2021 Nissan Altima

The volume SV FWD grade runs the 2.5-liter PR25DD naturally aspirated four at 188 hp, unchanged within the L34 generation — 2021 was a lineup-reshuffle year (SR repositioned above SV, Platinum narrowed to AWD only, new SV Premium Package) with no powertrain change. Modest output for a mid-size sedan in a year when rivals fielded turbos and hybrids.

180 lb-ft arriving as high as 3,600 rpm is characteristic of the last naturally aspirated fours in the class; the turbocharged and hybrid mid-size sedans of 2021 made more torque and made it far lower in the rev range.

Nissan publishes no 0–60 claim, so the figure is bracketed from instrumented tests of the mechanically identical PR25DD/Xtronic combination — Car and Driver recorded 7.7 s for the 2.5 SV FWD and testers spread from 7.4 to 8.4 s for the heavier AWD cars. Roughly 7.8 seconds is adequate but well behind the hybrid Camry and Accord that set the segment's pace.

The naturally aspirated 2.5 has no turbo lag, stays quiet at part throttle and benefits from the reverse cylinder head and low engine mounting the L34 introduced — but reviewers of the 2021 car consistently report that it is unhurried under load and that the powertrain 'motorboats' when pushed. The genuinely refined variable-compression 2.0 turbo is confined to one FWD trim, not the volume configuration.

Nissan's Xtronic CVT is standard on every 2021 grade and both engines, and is one of the better executions of the type — reviewers call it well tuned and nearly invisible in daily driving, with simulated steps that mimic a conventional automatic — but ratio-hunting shows up as the rpm-disconnected 'motorboat' effect under hard throttle, which the segment's eight-speeds and hybrid e-CVTs avoid. Paddle shifters with manual shift mode arrive only at the SR grade, above the volume SV.

Intelligent All-Wheel Drive is offered on four of the five 2021 grades — optional on SV, SR and SL, and the sole configuration of Platinum, which became AWD-only for 2021 — a real advantage in a segment where Accord, Sonata and K5 were front-drive only. It is held to the middle band because operation is basic on-demand torque split with no terrain modes, low range or torque vectoring, and because it cannot be ordered on the base S or paired with the VC-Turbo.

Two genuinely distinct gas engines — the 188 hp 2.5 and the 248 hp variable-compression 2.0 turbo — plus a front- or all-wheel-drive choice covers mainstream needs across nine models. What holds it to the middle of the band is the complete absence of any electrified option in a year when Camry, Accord and Sonata all sold hybrids, and the fact that 2021 narrowed the VC-Turbo to a single FWD trim (it had also been offered on Platinum in 2019–2020).

EPA rates the volume 2.5-liter FWD SV at 31 MPG combined — among the better figures any non-hybrid mid-size sedan posted for 2021, helped by a 0.26 coefficient of drag, active grille shutters and the Xtronic's tall ratio spread, but well short of the hybrid Camry and Accord that dominated the segment's economy rankings.

City is the weakest leg of the Altima's EPA line: with no hybrid assist to recover braking energy, stop-and-go running returns 27 MPG — respectable for a naturally aspirated mid-sizer but far behind the hybrid rivals that were rated in the low 40s around town in 2021.

Highway is where the Altima earns its keep — a 0.26 drag coefficient, active grille shutters and a very tall CVT overdrive ratio yield 37 MPG on the volume SV's 17-inch wheels (39 on the base S's 16s), competitive with the best non-hybrid sedans and the core of the car's long-commute case.

EPA's published total range for the volume SV is 502 miles, and a steady highway run stretches that toward 600 — above average for a mid-size sedan, though short of what the hybrid rivals extract from smaller tanks.

EPA's published annual cost for the volume 2.5 FWD is $2,000 at standard assumptions — cheap against the market as a whole and against most sedans in this catalog, but a few hundred dollars a year worse than the hybrid mid-size sedans it competed with directly in 2021.

Every 2021 Altima, the variable-compression turbo included, runs on regular unleaded — the VC-Turbo simply trades 12 hp and 6 lb-ft on 87 octane instead of 93, so higher octane buys output and is never a requirement. That is the cheapest and simplest fueling story available in the segment.

The 2021 Altima carries NHTSA's top 5-star overall NCAP result, identical for 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 the 4-star passenger frontal against a 5-star driver frontal.

The 2021 Altima is a genuine IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ with Good across all six legacy crashworthiness tests and Acceptable headlights standard on every trim, which is what earned the plus. It is held out of the top band because this is the pre-reinforcement structure: the side rating explicitly applies to 2019-21 models only, and when IIHS ran the updated, harder-hitting side test on the 2022 car — which had by then gained enlarged curtain airbags plus door sill and pillar reinforcements — that structure rated Poor. The 2021 body is the weaker one and was never tested under the new protocol, so the award reflects criteria the car's occupant protection has since been shown not to meet.

Every 2021 grade gets AEB with pedestrian detection, lane departure warning, high-beam assist, Intelligent Forward Collision Warning and Intelligent Driver Alertness as standard, and the volume SV adds the full Safety Shield 360 — radar blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert and rear automatic braking — at no cost. Two real gaps keep it mid-band and a notch below the 2022 car: Safety Shield 360 is still optional on the base S in 2021 (a Driver Assistance Package), a year before Nissan made it standard across the lineup, and adaptive cruise with lane centering requires ProPILOT Assist, which the S and SR cannot have at all.

IIHS rates the standard forward system Superior against vehicles and Advanced against daytime pedestrians — the top and near-top results available for 2021 — and every grade has AEB with pedestrian detection. It sits mid-band rather than higher for two reasons: rear automatic braking is not standard on the base S, and the nighttime pedestrian dimension is unproven at best. IIHS had not yet introduced that test for the 2021 model year, and when it did, this same sensor-and-headlight combination on the 2022 car earned No Credit.

From the SV up, radar blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert and rear automatic braking are all standard, and the standard rear AEB supplies real intervention behind the car rather than only a chime — good coverage for a 2021 midsize sedan. It stays mid-band because the base S has to option the whole set, the blind-spot system is alert-only with no steering or braking correction into an occupied lane, 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.

Lane departure warning is standard on every grade, and where ProPILOT Assist is fitted the steering assist is one of the better mainstream lane-centering calibrations of the period — reviewers single it out as more intuitive than rivals'. The score is capped by availability rather than quality: the S and SR cannot be had with centering at all, and the volume SV has to buy the SV Premium Package to get it, so most 2021 Altimas on the road have warning only.

ProPILOT Assist pairs full-speed-range Intelligent Cruise Control with stop-and-hold in traffic and lane centering, and reviewers rate the calibration at or near the top of the 2021 mainstream midsize field — Edmunds calls it the Altima's killer app and finds it needs very little correction in traffic. It misses the top band on availability and scope: it is not standard on the volume SV, an S or SR buyer cannot get it at any price, and this is plain ProPILOT Assist 1.1 with no map-based speed adjustment or hands-off capability.

No hands-free highway driving is available on the 2021 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.

IIHS rates both 2021 headlight configurations Acceptable rather than Good, and high-beam assist is standard on every grade, so no trim is actively penalized and the uniformity is what carried the TSP+ award. But neither setup is genuinely good: the SV-and-up LED projectors leave the gradual left curve inadequate, the base S halogen units are inadequate on all four curves, and no curve-adaptive lighting is offered on any grade.

The L34 body gives good forward and side sightlines for a modern sedan — low cowl, slim pillars and a floating-roof greenhouse Nissan markets on its airiness — but the fastback roofline, high rear deck and thick C-pillars pinch the over-the-shoulder and rear views. Camera compensation is thin for 2021: the 360-degree view is Platinum-only, and even the rear sonar that helps in parking is standard only from the SV up, leaving the base car on the rear-view camera alone.

IIHS grades the LATCH hardware Good and flags extra anchor positions beyond the two required outboard sets — its best ease-of-use outcome — and midsize rear width with wide-opening rear doors makes two seats genuinely livable. It lands mid-upper rather than top because the fixed rear head restraints sit in front of the top tethers so caregivers often miss them, and the heavily bolstered Zero Gravity seat bottoms push a booster onto a buckle that sinks into the cushion.

Five seats is the only configuration offered and it sits at the top of the sedan band. Nissan's own 2021 seating table lists a 3-across bench for every grade with no bench or captain's-chair variant anywhere in the range.

Nissan publishes the figure both ways and the volume SV ships without a moonroof — it is SV Premium Package content — so 39.2 in is the number for the representative configuration, near the top of the mid-size sedan range.

43.8 inches is at the generous end of the class and constant across the lineup — front-seat stretch-out room is one of the L34 Altima's genuine strengths, backed by 58.2 in of front shoulder room.

The fastback-influenced roofline that gives this generation its silhouette costs second-row headroom: 36.9 inches lands below the middle of the sedan band, and taller rear passengers sit close to 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 — the 2021 Accord offers 40.4 and the Camry 38.0 — which is what makes a rear-facing child seat behind a tall driver a real squeeze.

15.4 cubic feet is squarely mid-pack — a fraction more than the 2021 Camry's 15.1 but short of the Accord's 16.7 — and the standard 60/40 fold with releases in both the cabin and the trunk extends it for longer items, though the sedan aperture still limits bulky loads.

Conventional and adequate, with one genuinely thoughtful touch — the rear seatbacks release from inside the trunk as well as the cabin, so a long load can be fed through without walking around the car. Against that, the fittings are ordinary: a console bin with armrest, a damped lockable glovebox, four cup holders and a single 12-volt outlet. There is no wireless charging pad at any 2021 grade, no household outlet, and no underfloor trunk well.

Nissan's NASA-derived Zero Gravity front buckets with dual-density foam are a repeated review positive, and the volume SV gets an 8-way power driver's seat as standard — more adjustment than several rivals give at that price. Two things hold it below the top band: power lumbar is optional on SV rather than standard, and the flat, low rear bench is a step down from the fronts.

Struts front and a multi-link rear on the SV's 17-inch 215/55 all-seasons give a sound comfort-versus-control compromise — bumps are absorbed and body roll stays contained. What keeps it mid-band is the secondary ride: on broken pavement the steady stream of small impacts makes the car feel busy, and sharp hits come through hard, a trait that worsens on the 19-inch SR and Platinum.

Sources split, and the split tracks trim: acoustic front door glass is SL-and-up content and Active Noise Cancellation is fitted only to the SR VC-Turbo, so the volume SV has neither. Wind isolation is decent for the class and reviewers credit good engine isolation at part throttle, but the Xtronic's habit of holding revs produces a drone under acceleration and at interstate cruise that the segment's conventional automatics avoid.

Thin on the trim people actually buy. The volume SV gets single-zone air conditioning and no heated seats — those arrive only via the SV Premium Package — while dual-zone automatic climate control, rear console HVAC vents and a heated steering wheel are reserved for SL and Platinum. Ventilated seats and rear climate controls are not offered at any price. The bright spot is a remote engine start system standard on S, SV and SR.

Nissan held the 2021 Altima's entry price flat against 2020 at $24,300 before a $925 destination charge, which puts the cheapest Altima under both a Camry LE and an Accord LX on sticker and near the bottom of the mid-size sedan band. Undercutting the two segment benchmarks on entry price is the car's core commercial argument, and 2021 is the year that gap was widest in this generation.

The SV is the retail volume grade and the point at which the Altima stops being a stripper: it is where Safety Shield 360, the 8-inch display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, alloy wheels and dual-zone climate appear, and at $26,325 delivered it sits barely above a base Camry LE while offering all-wheel drive for a flat $1,400 that the front-drive-only Accord could not match at any price. The whole nine-model 2021 ladder stays in the lower third of the segment band.

The naturally aspirated 2.5-liter PR25DD in the volume SV is cheap to keep running — regular fuel, no turbocharger, conventional service intervals — and RepairPal rates Altima repair frequency and severity better than the mid-size average. Two things hold the figure mid-pack rather than class-leading: the Xtronic CVT is the component with the segment's worst out-of-warranty reputation and it comes uncovered after 60,000 miles, and Nissan includes no complimentary scheduled maintenance, so every service from the first oil change onward is out of pocket. The figure blends a high Edmunds projection against markedly lower aggregator estimates, the same basis used for the other model years of this nameplate in this dataset.

This is observed rather than projected — the 2021 car reached its five-year mark in 2026, and the numbers are better than the Altima's structural norm because MY2021 sold into, and aged through, the pandemic used-car price bubble. That inflation is real money to a 2021 buyer, so it is scored as found, but it should not be read as the nameplate improving: resale remains the Altima's structural weakness, and every direct rival except the Malibu and Sonata retained more. The volume SV specifically held up best of the mainstream grades at about 60%, while the nameplate-wide average and the stripped S land nearer 55%.

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 what Toyota and Honda offered in 2021 but is two years and 24,000 miles short of what a Sonata or K5 buyer got at the same money.

Powertrain coverage is 60 months or 60,000 miles, again the band floor. It bites harder on this car than on most rivals because the Xtronic CVT is precisely the component Altima shoppers most want covered, and it comes off warranty at 60,000 miles — half the mileage Hyundai and Kia gave an original owner in 2021.

Nissan included no complimentary scheduled maintenance on the 2021 Altima — there is no ToyotaCare or Hyundai Complimentary Maintenance equivalent, so the first oil change is the owner's bill. What keeps this in the 'basic roadside only' band rather than the zero band is roadside assistance running the full 3 years / 36,000 miles alongside the basic term, plus a NissanConnect Services trial on grades that carry it, giving remote start/lock, automatic collision notification and emergency calling for a limited period. There are no fuel or charging credits and nothing that offsets the floor-level warranty terms.

$26,325 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (57% retained, or about $15,005) leaves about $11,320 in depreciation. Add the projected $5,200 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $16,520 in total.

On the published forecasts 2021 is the best-documented year of the L34 generation, and it reads clearly above average rather than merely average. J.D. Power gives it 85/100 for quality and reliability — the 81-90 'Great' band — and Consumer Reports' 2021 reliability page describes the car as much more reliable than other cars from the same model year, its top characterization. RepairPal independently rates the nameplate 4.0/5 and 11th of 24 midsize cars with low repair frequency. What keeps it out of the 80+ top tier is that the forecast rests on a transmission with no demonstrated long-term record: the Xtronic CVT is unresolved over a 10-year horizon, Nissan's own brand dependability standing was below average in this period (6.1.2), and the model year's NHTSA complaint mix is not clean — false automatic-emergency-braking activation dominates it and a tie-rod detachment drew a recall.

Brand-level item, scored as Nissan actually stood when this model year was current rather than at the brand's long-run average — and in 2021 that standing was below average. The J.D. Power 2021 Vehicle Dependability Study put Nissan at 128 PP100 against a 121 industry average, placing it in the below-average group alongside Audi and Dodge and well behind the Japanese-brand average of 118. That is a materially worse position than the brand held two years later, which is why this sits below the figure carried for the 2023 Altima. It does not fall further because the same year's Initial Quality Study was genuinely strong for Nissan — that counterpoint is credited under 6.2.2, where initial quality belongs, rather than here, since this item measures three-year dependability. The 2013-2018 CVT failure population, its class-action settlements and extended powertrain coverage across Altima, Sentra and Versa still sit inside the multi-year window being judged.

Typical activity with nothing systemic — two federal campaigns across five years on the road, which is light for a high-volume sedan. The larger one by far is a rearview-camera harness campaign covering 153,376 vehicles, but it is an FMVSS 111 compliance defect that degrades a display rather than a mechanical failure. The smaller one is genuinely serious in kind — an improperly tightened tie-rod ball joint fastener that can let the joint separate from the steering knuckle — but it reached only 2,407 cars, an assembly escape rather than a design fault, and it is the source of the steering-control complaints in this model year's NHTSA record. The important omission is that 2021 falls outside the generation's worst campaign: the 443,899-unit VC-Turbo engine-bearing recall (25V-437) names only 2019-2020 Altimas, so the 2021 VC-Turbo is not implicated. Held below the upper band by the TSB side, where CVT judder, reflash and fluid bulletins remain a standing Nissan service theme with no federal recall and no warranty extension reaching this year.

Engine and transmission pull in opposite directions, which is what the mixed-history band describes. The volume configuration is the 2.5L PR25DD four — a low-stress, long-lineage Nissan mid-size unit at 188 hp FWD (182 AWD) with no high-mileage red flag — but it drives through a Jatco Xtronic CVT, and the Altima is the single model that did the most damage to Nissan's transmission reputation. Post-2019 units run revised control software and fail materially less often than the 2013-2018 population, yet the family has never demonstrated Toyota- or Honda-grade high-mileage durability, and shudder, hesitation and power-loss complaints continue on cars well outside the settled years. Held level with the 2023 and 2026 scorecards because the hardware is architecturally identical. Worth flagging for anyone shopping the trim walk rather than the volume trim: 2021 offered the 2.0L VC-Turbo on the SR, and while the 2021 car is outside the bearing-failure recall population, that engine family later proved to have one.

Adequate for the money and never a selling point, and 2021 sits at the plainer end of the generation because it predates the 2023 facelift's 12.3-inch screen — the volume car here still runs the 8-inch unit in a dashboard reviewers found short on style. The recurring criticism is the same across outlets: a reasonable base of materials undercut by a lot of hard plastic that flattens the ambiance, with the Sonata and Accord explicitly named as having much nicer cabins. Everything is a clear step up from the previous-generation Altima, and the Zero Gravity front seats remain the cabin's genuine strength, but against 2021 mid-size rivals this is the plain one. Scored a few points under the 2023 car on the screen and trim content rather than on any new material failing.

The strongest initial-quality evidence this nameplate has anywhere in the dataset, which is why 2021 scores well clear of the surrounding model years. The 2021 Altima won the J.D. Power 2021 Initial Quality Study award for the Midsize Car segment, beating the Camry and Malibu on problems reported in the first 90 days, and it did so inside a brand that finished 5th overall at 146 PP100 against a 162 industry average — with the Maxima, built on the same Smyrna, Tennessee line, posting the best score of any model in the entire study. That is exactly the 'strong initial quality scores' the top band asks for. It stops short of it because the assembly detail does not fully match the survey result: Edmunds specifically faults gaps where the dashboard meets the windshield and a hood that looks out of alignment against better-built competitors, and reviewers consistently flag wind and road noise — refinement failings owners read as build quality even where panel fit is sound.

Brand-level item, and physical access is not the problem: Nissan runs one of the larger US franchised networks, roughly comparable in dealer count to Honda and behind Toyota, so a 2021 buyer had coverage in essentially every market. What caps the score is mid-pack service satisfaction, well behind Toyota and Lexus. Scored slightly above the figure this dataset carries for later Nissans because 2021 sits entirely before Nissan's US restructuring and the dealer-count contraction that followed — this model year was sold into the healthiest version of the network in recent memory. The contraction is still 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. RepairPal puts Altima ownership at $483 a year against a $526 midsize-car average, with repair severity at the segment norm and repair frequency low — so the car is cheaper to keep than its rivals without being unusually fragile. Three decades as one of America's highest-volume sedans 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/QR-engine and Xtronic lineup; at five 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.

Eight inches is both the SV's standard screen and the ceiling for the 2021 lineup — the 12.3-inch HD display only arrived with the 2023 refresh — so there is no larger option to note. Against a 2021 mid-size field already moving to 10-inch-plus panels, it is small.

NissanConnect is plain but sane: a shallow menu tree, a customizable home screen, and — importantly for daily use — retained physical knobs and hard keys for volume, tuning and climate rather than everything buried in the display. What caps it is the hardware. The 8.0-inch panel is the biggest available in 2021, its graphics look a generation behind the class, and reviewers find the screen mounted far enough forward on the dash to be awkward to read at a glance.

Wired only, with no wireless option at any price — Nissan did not bring wireless CarPlay to the Altima until the 2023 refresh. Worse for a bargain-hunter, phone projection is not standard across the range in 2021: the base S is the one grade that goes without it entirely. The volume SV does get both CarPlay and Android Auto standard, which is what holds this to the middle of the band rather than below it.

The volume SV has no embedded navigation at all — Nissan Door to Door Connected Navigation is SL and Platinum content and cannot be ordered on an SV — so owners are on phone projection by default. Onboard voice is command-list recognition plus Siri Eyes Free and a Google Assistant hook, not natural language, and the Alexa/Google remote integration rides on NissanConnect Services, which the SV also does not get.

A six-speaker AM/FM system is standard through S, SV and SR and is unremarkable. The nine-speaker Bose Premium Audio upgrade with its eight-channel digital amplifier is a real step up, but it is unreachable from the volume trim — SL and Platinum equipment only, and absent from the SV Premium Package — so an SV buyer has no factory path to better sound.

Partial digital, and that is the ceiling — no fully digital gauge cluster is offered on any 2021 Altima. The SV and above get a 7.0-inch Advanced Drive-Assist Display flanked by analogue dials, crisp and configurable enough for trip, audio and driver-assist data; the base S drops to a small monochrome-grade info display.

There is no whole-vehicle over-the-air update capability on the 2021 Altima. The only thing that refreshes remotely is map and traffic data on cars fitted with the SL/Platinum connected navigation system — and the volume SV has no embedded navigation at all, so for that buyer the answer is effectively none. Control-module software requires a dealer visit.

The feature set exists but the volume buyer cannot have it. NissanConnect Services — remote engine start/stop, remote door lock/unlock, vehicle locate, valet alert, plus Alexa and Google Assistant hooks — is bundled with the connected-navigation head unit and is therefore SL and Platinum equipment in 2021, not even a package option on SV or SR. An SV owner's remote functions stop at the key fob's remote start, and there is no digital key on any grade.

Port coverage is genuinely good for a 2021 mainstream sedan — the SV gets two illuminated front ports and two illuminated rear charge ports, each pair one Type-A and one Type-C, so both rows are served and USB-C is present at a time many rivals were still all Type-A. What holds it mid-band is everything else: no wireless charging pad at any grade or in any package, no household outlet, a single 12-volt socket, and the base S gets no USB-C at all.

The strongest item in this category, and better than the car's price implies. Nissan Intelligent Key proximity entry with push-button ignition is standard on every 2021 grade including the $24,300 base S, and remote engine start from the fob is standard on S, SV and SR — a level of keyless convenience several mid-size rivals still charged for in 2021. It is capped below the top band only because there is no phone-as-key and no hands-free trunk release.

Textbook mid-band. A RearView Monitor is standard on every grade and the SV adds a rear sonar system and rear automatic braking as standard, so the volume car is well covered behind. But the Intelligent Around View 360-degree camera is Platinum-exclusive in 2021 — it cannot be ordered on an SV at any price, not even through the Premium Package — and no 2021 Altima offers an automated parking function.

No head-up display is offered on the 2021 Altima at any grade, in any package, at any price — the feature simply does not exist in the L34 lineup, at a time when several mid-size rivals offered one on upper trims.

The hardware is right and the space is not. IIHS rates the LATCH system Good — its top ease-of-use grade — with three rear tether anchors, and Rear Door Alert is standard on every 2021 grade, which is exactly the feature that matters most with small children. But 35.2 inches of rear legroom is the tightest in the mid-size class, so a rear-facing seat behind a tall driver forces the front occupant forward, and reviewers flag the fixed rear head restraints as an obstruction when cinching a seat down.

The Altima's best use-case argument. The 2021 car is an IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ with a 5-star NHTSA overall rating, AEB with pedestrian detection, lane departure warning, high-beam assist and Intelligent Driver Alertness are standard on all nine models, and Safety Shield 360 — adding blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert and rear automatic braking — is standard from the SV, the trim families actually buy. Two things keep it out of the top band: the cheapest S must pay extra for Safety Shield 360, and IIHS rates both headlight configurations Acceptable rather than Good.

Four adults will cover distance in reasonable comfort on the Zero Gravity front seats with a 15.4 cu ft trunk that swallows a family's luggage, and the SV does give the second row two USB charge ports. But the rear of an SV is thin: no climate vents (SL and Platinum only), no rear sunshade, no seatback entertainment, a flat bench, and the least rear legroom of any mid-size sedan on sale in 2021.

This is what the car is for. The Xtronic CVT has no low-speed shift shunt, the dual-pinion electric steering is deliberately light at parking speeds, the Zero Gravity driver's seat is built for long stints, remote engine start is standard on the SV, and forward sightlines are good. The limiter is that ProPILOT Assist — the single biggest fatigue reducer in stop-and-go traffic — is not SV standard in 2021; it comes only with the SV Premium Package or by stepping up to SL.

Cheap to run for a non-hybrid: EPA puts the volume 2.5 FWD SV at 31 MPG combined on regular unleaded for about $2,000 a year, helped by a 0.26 drag coefficient and a very tall CVT overdrive. It is held out of the top band by the obvious alternative — the 2021 Camry Hybrid and Accord Hybrid roughly halve that fuel bill in the same showroom class — and by Nissan's CVT fluid service being a real recurring line item.

Manageable rather than easy. A 37.4-foot curb-to-curb circle is ordinary for the class and the car is a full 192.9 inches long, but a RearView Monitor and rear sonar system come standard on the SV and the low cowl gives good forward sightlines. The 360-degree Around View camera that would make tight urban parking genuinely easy is Platinum-only and unavailable on the volume trim.

Nissan publishes no towing capacity for the US-market Altima and offers no factory hitch, so it is not a work vehicle in any sense this item measures. There is no bed, no payload rating beyond ordinary passenger-and-luggage capacity, and the 188-hp 2.5 paired to a CVT is calibrated for economy rather than sustained load.

Not a work platform, and the component that would matter most under sustained load is the known weak link: Nissan's Xtronic CVT carries a long history of heat-related failures, which is precisely the duty cycle hard work imposes. The PR25DD four-cylinder itself is a simple, fleet-familiar naturally aspirated engine and the cloth interior on S and SV cleans up easily, but there is no wear-oriented trim package and no fleet-duty reputation to draw on.

Effectively nothing here. No bed, no tie-down system beyond dealer-accessory trunk hooks, no onboard AC power or inverter at any grade — the entire electrical provision is one 12-volt socket in the console — no roof rails, no factory hitch and no upfitter ecosystem. Interior surfaces are ordinary cloth or leather rather than washable work trim.

A genuinely good interstate car. 37 MPG highway from a 16.2-gallon tank is around 500 miles of combined range and close to 600 on a steady cruise, the Zero Gravity seats are built for exactly this duty, and a 0.26 drag coefficient keeps wind noise down. Two things stop it short of the top band: the Xtronic drones at changing pitch at cruise on a car with neither acoustic glass nor active noise cancellation at SV level, and ProPILOT Assist — the fatigue reducer that would matter most over 500 miles — is an SV option rather than standard.

The Altima has one real adventure card and it is unusual in this segment: Intelligent All-Wheel Drive, orderable on SV, SR and SL and standard on the AWD-only Platinum, when the 2021 Accord, Sonata and K5 offered none. Everything else argues the other way — sedan ride height, no factory hitch, no roof rails, no onboard power, and 215/55R17 all-seasons that are fine on gravel and nothing beyond it.

Standard 60/40-split folding rear seatbacks from the base S mean skis, flat-packs and long items pass through, and the release levers sit in both the cabin and the trunk — a small convenience the segment does not universally offer. But 15.4 cubic feet through a sedan aperture is the whole toolkit: no hatch, no roof rails, no factory hitch, no underfloor well and no pass-through beyond the folded seatbacks.

Better than the badge suggests. Struts front, a multi-link rear and front and rear stabilizer bars give the Altima secure, flat cornering, and the chassis has real grip in it — the 2021 SR VC-Turbo pulled 0.91 g on a 300-foot skidpad, a figure that embarrasses some sport sedans. The volume 2.5 SV on 215/55R17 all-seasons is the softer expression of that: stable and confidence-inspiring through sweepers rather than eager, with the sport-tuned suspension reserved for the SR and Platinum.

Accurate enough to place the car but short on information, and the most consistently criticised part of how it drives. Nissan's dual-pinion electric rack is tuned deliberately light at parking speeds and firms with velocity, which serves the commuter brief, but reviewers fault the same thing repeatedly: overly light, vague and numb, to the point that it undercuts an otherwise composed chassis at speed.

Solid without being a highlight. Vented front and solid rear discs with ABS, EBD and Brake Assist standard on every grade produced a measured 176-foot stop from 70 mph in instrumented testing of the 2021 car — mid-pack for a mid-size sedan — behind a firm, progressive pedal. That result came on the 19-inch SR, so the volume SV on narrower 17-inch all-seasons will stop somewhat longer, and the electronic parking brake with auto-hold is SV Premium Package or SL content rather than SV standard.

Two halves that cancel out. The naturally aspirated 188-hp 2.5 has no turbo lag and clean part-throttle tip-in, and the Xtronic CVT is one of the better-calibrated examples of the type — smooth and largely unobtrusive in ordinary driving. Ask for a real overtake and the calibration falls apart audibly: the CVT pins the revs, the engine strains, and roughly 7.8 seconds to 60 mph means the car is slow to actually gather speed.

The clearest weakness in the category. Worked hard, the 2.5 turns coarse and the CVT holds it at a fixed high rpm, producing exactly the sustained drone that conventional automatics and hybrid e-CVTs avoid — and reviewers report the pitch wandering at steady interstate cruise, not just under throttle. The volume SV has neither the Active Noise Cancellation fitted to the SR VC-Turbo nor the SL's acoustic front door glass to mask it.

37.4 feet is unremarkable for a mid-size sedan on a 111.2-inch wheelbase — workable in a parking structure but no better than average, and more than a foot worse than the base S's narrower 16-inch wheel-and-tire package allows. Taken from Nissan's own steering table, where the 37.4 figure spans the SV through Platinum columns.

Sound fundamentals with a couple of real irritations. A tilt-and-telescoping column is standard, the SV adds an 8-way power driver's seat, and Nissan kept physical knobs and hard keys for climate and audio rather than burying them in the 8.0-inch screen. Against that, power lumbar adjustment is an SV option rather than standard, the driver's hip point sits high enough that taller drivers work to dial it out, and the screen is mounted well forward on the dash.

There is a genuinely interesting car buried in the 2021 range — the 236-hp SR VC-Turbo, the only production variable-compression engine on sale, on 19-inch wheels and good for 0.91 g — but it is one front-wheel-drive trim and not the volume configuration. The 188-hp 2.5 SV that most buyers take home is competent and composed but numb through the wheel and vocal without being quick: pleasant, and forgettable.

2021 is the year the base Altima S got thinner, and it costs the car here: the S keeps a 7-inch display with no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, halogen headlights, 16-inch steel wheels with covers and only the basic AEB/forward-collision/driver-alertness set, with the full Safety Shield 360 suite an extra-cost Driver Assist Package. Move one rung to the volume SV and the picture is competitive rather than sparse — Safety Shield 360, the 8-inch display with CarPlay and Android Auto, alloy wheels, dual-zone climate and standard remote start — but a class in which rivals were making smartphone mirroring and a full ADAS suite standard at base had moved past what Nissan was including at the bottom of the range.

At $26,325 delivered the volume SV buys a full ADAS suite, 32 MPG combined, a genuinely roomy and quiet mid-size cabin, and all-wheel drive for a flat $1,400 that Honda could not sell at any price — real content for a price that sits at the bottom of the class. Against that, the 188-hp 2.5 and Xtronic CVT are the segment's least satisfying volume powertrain, there was no hybrid option at all in a class where the Camry, Accord and Sonata all offered one, reviewers flagged build-quality lapses, and the weak residual hands a meaningful share of the purchase-price advantage back at trade-in. Fair value, not a bargain.

2021 is the broadest this generation ever got — nine orderable models across five grades and two engines, with Intelligent AWD available on SV, SR and SL for a flat $1,400, standard on the Platinum, and a 236-hp VC-Turbo halo car at the top. Nissan also reshuffled the ladder for 2021, moving SR above SV to line the Altima up with the rest of its sedans, and added an SV Premium Package (moonroof, heated front seats, Intelligent Lane Intervention) that plugs the old gap between the volume grade and the SL. All-wheel drive down the middle of the range is a real point of difference against the front-drive-only Accord; the lineup falls short of a Camry's only for having no hybrid and no V6, and for confining the VC-Turbo to front-drive SR.

The Altima moved 103,776 units in the US in calendar 2021, holding third place in the mid-size class behind the Camry and Accord and ahead of the Sonata and K5 — still a six-figure nameplate in a shrinking segment. The trajectory is what caps it: that is a 24.8% fall from 2020 and the model's weakest full year of the modern era. Much of the drop was supply rather than demand — Nissan halted Altima production repeatedly through 2021 as the semiconductor shortage bit — so this reads as a constrained year for a car with genuine market acceptance rather than as buyers walking away, which is why it is not scored lower.

Nissan's US brand equity in 2021 sat below neutral and the Altima carried more of that baggage than any other Nissan car line: unresolved consumer wariness about Xtronic CVTs, a reputation built on subprime retail and heavy fleet and rental placement, and the residual damage from the discount-driven volume strategy of the previous decade that the company was still in the middle of unwinding. It shows up directly in the model's resale, which remains the weakest number on its ownership-cost scorecard despite a used-car market that lifted every 2021 vehicle.

Scored on buyer benefit as the item directs, and 2021 splits in half. A buyer shopping the MY2021 Altima in the first part of the year found Nissan among the more discountable mainstream brands, with rebates and subvented financing routinely taking transactions below invoice — the Altima's habitual advantage. By the second half the semiconductor shortage had emptied lots, Nissan cut Altima output, and industry-wide incentives collapsed to record lows, so late-MY2021 buyers paid at or near sticker. Averaged across the model year that is occasional modest incentives rather than the reliably discountable car the Altima is in a normal market, and well short of the 2023–2025 pattern.

2021 is year three of the sixth-generation L34 Altima that arrived for 2019 — squarely mid-cycle, with the pre-facelift face and no redesign risk on the horizon for a buyer at the time. Nissan kept it current with a lineup reshuffle (SR moved above SV, aligning with the rest of the sedan range) and a new SV Premium Package rather than sheet-metal changes, and the platform still carried the generation's headline technology: the world's first production variable-compression turbo engine and available AWD in a class that mostly lacked it. Current but not cutting-edge, and short of new-generation freshness.

Reviewers put the 2021 Altima solidly mid-pack — praised for ride comfort, the Zero Gravity seats, fuel economy, ProPILOT Assist and the AWD option, marked down for CVT drone, build-quality lapses and the absence of a hybrid — and it wins no comparison tests in a class fronted by the Accord and Camry. What lifts it above the bottom half is a genuine, current safety award: the 2021 car earned IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ on the criteria in force that year, with Good in all six crashworthiness tests and Acceptable headlights standard across the range, alongside a 5-star NHTSA overall. No 10Best, NACTOY or comparison-test win attaches to this model year.