Nissan's "We can do that too!" Attitude
Posted by:
Harvey Xiao
These make it into my team's weekly rental fleet pretty frequently. In the past 2 months, I've had the Altima Hybrid from Hertz 3 times. Last week, my colleague got the 2.5 S.
It's worth noting that the material & build quality of the Altima better than most of the models that frequent our lot. These include the new Sonata, Accord, Camry, and Malibu. Impressive, but that's another story.
What amuses me more is Nissan's willingness to throw features typically found in way more expensive vehicles into their entry level Altimas. Take the keyless ignition for example. When this came out in the BMW 5-series, it was the coolest thing. So cool, in fact, that BMW felt the need to charge an obscene amount of money for the privilege. You know what I'm talking about? Touch the door handle, and the car unlocks... push the button and the car starts... that thing. Well, it's in the Altima.
Granted, it's not quite as cool. You can't just touch the door handle, for instance. There's a button you have to push on the handle. It actually works better this way, though. BMW's door handle didn't always register your touch. Also, the touch & open feature seems missing from the trunk. You can reach under the Altima's ass all you want but it won't open for you unless you insert your key...
anyways ...
Other such features include the CVT transmission and the dual-zone climate control. Nowadays, the CVT is becoming more popular (read: Subaru Outback), but Nissan has had it as the standard tranny in several vehicles for several years. The dual-zone climate control seems out of place in the <$25k market.
I'm not sure how I feel about all this. On one hand, it's great to have these features. On the other hand, Nissan seems to suck the coolness right out of them. When Audi had the CVT in the A4, it was more of a "woah.... that's interesting.." After driving around the Altima for 3 weeks, it's more of a "your car has to shift? lame." Same goes for the keyless start system. I find myself getting into my Prelude and searching for the start engine button.
Nicholas Hsu 
John Shen 
Harvey Xiao 
Middleclassmotoring 
Sicheng Su 
Comments 1 Comment
I think it's more of a sign of the times that keyless option is spreading across downmarket (i.e. Ford,, GM are offering it as well). It's inherently not an expensive technology, and once people realize that their competitors are doing it, it's just a race to the bottom from there)