Quote:
Originally Posted by Sallyspal
Welcome Marianne! I'm a Camry Hybrid owner who was lurking here for the evening. I hope you enjoy your new hybrid as much as I have been enjoying mine. 
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Hi Sally. I love the camry hybrid. It was our top choice of car.
So far, we are VERY happy with the Altima hybrid. It drives much sportier than the other hybrids, if that term can be used in describing a hybrid. It's a lovely car, and we got the extended 100,000 mile warranty. We are hoping it will be mechanical problem free... but that is always such a big IF with a new model.
It was actually a bit unnerving getting used to the quiet the first day, but now that is an aspect of hybrids that makes them more enjoyable. I also think in a way it enhances our driving safety because it lets us here the noise of other cars so well. (We learned day one, though, that 'lane changers' can't here us... so we are very cautious passing.)
Right now we are watching the gas gauge like hawks. We aren't going to fill the tank till it gets next to the bottom of empty. Nissan says "700 miles" on a tank... so we are very curious how real world driving will be. The Altima hybrid has a EV mode guage that lets us see when we are EV... and what kind of MPG we are getting by driving conditions... so we are actively trying to drive to optimize MPG. If we get crappy mileage... it will be the car design... NOT our driving style. If we get great MPG... then Nissan did their job right.
From the look and feel of the car, I can't help think that Nissan has to be losing money on the Altima hybrid. It's a very cheap price for a very luxurious car. Unfortunatley, the jury will be out on mechanical relaibility and real MPG for quite some time... so we can't give it an endorsement yet.
If you don't have asthma - people should get the Camry hybrid. It's track record for MPG and reliability are impressive.