Used 2018 Nissan Altima 2.5

2018 J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study (IQS): Highest Ranked. 2018 J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study (IQS): Highest Ranked. KBB.com Consumer Reviews. Overall 4.1. Notoriously bad transmission. Bought it used with 12k miles on it for a little under $20,000. At 55k miles I'm need a new transmission. Luckily the extended warranty covers it up to 85k miles. I still have $12000 to pay off. No point in getting an altima if you want a car to last. CVT is the Sword of Damacles, but otherwise good. I bought this car in 2016 at 30k miles and sold it 4 1/2 years later at 135k (I say "sold" but what I really mean is totaled in accident... more on that in a bit). During a bout of unemployment, I needed a vehicle to hustle money doing rideshares and other app gigs. For a short term run, the Altima performed beautifully. It's attractive, comfortable with decent trunk space. However, towards the end of my rideshare tenure, I noticed that if I was in too much stop and go traffic, the transmission would get stuck in 1st gear and I'd have to power down to correct it. Consulting the internet, I learned about that poor CVT design. At over 80k miles, Nissan's warranty expired and all I could do was pray. Luckily for me, the CVT issue never exhibited anything worse than that. Early transmission mortality was between 100k and 120 miles I had found and somehow I'd made it to 135k. The only major fix-it was it needed a cracked radiator at 100k miles which is generally par for the course. Annoyingly the power mirrors had quit earlier than that. As previously mentioned, we got into an accident in which a distracted driver rear ended us at around 40 mph when we were at a dead stop. It completely annihilated the trunk and shattered the back glass. Luckily no one was in the back, otherwise they'd be covered with glass. I'm a bit ambivalent on critiquing the safety as the rear section did do a good job absorbing the force but in addition to shattered back glass, the airbags failed to deploy. Minus a star for reliability. Other than fearing the ticking time bomb that was the flawed CVT, it was a very enjoyable car. Turning radius wasn't as tight as I was used to, but had decent power for a 4 cylinder sedan. After ridesharing, I eventually got married and had a baby which the Altima was great for. I'm also never going to get used to not having keyless entry, keyless ignition and a bluetooth ever. So for reliability, I give it 2 stars and the bad CVT accounts for a loss of 2 stars. That's right, if it weren't for that darn CVT, I'd give it 4 stars. Nissan did extend the warranty to compensate for their flawed CVT. Great buy if you only intend to own it before reaching 100k miles. Otherwise either purchase an extended warranty beyond that or buy a Honda. Absolutely love my Altima!