wow! the Altima Hybrid now has $5000 of incentives in CA

The incentives went back down to $4500 for awhile in CA (at least for the 95136 zip code) but they're back up to $5K again until 11/30/10.

Great deal if one is considering one of its competitors, esp. given one can still get the $2350 Federal tax credit which ends on 12/31/10 for all hybrids (that still qualify).

I saw yet another NAH running around in WA in the past few weeks. It had CA plates on it.

 

Yeah. My mom has one. I almost got one of my friends to buy one but the Nissan dealers he dealt with played a bait and switch game with him, which pissed him off. He ended up getting a (non-hybrid) Accord.

I've seen a ton of NAHs in use as taxis in NYC and a tiny # of them as taxis in Boston.

When I lived in Nor Cal, I'd seen a decent # of NAHs running around, but none as taxis.

 

Don't know. Despite me asking her, she can't be bothered to manually calculate her mileage nor look at or gather numbers from its trip computer. Heck, despite me telling her repeatedly, she hardly knows how to cycle thru the trip computer's displays, let alone use its other button to reset a value.

The times when I've been or was living in CA, IIRC, trip computer indicates low to mid 30s mpg. [She almost never drives on the highway, due to "fear" and it being "too fast" and not very long city drives.]

As for the latter, not really. Per 2011 Nissan Altima Hybrid to debut later this year, still 41 states shy of nationwide — Autoblog Green and other sources, for the 2012 model year, Nissan will stop using Toyota's HSD and go w/their own in-house system, presumably w/a single MG and clutch.

 

FWIW, one can see how it did vs. the FFH and HyCam at Most fuel-efficient cars.

I guess it depends on your time frame. When the Federal tax credit for hybrids goes away for all hybrids (where you can still get it) on 12/31/10, the $2350 credit on the NAH will disappear, making it less compelling. Unclear what sort of incentives Nissan will offer on the NAH, in the future, esp. 2011 and beyond models.

Also, it appears that Nissan hasn't extended (yet?) the CVT warranty extension of 10 years/120K miles to 2011 NAHs. See NissanAssist.com. For whatever reason, Nissan decided to include the NAH even though it uses a PSD and nothing like the belt and pulley CVTs in their non-hybrids.

Interestingly enough, on a side note, it looks like they did warranty extensions for the fuel sending unit and radiators of some other models. They weren't there when I looked a month or two ago.

 

The tax credit is $2350 per Federal Tax Credits for Hybrids. You'll need to buy by 12/31/10 as there will be no more tax credits after that.

My mom has an 07 NAH and I can confirm that the power transitions and ICE startup and shutdown aren't very smooth compared to my Prius. In terms of acceleration, it's faster in the 0-60 than both the TCH and esp. the FFH. You can see CR's 0-60 times at http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...rts-fuel-economy-vs-performance-106/index.htm.

 

I've only had a TCH for ~1.5 days as a loaner but I can safely say that the NAH's start/stop and power transitions are much rougher than the TCH and 2nd gen Prius.

 

Yes, but the ICE is different and that doesn't mean they use the identical software.

 

I used to live in south San Jose, so SF is far for me (at least an hour to get by car) so I didn't go often.

I left the Bay Area in late 09 and was back briefly in SF for a few days in early 2010.