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Nissan Altima

1101113151697

Comments

  • speedracer3speedracer3 Member Posts: 650
    Just because a Nav is not offered on the Altima now it doesn't mean it will never be offered. The Maxima was not offered with a Nav system when introduced and now it has one. I expect that Nissan will wait to move the Maxima up to before they add a Nav system to the Altima. I am sure a Nav system will find its way onto the Altima, but maybe after the first or second year run.
  • corvettecorvette Member Posts: 10,236
    Judging from the responses to my question, I guess I was wrong about the Camry requiring premo fuel. I remember that Edmund's had some cold-starting problems with theirs when they used regular. I know that my car (Jetta VR6) runs fine on regular, even though premium is recommended. The technical explanation I have received is that the knock sensor retards timing to compensate for the difference. I have noticed no loss in power and possibly very slight (0.5 mpg) loss in gas mileage.
  • cindyvcindyv Member Posts: 1
    I'm considering buying a 2002 Altima. I was almost ready to buy the Civic EX until I saw pictures of this car....It looks great!!! I'm leasing my current car which expires in Oct. but I have to get a new car in Sept because I'm going to reach my mileage. I called my local Nissan dealer and asked when the new models would be avail. They said early Sept. I also asked about the price of the new 2002. He told me that the price will be about the same as the 2001. I'm on a very strict budget for this new car. What are my chances of getting this car as soon as its avail at the invoice price?
  • thebandleaderthebandleader Member Posts: 53
    The problem here in Northern Arizona is the Nissan dealers are awful. The one in my town in well known for shady dealings, and if you drive to Phoenix, they are like vultures; it is horrible. The largest Nissan dealership in the world is in Phoenix and it is a nightmare to even visit it. (In Arizona, Nissan outsells Toyota and Honda; from what I've heard, its one of the only, if not the only, state to do that) The Ford/Mazda dealership in my town is a nice honest Mom-Pop business which takes care of you. I LOVE the new Altima, but am not sure I can put up with the dealers... (My sister does... she's on her second Altima)
  • ludacrisludacris Member Posts: 185
    Universal City Nissan here in LA was supposed to be the biggest Nissan dealer in America...dunno...the dealer we got our car from literally had 20 salesmen standing outside the building by the doors and lots waiting for anyone to enter...
  • mrossney1mrossney1 Member Posts: 2
    Forgive me if this is buried somewhere, but I didn't have time to wade through 600 messages...
    The wording on Nissan's website seems to suggest that the 5-spd will not be available with the V6. Is this correct? I've not seen any photos showing a manual and I'm getting concerned. An auto would be a big turn-off for me...
  • maxamillion1maxamillion1 Member Posts: 1,467
    The 5 speed will be available for the 3.5SE, the stick shift will be available for all models, including the luxurious 2.5SL. Maybe one of the car magazines will test it in August and let us see what the interior looks like with the 5 speed stick.
  • danny25danny25 Member Posts: 119
    At the Altima's introduction in NY they specifically said that with the 5spd. and a v-6 the Altima is suppost to do 0 to 60 in 6.3 seconds. That's definately my new car.
  • bluesky999bluesky999 Member Posts: 253
    Re: comment on how to justify 2K for NAV, posters on other threads seem to love it on other cars, even if they don't use it that often. I tend to keep a car a long time, so 2K spread out over 10 years or more would not be a big deal. And they are cool--I've used the system in the Acura TL.

    Re: Nissan dealers--my father has a Nissan, which has been very reliable and a fun car, but the dealers were pretty bad. Personally I'll really have to get my nerve up to brave the Nissan dealer experience and deal with the low-rent looking interior I expect, if I'm going to buy the Altima. But then I'm coming from a luxury and near-luxury perspective, as I'm used to Acuras. Problem with the Acuras is that they lack excitement--that's why I'm looking at other brands.

    Looking forward to the reviews on the Altimi (that's the plural) :)
  • sarnysarny Member Posts: 17
    Hello,
    I called a dealer in the Los angeles area and they said October is the release time for the new Altima. Has anyone heard otherwise?
  • maxamillion1maxamillion1 Member Posts: 1,467
    The Altima is suppose to debut sometime in September.
  • sdattasdatta Member Posts: 24
    I think Nissan is making a mistake by continuing the Altima name with this redesign. Since they have decided to go much further upscale, the Altima name serves as a crutch in terms of prestige and pricing because people will associate it with the previous version. They should have ditched the Altima name and strated from scratch. It would have more greatly reinforced the notion that this is really a different, more greatly improved car from the Altima.

    What do y'all think?
  • bimmer4mebimmer4me Member Posts: 266
    The current generation Altima may have missed a step or two, but by no means was it a complete loser. Nissan has made a move in the right direction in its complete redesign of the already identifiable name plate...Altima. Just my 2 cents.
  • SporinSporin Member Posts: 1,066
    I thought that too for a while... stil not sure exactly how I feel about it. In my opinion, the "old" Altima was percieved as an 11/10ths Sentra for the most part... it was never a serious contender to the Accord/Camry.

    They are going to have to pour a LOT of money into advertising so that people will know tha the NEW Altima is a 100% completely different car. I hope there ad agency is up to it.
  • qin2qin2 Member Posts: 26
    I think it was a good move to have kept the name. Discontinuing a model kills resale value, something Nissan has learned the hardway through Infiniti. Infiniti is only 12 years old and currently only has one model that has lived through the entire life of the brand (G20 was discontinued in mid-90s), and that's the Q45. That pissed a lot of owners off, buyers like buying a car that has a name behind it. Besides, with the new Altima rumored to be priced right in line with the previous generation Altimas what's the point in changing the name?
  • vocusvocus Member Posts: 7,777
    I read an article in a car magazine (I think it was Car and Driver) awhile back. It said manufacturers have to go through alot of legal red tape to get a new name for a product on the market. That's why Chevrolet brought back their old names (Malibu, Impala) for the redesigned cars they came out with.
  • SporinSporin Member Posts: 1,066
    good point, I bet that had a lot to do with it.
  • ruskiruski Member Posts: 1,566
    I am pretty sure that the resale value of the current Altima is going to hurt quite a bit too as soon as they start selling the 2002 Altima.
  • maxamillion1maxamillion1 Member Posts: 1,467
    The same thing could be said about the Passat when it came out in late 1997. It was so much better than the previous version, but sells still picked up, even though it kept the Passat name, and it became a real winner for VW. I expect the same thing will happen with the new 2002 Nissan Altima. The first generation Altima was better than the second gen. model, and haven't sells of the Altima been up lately?
  • speedracer3speedracer3 Member Posts: 650
    I also think that changing names tends to confuse the buying public. It is good to keep "well known" names even if the previous generations were not up to snuff.
  • nikecarnikecar Member Posts: 460
    Keep the Altima name.. why change names for every remodeled car? what would Ford do with its Taurus (last change the bubble years) then???

    as for resale hurt.. geez, every car with a next year change takes a hit..
  • djcunnindjcunnin Member Posts: 8
    check Infiniti's web site, the car is still around.
  • qin2qin2 Member Posts: 26
    "um, the G20 is still around"

    Reread what I said:

    "Infiniti is only 12 years old and currently only has one model that has lived through the entire life of the brand (G20 was discontinued in mid-90s)"

    I had put the G20 in brackets specificly because I thought someone would bring that up. The G20 was discontinued for 4 years in the mid-90s. So the Q45 still remains the only Infiniti model that has been consistently offered since the brand's introduction.
  • jimxojimxo Member Posts: 423
    Check out the "All new 2002 Nissan Altima" club at yahoo!

    Toyota and Honda are about to get voted off.
  • maxamillion1maxamillion1 Member Posts: 1,467
    Could you post a link?
  • SporinSporin Member Posts: 1,066
    Did anyone else notice that Nissan totally redesigned thier web sit? Very nice layout... worlds better then before.
  • ludacrisludacris Member Posts: 185
    Yep I like their new website, I also like the new Nissan hamburger better. It's basically the same but looks cleaner.
  • nikecarnikecar Member Posts: 460
    what I DON'T like is they dropped the coupon section of the Owner's area... man and I needed some coupons too.
  • jimxojimxo Member Posts: 423
    Sorry the Yahoo club "All new 2002 Nissan Altima" starts on 7-25-01.

    Altima admirers, owners and dealers welcome.
  • sdattasdatta Member Posts: 24
    Sorry to belabor the point, but the responses beg the question, when should a car be given a new name then?

    I owned a 1994 Altima for 4 years. I know from personal experience what a great car it is for the money. But the new new Altima is bigger, more luxurious, more powerful... it's simply much better in every way than it's previous version, and is built specifically to go head-to-head with the Camry and the Accord, while the previous version was not. If this list of changes isn't extensive enough to warrent a name change then I don't know what is.

    I understand the point about name recongnition but if the Altima name is perceived to be an inferior product to the Camry and Accord with which it is supposed to compete, then name recognition will do Nissan more harm than good, in my humble opinion.

    With this all said, I think Nissan will sell the hell out of these cars nonetheless.
  • motokichimotokichi Member Posts: 48
    Judging by what we know about the new Altima, it should be a successful car. You can take a great car and call it whatever, and it will still sell (at the right price). Just look at the Accord and Civic of today, they are nothing like the original but they have kept their names over many model changes and they have somewhat of a reputation.
    On the other hand, Acura dropped the Legend name and struggled. They are making the same mistake with the Integra.
  • jimxojimxo Member Posts: 423
    If every time a car gets a "major" overhaul just as the maxima will soon get (avalon size), should millions of dollars be spent on getting that new name into consumers head?

    I don't think so, I like Altima anyway. Nissan has made a good decision to stick with Altima for many reasons.

    Now lets see if first year of production produces any service recalls.
  • a_l_hubcapsa_l_hubcaps Member Posts: 518
    Maybe this is off-topic, but you guys have me thinking about automotive name changes in general. I've noticed that some companies hold very tightly to their classic names, such as Buick (Century, Regal, LeSabre, Park Ave) and Cadillac (DeVille, Seville, Eldorado), while others seem all too eager to change names. Since I tend to be a nostalgic person, I usually dislike the idea of automotive name changes. Some that specifically stand out to me as stupid and unnecessary include the Pontiac Montana (formerly Trans Sport, which was a much cooler name in my opinion) and Toyota Echo (replaced the Tercel, which I think was a better and more recognized name). Call me crazy, but I wouldn't mind if the Avalon were rechristened Cressida. My opinion: use new names for truly NEW cars that have no real predecessors (Rendezvous, Aztek, Avalanche, Highlander, Escape, etc.) and use classic names for cars with obvious roots. As for the Altima question, I'm glad to see the Altima name being reused on the new car. But for that matter, they could have chosen to do something really unexpected...2002 Nissan Stanza, anyone? :-)

    -Andrew L
  • nikecarnikecar Member Posts: 460
    then sales will really suffer if they give the Alty the Stanza name...
  • speedracer3speedracer3 Member Posts: 650
    From the the LA times:


    http://www.latimes.com/class/highway1/20010725/t000060528.html


    Also good hint on the pricing. Sounds impressive.

  • maxamillion1maxamillion1 Member Posts: 1,467
    BTW, what all will we find out after this Friday, when the Embargo is off, Pricing, mpg?
  • har1bushhar1bush Member Posts: 207
    the whole article more or less sounded like a typical propaganda.... but those price estimates sound true along with everyone's predictions. Let's just wait until these reviewers actually get to test the car for some real evaluations and conclusions.
  • blueguydotcomblueguydotcom Member Posts: 6,249
    Guess my reading skills must be off. It seems the car was driven.
  • har1bushhar1bush Member Posts: 207
    they could have driven the car... sure... it says a couple things about comparing the I-4 and the V6, but I'm saying they havent put anything to a real test -- 0-60, braking, handling, etc. etc. Plus, there arent any constructive criticisms and the article sounds something like someone from Nissan could have written.
  • jochijochi Member Posts: 18
    Actually, the article did mention that the 4-cyl. would be in the back of the pack going up a steep hill. Not much criticism, but hardly Nissan propaganda. Plus there was another article in the LA Times about Nissan's revival in the States, and it states that Nissan has a reputation for suspect reliability. Most will attest that this assesment is not right. In fact, some will know that the Maxima's reliability is in fact better than the Camcords. So suggesting that the articles were written by Nissan seems kinda silly.
  • speedracer3speedracer3 Member Posts: 650
    because they have embargoed all driving impressions until the 27th. It would be pretty silly of Nissan to break their own embargo. Actually LA times DID break the embargo by publishing driving impressions of the car before the embargo date. Allright LA times!
  • dklaneckydklanecky Member Posts: 559
    It's been a while since I visited the Nissan site but I thought the future driven section on the 2002 Altima was really well done. It certainly makes me even more interested in actually seeing one of these at my local dealer.

    They may actually pry the 95 Maxima with 180,000 miles on it out of my ownership as a trade on one of these:)I had planned on keeping it for at least another few years.
  • ajacatajacat Member Posts: 63
    OH man, I'm so depressed, I feel betrayed although I suppose I should have expected it. The MPG numbers are *so stinky*. I thought somehow Nissan would pull two 20-something nos. out of that V-6--after all, the *avalon* does -- and make the perfect car, designed exactly to my dream, that I could buy guilt free. As my DH says, anyone can make a 240 hp that gets 18/23 (or whatever it was, acc. to the LA Times). The trick would be to get it up like the Avalon. I don't want to hear that the Alt will do things the Avalon can't. I want it all.

    I just don't see how I can buy it now, with that wretched city MPG. We wail on SUV owners for numbers that aren't always that much worse, and the Highlander is better, actually. I've been whining to my husband all day...

    I guess it's just a matter of hours 'til we see the real figures. Ack.

    In sorrow,
    ajacat
  • s852s852 Member Posts: 1,051
    Why are you worried about the MPG even before the numbers are announced? There is nothing to talk about until real numbers are released.
  • qin2qin2 Member Posts: 26
    "OH man, I'm so depressed, I feel betrayed although I suppose I should have expected it. The MPG numbers are *so stinky*."

    What are you talking about? No numbers have been released..
  • danny25danny25 Member Posts: 119
    In the LA Times article they estimated that the mpg for the 4 cyl would be 21/27, and for the V-6 18/25. If I remembered correctly.
  • s852s852 Member Posts: 1,051
    The LA Times writers were taking a wild guess. There are no official numbers.
  • s852s852 Member Posts: 1,051
  • maxima1995maxima1995 Member Posts: 1
    Where should I look for 2002 Altima true facts and numbers after 27th. Accelaration, MPG, etc.???
  • ajacatajacat Member Posts: 63
    Yeah, I know they're guesstimates, and of course I was looking at the V-6--the only one I'm interested in. I somehow expected nos. like the 4-cyl ones for the V-6--even the Regal can get 19-29, w/a 240.

    I sure hope the estimates are way low (I saw an even lower estimate in another preview I found online--don't remember the site--18 hwy??? must be a misprint--I'm guessing they meant 18 city just like the LA Times).

    If anyone sees the real EPA nos. (I checked nissannews and they haven't updated it yet), please post. Probably sounds strange but half of my DH's and my heart is in a fast fun car and the other half is in a Prius, and a third half is in a station wagon--is there a demographic for bleeding-heart family racers? :)

    ajacat
This discussion has been closed.