CARS.COM — Mid-size sedans might be on the decline amid consumer fervor for SUVs, but they’re still mighty popular: The class accounted for nearly 1 in 10 vehicle sales in the U.S. last year, per Automotive News. That could climb in the coming months as shoppers kick the tires on a redesigned Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, plus a perennial contender fresh off an overhaul: the 2019 Nissan Altima.
Related: 2018 Toyota Camry Vs. 2018 Honda Accord: Video
Noting that the Northeast is the Altima’s most popular U.S. market, Nissan says the redesigned, sixth-generation car will debut March 28 at the 2018 New York International Auto Show. That’s the same event where its fifth-gen predecessor bowed six years earlier.
The new Altima redesign couldn’t come soon enough. The outgoing Altima placed last, second to last and last again in three successive family sedan comparisons involving (respectively) the 2013, 2015 and 2016 model-years, and sales stalled 17 percent in 2017 even as incentives increased 7.2 percent, per Autodata. Still, shoppers bought some quarter of a million Altimas nationwide in 2017 — enough to make it Nissan’s second-best-selling car behind the Rogue SUV.
What’s in store for the next Altima? Stay tuned to find out. We’ll be at the New York Auto Show to report all the information plus firsthand impressions on the 2019 model midsize sedan.
