2023 Nissan Altima

The volume SV trim runs the 2.5-liter PR25DD naturally aspirated four at 188 hp FWD (182 hp AWD), unchanged by the 2023 mid-cycle refresh, which touched styling, safety and infotainment rather than the powertrains. Modest output for a mid-size sedan now that rivals field turbos and hybrids.

180 lb-ft arriving high in the rev range is competitive only with other naturally aspirated fours; hybrid and turbo rivals deliver more, and deliver it far lower down.

Instrumented results for the 2023 car bracket the volume FWD 2.5 at roughly 7.8 seconds — Motor Trend recorded 8.0 s for a 2.5 SL AWD and aggregated 2.5 SV tests average 7.87 s with a 7.6 s best. Adequate, but a half-second-plus behind the hybrid Camry and Accord that set the segment's pace.

The naturally aspirated 2.5 has no turbo lag and responds cleanly at part throttle, but reviewers of the 2023 car consistently report that it struggles to build speed and turns coarse and loud when worked. The VC-Turbo available only on the SR FWD is the genuinely refined option, and it is not the volume configuration.

Nissan's Xtronic CVT is standard on every 2023 grade and is one of the better executions of the type — reviewers call it well tuned and near-invisible in daily driving — but it holds revs and drones audibly on merges and climbs, the characteristic the segment's conventional eight-speeds and hybrid e-CVTs avoid. Paddle shifters on the SR grades add a manual mode but no real decisiveness.

Intelligent AWD is offered on the SV, SR and SL grades — five of the eight 2023 configurations — which is a real advantage in a segment where the Accord, Sonata and K5 are FWD-only. It is capped in the mid 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 or ordered on the base S.

Two genuinely distinct gas engines — the 188 hp 2.5 and the 248 hp variable-compression 2.0 turbo — plus an FWD/AWD choice covers mainstream needs and puts 2023 at the wide end of this nameplate's history. What holds it to the middle of the band is the complete absence of electrification in a year when Camry, Accord and Sonata all sold hybrids, and the fact that the VC-Turbo is locked to one FWD trim.

EPA rates the volume 2.5-liter FWD Altima at 31 MPG combined — strong for a non-hybrid mid-size sedan and helped by the CVT's tall ratios and active grille shutters, but roughly 20 MPG short of the hybrid Camry and Accord that dominate the segment's economy rankings.

City is the weakest leg of the Altima's EPA line: with no hybrid assist and no engine stop-start of consequence, stop-and-go running returns 27 MPG, about half what a hybrid mid-size sedan manages around town.

Highway is where the Altima earns its keep — a slippery body, active grille shutters and a very tall CVT overdrive ratio yield 38 MPG, competitive with the best non-hybrid sedans and the core of the car's long-commute case.

A 16.2-gallon tank at the EPA combined rating gives roughly 500 miles between fill-ups, and well over 600 on a steady highway run — above average for a mid-size sedan, though short of the 600-mile combined figures the hybrid rivals post from smaller tanks.

EPA's own published annual cost for the 2.5 FWD is $2,000 at standard assumptions — about 484 gallons of regular a year. Cheap against the whole market and against most of this catalog's sedans, but several hundred dollars a year worse than the hybrid mid-size sedans it competes with directly.

Every 2023 Altima, including the VC-Turbo, is specified for regular unleaded — the turbo simply trades 12 hp and 6 lb-ft when run on 87 rather than 93, so premium is an option for output, never a requirement. That is the cheapest and simplest fueling story available in the segment.

The 2023 Altima carries NHTSA's top 5-star overall NCAP result, with side impact and rollover both at 5 stars; the combined frontal result is the weak leg at 4 stars, held there by a 4-star passenger frontal against a 5-star driver frontal.

The Altima sweeps Good across IIHS's legacy battery — both small-overlap tests, the original moderate overlap, roof strength and head restraints — and wears a Top Safety Pick+ badge, but that award was earned under the 2022 criteria. Against the tests IIHS added afterward it grades Poor in the updated side impact and Marginal in the updated moderate overlap, and the side result is a substantive failure rather than a technicality, which is what holds this to the bottom of the middle band.

Nissan Safety Shield 360 is standard on every 2023 grade including the base S — AEB with pedestrian detection, rear automatic braking, blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert, lane departure warning and high-beam assist — and 2023 adds standard Intelligent Forward Collision Warning and Intelligent Driver Alertness on all grades. Standard radar blind-spot monitoring and standard rear AEB are genuinely ahead of the mainstream midsize class. It falls short of the top band on two of the five benchmark items: adaptive cruise and true lane centering both require ProPILOT Assist, which is only optional on the volume SV and absent from the S.

The forward system tests well in daylight — Superior against vehicles and Advanced against pedestrians — and standard rear automatic braking on every grade is coverage few midsize rivals match. What keeps it out of the top band is the nighttime pedestrian result: IIHS awarded no credit at all, attributing it to inadequate low-beam illumination, so the system's competence evaporates in exactly the conditions where most US pedestrian fatalities occur.

Radar-based blind-spot warning and rear cross-traffic alert are standard on the base S rather than trim-gated as they still are across much of the segment, and standard rear automatic braking adds real intervention behind the car instead of only a chime. It stays out of the top band because the blind-spot system is alert-only — no steering or braking correction into an occupied lane — no safe-exit or rear-occupant alert is offered, and the 360-degree camera is confined to the two priciest grades.

Lane departure warning is standard across the range, and where ProPILOT Assist is fitted the centering is among the better-regarded mainstream implementations — reviewers specifically credit it for holding the lane without ping-ponging. The score is capped by availability rather than quality: the base S gets warning only, the volume SV must option it, and Nissan offers no lane-keeping intervention short of the full ProPILOT system.

ProPILOT Assist pairs full-speed-range adaptive cruise including stop-and-hold in traffic with lane centering, and reviewers rate the calibration at or near the top of the mainstream midsize field for gap management and smoothness. It misses the top band because it is not standard equipment on the volume trim — an SV buyer has to option it and an S buyer cannot get it — and the 2023 Altima fields plain ProPILOT Assist rather than a Navi-link version with map-based speed adjustment.

No hands-free highway driving is offered on the 2023 Altima at any grade or price. ProPILOT Assist is explicitly a hands-on-wheel system, and Nissan did not field a hands-off-capable ProPILOT variant in the US midsize-sedan class for this model year.

The 2023 refresh made LED headlights standard across the entire range, so there is no longer a penalty trim with worse lighting and high-beam assist comes on every grade — a real gain over 2022. But IIHS grades the result Acceptable rather than Good, and the same low beams are what cost the car all credit in the nighttime pedestrian AEB test, so the uniformity is of a merely adequate system. No curve-adaptive lighting is offered.

Forward and side sightlines are good for a modern sedan thanks to a relatively low cowl and 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 restricted to the two top grades, leaving the volume SV on the standard rear-view camera plus standard cross-traffic alert.

IIHS grades the Altima's LATCH hardware Good — its top ease-of-use rating — with two complete lower-anchor positions plus a third tether-only position, and midsize rear-seat width with roughly 35 inches of legroom and wide-opening rear doors makes two seats genuinely easy to live with. It sits just below the top band only because three-across remains a squeeze in a midsize sedan and the center position offers a tether but no lower anchors.

Five seats across the entire 2023 range — the top of the sedan band and the only configuration offered, with no bench or captain's-chair variants in the lineup.

Nissan publishes front headroom both ways and the volume SV ships without a moonroof — that is in the SV Premium Package — so 39.1 in is the figure for the representative configuration. Near the top of the mid-size sedan range despite the fastback-influenced roofline.

43.8 inches is at the generous end of the mid-size class and constant across every 2023 grade — front-seat stretch-out room is one of the Altima's genuine strengths, matched by 58.2 in of front shoulder room.

The sloping rear roofline that gives the L34 Altima its silhouette costs second-row headroom: 36.9 inches sits below the middle of the sedan band, and taller 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 — the 2023 Accord offers 40.8 and the Camry 38.0 — and it is what makes a rear-facing child seat behind a tall driver a real squeeze.

15.4 cubic feet is squarely mid-pack for a mid-size sedan — it swallows a full set of luggage or a folded stroller, and the standard 60/40 fold extends it for longer items, but the sedan aperture limits bulky loads.

Conventional and adequate: a usefully deep center console bin, a large glovebox, door pockets sized for bottles and a covered tray ahead of the shifter, plus four USB ports on the SV. Nothing here is an innovation — there is no underfloor trunk well, no fold-flat front passenger seat and no onboard AC power of any kind, so the car sits in the competent middle of the band.

Nissan's NASA-derived Zero Gravity front seats with dual-density foam are a repeated review positive and the SV gets an 8-way power driver's seat as standard, which is more adjustment than most volume-trim rivals give. The rear bench is the limiter — flat, low and short on thigh support — and reviewers of the front seats also ask for more under-thigh support than the cushion provides.

Independent struts front and multi-link rear with monotube rear shocks give the volume SV on 17-inch wheels a good comfort-versus-control compromise — bumps are absorbed and body roll is contained. What holds it mid-band is the secondary ride: on broken pavement the constant stream of small impacts makes it feel busy, and sharp hits come through hard, a trait that worsens on the 19-inch SR and SL.

Sources genuinely split, and the split tracks trim: acoustic laminated glass is SL-only and Active Noise Cancellation is fitted solely to the SR VC-Turbo, so the volume SV has neither. Wind isolation is decent for the class, but tire roar on coarse surfaces and the 2.5's drone under throttle are the recurring complaints, and the SV lacks the hardware that quiets the upper grades.

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

2023 is the facelift year of the sixth-generation (L34) Altima and Nissan held the entry point low: the 2.5 S FWD opens at $25,490 before a $1,095 destination charge, roughly $1,100 under a base Camry LE and about $900 under an Accord LX. Undercutting the two segment benchmarks on sticker is the Altima's core commercial argument, and it puts the car near the bottom of the mid-size sedan band.

The SV is the retail volume grade — it is where alloy wheels, dual-zone climate, the larger available displays and optional ProPILOT Assist appear — and at $27,385 delivered it lands about $1,570 under a 2023 Camry SE while still offering all-wheel drive for a flat $1,500, which the Accord cannot match at any price. The whole 2023 ladder, including the 248-hp VC-Turbo halo car, stays inside the lower half of the segment band.

The naturally aspirated 2.5-liter PR25DD in the volume SV is a cheap engine to keep — regular fuel, no turbocharger, conventional intervals — and RepairPal rates the 2023 car above average for repair frequency and severity. What keeps this mid-pack rather than class-leading is the Xtronic CVT, the component with the segment's worst out-of-warranty reputation and a four-figure replacement once the 60,000-mile powertrain term lapses, plus the absence of any complimentary scheduled maintenance to absorb the first two years of service. The figure blends a high Edmunds projection against two markedly lower aggregator estimates on the same basis used for this dataset's Camry entry.

Resale is the Altima's structural weakness and the item that does most of the damage to this category, since at weight 70 the effective ownership-cost total is driven by depreciation dollars. Heavy rental and fleet placement floods the used market, sustained incentive spend drags new transaction prices below sticker, 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. It still lands mid-band for the segment rather than at the floor, roughly eleven points of retention behind a Camry.

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 Sonata or K5 buyer gets at the same money.

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 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 give an original owner.

Nissan includes no complimentary scheduled maintenance on the 2023 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 runs the full 3 years / 36,000 miles alongside the basic term, and SV and above carry a NissanConnect Services trial with remote start, emergency calling and automatic collision notification. There are no fuel credits and nothing that offsets the floor-level warranty terms.

$27,385 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (53% retained, or about $14,514) leaves about $12,871 in depreciation. Add the projected $5,000 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $17,871 in total.

2023 is the strongest reliability year of the L34 generation and reads above-average rather than merely average: Consumer Reports gives it 4/5 predicted reliability and names 2022-2023 the best years of this generation, J.D. Power posts 80/100 (the top of its 'Average' band), and RepairPal rates the nameplate 4.0/5, 11th of 24 midsize cars. The car's own field record backs the forecast — 36 NHTSA complaints against ~128,000 US sales is 2.8 per 10,000, flagged as below-average complaint volume. What caps it short of the 80+ band is that the Xtronic CVT remains an unresolved long-term question and Nissan's brand-level drag pulls model forecasts down with it.

Brand-level item, scored as Nissan stood at the 2023 model year rather than at its long-run average. The 2023 J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Study put Nissan 10th overall at 170 PP100 against a 186 industry average, and named it one of the three most-improved brands with a 35 PP100 year-over-year gain — better-than-average dependability, which is why this sits a few points above the anchor carried for Nissan elsewhere in this dataset. It stays mid-pack rather than rising further because Consumer Reports has consistently placed Nissan behind Toyota, Subaru, Lexus, Honda and BMW, and the 2013-2018 CVT failure population — class-action settlements and extended powertrain coverage across Altima, Sentra and Versa — still weighs on the brand's multi-year record.

The 2023 model year carries no NHTSA safety recall at all, more than three years into its life — a genuinely clean sheet, and the standout fact of this category. It is also specifically excluded from the generation's worst campaign: the 443,899-unit VC-Turbo engine-bearing recall (25V-437), which covers only 2019-2020 Altimas, and from the 2019-2021 rearview-camera campaign. This is not a lucky gap in an otherwise bad record so much as a mid-cycle year built on a body that had absorbed four years of running changes. It falls short of the top of the band only on the TSB side, where CVT judder, reflash and fluid bulletins remain a recurring Nissan service theme and thousands of CVT complaints across the model line sit behind no recall and no warranty extension reaching 2023.

Engine and transmission pull hard in opposite directions, which is the definition of the mixed-history band. The volume configuration is the 2.5L PR25DD four — a low-stress, long-lineage Nissan mid-size unit 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. Current units are materially improved over the 2013-2018 population, yet the family has never demonstrated Toyota- or Honda-grade high-mileage durability, and shudder/hesitation complaints continue on cars well outside the settled years. Worth noting for buyers shopping the trim walk: 2023 still offered the 2.0L VC-Turbo, the engine later recalled fleet-wide for bearing failure, but that is not the configuration scored here.

Adequate for the money and never a selling point. Reviewers consistently describe an even split of soft-touch surfaces and hard plastics, with the lower dash and door trim reading cheap and the upper-trim faux-wood inserts called unconvincing. The 2023 refresh helped the impression more than the materials — a standard 12.3-inch touchscreen on SL and SR VC-Turbo (optional on SV) replaced the old 8-inch unit — and the Zero Gravity front seats remain the cabin's genuine strength. Against 2023 mid-size rivals it reads as the plainest cabin in the class, which is what holds it below the Camry rather than any single material failing.

Solid with scattered complaints — the middle of the band, and a fair summary of two signals that disagree. Assembly itself holds up: Edmunds finds the car 'sturdy and fairly well put-together', the Smyrna line was building the Maxima to 106 PP100 (the best-scoring individual model in the whole 2023 IQS), and MY2023's complaint rate is below typical for the nameplate. What keeps it off the upper band is that the same Edmunds editors say build quality lags the class outright, and reviewers repeatedly flag constant wind and road noise plus suspension clatter over rough surfaces — refinement failings owners read as build quality even where the panel fit is sound. The 2023 industry backdrop was also the worst initial-quality year on record.

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. What caps the score is mid-pack service satisfaction well behind Toyota and Lexus. Scored two points above the figure this dataset carries for 2026 Nissans because the 2023 model year predates the sharpest phase of Nissan's US restructuring and dealer-count contraction — a 2023 buyer bought into a healthier network than a 2026 buyer does, though that contraction is now a live consideration over the remaining ownership horizon of this car.

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 unscheduled shop visits and repair severity both exactly at the segment norm — 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 it shares broadly across Nissan's PR/QR-engine and Xtronic lineup. 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.

The 2023 refresh introduced a 12.3-inch HD display, but it is package or top-trim content — the volume 2.5 SV ships with the 8.0-inch NissanConnect screen, which is small by 2023 mid-size sedan standards. Scoring the trim people actually buy means scoring the 8.0-inch unit.

NissanConnect is a plain but sane system: a shallow menu tree, a customizable home screen with shortcuts, and — importantly — retained physical knobs and hard keys for volume, tuning and climate. Reviewers of the 12.3-inch version call it intuitive and responsive; the SV's 8.0-inch screen runs the same logic on a smaller, lower-resolution panel that looks dated against the segment, and AutoGuide complains the display sits too far forward on the dash to read comfortably.

Textbook middle of the band: both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard from the base S, but wired only. Wireless projection is bundled exclusively with the 12.3-inch display, so it is a package extra on the volume SV and standard only on the SL and SR VC-Turbo.

The volume SV has no embedded navigation at all — Nissan Door to Door Navigation is tied to the 12.3-inch display — so owners are on phone projection by default. Onboard voice is command-list recognition plus Siri Eyes Free, not natural language; Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant integration exists but runs through NissanConnect Services, which is itself package content and subscription-gated after the trial.

A six-speaker system is standard through S, SV and SR, and it is unremarkable. The nine-speaker Bose Premium Audio upgrade is real but unreachable from the volume trim — it is SL and SR VC-Turbo equipment and is not even in 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 2023 Altima. The SV and above get a 7-inch Advanced Drive-Assist colour display flanked by analogue dials, which is crisp and configurable enough for trip, audio and driver-assist data; the base S drops to a 5-inch monochrome-grade info display.

There is no whole-vehicle over-the-air update capability on the 2023 Altima. The most that happens remotely is map and traffic data refreshing on cars fitted with the 12.3-inch navigation system — and the volume SV has no embedded navigation at all, so for that buyer the answer is effectively none. Control modules require a dealer visit.

NissanConnect Services covers the core set — remote engine start/stop, remote door lock/unlock, vehicle locate, valet alert, plus Alexa and Google Assistant hooks — but it is not standard on the volume SV (it comes with the SV Premium Package or SL and up), it is SiriusXM-subscription content after the trial, and there is no digital key. App polish is the segment's middle, not its top.

The SV's two USB-A plus two USB-C ports is a respectable count for a 2023 mainstream sedan and covers both rows, but the base S makes do with a single USB-A, the wireless charging pad only arrives with the 12.3-inch display package, and no 110-volt household outlet is offered anywhere in the range.

The strongest item in this category. Every 2023 Altima including the $25,490 base S has push-button ignition and a remote engine start system from the fob, and the SV upgrades to the Nissan Intelligent Key proximity system — a level of standard keyless convenience several mid-size rivals still charged for in 2023. It is capped below the top band only because there is no phone-as-key and no hands-free trunk release.

Exactly the mid-band description: a RearView Monitor and a rear sonar system are standard on every grade, and rear automatic braking backs them up, but the Intelligent Around View 360-degree camera is reserved for the SL and SR VC-Turbo and cannot be ordered on the SV at any price. There is no automated parking function on any 2023 Altima.

No head-up display is offered on the 2023 Altima at any grade, in any package, at any price — the feature simply does not exist in the L34 lineup, where several mid-size rivals offered one on upper trims.

The hardware is right — IIHS rates the LATCH system Good, its top ease-of-use grade, with two complete lower-anchor positions plus a third tether point, and Rear Door Alert is standard on every grade to catch a forgotten child. What keeps it mid-band is geometry: 35.2 inches of rear legroom is the tightest in the mid-size class, so a rear-facing seat forces the front passenger well forward, and a sedan trunk lip makes stroller loading fussier than a crossover's hatch.

The Altima's best use-case argument. Nissan Safety Shield 360 — AEB with pedestrian detection, rear automatic braking, blind-spot warning, rear cross-traffic alert, lane departure warning and high beam assist — is standard on the $25,490 base S, not gated behind the trims families get talked into. Backed by a five-star NHTSA overall rating and a 2023 IIHS Top Safety Pick+ award, plus standard Rear Door Alert. Only the absence of standard adaptive cruise (ProPILOT Assist is SV-package content) holds it out of the top band.

Four adults will cover distance in reasonable comfort on the Zero Gravity seats with a 15.4 cu ft trunk that takes a family's luggage, but the second row is thin on amenities at the trim a family buys: rear air vents are SL and SR VC-Turbo content, there is no rear climate control, no sunshades, no rear-seat entertainment, and the rear bench does not recline. The 35.2-inch legroom that pinches car seats also pinches teenagers on hour four.

This is what the car is for. The Xtronic CVT has no low-speed shift shunt, the dual-pinion electric steering is deliberately light around town, the Zero Gravity driver's seat is built for long stints, and ProPILOT Assist — available on the SV — adds full-range adaptive cruise with stop-and-hold that genuinely takes the edge off a jam. Held out of the top band by the 2.5's reluctance and drone whenever a merge demands real throttle.

Cheap to run for a non-hybrid: EPA puts the volume 2.5 FWD at 31 MPG combined on regular unleaded for $2,000 a year, and RepairPal measures actual Altima upkeep at $483 annually against a $526 mid-size-car average. What caps it is the comparison that matters in this segment — a hybrid Camry or Accord roughly halves the fuel half of that bill in stop-and-go commuting, where the Altima's 27 MPG city is its weakest figure.

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 rear sonar system and RearView Monitor come standard on every grade to help. The real friction is sightlines — the fastback roofline, high rear deck and thick C-pillars pinch the over-the-shoulder view, and the Around View 360-degree camera that would offset that cannot be ordered on the SV.

Nissan publishes no towing capacity for the US-market Altima and offers no factory hitch — it is not a work vehicle in any sense the item measures. There is no bed, no payload rating beyond ordinary occupant-and-luggage capacity, and 188 horsepower through a CVT is not a powertrain intended to work under load. The trunk and a 60/40 fold are the entire cargo story.

Not a work platform, and the one component that would matter 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 engine and the body itself are durable enough for fleet and rideshare service — where Altimas do rack up high mileage on cloth seats — but nothing about the car is specified for abuse.

Effectively nothing here. No bed, no tie-down system beyond trunk cargo hooks, no onboard AC power or inverter at any grade, no roof rails, no factory hitch and no upfitter ecosystem. Interior surfaces are cloth or leather, not washable. The Nissan accessory catalogue for the Altima offers trunk mats, cargo nets and an organiser tray — luggage management, not jobsite provision.

A genuinely good interstate car. 38 MPG highway from a 16.2-gallon tank is roughly 500 miles of combined range and well over 600 on a steady cruise, the Zero Gravity seats are built for exactly this, and ProPILOT Assist's lane centering is among the better-regarded mainstream systems for taking strain out of a long day. Short of the top band because road noise on coarse pavement and the busy secondary ride wear on hour five, and the volume SV has neither acoustic glass nor active noise cancellation.

The Altima has one real adventure card and it is unusual in this segment: Intelligent All-Wheel Drive, orderable on SV, SR and SL for a flat $1,500, when the Accord, Camry LE/SE, Sonata and K5 were all front-drive or not offered with it. That buys genuine confidence on a snowy trailhead road. Everything else is against it — roughly five inches of ground clearance, no tow rating, no roof rails, no skid protection and no onboard power for camping.

Standard 60/40-split folding rear seatbacks from the base S mean skis, flat-packs and long items pass through, and 15.4 cubic feet is a usable trunk — but that is the whole toolkit. There is no pass-through hatch, no underfloor storage well, no roof rails for a box or bike carrier and no hitch for a rack, so anything bulky or dirty has no home. A sedan's aperture is the ceiling on what fits regardless of the volume behind it.

Better than the badge suggests. Struts front, multi-link rear and standard front and rear anti-roll bars give the Altima secure, flat cornering, and MotorWeek found real grip with virtually no understeer in the SR. The volume 2.5 SV on 17-inch wheels is the softer version of that — stable and confidence-inspiring through sweepers rather than eager — and the chassis extras that sharpen it (sport-tuned suspension, Active Ride Control, Intelligent Trace Control) are SR, SL or package content, not SV standard.

Accurate enough to place the car but short on information. Nissan's dual-pinion electric rack is deliberately tuned light at parking speeds and firms with velocity, which serves the commuter brief, but the two most widely read assessments both fault it for the same thing — Edmunds calls it overly light and vague, Consumer Reports says it feels disconnected through corners and leaves the Altima without the Accord's or Camry's eagerness.

The strongest dynamic item. MotorWeek measured 110 feet from 60 mph with straight, fade-free stops — a very good figure for a mid-size sedan — behind a firm pedal that inspires confidence, though testers noted noticeable ABS pulsing through it. That result came on the 19-inch SR VC-Turbo, so the volume SV on 17-inch all-seasons will stop somewhat longer, which is what keeps this below the top band.

Two halves that cancel out. The naturally aspirated 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 — reviewers describe it as smooth and unobtrusive in ordinary driving. But ask for a real overtake and the calibration falls apart audibly: the CVT pins the revs, the engine strains, and 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 the segment's conventional automatics and hybrid e-CVTs avoid. MotorWeek reported extended periods of exaggerated engine noise under power, and the volume SV has neither the Active Noise Cancellation fitted to the SR VC-Turbo nor the SL's acoustic laminated 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 about a foot and a half worse than the base S's narrower 16-inch wheel-and-tire package allows.

Sound fundamentals with two real irritations. A tilt-and-telescoping column is standard from the base S and 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 screen. Against that, AutoGuide found the driver's hip point sits uncomfortably high and takes work to dial out, the infotainment screen is mounted too far forward on the dash to read at a glance, and power lumbar adjustment is package content the volume SV does without.

MotorWeek's line that the Altima is 'an under appreciated sport sedan hiding in family car clothing' is the most enthusiastic thing anyone wrote about this car in 2023 — and it describes the 248-hp SR VC-Turbo on 19-inch wheels with sport-tuned suspension, which is one FWD-only trim and not the volume configuration. The 188-hp 2.5 SV that most buyers take home is competent and quiet-handling but numb through the wheel and vocal without being quick: pleasant, and forgettable.

Nissan Safety Shield 360 is standard on every 2023 Altima — automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, lane departure warning, high beam assist and rear automatic braking — and the refresh made LED headlights standard line-wide, which is real content at a $26,585 entry price. The rest of the base S spec is plain, though: cloth, an 8-inch screen, and no wireless CarPlay, wireless charging, Wi-Fi hotspot or ProPILOT Assist until you move up and option them. Competitive rather than class-leading.

At $27,385 delivered the volume SV undercuts a Camry SE by about $1,570 and an Accord by more, throws in a full ADAS suite, returns 31 MPG combined and offers all-wheel drive for a flat $1,500 that Honda cannot match at any price. Against that, the 188-hp 2.5 and CVT are the segment's least satisfying volume powertrain, there is no hybrid option at all in a class that has gone electrified, and the weak residual means a meaningful share of the purchase-price advantage is returned at trade-in. Fair value, not a bargain.

2023 is the broadest the L34 Altima ever got: five configurations across two engines, with Intelligent AWD orderable on SV, SR and SL for a flat $1,500 and a 248-hp VC-Turbo halo car at the top. AWD availability down the middle of the range is a genuine point of difference against the front-drive-only Accord. It falls short of a Camry's ladder mainly for having no hybrid and no V6, and for restricting the VC-Turbo to front-drive SR only.

The Altima moved 128,030 units in the US in 2023, holding third place in the mid-size class behind the Camry and Accord and comfortably ahead of the Sonata and K5 — a strong absolute number in a shrinking segment. The trajectory is what caps the score: volume is far off the nameplate's historic peak, a large share goes to rental and fleet, and the following year fell again to 113,898.

Nissan's US brand equity sits below neutral and the Altima carries 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 placement, and the residual damage from the discount-driven sales strategy of the prior decade. It shows up directly in the model's resale, which is the weakest number on its ownership-cost scorecard.

Scored on buyer benefit as the item directs. 2022–23 was a seller's market in which most mainstream sedans transacted at or near sticker — Camry, Corolla and Civic all score in the 30s and 50s here for that reason — but the Altima was one of the few cars in the class still genuinely discountable, with Nissan raising incentive spending and average transaction prices softening through the year. The same market weakness that wrecks its residuals makes it cheap to transact.

2023 is the facelift year, and a substantive one: restyled nose with an updated V-motion grille and Nissan's new brand logo, standard LED headlights, four new wheel designs, revised instrument-panel finishes and a newly available 12.3-inch touchscreen that Nissan claimed as the largest in the class. The L34 platform underneath is five model years old and there is still no hybrid, so this is a well-executed mid-cycle refresh rather than new-generation freshness — but a buyer in 2023 was getting the current face of the car, not the run-out one.

Reviewers place the refreshed Altima in the bottom half of mid-size sedan rankings and it wins no comparison tests, with criticism aimed at CVT drone, build quality behind the class leaders and the absence of a hybrid. Credit remains for ride comfort, fuel economy and available AWD, and the car does carry an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ badge — but that award was earned under the 2022 criteria, and against the tests IIHS added afterward the Altima grades Poor in the updated side impact. No significant award attaches to this model year.