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Hybrid Vehicles Nissan Altima Hybrid An Altima Hybrid Buying Experience. Need advice
157 messages, Last post on Jun 06, 2008 at 7:44 AM
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Finaly arrived.... after two dealers and almost 5 months of total wait time; sonoma red, blonde leather, tech package, sunroof, carpet floor mats, kick plates, moonroof wind defelctor. Dealer picked it up somewhere in NJ where they're being delivered from the factory, and apparently everyone's fighting for them when they get unloaded. Car is great. Drives great. Perfectly quiet, then engine kicks in, hardly noticable. It does take little bit time to learn how to drive it in electric mode as much as possible. Oh, and Nissan offers 3.9% financing for hybrids at the moment. Best of luck for those still waiting!  Karol |
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Replying to: karolpl7 (Nov 09, 2007 7:40 pm) |
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5 months to the day I ordrered on June 12th, I received the VIN number of the car. Small advances. While the delivery date has now been said that it is officially December 7 (I was told end of November) he still feels their is a possibility it could come in by the end of November. What do you think? Does anyone know a site I can track it? |
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Replying to: karolpl7 (Nov 09, 2007 7:40 pm)
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Replying to: emgr (Nov 13, 2007 11:38 am) The car is awesome. It takes little getting used to but I've had it for few days now and it's just great. Everyone who gets in or stands around it is impressed how quiet it is - almost silent. You can comfortably cruise up to around 20+ mpg before engine kicks in, without pressing gas pedal too hard. If you drive on a highway and let the car roll, the engine will shut off at 40mph and below. It's like driving a go cart. If the engine is cold (I'm in NY and it's around 40-50) the gas engine will probably kick in when you start the car, especially when you put the heat on. Once the engine warms up (couple of minutes) it will shut off. The battery gets used all the time, if you drive on a highway and floor it, you'll see the battery gauge hit 50kw and up - it's using the battery to give the 4 cylinder engine a boost. When you let the car roll again (or break) the battery needle drops below 0 - now it's charging - back and forth all the time. Dealer said it drives like V6 but I didn't drive Altima with V6 so can't really confirm. Did drive other 4 cylinder cars in the past and Altima hybrid is so much better. So far I've been getting 33mpg. I don't know how other people can get 40mpg on it. I would say it's a big challenge to get 37mpg+. I did get 58pmg for first few miles driving back from the dealer as I was stuck in heavy traffic and was only using the battery. Now it's around 33pmg which is still pretty good for a big car. Hopefully the engine will wear in little bit and it will get better. The interior is great by the way. I don't know how people can compare it to Camry - Altima is so much better. Just go to a car show and jump in from Altima to Camry back and forth couple of time and you'll see. GPS is great, screen is awesome, back up camera makes parking the car a breeze, traffic updates are OK, reads tags from your mp3 files from recordable CD (check manual for detail info). Leather, sunroof are great too... did I mention the car is great? Oh yeah... truck is on the small side. And make sure you check your tire pressure after picking it up. Apparently pressure is lowered for better grip during transportation. Dealer mentioned it was checked and the low pressure light should go off in two days. It didn't so I checked it, pressure was way too low. Corrected it, the warning light went off in few miles. The engine temperature light freaked me out at first - but it comes on when the engine is cold when you start the car. Goes away in few minutes. I hope yours coming soon. Let us know!
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karolpl7. That was a good report. I can't wait. Have you tried to do Pulse and Glide to increase mileage at all? Let us know how things continue to go. I really enjoy reports like yours. I will do the same...whenever I finally get it. At least I have a VIN number.
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Replying to: emgr (Nov 13, 2007 6:23 pm) ..but anyway, I don't think it will work on a crowded highway where everyone goes 70-80 and if you start slowing down for no reason you'll have some angry people zooming by. It might work on a long trip highway that's virtually flat over long run and there's no traffic to interfere with 'pulse and gliding'. I might try it on a long overnight trip one day. Main point is to ENJOY the car and don't go too crazy trying to save every drop of gasoline out of it. Nissan's site realisticaly states that hybrid gets 35/33mpg (I'm getting 33 overall so far) -that's still better then 23/31mpg for a 4 cylinder and 19/26 for V6! Enjoy the ride.
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Replying to: karolpl7 (Nov 13, 2007 6:46 pm) Also there as been a lot written about the difference between the Camry and the Altima regarding how they respond to the swtich from electric to engine startup and back again. It is said the Altima shuttres compared to the Camry. How noticeable is it when the engine comes on and is it distracting?
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Replying to: emgr (Nov 13, 2007 6:53 pm) Side walls say 35psi for all tires. My tires were 27-30 from the dealer (hence the low pressure warning light). I got them all to 35, warning light is off now. I did drive Camry hybrid so I can't compare both as far as difference in noise when switching from gas to electric. I liked the overall interior/exterior look of Altima so never bothered with the Camry (but that's only my preference). If you pay attention to the engine you will hear slight vibration when switching into the gas mode -it's like going over a tiny pathole. After a while you will forget about it. I do still try to drive on battery as much as possible, so I don't accelerate much and don't speed up if I know I will stop on the next block - so the gas engine doesn't kick in just to shut itself off again in next 5 seconds. Once the gas engine kicks in I don't drive that efficiently any more. I'm still toying with the car basicaly. I wish the car could run on the battery little bit longer but I guess you have to balance out the battery consumption, the heat it generates etc. Found this page with nice pictures of red hybrid. |
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karolpl7 35 psi for maximum pressure listed on the side wall seems would have expected the side wall to say something between 45 and 50 psi. What type and brand of tires are on your Altima? Sorry if I am making you look.
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