2016 Nissan Altima First Drive - Baby Steps

Most midsize sedans don’t have a happy ending.

Many get passed down as second-hand family cars, looking for their second wind from being a daily commuter only to find themselves as daily bangers in high school parking lots. Or worse.

Mid-sized sedans can be sold at used car lots as forgettable appliances; used like washing machines and put away wet like skinny jeans.

The Altima lives such a life.

The life of Nissan’s perennial bridesmaid to the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord is generally undignified and, we’ll say, difficult.

If you’re looking for a story about redemption, this isn’t it. The 2016 Nissan Altima won’t be a savior among midsize sedans and won’t regain glory for a segment losing ground to compact crossovers faster than Pickett’s Charge. At least not yet.

Rather, the 2016 Nissan Altima is a capitulation by the automaker that there’s no point in out Camry-ing or Accord-ing the other guys. Making a mid-size sedan that no one hates amounts to building a car that no one likes. If you listen to Altima engineers, there’s mileage in making something that divides rather than conquers.

Exterior

For 2016, Nissan completely refreshed the Altima’s front and rear, including a newly designed front fascia and bumper. There are elements from the good-looking Murano (said nobody. —Mark) in the Altima’s LED daytime running lamps — which aren’t standard across all models — and some of the Maxima in this midsizer’s V-shaped grille. From the front third, the Altima shares much with the Maxima, but stops short of the floating roof treatment.

The rear trunk and bumper gets resculpted — notably the 4-piece rear lamps — but like a punk show, all the action is really up front.

According to Nissan, the updated front and some undercarriage work helped the Altima more sharply cut the wind (0.26 Cd this year vs. 0.29 Cd before), although EPA estimates for the base 2.5-liter engine only increased by 1 mpg on the highway, from 38 to 39 mpg, this year.

Incremental changes don’t really do it for people though. Year over year, the 2015 Altima to 2016 Altima’s fuel economy changed less than my sock drawer, but since 2002 the change has been fairly dramatic. Fitted with a 2.5-liter four and 4-speed automatic, the Altima managed 20/27/23 mpg in city/highway/combined marks from the EPA. Fitted with a similar 2.5-liter four and CVT, the 2016 Altima manages 27/39/31 mpg, according to the EPA. Even more so, the 2002 Altima scored those numbers under the old 2-cycle fuel economy regime, meaning fuel consumption for the older model is likely much, much worse.

The new SR grade for the Altima is a quick stab at the mid-size sedan’s “sport” segment that will apparently grow because people just love spoilers. In addition to the decklid-mounted spoiler — which exists only because the other guys do it — the SR edition sports slightly smoky front lamps, 18-inch wheels and a slightly tuned chassis setup. According to the Nissan engineer in charge of the new SR trim, the chassis is firm enough to fire back with some lift-throttle oversteer if you’re beating the hell out of it on your drive home.

Please send video of said lift-throttle oversteer.

Interior

More notably, the Altima didn’t get the Maxima and Murano’s slicker new infotainment unit because there needs to be room for changes later in the Altima’s lifecycle, I suppose.

The center console and armrest were revised slightly with better lines for the Altima’s gliding wing and a new gear selector replaces the old Altima’s chunky grip.

Inside, the Altima is quieter over last year’ model. At nearly 50 decibels at idle and 73 db at cruising, the Altima is fairly quiet and sedate.

The same “zero gravity” seats swaddle driver and passenger as before, and 60/40 split folding rear seats offer 36.1 inches of legroom in the back. My 6-foot-2-inch frame folded just fine in the rear seats behind another man of similar stature.

Infotainment

Available in the SL and SV trims, and standard in the 3.5 SL, is Nissan’s 7-inch touchscreen with navigation and mobile apps. Nissan added a concierge system, dubbed NissanConnect Services powered by SiriusXM, which is sold separately as a subscription. Curiously, there’s no dedicated button for the live-person service. Instead, it’s accessed through a headset icon on the touchscreen and the first prompt isn’t a human at all — it’s a voice-recognition system asking you what you’re looking to do. If you ask for a certain service — “Destination Assist,” for instance — the computer calls up an operator to give you, well, destination assistance. That’s confusing. Nissan may want to look into that.

Aside from getting access to a real person, both the 5- and 7-inch infotainment systems are straightforward and simple, although somewhat dated at this point.

Less exciting, but more importantly, is Nissan’s inclusion of advanced safety features such as forward collision warning and emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and radar-based blind-spot monitoring (last year’s version was rear camera-based that didn’t work so hot if the camera was covered in snow).

Powertrain

The same 2.5-liter four that makes 182 horsepower and 180 pound-feet of torque remains. It’s adequate.

The same 3.6-liter six that makes 270 horsepower and 251 pound-feet of torque remains for six percent of buyers who will opt for the bigger engine. It’s overpowered.

Both engines are mated to a continuously variable transmission. In higher 2.5 SR, 3.5 SR and 3.5 SL trims, you get seven virtual “gears” you can slap between using the included paddle shifters. Otherwise, it’s just a normal CVT, in a normal car, doing normal car things.

Nissan has used relatively the same powertrain combination since Bush 2. (When will it get the turbo four from the Juke?)

According to Nissan, the 2016 Altima has “lots of powertrain improvements” over last year’s model, but I only counted one: The CVT is more quiet than I remember? Sure, let’s go with that.

Drive

Although most of the CamCord segment is laser-focused on comfort and quiet, at least Nissan appears to be slowly moving away from numb. According to the company, the last-generation Altima tried to out-Camry and out-Accord the likes of Toyota and Honda and failed. Those cars, by Nissan’s own admission, were fairly boring and uninspiring.

This year’s car is still the same commuter appliance many mid-size sedans are these days. It rides quietly, provides a comfortable amount of space and is reasonably priced at $23,325 to start. Our tester, a 2.5 SL fitted with everything, would be the mid-level manager’s dream — good enough for the workday, not embarrassing in the valet.

Nissan estimates that up to 20 percent of its mix could be the sportier-looking SR grade as mid-size buyers looking for something other than the top two sellers consider to Nissan. The 2016 Altima makes small steps in distinguishing itself from those competitors with small incremental improvements to its front and rear.

If you count the ways Altima can capitalize on its mid-cycle refresh this year — looks, trim and interior — you may surmise how good the future may be for a car that has, until now, played backup rhythm guitar in a Jimmy Buffett cover band at a suburban wine bar. It won’t be a rock star tomorrow, but at least it’s getting in some solid practice.

(Interior photos provided by the manufacturer)