I see you got a Legacy, but for others who may come across or search for this thread, let me chime in on the Altima SE-R since I own one...
It is basically the family man's 350Z. Even the dash is the same. Although for me, I wanted a Z, but the enormous amount of space in the Altima SE-R is why I got it. The trunk is just gigantic. So for me it's "the guy with a ton of sound equipment to haul around's 350Z". Sure the 350Z is RWD and makes about 15more HP of the same year, but the acceleration is fairly close.
I test drove both a 6-speed and the automatic Altima SE-R, and I honestly liked the automatic better, especially the tiptronic aka "manumatic" option. It takes awhile to get used to, but after awhile it really does feel kind of like a manual only when you want it to be. I bought the car for my daily driver and at the time I had my 97 SE-R and 92 SE-R which were both 5 speeds. And I'm soooo *SICK* of dealing with clutches and clutch cables and shit. So tired of it. I've spent so much on replacing clutches in my SR20's over the years, and then had cables snap on me on the way to important shows etc.
I know the Altima SE-R doesn't have the same clutch cable has a B13 or B14 but you get my point.
Here's what I can tell you about the Altima SE-R:
Pros:
1) A clean one still looks new. Most people think my car is like a 2010 or something
2) Lots of useable torque and mid range
3) Enormous trunk. Lots of back seat space too
4) Very nice leather seats that offer lots of side support (kind of like the 91-92 Sentra SE-R although the Altima seats are bigger
5) Standard HID XENON headlights and fogs
6) Fairly good OEM brakes and comes with 18" wheels stock
7) Car and Driver got a 14.7 in the 1/4 mile out of a stock one, that's pretty good
8) Stock oil pressure and battery voltage gauges
9) 6 disc CD player and nice stereo
Cons:
1) As someone else w/ this car mentioned, the timing chain guides go in about 50 percent of these cars, and mine was one of them. It is an expensive fix. Luckily, it happened while my car was under warranty, so it saved me $1,600. The only place that really can do it is Nissan, unless you can do it yourself.
2) Oil pressure sensor light also went out for me, $100 fix
3) Gas mileage is so-so. It is a 3.5 V6, I get around 21-24MPG in the city and up to 32MPG highway (hit cruise at 65MPH for a half hour and I've seen it approach 33)
4) Nissan says to use only 91 octane or better fuel
5) Handling: it's a boat. But you'd pretty much expect that with all the cargo space. It's easy to understeer depending on you tires. (I've already spun out on a turn and did a 180, luckily it was at like 3am, I just wasn't paying attention and used to my B13 taking the turn even faster than that)
6) Potholes SUCK for a car with stock suspension, its stiff and paired along with the 18" wheels it feels like your driving a lowered B14 or something sometimes
7) To replace all six sparkplugs will take like 3-4 hours because you have to remove the intake manifold to get to the back 3. The front 3 are right there, but back 3 are a PITA. I'm still procrastinating on doing mine.
8) A bit of a low redline. I'd like to see it go about 200RPM higher.
9) The OEM pre-cats can throw a code and potentially ruin the engine. RacingLine makes high-flow pre-cats and a bigger 2.5 or 3" Y-pipe you can get together for around $900. The pre-cats make 8HP and 14ftlbs of torque while the Y-pipe makes about 13HP on the dyno on an otherwise stock Altima SE-R. (This is next on my list of mods, all I have done so far is cone filter intake an brake upgrade coming)
So would I recommend this car? YES, but *ONLY* if you can confirm that the timing chain guides are good and/or have already been replaced. It's easy to determine, start the car and if there is a nasty rattling sound on the passenger side of the engine bay then they're done and move on. The mileage doesn't really matter either, they've been known to go at 20k or 140k. Mine were already gone when I got the car, I had no idea of the issue or I would have found another.
Now although it's my daily driver I've had a lot of fun with the car and it's power delivery is smooth, and it sounds really great with just an intake. Dual exhaust is nice and the headlights are great too.
Last edited by Storm88000
on 2013-12-04
at 02-55-40.