3.5 SE Luxury Package

I bought my Seascape Green/Blue 3.5 SE (with nearly all of the options) three weeks ago and I feel like I did when I first started dating my husband. I now look for excuses to run errands just to go drive & to look cool behind the wheel of my hot little car!

It actually is a perfect family sedan - at least that's what I told my parents. It has great safety features, is comfortable on a long ride & has plenty of room for toting around Cub Scouts. The trunk space is enormous and can be expanded by the 60/40 fold down seats, and the cargo nets are cleverly designed for multiple configurations. (Space was a major selling point for me since we camp a lot - I traded in a 97 Altima that couldn't hold anything).

The gas mileage could be a little better (like on the 2.5) living in the city, but I happily overlooked that factor in favor of the more powerful engine.

Speaking of the engine, this baby has KICK! I actually had to get quite used to the power that this car has - I accidentally burned rubber pulling out of the QT the other day. With 240 HP and 246 lb-ft of torque, it'll outrun a Mustang in the 0-60.

Other great features that you'll hear everybody talking about are they styling and sportiness. You may not hear that the versions with the sunroof & deflector let you have the feeling of the outdoors with substantially less wind noise than other models. Or, that the Bose speaker will hurt your ears before showing any signs of distortion. Or, how you'll look at BMW's & Lexus' and think "my car's better than your car". Or, how about the cool trip meters that not only show how far you've traveled, but tell you the outside temperature, average speed, total trip time, distance till empty and how much your lead foot is effecting your miles per gallon!

I love my new little car. For 15 years I swore that I would buy a Mustang for my 30th birthday. The Altima changed my mind, and so far I have no regrets!

I've currently got nearly 2000 miles - I will update in the near future.

Quick Update

I have put nearly 7000 miles on the car now - (yes, in not quite 3 months) and have even gone on a 1600 mile trip.

I have to say that my opinion of this car has not changed a bit. No problems yet - except for a little bit of the black plastic coating on the window portion of the door seems to be wrinkling a tiny bit. I'm sure that I can bring that back to the dealer and they will fix it.

On my trip from Atlanta to Michigan and back I took careful notes about the gas mileage and comfort of the vehicle.

The Gas mileage was better than I expected it to be - about 28.7 mpg while going through the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky and 31.2 while driving through the flat Indiana/Michigan farm country. The oddest thing though - I actually got better gas mileage by NOT using the cruise control. I would have thought that to be the opposite, but I noticed that my mileage improved by as much as 1.5 mpg without the cruise control.

The comfort of this car is definitely something to mention here (since we spend 15 hours in the car all at once). I mentioned above that I traded up from the 97 Altima which was at best cramped. The new Altima has been improved 125% - In fact, I think the comfort level topped that of my old Mercury Grand Marquis!

I noticed very little fatigue from sitting while driving, in fact I wanted to drive because it was more entertaining. Even though the car was packed full, as passengers we had plenty of room to spread out - the leg room is unbelievable. I was able to sleep nicely and my 10 year old boy was as content as an adolescent can be on a long trip.

One last note - my dad 6'1" went for a ride and sat in the back and was completely amazed that he didn't have to sit slumped over or ducking in the back seat. He also had about four inches between his knees and the front seat.

He said to me "You wouldn't mind if we got a car just like yours would you"?

I took that as the best implied compliment ever.

Good Driving!

Another Update! 6/14/2003
I've had my little car for over a year now and am still in love with it!

I actually just got it back from having my 15000 mile service (actually at 21000 miles though) and a few warrantee issues taken care of: 6 disk CD changer replaced because it jammed; wrinkle in door trim fixed; weather stripping around back drivers side door replaced.

The scheduled maintenance cost me $220, but because there was warrantee issues, they gave me a rental car for the day. They couldn't get it all fixed in one day, so they had me come back and kept my car for 2 days to fix the window trim - I guess that was the hardest part - they had to take the door apart and replace the tape that makes up the trim.

I am very satisfied with the service. They had a lot to do, so I really didn't mind leaving it for so long. Except for the fact that the first rental they gave me was a Toyota Echo and the second was a Corolla - they both made me very happy to get back into my own car! (no power in those cars - that's for sure!)

I'm really curious to hear if anybody else has had problems with their CD player though. Mine just jammed up on me one day and refused to load, play or eject any of my CD's.

Everything else is still perfect... great car! 8-)