2019 Nissan Altima sharpens blade in sedan battle with a strong redesign
The future of sedans is very much a question mark right now. With SUV and truck fever having taken over most automakers, in addition to a focus on electronic and autonomous vehicles, your old-fashioned four-door sedan is usually lost in the shuffle when individuals and families are choosing a new vehicle.
Some automakers, particularly on the domestic side, are taking drastic steps and essentially eliminating their sedan offerings due to lack of sales and limited profitability. But there’s still some reason for hope among car buyers who like this type of vehicle: The foreign automakers are hanging in there.
Nissan is one of those automakers, and for 2019 the Nissan Altima — its midsize sedan offering — gets some major upgrades as it takes on heavy hitters like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord in the battle for market share.
I recently spent some time in a 2019 Altima, and I’m back with a full report on how the improvements boost the Altima’s stature in the segment.
Looks
The Altima features a greatly improved exterior design that makes it one of the best-looking sedans on the market. It features an aggressive design up front, and overall you will find the Altima to be more low to the ground and wide than previous iterations.
Once you head inside the Altima, the good news continues, as the materials used are high-end and among the best you’ll find in class. Seats are very comfortable, even on long rides, and both rows feature adequate legroom and headroom.
The Platinum trim Altima that I tested included 19-inch aluminum-alloy wheels and also included interior accent lighting and memory settings on the driver’s seat. Base versions come with 16-inch steel wheels.
Engine, horsepower
The Altima I tested included a 2.0-liter, variable compression turbo (VC-T) engine, paired with a CVT automatic transmission. Very few vehicles offer the innovative VC-T engine, which (as its name would suggest) varies the compression ratio to boost the sportiness of the drive while still offering ecofriendly fuel mileage numbers. Numbers on the powerplant were 248 horsepower and 273 lb.-ft. of torque.
In my experience the ride in the 2019 Altima was peppy and responsive, and handling was among best in class. This was a vehicle I definitely looked forward to driving, in large part thanks to the VC-T engine. For the record, that is not something I say often when driving a midsize sedan, as they tend to be more Point A-to-Point B cars than something thrilling.
The base engine option is a 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine that offers 188 horsepower and 180 lb.-ft. of torque.
Front-wheel drive is standard on the 2019 Altima. But the big news is that the Altima is now offered with all-wheel drive at all trim levels, something few vehicles in this class can claim. (One important note: the AWD system is only offered with the base engine, and can’t be paired with the VC-T option.)
The Altima is Nissan’s first AWD sedan, which may make a big difference as people cross-shop with the Altima with the other usual suspects (Among more than a halfdozen midsize sedan competitors, only Ford Fusion and Subaru Legacy offer AWD).