Rental review - 2021 Nissan Altima 2.5 SR

[pezzy84]

Oh and before I forget.. I got 52 mpg (yes!) on a 105 mile desert highway drive, mostly with the cruise set to 56 mph in a 2021 Nissan Altima or me really feathering the throttle just to see what it would do in mpgs, when I saw hills where my foot would get better mpgs than the cruise control.
Halfway thru the drive I was at 56-57 mpg but then a stretch with more mild hills showed up and lowered my milage.

Sounds about right - at 56 it was probably just slightly above what a cold idle would be. The overdrive capabilities of the CVT are unmatched.

My wife’s 2020 Sentra gets 43-47mpg ac on 70+mph hwy cruises. Nissan has a great cvt not knowing you’d think it’s shifting gears. Plenty of pep handles well good infotainment and hvac controls. Only hiccup we have is the backup cam intermittently doesn’t work. “Got to schedule a service” otherwise Nissan makes a great vehicle.

Newest Sentra looks quite handsome - guessing they improved the performance as all the last generations I have had as rentals were slow slow slow. I'm still not entirely convinced of the JATCO CVT reliability - still seems hit or miss even in their most recent iteration. I would keep it serviced above and beyond what Nissan recommends.

 

[Schandyman]

Sounds about right - at 56 it was probably just slightly above what a cold idle would be. The overdrive capabilities of the CVT are unmatched.


Newest Sentra looks quite handsome - guessing they improved the performance as all the last generations I have had as rentals were slow slow slow. I'm still not entirely convinced of the JATCO CVT reliability - still seems hit or miss even in their most recent iteration. I would keep it serviced above and beyond what Nissan recommends.

Like with any newer vehicle hit or miss on reliability/dependability. Lease will be up before major services will be needed just fuel and change the oil at respectable intervals.

 

[KCJeep]

My understanding is the newer Altimas use the cvt previously used only in the Maxima and its much better reliability wise, Nissan guys could chime in on that.

My father bought a 12 Altima new and put 80k on it before trading, not a single problem but I suspected the cvt was on the brink at that point. He asked me about it starting to drive funny particularly from a stop. Older cvt though.

 

[meep]

We mostly do performance work for a one Nissan platform, so sort of.

The owners of the "non-performance models" around here tend to be people who do not maintain their cars and honestly, run them to the ground. Also, Nissan's support for the aftermarket (from a tooling standpoint) is extremely poor compared to the competition.

Agree. They seem to be a vehicle here that never sees any kind of service after the first owner here. They soldier on remarkably.

we had a 97 pathfinder. That’s a far ways from today, but I did not enjoy working on it. I enjoyed the dna from the trucks, just big solid pieces of dumb iron, but all the tech added atop of it was like the designers literally vomited hoses, harnesses, and cables atop everything else. It was a great driving SUV if you stayed within its limits. The bumpers were useless and it was fragile off road. Under hood access was awful.