2024 Nissan Altima Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The Nissan Altima name has been around since 1993, and even the current, sixth-generation Altima we know today has gone largely unchanged since 2019. A new grille arrived for the 2023 model year, showcasing an open-bottomed edge to create an imposing look. Otherwise, the Altima on sale today is a very familiar product.

In Canada, Nissan sells the Altima in four trim levels: S, SR, SR Premium, and Platinum. All-wheel drive (AWD) is standard equipment, which sets the Altima apart from its mainstream midsize sedan rivals in the Canadian market.

The Altima seen in this review is in U.S. specification similar to the Canadian Platinum trim. Wearing a red exterior paint (not available on Platinum in Canada) and 19-inch alloy wheels, our tester looks nice, even if the styling feels a bit conservative.

At the front, LED projector headlights look nice and work well, and at the rear, dual exhaust pipes and an optional rear spoiler help give back this otherwise aging sedan a little verve. The optional spoiler, it should be mentioned, runs an extra $530.

Inside, the Altima looks outdated, but there are some redeeming features. While the soft yellow overhead lights and the wood trim of our test vehicle had us thinking about our grandparents’ cars, we found the seats to be impressively comfortable. They’re soft, yet supportive, and everything from cupholders to cubbies is easy to reach from the driver’s seat. Our test vehicle came equipped with a wireless phone charger (unavailable on the Altima S), which sits ahead of a traditional PRNDL shifter. Twin tandem-placed cupholders flank the shifter’s right side, and the centre console bin behind the cupholders boasts a nicely padded lid.

Although the Altima’s seats are comfortable, the front passenger seat offers only four-way adjustment, and we found the leather upholstery to be a bit underwhelming in quality. There’s also an unfortunate amount of cheap plastic parts littered around the cabin. Thankfully, commonly used touchpoints like the steering wheel and shift knob feel nice.

Equipped with a naturally aspirated, 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine, the Altima’s performance capabilities are adequate, if not exhilarating. At 182 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque, there’s just enough oomph coming from under the hood to keep most drivers satisfied. Acceleration is brisk enough, with a zero to 96 km/h sprint taking roughly 7.5 seconds. Unfortunately, the more powerful VC-Turbo engine offered on the Altima in the United States is not available in Canada since it can’t be paired with AWD, which is standard in our market.

Our test car (conveniently evaluated during winter) employed Nissan’s “intelligent” AWD system. Unlike a full-time system like the one found in most Subarus, this one essentially monitors the Altima’s wheel traction and delivers power (up to 50%) to the rear wheels when the computer deems it necessary. These systems aren’t quite as robust as a full-time symmetrical AWD setup, but they tend to be more fuel-efficient. Because the Altima operates as a 100% FWD vehicle in normal traction conditions, it’s able to eke out a Natural Resources Canada estimated 9.1 litres per 100 kilometres in the city, 6.5 on the highway, and 7.9 combined. Those figures are slightly higher on upper trims with larger wheels.

In terms of driving dynamics, the Altima’s steering feels a bit light, but the car’s low centre of gravity means that it doesn’t suffer much body roll when driving through corners. We found the brakes to be fine; the pedal’s travel is predictable and we didn’t notice any squishy or grabby behaviour.

Finally, the Altima’s continuously variable transmission (CVT) does a good job managing the engine’s power output, but anything other than the lightest acceleration results in a terrible droning noise. Although we’re generally impressed with Nissan’s noise insulation (the Pathfinder, for instance, has a terrifically quiet cabin), the Altima demands that you drive nice and easy if you want to keep engine noise at bay.

Beyond its comfortable seats, the Altima offers impressive interior space. The front seats offer more space than a Honda Accord, Subaru Legacy, and Toyota Camry, but less than a Hyundai Sonata or Kia K5. The rear seat is the inverse: With 895 millimetres of rear-seat legroom, the Altima bests the Sonata and matches the K5, although it falls short of the Accord, Legacy, and Camry.

Trunk space comes in at 437 litres, outclassing the Legacy and Camry but falling short of the Koreans and the Accord. However, the Altima’s trunk-lid opening is nice and wide for loading big bulky items, and like the other competitors, you can maximize cargo space courtesy of the 60/40-split folding rear seat.

Beyond passenger and cargo space, it’s just easy to live with an Altima. From the great seats to the smartly placed cupholders and cubbies, this is a car that invites you to get comfortable.

Most Altimas sold in Canada come fitted with an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system. Our test car came equipped with an impressive 12.3-inch display.

Most Nissan interfaces—including the 8-inch screens available in the Altima—don’t offer up much in terms of a “wow” factor. The 12.3-inch touchscreen in our car, however, is different. Standard on only the SR Premium and the Platinum, the larger screen shines bright with crisp graphics and excellent resolution. It’s not tech at the expense of practicality, either. Static icons on the left-hand border help you hop around in the system quickly and easily, and an organized tile view on the home screen ensures that critical information is readily available. There’s no physical tuning knob, but a dedicated volume knob sits dead centre below the screen.

Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are standard on every Altima, but wireless versions of those phone-projection software are available only with the largest screen size. From an aesthetic standpoint, we also thought the screen for SiriusXM satellite radio looked a bit cluttered and, from an auditory standpoint, the available nine-speaker Bose stereo is very underwhelming. Although we recognize that the Altima is a mass-market sedan rather than a luxury vehicle, and although the Bose system is likely much better than the base six-speaker system, we’d love to see a higher-end stereo made available.

NissanConnect, the company’s suite of telematics features, comes standard on the SR Premium and Platinum trim levels. It works with the MyNissan smartphone app to allow owners to remotely lock or unlock the Altima. It also enables remote start, a vehicle health report feature, and emergency calling.

The 2024 Altima managed a five-star overall rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), thanks to excellent results in side-impact and rollover crash tests, along with an impressive battery of standard advanced driver assist systems (ADAS). It did, however, score only four out of five stars in the overall frontal crash test and driver-side barrier crash test, results that become more concerning when combined with the Altima’s results in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crash tests.

The 2022 Altima received a Top Safety Pick+ designation from the IIHS, but the 2024 model has not been awarded the same laurel, due to poor performance in the organization’s updated side-impact test.

Although these specific crash test evaluations raise a few eyebrows with regard to the Altima’s overall safety, the car does come impressively equipped with standard ADAS. This suite includes forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking including pedestrian detection, blind-spot monitoring, rear automatic braking, rear cross-traffic alert, and lane-departure warning. The Platinum trim level also include a 360-degree surround-view monitor and traffic-sign recognition. (The latter feature is also equipped on SR Premium.)

Furthermore, Nissan’s ProPilot Assist semi-autonomous driving tech comes standard on all Altimas sold in Canada except those in base S trim. ProPilot Assist blends steering assistance with adaptive cruise control to provide hands-off (but eyes-on) driving. It’s not quite class-leading in its execution, but it’s pretty good at managing highway driving and traffic jams.

In Canada, pricing on the 2024 Nissan Altima ranges from $34,585 to $40,985, including the destination charge of $2,030 and other fees. We’ll admit that 40 grand feels like a fair bit of cash for an AWD sedan that hasn’t seen a generational redesign since the 2019 model year.

Look further down the trim ladder, however, and the Altima’s value becomes apparent. The S trim’s sub-$35,000 MSRP undercuts every noteworthy sedan in the segment. The Altima starts at a lower price than the Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata, and Toyota Camry.

The Altima also comes with a three-year, 60,000-kilometre limited warranty and a five-year, 100,000-kilometre limited powertrain warranty. Although the Altima doesn’t soar past the competition in any specific area, it remains a good value as a well-rounded, time-tested option in the dwindling sedan market.

Note: Images show a US model.