The 2019 Nissan Altima Just Outcornered the New BMW 3-Series
Forget this family sedan's bland reputation; the Nissan Altima just did better on the skidpad than a 3-series in C/D testing.
The Altima outcornered not only the BMW 330i xDrive but also the last Nissan 370Z we tested.
This makes the new Altima the top-performing mid-size sedan in Car and Driver skidpad testing (for now).
For a time, the 3-series was the pinnacle of sports-sedan goodness, racking up 21 consecutive 10Best awards from 1992 to 2012. After that, the previous-generation F30 lost some steam, mainly due to lack of steering fidelity and overall driving enjoyment, falling off our list entirely in 2015. Drives in prototypes and production models of the all-new G20 generation have given us hope that some of the lost magic can be restored. But our first test of a 330i xDrive model didn't live up to those expectations.
Now take the Nissan Altima, long known as an affordable but relatively bland family sedan frequently encountered at Hertz rental stores. Nissan has put forth a valiant effort to break free from the shackles of monotony with its newest generation of Altima, offering a powerful turbocharged 2.0-liter and a lively chassis. Still, considering the car's history and pedigree—or lack thereof—we were shocked at the recent testing outcome.
In C/D's instrumented testing, we find the lateral grip of a vehicle by running it around a 300-foot circle on the very edge of traction—just as the tires begin to squeal in protest as their adhesion is put to the test. Typically, lateral grip conjures to mind images of sticky tires, track days, and sports cars. However, our long-term all-wheel-drive Altima just circled the skidpad at 0.93 g. What does all of this mean? For starters, it means that the Altima is now the top performer on the skidpad among its mid-size-sedan brethren, but perhaps more surprising is that it also bested a 0.89-g effort from the all-new BMW 330i xDrive. (It also outcornered the last 370Z we tested.)
It should be noted that the skidpad isn't an all-encompassing handling test but rather a good indication of what a car's tires and chassis are capable of during a sustained-limit-handling event. This isn't the first Altima to surprise us on the skidpad, either, as our first test of a 2019 Altima, a 2.0-liter turbo model, netted a heady 0.91 g. If you're wondering what kind of tires could be responsible for such eye-popping test results, you'd be surprised to know that the Altima was wearing 19-inch all-season Hankook Kinergy GTs. And this was no base-spec 3-series, but an M Sport model equipped with summer rubber. But the Bridgestone Turanza T005 Run-Flat tires on our test vehicle are on the lower end of the summer-tire spectrum in comparison to, for instance, the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires on earlier 3-series cars that impressed us. Those are available as a stand-alone option or as part of the optional Track Handling package on the rear-drive 330i.
Whether the tire or the chassis is to blame we can't be certain, but it's possible we will see better skidpad numbers from better-optioned 3-series test vehicles. As for the Altima, it's clear that the engineers responsible for dialing in the suspension did a commendable job, but we wouldn’t go as far as to say that the Altima is the next bargain club racer. It has shown quite a vast improvement over the outgoing model, though, something we wish we could say more definitively about the G20 3-series.
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