"Altima Racecar" ad, and what does it say about the Maxima for that matter.

Yup, laughably bad, but still not as silly in concept as the commercial where everyone on the street is reacting to the Altima driving by as if it has the same "Wow factor" as a Lambo or a Ferrari passing them! LOL

My wife and I drove the newest Altima and we both thought it drove like a old buick. After we then drove the Sentra and it felt like a race car compared to the Altima.

The new one that was plastered all over the football games this weekend was the one Contradiction posted about. You expect me to believe that people will stop and stare at your Altima? Really? Don't they have focus groups before spending millions of dollars on these ads?

They're using the same tactic that churches use, show people other people being impressed in order to gain believers. Preception is accepted by many as truth.

I'm pretty sure I could convince your average sheep that my '88 2.0 5spd Ranger was a some sort of SVO package if I had an empty parking lot.

All you have to do is approach it's upper limits of adhesion to the road and wham, they believe it's a supercar.

CobraSpdRH wrote: The new one that was plastered all over the football games this weekend was the one Contradiction posted about. You expect me to believe that people will stop and stare at your Altima? Really? Don't they have focus groups before spending millions of dollars on these ads?

I have gotten to be in two focus groups while walking in the mall. If they used any of the answers I gave commercials would be much better, and would have more albino midgets for spokeswomen.

I hate this commercial almost as much as the I was high on booze and sleeping pills and my Mercedes saved my life commercial. I wouldn't buy a boring as Nissan if a gun were to my head and I am a dedicated Nissan fanboi. Now the more Mazdas are road raced on any weekend than any other car commercial that resonates.

In reply to captdownshift:

The 160SX would be great, but why not a Versa Note SE-R with the Juke's 1.6T and 6-speed? Wouldn't that be even easier, and accomplishable with all off-the-shelf parts?

I drove the '13 Altima at a comparo with the Accord, Fusion, Camry, and Sonata on a portion of IMS infield road course (all 4-cyl automatics). The Altima is really not a bad handler, but that CVT just saps all the fun out of it.

That stupid commercial (and pretty much all of the current Nissan ad campaigns) are right up there with the "grounded to the ground" Camry ad. It's "sporty" because it has "NASA-inspired seats". Yeah, umm...

Nissan has been on my personal E36 M3 list for some time, and I know I am not alone. As a former Maxima owner (I had an '89 SE, the REAL 4DSC), it makes me sad to see them going the way they are going. The poor Maxima has not been a contender since the early 2000's when the 260hp 6-speed manual SE came out. That car was a really good car, albeit not the prettiest car, but it definitely raised the bar in that segment when it came out. The later Altima SE, which I also love, was a nice surprise. Now everything has a CVT and is a bloated mess.

I wish they would make the Maxima at least different enough to separate it from the crowd and from it's own in-house competition. Make it AWD, give it a real gearbox, turbos, just do SOMETHING to make it an upgrade from the Altima, or just put it out of its misery.