For a midsize family sedan, the Nissan Altima has always been surprisingly rewarding to drive. After all, the Altima is a direct lineal descendent of Nissan's legendary 510 sedan from the 1960s and '70s. So some of those genes must have passed down to the Nissan Altima.
Considering how lackluster the Stanza midsize sedan had been, as its replacement, the Nissan Altima didn't have a high standard to meet. But that first 1993 Nissan Altima, though it shared much of its structure and many of its mechanical bits with the Stanza, far exceeded expectations.
In contrast to the boxy Stanza, the first Nissan Altima was voluptuous and round. At the same time, the styling wasn't zaftig but trim and athletic. And along with the new sheet metal, there was a new interior with a much more sophisticated design and better-quality materials. The basic unibody and front-drive chassis came straight from the Stanza, but careful tuning improved handling over the old car. The only engine available was the same 150-horsepower four used in the Stanza. Still the Nissan Altima was improved enough that no one confused it with the Stanza.
A sharper, more aggressive-looking Nissan Altima appeared for the 1998 model year. While the general silhouette of the second-generation Altima was similar to the first, the sheet metal was more crisply creased. Mechanically, the second Nissan Altima carried over most of the first's structure and mechanical components including the 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine.
The big leap forward for the Nissan Altima came with the introduction of the third generation for 2002. Built atop Nissan's much more sophisticated FF-L platform, the new Altima was larger, better-looking, and offered Nissan's 3.5-liter VQ-series V6 as an option. A new 2.5-liter four was the base engine. In 2005 an SE-R version of the Nissan Altima was introduced featuring a high-output V6, six-speed manual transmission and tuned suspension.
An evolutionary redesign of the Nissan Altima appeared for 2007. A six-speed became the base manual transmission while a continuously variable transmission replaced the previous four-speed automatic. An Altima hybrid was introduced for 2007. The sedan was joined by a new Nissan Altima coupe in 2008.
