So, here's why I ask. The other day, I drove a 2014 Altima 2.5 S sedan, and it literally made me motion-sick as I was DRIVING. Didn't think that was even possible. When I tried to figure out why it did that, the conclusions I came to were so alarming to me that I felt like I must be wrong in some way, so I wanted to ask others for feedback.
Normally, the goal of chassis tuning is to filter out unpleasant body motions and vibrations, while preserving a few key attributes that give you an intuitive sense of what the car is doing. That way, the car rides smoothly without requiring constant thought to drive. This Altima was something like the opposite. The chassis tuning filtered out EVERYTHING, including useful information -- except for some excess body motion that happened at seemingly random (i.e. unintuitive) times. The steering communicated some useless vibration, but not cornering loads. It's like the whole thing was designed to feel like a driving simulator in a sensory deprivation tank on a gently moving boat: no useful information about your environment; just some disconcerting movement. In other words, a recipe for motion sickness in a nutshell. I'd be fine if the car were simply not a driver's car; it just seems like Nissan was actively trying to make it bad.
The rest of the car seems fine to me. Can't argue with the fuel economy. The interior was relatively low-rent, but not offensively so for the segment. The engine was (just barely) powerful enough for normal driving. The CVT was great for the car's purpose IMO. Torque steer was nonexistent. Braking and roadholding seemed fine. And of course the ride was impressively smooth. But the experience of driving the car was awful.
I wanted to drive the car because it was the only car that ever made a friend of mine throw up after riding in it. Another friend said it was the worst car he had ever driven. At the time, I scoffed at them for being automotive snobs. I still think they have no idea how lucky they are if a 2013+ Altima is rock bottom for them. But on the details, I feel forced to agree. The last car I drove that behaved this poorly was a Lexus RX330, which was almost 10 years older and had that pointlessly high center of mass. How Nissan gave the latest-gen Altima the same attributes -- let alone why -- is beyond me.
What gets me is that Nissan KNOWS how to do vehicle dynamics. The Z, the GT-R, the Infiniti G, their race teams... They have the expertise, and I don't for one second believe they kept it away from the Altima development team. All I can think is that they intentionally CHOSE to set the car up in that utterly boneheaded way, and for the life of me I can't figure out why.
There must be legions of people who think it's okay for a car to bob around on the road and make you to drive entirely with your eyes, as long as it soaks up bumps. Is that true? Either way, my mind is blown.