Nissan's Altima, whether in sedan or coupe body style, has sold almost 3.2 million units worldwide. I guess it's safe to
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| The 2010 Altima Coupe offers sportiness and luxury in a stylish two-door. (Photo: Canadian Auto Press) |
say that Nissan is doing a pretty good job with their midsize four- and two-door. The pretty good job that they're doing gets a little better with the introduction of the 2010 model. This fourth generation vehicle line receives a few tweaks here and there to make both sedan and coupe more attractive and appealing.
Included in the upgrades is a restyled front fascia with a new grille giving it a more modern look, and with the 2010 Altima Coupe in 3.5 SR trim, a new 5-spoke aluminum alloy wheel design set on P235/45VR18 all-season tires. Along with standard safety features like 4-wheel disc brakes and ABS with EBD, a Traction Control System (TCS) and more, Vehicle Dynamic Control (VDC) is now standard on all Altima models. There was also a name change for trim types, so the SE designation is out and the SR is in.
When
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| Compromising practicality for style, the Altima Coupe nevertheless offers a large trunk. (Photo: Canadian Auto Press) |
it comes to the interior styling, I'm still sitting on the fence because I haven't decided if I like it or not. I really do like its simplicity and easy-to-use 4.3-inch touchscreen display, but I'm not a huge fan of the all-black-with-minimal-accents dash and centre stack. It's too much black for me and I'd like to see more of a contrast. But then again, the all-black does give it a sophisticated feel and appealed to a lot of my passengers. I will say that it's not necessarily the strongest-looking interior in its class since I feel the Hyundai Genesis Coupe and Honda Accord Coupe put up a pretty good fight.
Since this Altima is a coupe, I didn't really expect it to have the comfiest rear seat when sitting back there for a short-haul road trip. And it didn't. A couple of my girlfriends and I headed down
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| An upscale interior that feels more premium than entry-level. (Photo: Canadian Auto Press) |
to Seattle for the day and unfortunately, one of them had to sit in the back. Liz, who is about 5'8”, had a hard time getting in and out of the rear since the seats are a little fussy when trying to move them back and forth. Also, she had a hard time sitting still in her seat. She felt the seats were “too reclined” and not ideal for long trips so she had to sit forward in order to be more comfortable and to hear any kind of conversation that was going on. There also wasn't enough head or legroom. That was compounded because she sat behind Sarah who was in the front passenger's seat, and Sarah is 5'10”. That's not to say we didn't have a lot of fun, because we did, it just took some shifting to and fro to keep my passengers in good spirits.
