The 2026 Nissan Altima is a 5-seat midsize sedan, and it is one of the few midsize sedans offered with all-wheel drive. It comes in 2 grades, an SV and an SR above it. Both use the same 2.5-liter 4-cylinder engine, the same automatic with variable gear ratios, and regular fuel.
The Altima at a glance:
The Altima lineup is 2 grades wide, the SV below the SR, and in all-wheel-drive form $1,400 separated the 2 at launch.
| Grade | MSRP at Launch, All-Wheel Drive | Packages Offered | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| SV | $29,080 | Special Edition, Premium | The lower of the 2 launch prices, and the Special Edition package, which is offered only here |
| SR | $30,480 | Midnight Edition, Premium | The Midnight Edition package, which is offered only here, for $1,400 more than the SV |
Both figures are all-wheel-drive prices: the suggested retail prices Nissan set for the 2026 Altima when the model year went on sale, with the $1,245 destination charge still to be added. They are real launch prices, and they are what the grade step is measured against. What a particular Altima sells for is listed with that car in our new Nissan sedan inventory.
A front-wheel-drive Altima exists, and its price sits with the individual car. Equipment and package contents belong to a specific car rather than to the model, and they are printed on that car's window sticker. That is the document to read before you sign, and we will sit down with one alongside you.
What moves between them is the equipment each one carries and the option menu each one opens: Midnight Edition is an SR package, Special Edition is an SV package, and a Premium package exists for both at different prices.
Options on the Altima come as packages, each one belonging to a single grade, with the paint upgrades priced separately from all of them.
| Package | Grade | Price at Launch |
|---|---|---|
| Special Edition | SV | $1,300 |
| Premium | SV | $3,000 |
| Midnight Edition | SR | $2,000 |
| Premium | SR | $3,400 |
Whether the 2 versions carry the same equipment is a window-sticker question, and the sticker on the car is where it is answered. Both figures are more than twice the $1,400 that separates the grades themselves, so the package you add changes the price of an Altima more than the grade you start from does.
| Paint Upgrade | Price at Launch |
|---|---|
| Premium Paint | $450 |
| Two-Tone Paint | $500 |
| Two-Tone Premium Paint | $950 |
Paint is priced on its own, on top of whatever else is on the car, and it is not tied to a grade the way the packages are. Which colors those 3 lines cover is listed with the individual car.
Set the packages against the grade prices and there are 6 priced ways to buy a 2026 Altima. Every figure below is a launch price for the 2026 model year in all-wheel-drive form, before the $1,245 destination charge, and before any paint upgrade.
| Configuration | Grade Price | Package Price | Total at Launch |
|---|---|---|---|
| SV, no package | $29,080 | none | $29,080 |
| SV with Special Edition | $29,080 | $1,300 | $30,380 |
| SR, no package | $30,480 | none | $30,480 |
| SV with Premium | $29,080 | $3,000 | $32,080 |
| SR with Midnight Edition | $30,480 | $2,000 | $32,480 |
| SR with Premium | $30,480 | $3,400 | $33,880 |
Midnight Edition is offered on the SR only and Special Edition on the SV only, so wanting either of those packages settles the grade as well.
The 2 grades are the same car mechanically, so how to choose between them is a question about equipment and about which packages each grade opens. Every figure in this table is a launch price for the 2026 model year, before the $1,245 destination charge.
| If This Is You | Where to Start | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Midnight Edition is the package you want | SR | It is offered on the SR only, at $2,000 |
| Special Edition is the package you want | SV | It is offered on the SV only, at $1,300 |
| Premium is the package you want | Either grade | Premium is offered on both, at $3,000 on the SV and $3,400 on the SR. What each one holds is on that car's window sticker |
| No package is the draw | SV | It is the lower launch price of the 2, and the $1,400 above it is buying equipment, not capability |
| Traction matters more than economy | Either grade | Both grades are offered with all-wheel drive, at the launch prices above |
| Fuel economy matters more than traction | A front-wheel-drive car | 30 mpg combined against 28, and 36 on the highway against 33. Ask us which cars on the lot are front-drive |
The drivetrain question and the grade question are separate from each other. You are not choosing a package to get all-wheel drive, and you are not giving up traction by starting from the SV. Settle them one at a time and the decision stops feeling like a ladder.
If you have narrowed it to 2 cars, reading both window stickers side by side settles what each one actually carries. Say the word and we will put them in front of you.
Most of this car is settled before the grade decision starts, which shortens the list of things you have to weigh.
| What It Is | On Every 2026 Altima |
|---|---|
| Engine | 2.5-liter 4-cylinder |
| Transmission | Automatic with variable gear ratios |
| Fuel | Regular |
| Seating | 5 |
| Trunk space | 15.4 cu ft |
| Fuel tank | 16.19 gallons |
| Driver assistance | Nissan Safety Shield 360 |
| Overall crash-test rating | 5 stars from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration |
| Basic warranty | 36 months or 36,000 miles |
| Powertrain warranty | 60 months or 60,000 miles |
Nothing in that table moves with the grade, the package or the price. The driver-assistance suite in particular comes on both grades, so it is not something you climb the range to reach, and no package charges you for it.
The mechanicals work the same way: one engine, one transmission, regular fuel, whichever grade you buy. So the only mechanical choice on an Altima is front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, and the section below sets out what that choice costs in output, in fuel economy and in miles between fills.
One engine covers the whole Altima range, and the drivetrain is what changes the output and the fuel economy.
| Spec | Front-Wheel Drive | All-Wheel Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | 2.5-liter 4-cylinder | 2.5-liter 4-cylinder |
| Horsepower | 188 | 182 |
| Torque | 180 lb-ft | 178 lb-ft |
| Transmission | Automatic with variable gear ratios | Automatic with variable gear ratios |
| Fuel | Regular | Regular |
| City | 26 mpg | 25 mpg |
| Highway | 36 mpg | 33 mpg |
| Combined | 30 mpg | 28 mpg |
Nissan quotes the peak points for the front-drive engine: 180 lb-ft of torque at 3,600 rpm, with the 188 hp figure waiting until 6,000. The pulling effort is there well below the point where the engine is working hard, and the transmission varies its ratios instead of stepping through fixed gears.
What does not change is just as useful. Same engine, regular fuel either way, so all-wheel drive never puts you on a more expensive grade of gasoline. The whole trade is a little less output, a little less economy, and all 4 wheels driven instead of 2.
The tank holds 16.19 gallons whichever drivetrain you take. Multiply that by the rated figures and a full tank looks like this.
| On a Full Tank | Front-Wheel Drive | All-Wheel Drive |
|---|---|---|
| City driving | about 420 miles | about 405 miles |
| Highway driving | about 580 miles | about 535 miles |
| Combined | about 485 miles | about 450 miles |
Those are the rated figures multiplied out, so read them as a rough shape, not a promise. Real driving moves every one of them, and a headwind or a loaded car moves the highway column most.
The Altima is a 5-seat sedan measuring 192.9 inches long, with 15.4 cu ft of trunk space.
| Measurement | 2026 Altima |
|---|---|
| Seating | 5 |
| Length | 192.9 in |
| Width | 72.9 in |
| Height | 56.8 in |
| Wheelbase | 111.2 in |
| Trunk space | 15.4 cu ft |
| Front head room | 39.1 in |
| Front leg room | 43.8 in |
| Curb weight | 3,281 lb |
| Ground clearance | 5.1 in |
| Turning circle | 37.4 ft |
In the units a garage is measured in, the Altima is a little over 16 feet long and a little over 6 feet wide, on a 111.2-inch wheelbase. The turning circle is 37.4 feet, worth knowing if you park on one of the older east-side streets or back into a small garage.
On a sedan the trunk opening is a fixed size, so a long or awkward item can be a different question from a full load. Bring what you actually carry and we will open the trunk on the lot.
Curb weight is 3,281 lb and ground clearance is 5.1 inches. That last figure comes back further down the page, because it is the one our local pavement tests hardest.
Nissan Safety Shield 360 is standard on both Altima grades, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rates the Altima 5 stars overall.
On a lot of cars the driver aids are the reason a shopper climbs a trim ladder they did not otherwise need, and paying for a higher grade to reach them is an easy way to overspend. On the Altima that route does not exist, because the suite is already on both grades: nothing in the package list adds it and nothing in the package list withholds it. The crash-test result belongs to the car rather than to a grade or a package, so an SV and an SR with the same drivetrain are the same structure with different equipment on it.
All-wheel drive works as insurance in this part of the state, and the reason is that our winters are unpredictable rather than severe. Two recent seasons show the swing: 5.7 inches of snow across the whole of one, and 31.6 across another. Nobody signing for a car in the summer knows which of those winters is coming, and that uncertainty, not a fearsome climate, is the argument for putting traction under a sedan.
Two kinds of drivers tend to land on the all-wheel-drive car here. The first leaves early, on residential streets that get treated after the main roads do, and wants the car to be dependable on the genuinely bad mornings a winter produces. The second has been talking themselves into an SUV purely for traction, and an all-wheel-drive sedan answers that question without moving to a taller vehicle.
Salt is the other half of winter here, and it does more lasting damage to a car than snow does. Road salt goes down ahead of a storm and the trucks come back through afterward, on the interstates and on neighborhood streets alike, from late November into March. A car parked outside on the east side spends about 4 months of the year with salt on it.
The freeze-thaw cycle does the rest. Water gets into a crack, freezes overnight, expands, and takes a piece of road with it when it melts, and this side of the city carries broken pavement well into spring.
Ground clearance on the Altima is 5.1 inches, which is not a lot of road to work with. A sedan does not ride over a pothole, it goes through it, and the tires and the alignment absorb what is left. That is a fact about sedans and about our roads, not a fault in this one. Treat tires and alignment as a running cost here, whichever drivetrain you pick, because the road takes the same bite out of a front-wheel-drive Altima as an all-wheel-drive one. Get the alignment checked after a bad spring instead of waiting for the tire wear to tell you.
Nissan covers a new Altima under 4 separate terms, and they do not all end together.
| Coverage | How Long It Runs |
|---|---|
| Basic | 36 months or 36,000 miles |
| Powertrain | 60 months or 60,000 miles |
| Corrosion | 60 months |
| Roadside assistance | 36 months |
The powertrain term outlasts the basic term by 2 years and 24,000 miles, so the engine, transmission and drivetrain stay covered past the point where the basic coverage has stopped. Corrosion and roadside assistance are the 2 terms quoted in months alone, with no mileage figure attached at all, and corrosion is the longer of them at 60 months. Where the roads are treated as heavily as they are here, a clock that counts calendar time is the sensible way to measure rust, because rust does not care whether the car was driven.
We sell these from 802 N. Shadeland Ave, on the east side of Indianapolis and a short run off I-70. Among the Nissan dealerships around Indianapolis, ours is the closest to Cumberland, New Palestine, McCordsville, Mt. Comfort, Fortville, Shelbyville and New Castle. For a driver coming in from that side of the map, the daily miles are I-70, US 40 and the streets that feed them, which is exactly the driving the winter and pavement sections of this page are about.
A lot of our customers are people we have sold a car to before, or people they sent us. Nobody here rushes a decision that costs this much. You set the pace, and coming back a second time to sit in the car again is a normal thing to do here.
A test drive settles the things a spec sheet cannot: how the car rides, how it sounds, whether you fit it. The traction question is a winter one, and the figures above are the way to weigh that in the summer. If you want to try a particular drivetrain, say so when you arrange an Altima test drive and we will tell you what is on the lot.
Individual cars, with their own grades, drivetrains, packages, paint and prices, are listed in the new Nissan sedans in Indianapolis inventory. The launch prices on this page show how the grades and packages stand against each other; what a particular Altima costs is the number listed with that car.
If you would rather have the money side moving before you visit, our Nissan finance application can be filled in at home and we take it from there.
Our Nissan specials change from month to month, and whatever is running now sits on our current new Nissan specials page.
The map and our current opening times sit on the hours and directions for our Indianapolis store page. If your question is about the equipment on one specific car, contact our Indianapolis Nissan store and we will go and read that car's window sticker.
In all-wheel-drive form the SV launched at $29,080 and the SR at $30,480, both before the $1,245 destination charge. Those are all-wheel-drive figures, and this page does not show a front-wheel-drive price: a front-drive car carries its own price, so ask and we will quote the one you are looking at. Each car on the lot is priced individually in the new Nissan sedan listings, and the deals running now are on our new Nissan specials page.
Yes, and that is unusual for a midsize sedan. Both grades are offered with all-wheel drive, at the launch prices above, so you do not have to move up a grade to get it. Front-wheel drive is offered too, and which cars on the lot are front-drive is a question we can answer for you.
Equipment and the option menu, not the car underneath. What differs is which packages each one opens: Midnight Edition is offered on the SR at $2,000, Special Edition on the SV at $1,300, and Premium is offered on both, at $3,000 on the SV and $3,400 on the SR. The equipment each grade carries as standard is printed on the window sticker of the individual car, so the way to settle it is to read the 2 stickers next to each other. We will do that with you.
Power, fuel economy and traction. Front-wheel drive gives you 188 hp, 180 lb-ft and ratings of 26 mpg city, 36 highway and 30 combined. All-wheel drive gives you 182 hp, 178 lb-ft and ratings of 25 mpg city, 33 highway and 28 combined. So the all-wheel-drive car is 6 hp down, 3 mpg down on the highway and 2 mpg down combined, and in exchange it drives all 4 wheels. The engine, the transmission and the body are otherwise the same car.
No. The 2.5-liter engine runs on regular whether the car is front-drive or all-wheel drive, so neither drivetrain puts you on a more expensive grade of fuel.
On the SV, Special Edition at $1,300 and Premium at $3,000 when the 2026 cars went on sale. On the SR, Midnight Edition at $2,000 and Premium at $3,400. Paint is priced separately at $450 for Premium Paint, $500 for Two-Tone Paint and $950 for Two-Tone Premium Paint, all at launch. What each package includes is printed on the window sticker of the individual car, and we will go through it with you.
Nissan covers the whole car for 3 years or 36,000 miles, then keeps covering the engine, transmission and drivetrain for 5 years or 60,000 miles. Rust-through protection also runs 5 years and roadside assistance 3, and neither of those is capped by mileage.
It depends on how much certainty you want about winter. Snowfall here swings hard from year to year, with 5.7 inches across one recent season and 31.6 across another, so all-wheel drive works as insurance rather than as a necessity. What it costs you against the front-wheel-drive car is 6 hp, 2 mpg combined and roughly 35 miles of range from a full tank. If you leave early on untreated streets, or you have talked yourself into an SUV purely for traction, an all-wheel-drive sedan answers that without moving to a taller vehicle. If your driving is daytime and mostly on treated main roads, the front-wheel-drive car keeps the better fuel numbers.
At 802 N. Shadeland Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46219, east of downtown and a short run off I-70. Look through our new Nissan sedans for sale, then book an Altima test drive before you come, and the map with our current hours sits on the hours and directions page.
Yes. Fill in the online Nissan finance application at home and we will work from it when you arrive. If you would rather ask a question first, contact us in Indianapolis.
