NASHVILLE -- Nissan North America Inc. has put a sticker price of $25,015 on the new hybrid version of its Altima sedan, including the destination charge.

The sticker price brings the model to market $1,805 cheaper than the 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid, even though Nissan buys the Altima's hybrid-electric drive system from Toyota Motor Corp.

Nissan plans to market the Altima Hybrid in only eight states - California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. The Camry hybrid is sold nationwide.

The sticker decision makes the Altima Hybrid's base price $4,600 higher than the base price of the Altima's gasoline engine-only model.

According to Nissan, the new model qualifies for a federal tax credit of $2,350 under the Internal Revenue Service's Alternative Vehicle Credit.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 17 -- Nissan North America, Inc. today announced pricing on the all-new 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe, which goes on sale May 25, 2007 at Nissan dealers nationwide. The newest extension of Nissan's best-selling Altima lineup offers dramatic styling, a sport-inspired interior and a choice of two advanced powerplants -- a 2.5-liter 4-cylinder or 3.5-liter V6 -- and 6-speed manual or Xtronic CVT(TM) (Continuously Variable Transmission) transmissions.

Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe 2.5 S with 6-speed manual transmission is $20,490. Altima Coupe 2.5 S CVT with Xtronic CVT(TM) (Continuously Variable Transmission) starts at $20,990. The V6-equipped Altima Coupe 3.5 SE 6MT with 6-speed manual has an MSRP of $24,890, while the 3.5 SE Altima Coupe SE CVT with Xtronic CVT starts at $25,390.

Customers will be able to pre-order 2008 Altima Coupes at Nissan dealers beginning today under a special "Reserve Your Coupe" promotion.

The new Altima Coupe offers smaller dimensions, driver-oriented cockpit and unique styling, giving it a more sporty appearance and driving feel. Altima Coupe has a 4.0 inch shorter wheelbase and overall length is 7.1 inches less than the Altima Sedan. The Coupe also has a 2.5 inch lower profile than the Sedan version. The Altima Coupe and Sedan only share a common hood, with all other major panels, including the grille, headlights and rear combination lights unique to the Altima Coupe.

The new Altima Coupe is part of the fourth-generation Altima design, which utilizes Nissan's all-new, highly acclaimed "D" platform with increased body rigidity and a redesigned suspension. This new platform was developed with the objective of making Altima one of the best performing large front-wheel drive vehicles available globally.

"The Altima Coupe sets itself apart from the segment by being more than just an Altima Sedan minus two doors," said Bill Bosley, vice president and general manager, Nissan Division. "The driving performance of the Altima Coupe is biased toward sporty feel, especially when equipped with our award- winning V6. Handling is also a strong point of the new Coupe, as is the responsive feeling provided by the Xtronic CVT transmission."

The 3.5-liter 24-valve DOHC V6 utilized in Altima Coupe 3.5 SE models is the "next generation" version of the 12-time Ward's "10 Best Engines" award- winning VQ-series V6. For use in the Altima Coupe, it is rated at 270 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque. Available with the new Altima Coupe 2.5 S models is a 2.5-liter DOHC 16-valve QR25 inline 4-cylinder, producing 175 horsepower (170 hp CAL) and 180 lb-ft of torque (175 lb-ft CAL).

Altima Coupe models with the 4-cylinder engine are equipped with 16-inch wheels and tires, while V6-equipped Altima Coupes come with unique-design 17- inch aluminum-alloy wheels and 215/55R17 tires. All 2008 Altima Coupes also come equipped with standard 4-wheel, 4-channel, 4-sensor Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brake force Distribution (EBD).

The list of Altima Coupe passenger amenities includes standard Intelligent Key with Push Button Ignition and available Bose(R)-developed audio system with nine speakers, Bluetooth(R) Hands-Free Phone System, satellite radio and dual-zone automatic temperature control.

Available technology features include a RearView Monitor, which utilizes a small camera to help show the view behind the vehicle when in reverse gear, and Nissan Navigation System with a 6.5-inch color monitor.

The new Altima Coupe also comes equipped with a number of standard safety features, including Zone Body construction with front and rear crumple zones and Advanced Air Bag System (AABS), which includes dual-stage front supplemental air bags.

Also standard are front seat side-impact supplemental air bags for chest protection and roof-mounted curtain side-impact air bags for front and rear outboard occupant head protection.

In addition to the new 2008 Altima Coupe, Altima is offered in a variety of Sedan models -- including the 2.5, 2.5 S, 2.5 S with SL Package, 3.5 SE, 3.5 SL and Altima Hybrid (Hybrid Electric Vehicle). The new Altima is off to a strong launch, with 2007 calendar-year-to-date sales up nearly 19 percent through March.

The Passionate Front-Driver

By Erin Riches, Senior Content Editor
Date posted: 05-20-2007

Conventional prejudice says you can't put a transverse V6 in a big front-drive car and call it a sport coupe. But after 600 miles with the 2008 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE Coupe, we're going to rise above our car-geek heritage and do just that.

Of course we're speaking out of passion, not precision. This is still a 183-inch-long, 71-inch-wide, 3,290-pound car with 67 percent of its weight riding over the front wheels. Said wheels are wrapped in unassuming 215/55R17 Bridgestone Turanza tires.

But there's a vitality to the Nissan Altima 3.5 SE Coupe that defies clinical assessment. It likes going around corners. Its VQ-Series V6 likes being matched up with a continuously variable transmission (CVT). Even if the Altima coupe isn't dynamically perfect, we like driving it.

Minus Two Doors, Plus One Mustache
Nissan's starting point here has been the Altima sedan, already an athlete among family-friendly sedans. Instead of dropping a coupe body onto a sedan chassis and installing a set of really long doors, Nissan lopped 4 inches off the sedan's wheelbase (now 105.3 inches) and designed a fresh set of body panels.

With its 3-inch drop in stature and fastback roof line, the Altima coupe draws immediate comparisons to Infiniti's G37 coupe. From the back, it looks a bit too much like the innocuous Pontiac G6, but wheel around front and there's a wisp of a chrome mustache to reassure you this car has the evil, funhouse flavor of the Altima.

We Choose Torque
As usual, there are degrees of evil. Not so threatening is the 2.5 S Coupe, which is motivated by a 175-horsepower 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and priced around $21,000. Nissan says this car will account for 60 percent of Altima coupe sales.

We're speaking here to the other 40 percent, however; the fiends who will spend upward of $26,000 on the Altima 3.5 SE Coupe. It has a 3.5-liter V6 rated for 270 hp at 6,000 rpm and 258 pound-feet of torque at 4,400 rpm.

Although a six-speed manual is available, most 3.5 SE Coupes will be sold with a continuously variable transmission (CVT), with which our test car has been equipped. Most will also have the $3,200 Premium Package — good for xenon headlights, leather upholstery, Bose sound and automatic climate control.

Our test car did without the premium luxuries. Antilock disc brakes and all the expected airbags were on board, but stability control costs $600 extra.

Quick by Numbers, Quicker by Feel
The lack of amenities went largely unnoticed, as the Nissan Altima coupe has other ways of making its driver feel energized.

It's not with overpowering speed, though. A 0-60-mph time in the 6.0-second range and a quarter-mile time just under 15.0 seconds no longer make anyone feel entirely special, not even in the sensible coupe class. Our CVT-equipped coupe ran to 60 mph in 6.4 seconds, then laid down a quarter-mile in 14.8 seconds, a couple tenths quicker than the Altima sedan.

Nevertheless, it hasn't any edge over the Pontiac G6 GTP coupe, which gets to 60 mph in 6.2 seconds and does the quarter-mile in 14.8 seconds. Of course, the Altima CVT coupe is a smidge faster than the Mitsubishi Eclipse GT with a manual transmission, which takes 6.6 seconds to get to 60 mph and then does the quarter-mile in 14.9 seconds.

But away from the test track, you'll be convinced this is a fast car. Partly it's the sweet power delivery of the VQ V6, which offers just the right balance of smoothness and personality in this grand-touring application.

Get With the CVT Program
Mostly, though, the Altima coupe's lively performance comes from the CVT, which makes good on the promise that a CVT is better than a regular automatic transmission. Instead of playing telephone with your right foot, sending a message to the engine through hydraulic fluid whirling around a torque convertor, the CVT responds immediately to changes in throttle input. So when the engine rpm soar, it's because you will it to.

During instrumented testing, it made no difference in the numbers whether we left the CVT in Drive or used the manual mode. But on your favorite back road, there's good reason to call up a manual "downshift." Pull the central gearlever back as you're coming into a tight turn and you gain access to a usefully lower range of available gear ratios.

So enjoyable is the CVT that even hard-core drivers will prefer it to this car's manual gearbox. You see, apart from the pleasures of post-redline upshifts and heel-and-toe downshifts, the six-speed is a weak effort. The clutch engagement is abrupt and the shift lever feels limp through the gates.

The CVT also delivered pretty good fuel economy. The CVT coupe achieved 34 mpg on a pure highway run, although only half that during a workout on the two-lane — averaging out to 20 mpg. During the brief 200-miles time we had our hands on the coupe with a manual transmission, it returned 18 mpg.

Coupe in the Balance
Handling is another area in which the 2008 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE Coupe reaches out to its driver. Its 68.8-mph slalom performance and 0.81g grip on the skid pad are no better than the sedan's, but there's a psychological component to the coupe's compressed dimensions and slightly lower curb weight. Maybe it's just us, but the two-door feels hungrier on a curvy road.

And compared to the understeer-prone Eclipse and unresponsive G6, Nissan's new coupe borders on the ravenous when it comes to eating up the road. It's also much quicker through the cones on its skimpy 55-series 17-inch tires than either rival is on low-profile 18-inchers. The Altima has the edge in steering feel as well.

The Altima's braking capability is only average, though. A 127-foot stop from 60 mph brings it to a halt 10 feet shorter than the Pontiac, but still not up to the Mitsu's 124-foot performance. The Altima's brake pedal travel is short and there's lots of initial bite from the brake pads, but the tires just aren't up to it.

Because of the Altima coupe's shorter wheelbase, you feel the impact from highway expansion joints more sharply than in the sedan, so you'd better have a tighter grip on hot, splashy beverages. Overall, though, the coupe's ride quality is agreeable.

Functional Cockpit, Funky Seats
Just as in the sedan, the cabin of the 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe has a vaguely industrial ambience, although it features simple, well-organized controls. The soft-touch plastic that trims the dash feels rubbery to the touch, and the action of the various dials feels grainy and unpleasant.

The coupe has less headroom than the sedan, of course, and the front seats now have considerable lateral bolsters to hold you around corners. Rush-hour comfort is debatable, though, as the driver seat combines a slightly odd overall shape with firm cushions.

The coupe's trunk space is minimal at just 7.4 cubic feet, but it's a useful space with a wide opening and the 60/40-split rear seats fold completely flat, providing a cargo area large enough to bring home an awful lot of dry-cleaning plus some groceries, too.

Best of the Front-Drive Coupes
When you set out to buy a midsize front-wheel-drive coupe, you have to be willing to make some tough choices. If you've got a specific craving for a more decadent rear-drive car like the Ford Mustang GT or Mazda RX-8, you shouldn't ask an Altima coupe to satisfy it.

But if you're willing to admit that ride comfort, fuel economy and interior spaciousness are important, then the 2008 Nissan Altima Coupe is one of the best options out there. Among the current population of V6 front-drive coupes, the 3.5 SE is by far the best drive.

The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.