2008 Nissan Altima: My thoughts after 6000 miles.
Yesterday I went over 6000 miles on my 2008 Nissan Altima and thought now would be a good time to expand on my past reviews of the car. Not much has changed which bodes well for the car, considering I’ve had nothing but good things to say about it. Now that I’ve had some serious time behind the wheel I can honestly say the car rides like a dream. The one thing I thought the 2008 Honda Accord might have on the Altima was comfort, but after all this time I have no regrets with my choice. I’ve kept records of every gas fill-up so far, and when I average out those numbers I am getting 26.62 MPG, which I think is more than respectable from a car that advertises 23 city and 31 highway (which combined is about what I am getting). I’d say the majority of my driving is city streets, or highways under construction and in rush hour, so basically city streets. One thing I’ve noticed is the cars readings on gas mileage average around 1.5 MPG higher than my calculations, which is no big deal to me.
You’d think that a 2.5L 4 cylinder that gets decent gas milage would be a dog, but you’d be wrong. Now my other car is a Mustang (really, it is) so I’m not going to say my Altima is fast, but I never have any problems when I need to accelerate. The CVT has a lot to do with this (Continiously Variable Transmission, wasn’t available on the 2008 Accord, the other car I was considering) and is still one of my favorite features of the car, it’s so smooth you don’t know it’s shifting and it can stay at an optimal RPM (almost stays at a specific RPM) while accelerating. My other favorite feature and another one of the features that makes the Altima unique from similar cars like the Accord, is the Intelligent Key system. I’ve become so used to the convenience of just leaving the small key pod in my pocket while opening the doors, trunk and starting / stopping the engine with buttons on the car, that when I drive other cars now (like my Mustang) I have to reprogram my brain. If it isn’t obvious, I’m very happy with my first new car, and would recommend a new Altima to anyone. If you’re considering a new Altima but want to know more, feel free to ask me about mine.
Night photo of Push Button Ignition.
