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I had two choices when visiting the New York Auto Show last April–stand in line to check out the unveiling of the ’02 Nissan Altima, or stand in line to purchase a $3 can of pop and a $4 hot dog.

After a quick phone vote, the Altima won by a 2 (the boss and the accounting department) to 1 margin.

Automakers are prone to exaggeration, and Nissan had boasted for months the all-new Altima coming out this fall was going to cure all the ills that the ’01 and all previous generations labored under.

Nissan promised a fresh new design because the current model was a yawner. Altima won rave reviews for styling among the media gathered in New York for an early look-see at the car that’s now arriving in showrooms.

But Nissan also promised it would kick up the performance by more than just a notch because if you didn’t yawn when looking at an Altima, you certainly did when pressing the pedal and waiting for the four-cylinder to respond.

Nissan promised as well that the car would be enlarged because snug might be just fine for bugs in a rug, but not for humans in a family sedan.

Couldn’t judge all Nissan boasts at the time because the ’02 Altima was bolted to a turntable at the New York exhibit hall. But now that we’ve tested the ’02 Altima on Chicagoland roads, have to say Nissan delivered on all its promises.

The ’02 Altima features a sloping roofline, the current fad among automakers trying to make sedans look like coupes for those who don’t count doors. Other than the far less conservative sheet metal, what’s most appealing is–for lack of a better term–the fancy jewel-like head- and taillamps, attention-getters that help set Altima apart from the crowd of look-alike Japanese midsize sedans.

As for size, the old compact is now a midsize sedan, with a 7.1-inch longer wheelbase at 110.2 inches, a 5.7-inch stretch in overall length to 191.5 inches, and 1.3 inches added width, 2 inches added height, and 1.8 inches wider front and 2.4 inches wider rear tracking.

Longer and wider means far more spacious cabin room and comfort. Rear seat occupants now enjoy some leg and arm stretch room. Along with the increased tracking, you get smoother ride and more sure-footed handling from that wider stance on the road.

Altima is now longer and wider than either of its chief rivals, the Toyota Camry totally redone for ’02 and the Honda Accord to be redone for ’03.

A couple of gripes, however. The rear seat backs fold to expose a pass-through to the trunk in order to carry long items inside the cabin. But the opening is narrow and limits what can pass through. Also, when a car gets bigger, its outside mirrors should get bigger, too.

But we digress.

There’s two new engines in a car that had been prone to chug along. Base engine is a 2.5-liter, 180-h.p. 16-valve version that delivers 25 more horsepower and 24 more foot-pounds of torque (180 foot-pounds) than the 2.4-liter four it replaces for quic ker, smoother 0-to-30 m.p.h. launches from the light. The 2.5 will be shared with the new sporty compact Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, coming out next month.

The V-6 is a first for Altima, a 240-h.p. version of the 255-h.p. 3.5-liter V-6 in the Maxima and the I35 sedan from Nissan’s luxury Infiniti division. A 3.5 will also be offered in Nissan’s long-awaited Z-coupe coming out next summer as an ’03 as well as the Infiniti G35 to be added to the lineup next spring. With the G35, Infiniti will have a rear-wheel-drive sedan joining the front-drive G20 entry-level sedan now in the lineup. Infiniti won’t say what the G20’s fate is, only that it stays in the lineup through ’02.

The V-6 in the Altima SE not only delivers 240 h.p., but 246 foot-pounds of torque, for very alert, very lively movement from the light or into the merger or passing lanes. No hesitation. The oomph that was needed. Powerful, yet smooth and quiet acceleration. If you kick the pedal really hard you may detect st a wee bit of the exhaust music you’d more commonly expect of the Maxima.

With either engine you get a choice of 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic. Neither Camry nor Accord offer a 5-speed manual with their V-6 engines.

With its new V-6 and a size similar to Maxima, Nissan will promote Altima as a family sedan with a suspension designed to optimize smooth ride and Maxima as a more upscale performance sedan with a firmer suspension for optimum handling. In keeping with the performance theme, Maxima offers a 6-speed manual, Altima doesn’t.

Nissan estimates, thanks to its larger size and V-6 engine, Altima sales will rise to 190,000 units annually from 135,000, while Maxima will slip to 80,000 units from 100,000. Altima still has a ways to go, however, to reach the 400,000 plus sales of either Camry or Accord.

Nissan recently confirmed that in January of ’03, Maxima will move from Japan and a totally redesigned model will be built off the same platform as Altima at Nissan’s Smyrna, Tenn., plant where the Xterra sport-ute and Frontier pickup are also built. At that time plant production will rise from 400,000 vehicles to 500,000 annually as part of a $1 billion expansion.

In addition to Smyrna, in the summer of ’03 Nissan’s plant now under construction in Canton, Miss., will start producing a full-size truck, a full-size SUV and a minivan to replace the current Nissan Quest that goes out of production after the ’02 model year. Those ’04 Canton models (an Infiniti SUV also is being considered) will all come off the same platform.

Altima prices range from $16,349 for the base four-cylinder/manual transmission model up to $23,149 for the SE with automatic that we tested. By comparison, Accord ranges from about $15,940 to $25,740, while Camry ranges from about $19,455 to about $25,890.

Standard equipment on the Altima SE we tested includes power driver’s seat, power locks/mirrors/windows (with retained accessory power), remote keyless entry (that also can lower driver/passenger windows) air conditioning, AM/FM stereo with speed-sensitive volume control plus CD player and 6 speakers, rear window defroster, 17-inch radials (16-inch on 4-cylinder models), a pair of power plugs, tilt and telescoping steering column, remote trunk/fuel filler door release, cruise control, leather-wrapped steering column, trip computer with outside temp reading, auto on/off headlamps, four-wheel disc brakes, tinted glass and body colored moldings/bumpers.

ABS is offered in a $749 option package that includes both front seat side-impact air bags as well as front/rear seat side-impact air curtains. A power sunroof is a hefty $849, a rear deck lid spoiler an equally pricey $399 considering it’s merely a decoration, and high-intensity Xenon headlamps are $499. We’d sacrifice the headlamps and spoiler and put the money toward ABS/traction control.

The ’02 Altima is a major improvement over the former model. Only question is w hether Altima is a well-enough recognized name to win folks over from the very well established Camry/Accord.