CAR GAZING
Smooth moves
Nissan Altima comes with soft suspension, CVT transmission
By Derek Price
There was a time, not too long ago, when American cars' suspensions were designed by Jet-Puffed and Japanese suspensions were designed by sadists.
The American cars, with very few exceptions, would bounce along on a cushion of creme, which was great for comfort but unfortunately came with the side effect of making them handle like the Lincoln Memorial.
Japanese cars took the opposite approach. Their springs and shocks were made of concrete so you could feel every pebble on the road, which made for excellent handling but, at the same time, some extremely sore backsides.
More recently, as the Japanese discovered that some people like cars that float and Americans figured out that some drivers like to feel the road, their roles have started to reverse. Today you see cars like the Ford Fusion, which drives like a skateboard, and the Toyota Camry, which drives like an '86 Cadillac.
You also see the smooth-as-silk 2008 Nissan Altima. And it's a real shocker.
Until now, the Altima has always been a fairly sporty car – at least as far as dull, four-door family cars go. It's had the concrete suspension, sensitive steering and instant-on brakes that make it fun to drive, keeping the driver closely connected to the road.
The latest Altima seems to throw all that out the window, though. Oh, it's got plenty of performance, but it also seems to say, "I've grown up. I'm past that whole 'sporty' stage. Now I want to be a luxury car."
In standard trim, the new Altima's suspension does a perfect Cadillac Fleetwood impersonation. It makes the car feel like it's floating in a sea of Cool Whip, always smooth and silent. It's still precise and allows for great handling, but it smoothes out the bumps better than Altimas ever did in the past.
The transmission does the smooth thing, too. In fact, it's so smooth it doesn't even shift.
Called a continuously variable transmission (CVT), this ingenious device eliminates the need for shifting gears like in a normal automatic transmission. The CVT constantly adjusts the gear ratio based on how fast you're driving and how hard you're pressing the throttle. I don't understand how it works. I just know it never shifts gears and sounds like it belongs in a sci-fi movie.
Inside, Nissan continues the luxury-car impersonation with plenty of room to stretch out. The materials and construction seem nice with only one exception: the plastic covers to cubby holes near the driver's seat. They feel like they're designed to last all of 10 seconds.
As in the past, the entry-level Altima comes with a very pleasing price, starting at $18,230 with a four-cylinder engine. The powerful V6 version starts around $24,000, and a top-of-the-line Altima with a few option packages will reach well over $30,000.
That's an awful lot of money for an Altima, no matter how smooth it rides.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.)
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