2025 Nissan Altima Review and Test Drive

Comfy seats, available all-wheel drive, and decent value keep the Altima humming right along.

Christian Wardlaw | 

Apr 11, 2025 | 6 min read

Christian Wardlaw

Nissan last gave the Altima a complete redesign in 2019, meaning this generation of the family sedan is already six years old — it's also one of the few remaining options in a shrinking midsize sedan market. Two of the Altima's competitors — the Chevrolet Malibu and the Subaru Legacy — are set to depart at the end of the 2025 model year. There are rumors the Altima may follow, though nothing official has been released.

In the meantime, you can buy a 2025 Nissan Altima in S, SV, SV Special Edition, SR, and SL trim levels. Base prices range from the mid-$20,000s to the mid-$30,000s, including the destination charge to ship the car to your local dealership from the Canton, Mississippi, assembly plant.

For this 2025 Altima review, I test-drove the SR in Southern California. It had all-wheel drive (AWD), premium paint, bronze 19-inch wheels, floor and trunk mats, and a rear spoiler. Various accessories added to the manufacturer's suggested retail price, making it $34,580, including the $1,140 destination charge.

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Is the 2025 Nissan Altima a Good Car?

The Altima is showing its age. Not only does it lack an electrified powertrain, it earns only mixed safety ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. However, if you want something on the lower end of the new-car price spectrum, you prioritize front-seat comfort, and you need AWD for extra traction, the Altima may be a reasonable choice.

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What's Different About the 2025 Nissan Altima?

For 2025, Nissan will no longer offer the variable-compression turbocharged (VC-Turbo) four-cylinder engine in the Altima; my test vehicle had the standard engine and optional AWD system.

Since 2023, when the Altima received a comprehensive refresh, Nissan has enhanced the car's value proposition. In 2024, the automaker expanded the complimentary trial subscription to NissanConnect Services from six months to three years. This year, the 2025 Altima comes with a new Nissan Maintenance Care program providing the first three scheduled oil changes and multi-point inspection checks at the dealership for free.

Also, the 2025 Altima lineup adds a new SV Special Edition model. Priced from just under $30,000, the SV Special Edition adds numerous appealing features at a good value. The highlights include sportier styling, dual-zone automatic climate control, and a more sophisticated 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system.

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The VC-Turbo Is Gone, but That's OK

The VC-Turbo 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine is gone now, and, for a car more focused on comfort than power, that's fine. Instead, every 2025 Altima has a 2.5-liter four-cylinder generating 188 horsepower and 180 pound-feet of torque. Those figures dip to 182 horsepower and 178 lb-ft with the optional AWD system, but the car's continuously variable transmission (CVT) makes the best of it. Nissan has been building CVTs for a long time, and the one in the Altima seems to be well tuned.

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Dynamically, the Altima is a satisfactory commuter vessel. It is relatively quiet, you rarely notice the CVT, and the engine supplies adequate acceleration. The brake pedal feels good under your foot, and the steering offers some feedback. With the SR trim, the Altima has a sport-tuned suspension, producing a firmer ride I enjoyed.

Since the SR is the sporty Altima, I took it for a rousing run on Mulholland Highway near Malibu, where the brakes began to grumble early about the abuse they were suffering. Despite driving with extra care due to the hints of brake fade, I determined the Altima SR provides consistent, balanced, and predictable handling.

The weakest link is the steering. It isn't crisp, precise, or responsive, and it can feel disconnected when driving in a straight line, often requiring correction when rounding corners. Between that and the brake fade, the Altima SR is not as sporty as I would have liked.

The test car averaged 28.3 mpg, which is better than the EPA estimate of 28 mpg that this combination of trim and AWD gets in combined city and highway driving.

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2025 Nissan Altima Features Zero Gravity Seats

Say what you may about the test car's Tactical Green paint, but in combination with the bronze wheels, it generated some attention in Los Angeles. Given the eye-catching automotive hardware you typically see cruising this city's streets, that surprised me.

The Altima SR looks good on the outside, but inside it felt dated to me. During my test drive, I noted the SR's analog gauges, volume and tuning knobs, and manual heating and air-conditioning controls. The touchscreen is on the smaller side at 8.0 inches. That said, the Altima's interior is also refreshingly and satisfyingly simple.

The car is comfortable, too. Nissan's Zero Gravity front seats offer excellent support and feel great under your backside. All that's missing is a manual front-passenger seat-height adjuster. The back seat is reasonably roomy, too. Storage spaces are practical in size and number, and while the Altima's 15.4 cubic-foot trunk could be larger, it has a functional shape.

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Technologically, the Altima met my expectations but didn't exceed them. The 8.0-inch NissanConnect infotainment system provides SiriusXM satellite radio, in addition to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. Screen glare is a problem, the standard voice recognition system was not much help to me, and while the six-speaker stereo has a "bass enhancer," I turned it off to reduce the muddy sound quality.

Still, if you upgrade to the SR with the Premium package, you get a larger 12.3-inch touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, and a wireless charging pad. If you go a step further and upgrade to the SL trim, you get the Bose premium sound system.

Every Altima has Nissan Safety Shield 360, which includes a healthy helping of advanced driver-assistance tech. If you upgrade to the Altima SL, you get more advanced standard features such as Nissan's ProPilot Assist and traffic sign recognition. My test car's rear automatic-braking system was very sensitive, making it harder for me to park in close quarters.

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Unlike some car companies, Nissan does not plan to abandon the sedan form immediately — the automaker announced a forthcoming Sentra sedan for next year. The Altima's future beyond 2026, however, is unknown. If Nissan is wise, whatever replaces it will be as innovative as the 2002 Altima was in its time. I hope the company keeps those Zero Gravity seats, too. They're terrific.

Christian Wardlaw

Chris says his first word was "car." For as long as he can remember, he's been obsessed with them. The design. The engineering. The performance. And the purpose. He is a car enthusiast who loves to drive, but is most passionate about the cars, trucks, and SUVs that people actually buy. He began his career as the editor-in-chief of Edmunds.com in the 1990s, and for more than 30 years has created automotive content for CarGurus, J.D. Power, Kelley Blue Book, the New York Daily News, and others. Chris owns Speedy Daddy Media, has been contributing to Capital One Auto Navigator since 2019, and lives in California with his wife, kids, dog, and 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata.