ProPILOT Assist, AEB with pedestrian detection, blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert, lane departure warning and high-beam assist as standard. It is held out of the top band by real gaps lower down the range — the S and SR go without pedestrian-detection AEB and lane departure warning entirely — plus headlights that only reach Acceptable (Marginal on the S) and a four-star NHTSA frontal result.

The front half of the car is genuinely good for long hauls — Zero Gravity seats, a quiet-enough cabin, ProPILOT Assist on the SV — and the SV does give the second row heating/cooling vents and two USB charge ports. But 35.2 in of rear legroom, a flat low bench, no rear climate controls, no heated rear seats and no rear entertainment make the back seat the compromised part of a four-up trip, and 15.4 cu ft is only just enough for four people's luggage.

This is what the 2019 Altima is built for. Light steering, a CVT that reviewers found notably smoother than the outgoing unit, comfortable Zero Gravity seats, standard proximity entry with push-button and remote start, and ProPILOT Assist standard on the volume SV to take the edge off stop-and-go. Marked down from the top band because testers found ProPILOT clunky in heavy traffic and the CVT disconnected under sudden throttle.

The volume 2.5 SV FWD returns 28/39/32 MPG on regular unleaded — strong for a non-hybrid mid-size sedan and helped by active grille shutters and a 0.26 Cd — with cheap, widely stocked consumables and 215/55R17 tires that cost little to replace. It is not in the top band because it is a conventional gas car: no hybrid option existed in 2019 and the AWD version drops to 26/36/30.

A 36.1 ft curb-to-curb circle on the SV's 17-inch wheels is tidy for a 192.9-inch mid-size sedan, and a rear camera is standard on every grade. What keeps it mid-band is visibility — the thick rear roof pillars of the fastback profile restrict the over-shoulder view — and the absence of a surround-view camera or parking sensors on anything below Platinum.

A front-drive mid-size sedan with no tow rating published by Nissan for the US market, no bed, a sealed 15.4 cu ft trunk and 188 hp through a CVT. It can carry a laptop bag and sample cases; it is not a work tool in any sense this item measures.

There is a real fleet and rideshare story here — the Altima is a high-volume, cheap-to-run sedan with a unibody of corrosion-resistant high-strength steel and simple mechanicals — but 2019 introduced an all-new engine and platform with no track record at launch, the cloth interior is not wear-focused, and Nissan's Xtronic CVT family carries a well-known durability reputation problem under hard, high-mileage duty. Fine for high-mileage highway work with care; not fleet-proven abuse tolerance.

Essentially nothing for jobsite use: no onboard AC power or inverter, no bed or tie-down points, no roof rails, no factory hitch and no washable surfaces. The accessory catalogue for 2019 runs to splash guards, a rear spoiler and alloy wheels.

The Altima's strongest use case after commuting. Zero Gravity front seats draw repeated praise for hotspot-free long stints, the cabin is quiet by reviewer consensus, ProPILOT Assist is standard on the volume SV, and 39 MPG highway against a 16.2-gallon tank gives roughly 600 miles of highway range between stops. It misses the top band on rear-seat endurance, audible tire roar on coarse surfaces and a ProPILOT calibration testers called clunky.

2019 is the first Altima ever offered with all-wheel drive, and Intelligent AWD across the 2.5 range does make gravel roads and winter trailheads more realistic than a front-drive rival. Everything else is against it: sedan ride height, no roof rails, no factory hitch, no tow rating, no onboard AC power and a sealed trunk rather than a flat load bay.

Standard 60/40 folding seatbacks with releases in both the cabin and the trunk are more flexibility than some rivals give, and 15.4 cu ft handles normal suitcases. But this is a sedan aperture: the trunk narrows between the wheel houses, the folded seats do not give a flat floor, there is no underfloor well beyond the temporary spare, and with no roof rails or hitch there is no way to carry anything outside the car.

The 2019 redesign lowered and widened the car on a stiffer platform with multi-link rear suspension and standard Intelligent Trace Control, Active Understeer Control and Intelligent Ride Control, and testers found the chassis genuinely more capable than the outgoing Altima — secure, composed, with eager turn-in. It stays mid-band because it is tuned for the soft middle of the segment: it lacks the eagerness of an Accord or the precision of a Mazda6, and big mid-corner bumps unsettle it.

The dual-pinion electric rack fitted for 2019 is a clear improvement on the previous generation — quick at 15.3:1 and 2.8 turns lock-to-lock, accurate off-centre — but every reviewer lands on the same verdict: no road feedback. Precise enough, and numb, which is the definition of the middle band.

Hardware and results are competent rather than notable: power-assisted vented front discs, solid rears, four-channel ABS with EBD and brake assist standard, and stopping distances in line with the mid-size class. Pedal feel is unremarkable and the volume SV FWD gets the smaller rear rotor and a foot-operated parking brake rather than the electronic unit on SL and above.

The all-new PR25DD 2.5 and retuned Xtronic are a real step forward — smoother than the engine they replaced, and testers call the CVT quieter and more responsive than comparable units. But the characteristic CVT disconnect is still there under sudden throttle, with revs flaring ahead of the actual acceleration and a reluctance to drop back on lift-off, and there is some roughness at idle.

At a cruise the 2.5 is unobtrusive and clearly better isolated than the outgoing QR25DE, which reviewers credit directly to the new engine. Under load it is the usual CVT story — the revs hang high and the four-cylinder drones, and Consumer Reports notes the engine is loudest where rear passengers sit.

36.1 feet is tidy for a 192.9-inch sedan on a 111.2-inch wheelbase and comfortably better than the sedan-band midpoint, helped by a quick 15.3:1 rack. The 19-inch SR and Platinum give up more than a foot of it.

A comfortable, well-sorted cockpit: Zero Gravity seats with an 8-way power driver's seat and 2-way power lumbar standard on the SV, a tilt/telescoping heated leather-wrapped wheel, and a clean dash that keeps real knobs and switches for audio and climate. Marked down because the seating position is low-slung for a family sedan and the thick rear roof pillars of the fastback profile restrict the over-shoulder view.

Nissan did not build this to be enjoyed and reviewers do not enjoy it. The volume 2.5 SV is roughly eight seconds to 60 through a CVT, with numb steering and a comfort-first chassis tune — competent transport rather than a car anyone takes the long way home in. The SR's 19-inch wheels and sport-tuned suspension, and the 248 hp VC-Turbo above it, are where whatever character exists lives.

Every 2019 Altima gets an 8.0-inch multi-touch display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, an 8-way power driver's seat, a rearview camera, Rear Door Alert, and standard Automatic Emergency Braking, Intelligent Forward Collision Warning and Intelligent Driver Alertness — a genuinely strong base spec for $23,750, and ProPILOT Assist from the volume SV up is more highway assist than a Camry or Accord included at the same money. It scores below the 2020 car because the launch-year rollout of Safety Shield 360 was narrower: Nissan made the six-system suite standard on SV and SL only, leaving S and SR buyers with no way to get blind-spot warning and rear cross-traffic alert at all. The Driver Assist Package that opened Safety Shield 360 up to the S grade, and the SR's standard fitment, did not arrive until 2020.

At $28,825 delivered the volume SV bundles ProPILOT Assist and the full Safety Shield 360 suite as standard, returns 32 MPG combined, and can be had with all-wheel drive for a flat $1,350 — something no Accord or Camry four-cylinder offered at any price in 2019. Against that, the 188-hp 2.5 and Xtronic CVT make it the least satisfying volume powertrain in the class at roughly 7.7 seconds to 60, there is no hybrid in a segment that had gone electrified, and roughly half the purchase price comes back as depreciation inside five years. A shade behind the 2020 car on the same money, because the SV cost $50 more while the lineup's safety content was narrower. Fair value, not a bargain.

The launch year is the widest this generation ever got: thirteen orderable configurations across two engines, with Intelligent AWD available on all five 2.5-liter grades from base S to Platinum, a 248-hp VC-Turbo above them, and a limited Edition ONE at the top. Offering AWD at the entry price and again at the summit is a real point of difference against the front-drive-only Accord. It falls short of a Camry's ladder only for having no hybrid and no V6, and for restricting the VC-Turbo to front-drive SR and Platinum.

The launch year was the Altima's best market showing of the generation: 209,183 units in calendar 2019, dead flat against 2018 and a clear third in the mid-size class behind the Camry and Accord. Holding volume was a real achievement in context — Nissan Division fell 8.7% overall and its total car sales fell 8.8% that year, so the Altima was one of very few nameplates in the brand not shrinking, and December closed up 12%. What keeps it out of the top band is that it is a distant third rather than a leader, a large share went to rental and fleet rather than retail, and the segment itself was in structural decline.

The all-new Altima launched into the worst stretch of Nissan's modern US brand equity. Carlos Ghosn was arrested in November 2018, six weeks after this car went on sale; the corporate crisis that followed ran through the whole 2019 model year alongside a decade of volume bought with fleet placement and subprime retail, and unresolved consumer wariness about Xtronic CVTs. A genuinely competitive product could not outrun it, and the damage shows up directly on this car's own ownership scorecard, where a five-year retention near 49% sits well below the Japanese rivals the Altima is shopped against. Scored a touch above the 2020 car only because the launch-year product buzz was still intact.

Scored on buyer benefit as the item directs. Nissan was already the most incentive-heavy mainstream brand in the market and the Altima was a slow-selling body style in a crossover boom, so cash on the hood appeared quickly even in a launch year — around $2,000 in Nissan Customer Cash was advertised by mid-2019, with an APR-or-cash choice and real dealer negotiability on top. But this is a new model in its first full year, so there was nothing like the desperation pricing of 2020, when Nissan met the pandemic demand collapse with 0% APR for up to 84 months stacked on rebates. Good for a buyer, not the fire sale that followed.

This is year one of the all-new sixth-generation (L34) Altima — the freshest a car can be. It arrived on a new platform, lower, longer and wider than its predecessor, with two brand-new engines including the world's first production variable-compression turbo, a next-generation Xtronic, ProPILOT Assist, and the first all-wheel drive ever offered in a US Nissan sedan. A 2019 buyer had zero redesign risk: the facelift did not come until 2023. The only thing keeping it off a perfect score is the absent hybrid in a segment where Toyota and Honda already had one.

The launch year drew the best press this generation ever got, and it still was not enough to make the Altima the pick of the class. On the credit side it took a real segment award — MotorWeek's 2019 Drivers' Choice Award for Best Family Sedan — plus a place on Autotrader's "12 Best New Cars for 2019" and an IIHS Top Safety Pick. Against that, the head-to-head verdicts went the other way: reviewers repeatedly placed it behind the Accord and Camry, criticizing numb steering, uninspiring handling, CVT drone and cargo space short of both rivals. Scored above the 2020 car, which won nothing as a car, but well short of the comparison-test winners.