SMOOTH BLEND; Creature comforts and engine combine for an easy ride.(News)

Byline: CAROLYN Pavia-Rauchman

Sometimes, you just don't want to draw any extra attention your way. When that's the case, a drive in the Nissan Altima fits the bill. Its everyday-sedan exterior, which belies its powerful running gear and mid-luxury interior, allows you simply to blend in with the rest of the day's commuters.

But the real blending in this sedan is that of performance and capability. As we pass the nine-month mark on the one-year evaluation of our long-term Altima, we continue to enjoy its sporty combination of the powerful V6 engine and the slick six-speed manual, not a common offering in the family-friendly sedan category.

"I love having a stick to work with,'' one editor asserts, while acknowledging that in big-city, stop-and-go traffic, the shifting might get tedious. For everyday enjoyment, though, it can't be beat in the fleet.

"The car, when driven hard, responds well to pressure. It'll chirp the fronts in first and second easily on dry pavement but holds its line fairly well, despite all the power running to those wheels. Lesser-controlled models would torque-steer the wheel right out of your hands,'' says the same staffer, who finally got a chance to spend some time behind the wheel of the Altima, which had been sidelined for more than a month because of a parking-lot bang-up.

We easily coped with everything a Midwest winter could hand out this year when the Altima was the assigned ride. Its front-wheel drive combined with traction control and ABS made for better-than-average handling in the slop and ...