**UPDATE: ** Well, I bought an Altima Coupe - 2.5 i4, continuously variable transmission, leather, moonroof, etc. Here’s the justification and since I can’t contain myself, a review:
I tried the Honda Coupe - nice comments first: I liked the styling (the rear 3/4 view almost looks like a Ferarri 599 if you squint and down a pint of Wild Turkey) - more on the Altima styling later. But the illusion of affordable sportiness was shot when the damn thing hunted for gears like Elmer Fudd during wabbit season, at anything less than 50 mph. Veerrry pitchy. And I couldn’t afford the V6, nor did I want that much power - if 190 hp doesn’t provide enough grunt to get the damn thing out of its own way, I don’t want it.
We were planning on stopping at the VW dealership next, but as we were headed to grab lunch, we noticed that the dealership nearby where we got my wife’s Sienna from (with a great buying experience) also had a Nissan store, while the Nissan dealership I had called earlier was across town attached to the Hyundai shop I was going to visit.
So I called this nearby shop on lunch, arranged to test drive, and the guy who helped us out (Costco/Internet fleet specialist, so more of an “experience manager” rather than a “salesman”) took me on an excellent backroads course that really let me stretch the Altima’s legs - out of 70 miles on the car when I signed the dotted lines (all 50 of 'em) and took the key-fob-thingy (see below), we put on at least 25 just on the test-drive.
I must say, the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) was quite a pleasant surprise. I had read before that they had a “sewing machine” effect - rev them up, and they stay at a constant whine until you slow down below the optimal torque curve. Such was not the case with this powertrain - butter-smooth acceleration at low speeds, and when you tromp down, it just keeps on giving, while still giving off a throaty exhaust note (almost a V6 sound out of a 175 hp 4 cyl.). Plus, you can override to “virtual gear ratios” with a faux-manumatic feature if you want to push it to redline before manually upshifting.
Cornering at low, parking lot/school zone speeds felt a bit stately - not really floaty-boaty, but not as tight as the Honda at 10mph or less. But accelerating out of the corners at speed, it tightened up quite a bit, and you could feel the road without having every little pebble transmitted through the suspension, unlike the Accord at speed, which had more of an unsprung feel - kinda go-carty.
Road noise was pretty quiet for a sub-$25k car - I’ve heard noisier late-model Camrys. It’s certainly an improvement over my old compact. And the kicker was the options packages - it has leather, a moonroof, and a kickass Bose stereo, with a year of XM, Bluetooth voice-recognition, and dual-zone climate controls - plus a nifty little keyless push-button ignition system that I’ve seen before in other cars but for some reason endlessly facsinates me.
And we can fit all the kids in back - getting two car seats for the 2 and 5 year old kids alongside my 8 year old will be a bit of a tight fit, but for a quick jaunt to the coast, or a country drive, it’ll work.
As for the Altima’s styling - I like it. It’s a bit different aesthetic - not badly designed by any stretch, but unlike the few sporty coupes that are still around, it’s certainly based on a different design philosophy than its sedan analogue. One can definitely tell at a glance that this car is related to the Infiniti G35 coupe, the 350Z and, dare I say it, even the Skyline. But it’s not very evident that it’s based on the Altima Sedan (the styling of which I’m not a fan of). The Honda, while rakish, didn’t have such a design pedigree.
Plus, from the rear 3/4 view, the Altima looks vaguely like a Maserati. Hey, I did say vaguely. Maybe with the help of the aforementioned Wild Turkey.
My only complaints - the trunk is much smaller than the Honda (more shallow, really - width and length are about the same); I won’t be doing a whole lot of hauling, but trips to Costco on the way home from work will require judicious arrangement of boxes back there (rear seats do fold near-flat, tho). And I wanted blue, but they only had gloss black (scratch magnet), silver (ugh) and a dark slate that almost matches my wife’s minivan - much to her dismay I took the slate one. I just like the color better. But I still would have preferred blue.
It’s a bit more than I wanted to spend initially, but I got an awesome deal below invoice. Yeah, I know they have dealer rebates that we could have eaten into, but the whole point was that a professional gave us this price right out the gates within 5 minutes instead of us haggling for 2 hours with some 25 year old punk who just watched Glengarry Glen Ross for the 50th freaking time, just to get below sticker - I love buying cars through the “sponsorship” programs (Costco, credit union networks, etc). Unfortunately, the finance manager at the Nissan shop had come down ill, and so we had to go to a sister dealership which was really hopping and wait around - so while it took 15 minutes of negotiation, it took 3 hours (as per usual) to get the paperwork signed because he was busy booking Toyota deals he was actually getting paid on and we had to wait for some down time. But he’s the same guy who helped us sign our Toyota papers in record time last year, so it all balances out.
Overall, I can’t really complain. When the car payments hit next month, then I’ll complain. But for now, I am extremely happy - on the drive home, my face was hurting, I was smiling so much. It even inspired me to change my sig:
