#2013Altima

The “family sedan” may not be very exciting, but without midsized sales auto makers would be in a pickle. Ponder this: the five best-selling midsized sedans in America accounted for 1.3 million of the 12.8 million vehicles sold in 2011. With numbers like that, it’s important to get your mass-market people mover right. This means competitive fuel economy, a low base price and swipe as much tech from your luxury brand as possible. Either that or just wear a Nissan badge on the front. Say what? The last generation Altima was the second best-selling car despite being long in the tooth and filled with Chrysler quality plastics. That made me ask an important question: Is the fifth-generation Altima any good, or is it selling well (now in third place thanks to the new Accord and Nissan’s model change over) just because it has a Nissan logo on the front?

The outrageous indifference, mixed with distate enthusiasm shown by TTACers for our Chicago Auto Show Video led us to think that it would be a good idea to do one for the New York Auto Show. Unfortunately, Vodka McBigbra’s dental emergency forced me to bounce out of the show halfway through. The video crew was left with an absolute mishmash of first-take cynicism and random Asians wandering through the shots.