Well one of my closest friends was tired of dealing with his Mazda and Mazda in general. His Mazda6 had just over 60,000 miles and the car had a plethora of problems within that 60,000. My friend wasn't really in the in the market for a new car since he just had his clutch replaced along with new wheel bearings (all went bad at the same time). He went to go start the car the other day and it wouldn't start. He had some sort of starter/flywheel problem that I believe was due to the half-arsed install of the clutch. Mazda refused to fix this problem although the clutch was just replaced less than 1000 miles ago. So being upset and enraged he decided to go hunt for a new automobile. His search landed him in a 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe with a 2.5 litre I4 with 175 Horses connected to a 6-speed manual.
The car is beautiful on the outside, the rear half of the car is very eye catching and almost looks like a G35. Nissan gets an A+ for the exterior design of this coupe. The interior is very comfortable and roomy. From the outside it looks like the backseat would be very uncomfortable, but to my suprise there is a enormous amount of leg room. With the front seats all the way back, I could stretch my 5'10 frame out and relax. I even had a 6'3 250lb ogre sitting next to me on our trip to downtown Orlando and he was also amazed at the amount of room back there.
The instrument cluster, dash, radio, and HVAC are somewhat boring. There are no trim accents to break up the very long dashboard. The bright white glow of the gauges are a bit of a distraction while driving at night, a quick turn of the dimmer fixed that though. I give the interior an A- just for the boring dash setup. Oh yea, the trunk is a very medium sized trunk, enough room for two sets of golf clubs, a cooler, and a couple duffle bags or a dead body or two.
I finally got to take the wheel since I was the designated driver and boy is the car smooth. The ride is awesome, even in the horrible downtown streets of Orlando the Altima felt like it was riding on air. The car was just as smooth on the highway and there was very little noise at highway speeds. The little 4-banger has some grunt to it and having a 6-speed hooked up to it makes it a blast to drive. For only have 177hp, I was very impressed with the pick-up the car had. The 6-speed is rubbery, but I didn't have to much of a problem with it. Going from a Spec Stage 3 clutch on the Trans Am to this stock clutch was a bit of a challenge in the parking garage though :nice:.
I haven't had a chance yet to thrash the car around any corners. This will come after a few hundred miles to ensure the motor is "broken in," so I can really beat the piss out of it when flying around a corner.
It truly is a great car, I've never been a huge fan of Nissan, but after my experience with this car I want to go out and buy one. It looks much better than anything that Honda is offering in it's price range, gets great MPGs, has a timing chain instead of belt, and you don't have to worry about someone stealing your car everywhere you go like you do in a Civic Si. I'm seriously thinking about picking one of these up, I may have to opt for the 3.5L just because I love me some HP.
