By Mark Elias
Wednesday, Nov 11th, 2009 @ 12:30 pm

It doesn’t take much to get us excited about a visit to the music-friendly city of Nashville – even the, uh, thrilling opportunity to sample Nissan ’s very, very mildly refreshed Altima sedan was enough to pique our interest.

It’s just a light nip-and-tuck job for the 2010 Altima, which gets newly revised styling and a handful of other details to help it ring in the new year. Yet, as we found out, the Altima is still an A-lister in this most competitive midsize sedan segment.

We also had the chance to see Nissan ’s new North American headquarters and make a brief visit through the flexible Nissan Smyrna Manufacturing Plant. Although not one of the firm’s newest, it still ranks as one of the most important plants in the Nissan network, building the Maxima, Altima sedan, Altima coupe and Xterra and Pathfinder SUVs. It’s a flex-factory that runs cars on two shifts and trucks on a third, but a recent infusion of government cash will see it building far more eco-friendly rides in the near future.

New in town
The Altima’s fixins’ for 2010 include a newly shaped hood, and “T-grille” with the appearance of wings within the chrome surrounds. A new front bumper and what Nissan calls a “license plate finisher” round out the rear. Sharp, angular, taillights add a contemporary look, which dresses it up, just so. Also on the appearance side are new 16 and 17-inch aluminum-alloy wheels and the addition of two new exterior colors.

The Altima gives buyers a choice of powerplants. Available first as a base model with a 2.5-liter inline four-cylinder engine, it produces 175 horsepower and 180 lb-ft. of torque and nets 23 mpg in the city and 32 mpg on the highway. It can also be had with a 3.5-liter V6 or a 2.5-liter gas/electric hybrid that makes 158 horsepower and 162 lb-ft. of torque and manages to get 35 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway. Number-wise, the Altima Hybrid won’t rival Ford’s 41-mpg Fusion Hybrid by any means, but 35 mpg around town is nonetheless a small improvement over the mechanically similar Toyota Camry Hybrid.

Our car for the day was the Altima 3.5 SR CVT. Formerly known as the Altima 3.5 SE, it features the brand’s perfected 3.5-liter 24-valve V6 engine, which has roots in nearly every Nissan vehicle that is V6 capable. Producing 270 horsepower and 258 lb-ft. of torque, it is mated to a standard Xtronic continuously variable transmission with an “advanced, performance-tuned controller with adaptive logic.” We think that means it makes the sound of shifting through the gears even when it actually isn’t. Want to hear the gears wind up? Move the shift lever to the sport shift mode and row it yourself for a bit of motivational satisfaction. Expect mileage in the range of 20 mpg in the city and 27 mpg highway for the six-cylinder sedan, which weighs in at 3,357 pounds.

Ride quality is top-notch, as we have come to expect from Nissan. Road imperfections are soaked up, but not in a “late-’80s Buick ” sort of way. Road feel is good and the handling, believe it, or not, causes us to use “sporty” as an adjective to describe how it feels. Power rack and pinion steering with speed sensitive controls couples up with MacPherson struts in front and a multi-link rear suspension to give us some of the best handling we have seen in a family sedan yet.

Best seller
The Altima is Nissan’s best-selling global nameplate. Now in its 17th year, and fourth generation, global sales have exceeded 3.1-million units. That’s a lot of beer money at Tootsie’s Orchid lounge in downtown Nashville, even at their tourist-inflated prices of $5 a bottle.

To get to Tootsie’s, a navigation system would come in handy. Nissan’s optional hard navigation system with 9.3 GB Music Box hard drive for digital music files and playback fills the bill nicely. And since we are in a Bluetooth age, right in the heart of Music City, we can make use of the streaming audio function that’s available on your iPhone or Palm Pre.

Setting up the Altima’s Bluetooth feature was seamless and simple. Push a few buttons on the radio control panel; enter a code on your cell phone, and the message “Pairing Successful” appears on the screen. From there, it’s your choice to continue listening to satellite radio, make a call or start the streaming audio function on your iPhone.

Nissan won’t be offering their new Bosch-developed $400 mini-navigation on the Altima; they’re saving it for the cheaper Versa and Sentra.

If anything suffers on the Altima, we’d say it is not on the spaciousness of the interior but rather the atmosphere. High quality materials for sure, but a bland design that belies the Altima’s status as bestseller that it obviously occupies.

But 3.1-million previous purchasers can’t be all wrong, can they? We know your (cheatin’) heart bleeds red, white and blue. But wait, isn’t the Altima made in Tennessee?

Leftlane’s bottom line
The Nissan Altima remains a car at the top of its game. Unlike competing vehicles from its fellow Japanese manufactures, the Altima takes a poke at style and generally succeeds. Using the concept of Kaizan, or constant improvement, the Altima continues to please consumers and through its sales, the Nissan board of directors, too.

The revision is minor at best, but it certainly doesn’t dilute the Altima’s appeal in the highly competitive mainstream market.

2010 Nissan Altima 3.5 SR base price, $24,520. As tested, $27,620.
Premium package, $2,380; Destination, $720.

Words and photos by Mark Elias.

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