2024 Nissan Altima

The volume 2.5 SV runs the PR25DD 2.5L naturally aspirated four at 188 hp @ 6,000 rpm in FWD form, a mid-pack figure for a mid-size sedan. The 2.0L VC-Turbo remained available on the SR for 2024 — its final model year — lifting the range top to 248 hp.

180 lb-ft from the naturally aspirated 2.5L, and it peaks high at 3,600 rpm — there is no low-end turbo surge, which is why the car leans on the CVT to feel brisk off the line.

Independent instrumented tests of the 2.5 FWD cluster in the high sevens to low eights; the AWD car is a couple of tenths slower again. Adequate rather than quick, and squarely mid-pack for a naturally aspirated mid-size sedan.

The 2.5L is smooth and unobtrusive at cruise and in light-throttle town driving, but it is a naturally aspirated four asked to move a 3,283 lb sedan, so it gets loud and coarse-sounding when held at high revs under hard acceleration. No turbo lag and no hybrid handoffs to go wrong — the deductions are for noise and a thin midrange, not for misbehavior.

Nissan's Xtronic CVT is one of the better-calibrated continuously variable units — reviewers describe it as well tuned and effectively invisible in day-to-day driving — but it still drones under sustained hard throttle, which is the characteristic CVT penalty. Only the SR adds paddle shifters and a manual mode; S, SV and SL have no way to hold a ratio.

Intelligent All-Wheel Drive is optional on the SV, SR and SL — three of the four trims — which is genuinely rare in the mid-size sedan class where most rivals are front-drive only. It is a basic on-demand system, though: no terrain modes, no low range, no torque vectoring, and it is unavailable on the base S while costing about 1–2 MPG combined.

Two distinct gas engines — the 2.5L naturally aspirated four and the 2.0L variable-compression VC-Turbo — plus a FWD/AWD choice on the 2.5, which is broader than most of the class offers. But there is no hybrid, plug-in or electric variant at all, and 2024 was the VC-Turbo's last model year, so even the two-engine breadth was about to collapse to one.

31 MPG combined is strong for a non-hybrid mid-size sedan — the tall-geared Xtronic CVT and a 12.0:1 compression ratio do most of the work. It is still well short of the hybrid mid-sizers, which is the ceiling this class is measured against, but among gas-only rivals it is near the top.

27 MPG city is respectable for a naturally aspirated mid-size sedan but exposes the gap to hybrids, which post figures in the mid-forties to low-fifties in exactly this cycle because there is no engine-off capability here.

The highway figure is the Altima's best efficiency showing — 38 MPG puts it within a few MPG of some hybrids on a steady-state cruise, where the hybrid advantage largely evaporates. The 19-inch wheels on SR and SL cost 2 MPG.

Roughly 500 miles between fills from a modest 16.2-gallon tank — the range comes from the efficiency rather than from carrying a lot of fuel. Comfortably enough for a full day of interstate driving without planning a stop.

EPA puts annual fuel spend at $2,000 on regular unleaded at 15,000 mi/yr — moderate in absolute terms and among the lower figures for a gas-only mid-size sedan, but several hundred dollars a year more than a hybrid rival in the same class.

Regular unleaded is the recommended fuel on every 2024 Altima, including the 2.0L VC-Turbo — Nissan's own spec sheet lists 'Regular unleaded' for both engines. The only nuance is that the VC-Turbo makes its headline 248 hp / 273 lb-ft on 93 octane and drops to 236 hp / 267 lb-ft on regular, so premium buys performance but is never required. The volume 2.5L has no such caveat at all.

NHTSA rated the 2024 Altima 5 stars overall in its own NCAP testing, with frontal impact the weak leg at 4 stars (5-star driver, 4-star passenger) and side impact and rollover both at 5 stars.

The Altima is Good in every legacy IIHS test — both small-overlap fronts, the original moderate overlap and roof strength — but it grades Poor in the updated side impact and Marginal in the updated moderate overlap, and holds no award. A Poor in a current crashworthiness test is the bottom band by the item's own guidance, and it is what separates this car from the Camry and Accord.

Nissan Safety Shield 360 is standard on every 2024 grade including the $26,370 base S — AEB with pedestrian detection, rear automatic braking, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, lane departure warning and high beam assist — plus standard forward collision warning, driver alertness monitoring and rear sonar, which is broader standard content than most midsize rivals. The gap is adaptive cruise: ProPILOT Assist is unavailable on S and on the 2.5 SR, and on SV it only arrives inside a $2,390 package.

IIHS's updated front crash prevention test rates the Altima's standard AEB Poor against vehicles and Marginal against pedestrians: it handles low-speed scenarios but shows minimal braking effect at the higher closing speeds the 2.0 protocol was built to probe. Standard rear automatic braking is a genuine credit few rivals match, but it does not offset a Poor in the forward test.

Blind Spot Warning and Rear Cross Traffic Alert are standard on the base S rather than trim-gated as on much of the segment, and standard rear automatic braking plus rear sonar add real intervention behind the car. 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 alert is offered, and the 360-degree camera is confined to the top trims.

Lane departure warning is standard on every grade, but active lane keeping is not: Intelligent Lane Intervention and ProPILOT's lane centering are optional on SV, unavailable on S and the 2.5 SR, and standard only on SL and the VC-Turbo SR. Where fitted, ProPILOT centering is steady on well-marked highways but hands back early on faded markings and tighter curves.

When equipped, ProPILOT Assist is one of the better mainstream setups — full-speed-range Intelligent Cruise Control with stop-and-hold, paired with lane centering. The score is held to mid-band by availability rather than quality: two of the four 2.5 grades cannot be ordered with it at all, and an SV buyer has to buy a $2,390 package, so most 2024 Altimas on the road have conventional cruise control only.

No hands-free highway driving is offered on the 2024 Altima at any grade or price. ProPILOT Assist is explicitly a hands-on-wheel system, and Nissan fields no BlueCruise/Super Cruise equivalent in the US midsize-sedan class.

There is no headlight lottery here — LED projectors, automatic headlights and high-beam assist are standard on every grade and IIHS rates all trims alike. But the grade is Acceptable rather than Good, with fair left-side low-beam reach and no curve-adaptive capability, which is squarely the mid band.

Forward and side sightlines are a strength of this generation — a 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, and the 360-degree camera that would compensate is a top-trim item. Standard rear sonar and rear cross-traffic alert cover some of the gap at low speed.

IIHS rates the Altima's LATCH hardware Good+ — the plus being an extra tether position beyond the two full LATCH seats — which is better than most of the segment and a real ease-of-use finding rather than an inference. It sits at the bottom of the top band rather than higher because a midsize sedan's rear bench still will not take three seats across.

Every 2024 Altima grade seats five on a three-across rear bench; there is no four-seat or bucket-seat configuration in the lineup.

Nissan publishes both figures; the volume 2.5 SV is a moonroof-delete car unless the SV Premium Package is added, so 39.1 in is the representative number and it is generous for a mid-size sedan.

43.8 in of front legroom is near the top of the mid-size sedan class and is unchanged across every 2024 grade — the front row is genuinely roomy even for tall drivers.

The fastback-influenced roofline of this generation costs rear headroom: 36.9 in is mid-pack for the segment and the moonroof takes only a further 0.2 in, so the compromise is the roof shape rather than the glass.

This is the Altima's clearest packaging weakness — 35.2 in trails the 2024 Camry (38.0 in) by nearly three inches and the Accord (40.8 in) by more than five, putting a mid-size sedan on compact-sedan numbers behind the front seats.

15.4 cu ft is squarely average for the class — a shade over the Camry (15.1) and Legacy (15.1), a shade under the Sonata (16.0) and Accord (16.7) — and the shape is a conventional deep sedan trunk rather than anything clever.

The Altima covers the basics and stops there: four cupholders, four door bottle holders, a center console with armrest and 12V outlet, and a lockable glove box, with no underfloor bins, no fold-flat surfaces and no onboard power beyond the 12V. The 60/40 seatbacks do not fold flat and can only be released from handles inside the trunk, so loading long items means walking around to the back.

Nissan's Zero Gravity front buckets are standard on every grade and are consistently the most-praised part of the car — Edmunds calls the front seats generally comfortable and Consumer Reports singles out a 'roomy and comfortable rear seat'. Held below the top band by thin thigh support noted in testing, lumbar adjustment that is optional rather than standard on the volume SV, and the tight 35.2 in of rear legroom that limits how comfortable the back seat actually is on a long stint.

The Altima rides well on smooth pavement but the secondary ride does not hold up: Consumer Reports found the ride 'initially feels smooth, but driving on rough roads pokes through that superficial veneer', and Edmunds describes a constant stream of little impacts with larger ones turning jarring. The volume SV on 215/55R17s is the best-riding configuration — the SR and SL on 235/40R19s are firmer still.

Sources split: Consumer Reports credits the Altima with a quiet cabin and Edmunds notes engine noise is well isolated even under hard acceleration, but Edmunds also flags road noise as a recurring complaint. Active Noise Cancellation is bundled with the Bose system, so the volume SV — which cannot be ordered with Bose at all — does not get it.

This is where the Altima is genuinely behind the class. Dual-Zone Automatic Temperature Control, rear heating/cooling vents, a heated steering wheel and climate-linked remote start are all SL-exclusive — the volume SV gets none of them, and heated front seats on the SV require the $2,390 Premium Package. No Altima at any price offers ventilated seats. Key-fob remote engine start standard on S/SV/SR is the one bright spot.

Nissan's own 2024 pricing release opens the Altima at $25,730 before a $1,115 destination charge, which made it the cheapest mid-size sedan on sale that year — under a Camry LE ($26,420 + $1,095), well under an Accord LX, and near the bottom of the sedan band. Undercutting on sticker is the Altima's central commercial argument, and it is the item this category scores best on.

The SV is the Altima's volume retail grade — it is the step that adds the alloy wheels, dual-zone climate, remote start and optional ProPILOT Assist that make the car feel mid-size rather than fleet-spec — and at $27,645 delivered it undercuts a base Camry LE, never mind a Camry SE. Nissan also charges a flat $1,500 for AWD on SV, SR and SL rather than restricting it to upper trims, which is real packaging value the FWD-only Accord could not match.

The 2.5L PR25DD is a simple, cheap engine to service — naturally aspirated, regular fuel, conventional intervals — and on the volume SV nothing expensive is out of warranty inside five years. What keeps this only middling is that every independent tracker puts Altima service spend above the mid-size benchmark: Edmunds projects notably more maintenance than for a Camry, and RepairPal's nameplate figure runs above the Camry's. The Xtronic CVT is the component with the segment's worst out-of-warranty repair reputation and it comes off cover at 60,000 miles, which is inside this window for a 15,000-mile-a-year owner.

This is where the Altima hands back the discount it took at the counter. Both major trackers put it behind its own class average — iSeeCars has the nameplate depreciating 44.8% against 40.6% for mid-size cars — and the causes are structural rather than cyclical: heavy rental and fleet placement floods the used market, Nissan's industry-topping incentive spend drags new transaction prices below sticker and residuals with them, and buyer wariness about Nissan CVTs suppresses private-party demand. It is not a disaster in absolute terms, but against a Camry retaining roughly 63% it is the single item that turns a cheap car into an average-cost one to own.

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 Hyundai and Kia hand a Sonata or K5 buyer at the same price.

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 at 15,000 miles a year it falls out of warranty in year four — half the mileage Hyundai and Kia give an original owner, and with none of the long electrified-hardware coverage a hybrid buyer elsewhere in the segment gets.

Nissan includes no complimentary scheduled maintenance on the Altima — there is no ToyotaCare or Hyundai Complimentary Maintenance equivalent, so the first oil change is out of pocket, and that alone caps this item in the middle band. What lifts 2024 above the Altima's other model years is a genuine, year-specific improvement: Nissan extended the NissanConnect Services trial to three years, up from six months, giving remote lock/unlock, remote start, vehicle health reports, emergency calling and the Alexa skill for the whole warranty period — longer connected coverage than the volume 2024 Camry's one-year Remote Connect. Roadside assistance runs the 3-year/36,000-mile basic term. There are no fuel or charging credits and nothing that offsets the short warranty.

$27,645 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (52% retained, or about $14,375) leaves about $13,270 in depreciation. Add the projected $5,200 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $18,470 in total.

Better than the Altima's reputation suggests, and better than its Nissan siblings. Consumer Reports places the 2024 car in its strongest verbal band, RepairPal has it above the mid-size average, and MY2024 is the sixth year of a settled L34 platform with only a trial-length telematics change from 2023. What holds it out of the 80+ band is that the sources are not unanimous — J.D. Power's model-level quality-and-reliability figure lands in its 'Average' bracket — and the Xtronic CVT remains the open question in every owner data set.

Nissan's dependability standing has genuinely moved up and now sits comfortably above the industry average on both major long-term measures, which is a different brand than the CVT-era one. It is not top-5 consistent, though — a steady ~10th place is upper-middle, not elite — and the 2012-2017 CVT failure population still sits inside the multi-year data that these studies draw on.

The 2024 model year is exceptionally clean on recalls: a single campaign covering five vehicles. Nothing systemic touches this year — notably, the 443,899-unit VC-Turbo engine-bearing recall that grew out of NHTSA's December 2023 investigation into Nissan's variable-compression engines scopes the Altima only at 2019-2020, even though the SR VC-Turbo was still on sale in 2024. The drag is on the TSB side, where Nissan's CVT judder/recalibration bulletin family remains a recurring brand-wide service theme.

Engine and transmission pull opposite ways, which is the definition of the mixed-history band. The volume trim's 2.5L PR25DD is a low-stress, long-lineage Nissan mid-size four with no high-mileage red flag, and owner-cost data shows major repairs are uncommon on this car. Against that, the Jatco Xtronic CVT is the single weakest link in the drivetrain — the Altima did more damage to Nissan's transmission reputation than any other model, and while current units are materially improved, the family has never demonstrated Toyota- or Honda-grade high-mileage durability. A 2024-specific footnote: this was the last year of the 2.0L VC-Turbo, an engine whose bearing defect became a 443,899-unit recall, but it is a non-volume trim and the Altima recall scope stopped at 2020.

Acceptable for the money without being a selling point, and reviewers split on it. The genuine strength is seating — Nissan's Zero Gravity front seats draw consistent praise — and SR/SL trims add leather-appointed surfaces with contrast stitching, but the dash architecture dates to 2019 and the lower cabin, console and door bases carry obvious hard plastics. Consumer Reports names the cheap plastics explicitly; Car and Driver and Edmunds do not. That split, against newer mid-size rivals, is what holds it below the Camry rather than any single material failing.

This is the category's quiet standout and it rests on the Altima's own model-year data rather than a brand inference: the 2024 car was runner-up in its segment in J.D. Power's Initial Quality Study, and the same nameplate went on to win the segment outright the following year while Nissan took the mass-market brand title. That is precisely the 'strong initial quality scores' the top band asks for, earned on a mature, high-volume US line running an unchanged body since 2019. The one deduction is Consumer Reports' contrary note that fit and finish could be better.

Brand-level item, and the verified service-satisfaction record is stronger than Nissan's general reputation implies — the brand has placed at or near the top of J.D. Power's Customer Service Index for several consecutive years, on a franchised network large enough that physical access is not an issue anywhere in the US. What keeps it out of the high 80s is the network's financial fragility rather than its size: a large minority of Nissan's US dealers operated at a loss in 2024 with margins compressed to about a point, which is a real access risk over a long ownership horizon even though closures so far have been minimal.

The strongest pure-cost item in the category. The Altima has been one of America's highest-volume sedans for three decades, so OEM and aftermarket parts are cheap and universally stocked, every independent shop knows the car, and measured annual repair-and-maintenance cost runs below the mid-size average rather than at it. The single thing keeping it out of the high 80s is the CVT: a replacement is a four-figure big-ticket item that shows up disproportionately in this model's long-term cost tail, even though it is an infrequent event.

The volume 2.5 SV ships with the 8-inch multi-touch display; the 12.3-inch HD screen is a package option on that grade, so 8.0 in is the representative figure. It is small for a 2024 mid-size sedan, though still larger than the outgoing Camry's 7-inch base unit.

NissanConnect's strength is that it never gets in the way — Edmunds credits clearly labeled climate controls and touchscreen functions that are easy to reach, and the retained physical knobs and hard buttons mean common tasks do not go through a menu. The system is quick and sensibly laid out, but reviewers consistently describe software that looks and feels a generation behind, with dated native map graphics.

Wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard on the volume SV and above, but wireless projection only arrives bundled with the 12.3-inch display upgrade (SV Premium Package). The base S is the real problem: it has no phone projection of any kind in 2024, which almost nothing else in the class can still say.

Voice is delegated rather than native — Siri Eyes Free and Google Assistant recognition are standard, with an Amazon Alexa skill on NissanConnect-equipped cars, but there is no natural-language in-car assistant. Nissan Door-to-Door Navigation is optional on the SV (tied to the 12.3-inch package) and its map rendering is widely described as dated next to the phone maps most owners will default to.

The volume SV is stuck with the six-speaker AM/FM base system and has no upgrade path — the nine-speaker Bose Premium Sound System is standard on the SL and available only on the SR VC-Turbo, so the premium audio that does exist is out of reach of the grade most buyers take.

The SV and up get a 7-inch Advanced Drive-Assist Display flanked by conventional analog dials — a proper partial-digital cluster with real configurability, but no full-digital gauge display is offered on any Altima at any price. The base S drops to a 5-inch monochrome-grade meter display.

There is no whole-vehicle over-the-air update capability on this platform. What exists is map and infotainment refresh through the NissanConnect MapCare/premium traffic subscription on cars ordered with the 12.3-inch navigation package — which the volume SV only has if the Premium Package was ticked. Nothing else on the car can be improved after delivery.

The MyNISSAN app covers the expected ground — remote lock/unlock, remote engine start/stop, vehicle health report, emergency calling and an Alexa skill — and 2024 is the year Nissan stretched the NissanConnect Services trial from six months to three years, which is a real ownership win. It is held mid-band because the telematics hardware is optional on the volume SV rather than standard, and there is no phone-as-key.

The SV and above give both rows one USB-A and one USB-C apiece plus a 12V outlet, which is adequate if unexciting; wireless charging is optional and tied to the 12.3-inch package, and there is no household outlet. The base S is genuinely poor — one front USB-A and nothing at all in the back.

Nissan Intelligent Key with push-button ignition is standard from the SV up and key-fob remote engine start is standard on S, SV and SR — good coverage on the grades that matter. What is missing is the modern layer: no phone-as-key, no hands-free trunk release, and the base S still takes a conventional key.

Every 2024 Altima gets a RearView Monitor plus a Rear Sonar System and standard rear automatic braking, which is a stronger baseline than much of the class. But the Intelligent Around View 360-degree camera is restricted to the SL and SR VC-Turbo, so the volume SV cannot have it, and no automated parking is offered on any grade.

No head-up display is offered on the 2024 Altima at any grade, in any package, at any price. The 7-inch Advanced Drive-Assist Display in the cluster is Nissan's answer to keeping information in the driver's eyeline.

The child-seat hardware itself is better than the segment norm — IIHS rates the Altima's LATCH ease of use Good+ on the strength of two full LATCH positions plus a third upper tether anchor, and Rear Door Alert is standard on every grade. What drags it down is the packaging: 35.2 in of rear legroom is the tightest in the mid-size class, so a rear-facing seat pushes hard into the front passenger's space, and a 15.4 cu ft sedan trunk swallows a stroller with less room to spare than the hatch-backed rivals families increasingly cross-shop.

The equipment story is excellent for a family budget — Safety Shield 360 is standard on the $26,370 base S, so AEB with pedestrian detection, rear automatic braking, blind spot warning and rear cross traffic alert cost nothing extra. The crash-test story undercuts it: NHTSA gives 5 stars overall, but IIHS grades the Altima Poor in the updated side test, Marginal in the updated moderate overlap front, and Poor/Marginal in the updated front crash prevention evaluation of that same standard AEB. Active lane centering also stays optional on the volume SV.

Zero Gravity front seats and a generally quiet cruise make the front half of the car a decent long-haul place, but the back half is thinly equipped for a 2024 family car: rear heating/cooling vents and dual-zone automatic climate are SL-exclusive, so a fully loaded SV is a single-zone car with no rear vents, and the 35.2 in rear legroom plus a 15.4 cu ft trunk with four people aboard is a real constraint on a week's luggage.

Commuting is what this car is genuinely good at. The Xtronic CVT does away with hunting and shift shock entirely at traffic speeds, 188 hp is more than enough for merging, the controls are light and clearly labeled with real knobs, and Edmunds describes the Altima as a calm place to sit in daily traffic with engine noise well isolated. ProPILOT Assist with stop-and-hold is available on the SV for the stop-and-go stretch.

27/39/32 mpg on regular fuel from the FWD 2.5 SV is strong for a non-hybrid mid-size sedan, and the naturally aspirated PR25DD is about as cheap a commuter engine as exists — regular gas, conventional intervals, no turbo hardware. The ceiling is set by the absence of any hybrid: an Accord or Camry hybrid runs in the mid-40s mpg and cuts the fuel line roughly a third.

A 192.9-inch sedan is manageable but not small, and the 37.4 ft curb-to-curb turning circle on the SV and above is mediocre — only the 16-inch base S gets the tighter 36.1 ft. A rear camera plus rear sonar is standard on every grade, which helps, but the 360-degree Around View Monitor is locked to the SL and SR VC-Turbo and the thick C-pillars pinch the over-the-shoulder view.

A front-drive mid-size sedan with no US tow rating, no payload provision beyond five occupants and luggage, and a 15.4 cu ft sealed trunk is not a work vehicle in any meaningful sense. It carries a service rep and a sample case competently and that is the limit of it.

The Altima is one of the most heavily fleeted cars in America — rental and corporate duty is exactly the hard, indifferent use this item asks about, and the naturally aspirated PR25DD is a simple, proven engine that takes it. The score stays mid-band because the Xtronic CVT carries a long-running reputation for expensive failures under sustained hard use, and cloth-on-a-commuter-sedan is not a wear-oriented interior spec.

There is essentially nothing here: onboard power is a single 12V console outlet, there are no tie-downs beyond dealer-accessory trunk hooks and a hideaway net, no roof rails or rack ecosystem, no hitch, and no washable surfaces. A sealed sedan trunk with a lip is the opposite of jobsite-friendly.

Range is a real strength — a 16.2-gallon tank at 39 mpg highway is roughly 630 miles between fills, further than most of the class. Zero Gravity seats, a quiet cruise and available ProPILOT Assist round it out. What keeps it out of the top band is the busy secondary ride over anything but smooth interstate, the road noise Edmunds flags, and the fact that the highway-assist hardware is optional on the volume SV rather than standard.

Intelligent All-Wheel Drive across the SV, SR and SL is a genuine differentiator — most of the mid-size sedan class is front-drive only, and an AWD Altima will get up a snowy or gravel road that a Camry LE will not. Everything else is pavement-bound, though: sedan ground clearance, no roof rails or rack points, no tow rating for bikes or a small trailer, and no 120V outlet for camping.

15.4 cu ft handles a family's suitcases fine, and the 60/40 seatbacks open up roughly 58 cu ft of pass-through for skis or flat-packed boxes. But the seatbacks do not fold flat, the release handles live inside the trunk so you must walk to the back to drop them, the trunk floor sits over a temporary spare with no underfloor bin, and there are no roof rails or hitch to put anything outside the car.

The hardware is sound — strut front, multi-link independent rear with a hollow anti-roll bar and ZF Sachs monotube rear dampers standard on every grade — and the result is secure, stable and predictable, with KBB calling the ride and handling well balanced. It is not engaging, though: Consumer Reports found the Altima 'without the eagerness of the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry', which is the fair summary of a car that never puts a wheel wrong and never asks to be driven hard.

The dual-pinion electric rack is accurate enough to place the car but tells the driver nothing. Consumer Reports is blunt — 'its vague steering feels disconnected through corners' — and KBB notes enthusiasts will want more feedback and more precision. A 15.3:1 ratio with 2.7 turns lock-to-lock is unhurried rather than sharp.

Power-assisted vented front discs with solid rears, four-channel ABS, EBD and brake assist deliver the segment-normal result: stopping distances in the expected mid-size band and a pedal that is progressive enough for daily use. No reviewer singles the brakes out for praise or complaint, which for this item means solidly adequate rather than notable either way.

Nissan's Xtronic is one of the better-calibrated CVTs in the business — tip-in is clean, there is no shift shock or gear hunting, and at part throttle it is effectively invisible, which is why the Altima feels so unbothered in traffic. Consumer Reports rates the 2.5 as quick for its class. The deduction is for the elastic-band response when you ask for a sudden overtake, where revs rise ahead of the car.

Two credible sources land on opposite sides and the truth is in between: Consumer Reports says the engine 'has a more refined sound than many competitors'' and Edmunds finds engine noise well isolated even under hard acceleration, but a naturally aspirated four held at high revs by a CVT does drone on a long uphill merge. Inoffensive at cruise, coarse when pushed.

Nissan's own spec table splits the figure at the wheel size: only the 215/60R16-shod base S gets 36.1 ft, while the volume SV on 17s and the SR/SL on 19s all measure 37.4 ft. That is mid-pack-to-mediocre for a mid-size sedan and is felt in parking garages and three-point turns.

43.8 in of front legroom, 39.1 in of headroom, a standard 8-way power driver's seat from the SV up and a low cowl with relatively slim A-pillars add up to an easy, accommodating driving position with good forward sightlines. Controls are a strength — Edmunds credits clearly labeled, easy-to-reach climate and touchscreen functions, and physical knobs survive. Marked down for power lumbar being a package option on the SV and for the thick C-pillars pinching the over-the-shoulder view.

In volume 2.5 SV form the Altima is an appliance — a high-sevens 0–60 through a CVT, steering with no feedback, and no paddle shifters (those are SR-only). The car does have an enthusiast answer in the 248 hp VC-Turbo SR, but that is a single FWD grade at the far end of the price list and not what this scorecard describes.

The generosity argument is the safety suite against the price of entry: Nissan Safety Shield 360 — automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, lane departure warning, high beam assist and rear automatic braking — is standard on every 2024 Altima including the $25,730 base S, and standard rear automatic braking at that price is content few rivals matched at any price. The rest of the base spec is plain, though: cloth, an 8-inch screen, no remote start, connected services a $200 extra, and the 12.3-inch display, wireless charging and ProPILOT Assist all reserved for higher grades. Competitive-plus rather than class-leading.

On paper the 2024 Altima is a lot of mid-size sedan per dollar: the segment's lowest price of entry, the full driver-assist suite standard, 32 mpg combined, all-wheel drive across three grades for a flat $1,500 when the Accord offered none at any price, and a 248-hp VC-Turbo available at the top. What holds it to the fair-value band rather than the standout band is what the money does not buy — 188 hp and a CVT with no hybrid option at all in a class that had gone electrified, cabin materials and infotainment behind the redesigned Accord and Sonata, and a residual curve that quietly claws back much of the up-front saving.

Eight distinct configurations across four trims, two engines and a front- or all-wheel-drive choice is genuinely wide for a 2024 mid-size sedan, and the ladder is well spaced from $25,730 to $35,430 with no awkward gap. Two things keep it out of the top band: there is no hybrid, plug-in or manual anywhere in the range, and the two most interesting choices are mutually exclusive at the ends — AWD is unavailable on both the base S and the VC-Turbo, so the quick Altima is FWD-only and the cheapest one cannot be had with all-wheel drive.

113,898 US deliveries in 2024 is a strong absolute number that kept the Altima third in the mid-size segment behind only the Camry and Accord, and comfortably ahead of the Sonata and K5 — real market acceptance, not a slow seller. The trajectory is what holds it to the middle of the band: volume fell 11% year over year in a segment where the redesigned Camry and facelifted Sonata both grew, and a meaningful share of Altima output goes to rental and fleet channels rather than retail.

2024 was a bad year for the Nissan badge in the US and the Altima carries more of it than any other model in the range. The brand ran the largest incentives of any volume automaker by year-end, which is the market pricing in weak demand rather than a brand people queue for; the year closed with a publicly announced global restructuring; and the CVT reliability reputation still attaches specifically to the mid-size sedan. Brand image measurably drags on this model — its own residual curve is the receipt, running below its class average while Toyota's runs above it.

Scored on buyer benefit as the item directs, and on that measure the 2024 Altima is near the top of the segment. Nissan finished 2024 as the most heavily incentivised volume brand in the US market, and the Altima — a slow-growing nameplate in a shrinking class with a plant to keep busy — carried recurring Nissan Cash, subsidised APR and aggressive lease support on top of wide dealer negotiability. Anyone willing to buy a car the market undervalues transacted very well here; the same softness that wrecks the residual makes the purchase cheap.

Squarely mid-cycle. 2024 is the sixth model year of the sixth-generation L34 Altima that launched for 2019, but it sits only one year after the MY2023 facelift that brought the revised V-motion grille, standard LED headlights, new wheel designs and reworked instrument-panel finishes, and 2024 itself added the three-year connected-services trial. So the car was current rather than stale — but the platform predates the segment's move to hybrid powertrains, it offers no electrified option, the digital cluster the class was adopting is absent, and in hindsight 2024 was the last year of the VC-Turbo, the first step in the range narrowing.

Reviewers in 2024 rated the Altima respectably and then recommended something else — Edmunds scored it 7.5/10 while ranking the Sonata and K5 above it, and Consumer Reports called it a competitive but unremarkable sedan with a bland driving experience. Credit is consistent for space, fuel economy, the standard safety suite and available AWD; criticism is consistent for CVT drone, dated cabin and no hybrid. On hard accolades the year is thin: a 5-star NHTSA overall rating is real, but the IIHS gave the 2024 car no award at all, grading its updated side impact Poor and its front crash prevention Poor, and there is no 10Best, NACTOY or comparison-test win on this generation.