Is the Nissan Altima hybrid a lemon?
Either works great or terribly?There are a few hybrid cars that owners often complain about when it comes to fuel economy, such as the Lexus RX400h hybrid and the Toyota Highlander hybrid. These two hybrids, unlike the Prius hybrid, were designed as a balance between fuel economy and performance. This has led to fuel efficiency disappointment with some owners. Of course, other owners love these vehicles.
The hybrid complaints regarding the Nissan Altima hybrid, however, take the hybrid lemon cake. Now, many Altima hybrid owners love their car, but a significant percent of Altima hybrid testimonials indicate that owners are having serious problems, as their hybrids are falling far short of EPA estimates. One of the biggest problems, the EV light only comes on when fully stopped.
Just as bad as these problems, Nissan dealerships, according to these owners, seem completely oblivious to the problems and unable, or unwilling, to help. It's bad enough these hybrid buyers are having problems, but, once again, dealerships are coming up far short.
More hybrid reviews and testimonials.
Labels: Hybrid Vehicles, nissan altima hybrid
posted by Dahcredyns at
10:24 AM
13 Comments:
I've had my 2007 for 38k miles with not a single issue. Runs in EV mode up to 42 MPH on level roads. No, it does not meet the claimed EPA mileage for an '07, but I beat the '08 estimates and get ~37-38 highway in these warmer months. My son also has one with similar experiences.
It looks like big hybrid cars e.g. Camry and Altima are not really efficient unless you drive at least 20 miles a day. Perhaps, it is concerned with engine volume and time needed to warm it up.
i don't know that i can make such a generalization based upon my experience. if i drive short distances, its always stop and go and my fuel economy is always above estimates in my camry hybrid. i could imagine, however, that if you're just cruising 5 miles down the freeway at a constant speed, the hybrid powertrain probably doesn't offer much gain in fuel economy. so i think driving conditions play a huge role.
It is exactly the Camry hybrid. If I drive five miles after several hours break, it gets only 30-33mpg. In fact, on a freeway it gets more!!!! However, if I drive 40 miles in highway-city mixed cycle, I easily get 38-40mpg. This is a mistery :-)
BTW, start-stop is definitely worse than a highway where you go with an optimal speed of 55-60 mph. I think that estimates that favor city driving has been obtained under assumptions that the highway speed is 65-75 mph. At this speed, the hybrid is about 10% less efficient.
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I suppose that Altima-hybrid that is about as big as Camry hybrid might have the same problem. As I noted before, one of the possible reasons is that that until the engine is not warmed up properly, it is not efficient. So, it takes less time for Prius with it 1.5 liter engine (vs 2.5 in Camry or Altima) to warm up.
your engine assumptions make a lot of sense. i have more experience in a prius than a camry hybrid, to which i'm fairly new, so i'm not as sensitized to all the driving conditions that you've experienced in the camry hybrid. to me the camry hybrid is almost a whole different experience, but i really like it, especially the much better lumbar support, which i desperately needed.
still, the problems with the altima hybrid seem a bit different, especially the far number of drivers that don't ever seem to get into EV mode - makes me suspect some kind of software issue.
I've heard nothing but good things about the Nissan Altima Hybrid.
Not me. About a third of the Altima hybrid owners leaving their testimonials on this site are pretty disappointed with their hybrids. The other two thirds love the vehicle.
I don't think Camry hybrid has the thermo bottle to store hot coolant to reuse in the next cold start up.
Prius in the US has this feature as standard. During cold weather (40 deg F), thermo bottle bring this up to 70 deg F. This speeds up the Prius warm up process and get great MPGs quicker.
See it in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjdUr2BD6R4
paulldvd,
~37-38 on the highway is low. You must be driving very fast (~80 MPH?).
I do not drive on flat roads on the highway. There are many elevation changes which hurts the mileage somewhat. I drive right around 70 to go with the flow. My son gets just about the same MPG and he drives a similar route to work as well. I am quite happy with that MPG for the size vehicle it is.
My Altima Hybrid with 20 miles on it is back at the stealership for a second time. Battery failure again. No one from the stealership will take/return a phone call...my only contact has been with corporate.
"stealership" - great word, although i'm sorry for your troubles.
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