Sometimes, I just want to get to where I'm going. I don't want to make an impression. I don't want a car that's fussy or overly precious. I just want to get there in something that is the motorized equivalent of a good pair of jeans.
That means the car has to fit and feel right. A hot-looking exterior, when I'm in that mind-set, doesn't matter. I just want to be comfortable in a car that is pleasant and easy to drive.
That, unfortunately, is why much of what Nissan Motor Co. has done to its 2005 mid-size Nissan Altima SE-R sedan is lost on me.
I like the upgraded 3.5-liter, 260-horsepower V-6 engine; and I'm quite pleased with what has been done to improve the car's already good handling. It's the exterior styling that bothers me.
"SE-R" has long been Nissan's designation for its high-performance, pocket-rocket version of the compact Nissan Sentra sedan. The SE-R package -- aggressive front fascia, larger wheels and exhaust pipes, flying rear spoiler -- is OK on that model. It's what Nissan had to do to turn a rather mundane economy car into something that would siphon more cash from the pockets of the young and the restless.
But that approach misses the mark in the Altima, which until this iteration, has always been a mild-mannered, reliable, affordable family car.
I suppose that Nissan came up with the "aggressive" Altima notion to compete against Subaru's popular 2005 Legacy 2.5 GT sedan. That competitive urge is understandable. But Subaru has a rough-and-tumble, go-anywhere, do-anything, sporty all-wheel-drive image. Nissan -- in its family-car lines, the Altima and the Maxima -- does not.
Slipping behind the steering wheel of the Altima thus evokes a feeling of phoniness, of being in a car that is trying too hard to be what it isn't. There is a disaffection here, which interferes with the psychology of the drive.
Luckily, there are other versions of the 2005 front-wheel-drive Altima that hew more closely to the car's original mission -- to transport families and their things in a safe, relatively fuel-efficient, high-value sedan. They include the base Altima 2.5, the 2.5 S, the 2.5 S with SL Package, the 3.5 SE (my favorite, and the one I recommend) and the luxury 3.5 SL.
All of the new Altima models have upgraded interiors, both in terms of materials and overall ergonomics, for 2005. In that regard, Nissan has heard and favorably responded to the pleas of customers demanding that the company get rid of the cheap-feel stuff that characterized previous Altima cabins.
