After much debate, and test drives,etc. we decided on a 2005 Nissan Altima.
The details: its a 3.5SE, with 5-speed manual, Majestic Blue, Charcoal Interior, Leather & Sunroof Package, w/ accessory spoiler and 3M Clear Bra.
The only unfortunate thing is we had to factory order it as there were none available in Western Canada of that exact configuration. Not only is the color one of the rarer ones, but apparently only ~10% of 3.5SE’s are sold with a 5-speed manual. Go figure?? I guess my wife is one of the rare breed that actually prefers to shift for herself (even my friends have been bugging me - “why aren’t you getting an auto?”).
Here’s a few pics I found online of what our car will look like (same color, same rims, spoiler, grill, etc.):
Not sure how many of you have driven a V6 Altima. The 3.5SE has 250hp/249tq now, up a bit from 02-04, and its a sub-6 second, mid-14 second car (with an MT). Not bad for a “family” sedan. Suffice to say my wife will blow the doors of my little Sentra now. LOL.
Wow thats a nice color, and if you assk me manual is the way to go. By the way Jason I was wondering if something like this is worth a lot of pepsi ponts for when it comes time for more toys in your car? :lol:
Let me know if it is!!!
Yeah…those cars are sleepers. I remember when they first came out and Car and Driver was BLOWN AWAY by how fast it was.
And just so you know, North America has it ass backwards. In England, 97% of their cars are manuals. Here, 94% of ours are automatics and the ratio is increasing. Now that I’ve owned a manual car, I would NEVER go back to an auto. Closest I would go is a sequential.
Ditto! I guess I’m lucky my wife feels the same way. After numerous married friends asking my we weren’t getting an auto, I asked her a couple times “Honey, are you SURE you want a manual transmission?”. To which she replied “Yeah. Besides why the heck would I want to pay an extra $1500 for an option I don’t even want?!”. LOL
Actually, I would be curious to see if I could hang with an Altima though the first 3 gears with my mods now. Obviously the top end would be a total cakewalk for the Altima.
Nice choice on the car and on the dealer. And it’s not a 240. What do you know, there are some smart folks on here after all. :E
Actually no. The SE-R is > $3000 more than a loaded 3.5SE. Trust me I know, and we weighed the options, and test drove both with manual trannies.
The SE-R only has 10hp more, at a slightly different point in the rpm band, with slight different gearing (6spd vs. 5spd) but power and acceleration wise its not enough of a difference to FEEL when you drive them back to back.
I’ve never seen magazine test data on an Altima SE-R yet, but I don’t expect it to be more than 0.1-0.2 seconds faster, if that. Its also a bit heavier than a 3.5SE, so it might be a wash. If you want my opinion, I figure the higher horsepower figure was mainly just for marketing to “appease” the enthusiast, so they feel they’re justified getting MORE horsepower than the normal model. The main benefits of the SE-R package are actually other than the engine itself (wheels, HIDs, suspension, seats, etc.).
The SE-R package is a relative bargain, and if it was my new car I definately would’ve gotten it. But for my wife, the 3.5SE is 95%+ of what the SE-R is anyway and doesn’t see the benefit of the extras you get beyond that (ie. it wasn’t worth the extra $3000 for us).
I don’t think the SE-R will be much faster. It has 18" wheels, which change the final drive ratio and would more or less eat up the 10HP bump it gets over the 3.5. The major difference might be that the SE-R comes with a six speed, and they must have shortened the ratios compared to the 5 speed 3.5. Other than that, they should be pretty much equal - or the SE-R even slower due to the added weight of the extra equipment it has.
Oh, and Flavio - I carry a can of raid in the car with me to scare away the angry bees when the ricers pull up. Lemme know if you need it.
Stock, the Spec runs to 60 in 7.2. Since I added (according to Nismo) about ~30 WHP to the car and the motor mounts let the car launch properly now I’m hoping the car will run to 60 in around 6.5-6.8. That said, I have no empirical way of measuring the performance difference at home, so I can’t say for sure.
by Pepsi points I was asking if it gets you in the good book with the wife… so she may be more “supportive” towards any future purchases towards your 300.
