Are Nissan Altima Drivers Really That Bad? A Deep Dive Into The Internet’s Most Feared Drivers

The Nissan Altima and its drivers have a bit of a reputation. Getting behind the wheel of one seems to imbue a driver with a primal, almost corrupting power. As if the Altima becomes a vessel for its driver’s contempt — for this cruel existence, and for their (and their car’s) very connection to this mortal coil.

Or at least, so goes the stereotype. But how true is it really? We can all rattle off unflattering and mostly untrue cliches about almost any car. Corvettes and New Balance shoes, Subaru drivers’ affinity for vaping and granola, lifted truck owners’ male inadequacies, and so on. Confirmation bias is a slippery slope, and we can wind up believing things that we want to be true by only looking for evidence that they are. But everyone, including Nissan Altima drivers, deserves a fair shake.

So I looked into it, and it looks like Nissan Altima drivers might indeed be more reckless than the average driver. Let’s look at some stats.

“Big Altima Energy”

“Big Altima Energy” is the most common name for a set of behaviors that, while not exclusive to Altima drivers, are seemingly better embodied by them than drivers of any other car. As outlined by the Facebook group Big Altima Energy and Urban Dictionary, Altima drivers are associated with driving cars in visible disrepair with complete disregard for safety.

They may drive at perilous speeds with significant body damage and noticeable drivability issues, like an emergency spare bolted in place, busted lights, collapsing suspension, and so on. According to the stereotype, you’ll see them weaving through traffic at high speed, blowing red lights, or in extreme cases, ramping themselves off stationary flatbed trucks. 

A couple of weeks ago, I had to dodge a speeding Altima while walking in my own neighborhood when they drove right at me rather than inconvenience themselves by bouncing through a couple of small potholes. Altima drivers, per the stereotype, aren’t mere adrenaline junkies like your average street racer in a Dodge Charger; some truly seem to hold contempt for anyone in their way.

Obviously, Altima drivers aren’t the only ones playing chicken with pedestrians or speeding in road-unworthy vehicles. But they’ve seemingly combined these bad behaviors so prominently and for so long that the phenomenon garnered a name for itself, possibly starting around the first half of 2022. That’s when the Urban Dictionary entry for “Altima energy” and the first Google searches for “big Altima energy” were made according to Google Trends. These were examples of people agreeing on vernacular for a trend they themselves had observed for years, but had not yet put a name to.

“Are all Nissan Altima drivers d[$%!]bags?” asked one CivicX.com forum user in 2019. Indeed, “Nissan Altima Drivers are the worst” agreed a VW Vortex poster almost four years prior in 2015. Even elements of the motorcycle community were wary of Altimas at least as far back as 2018 according to comments on this Reddit post.

And then there’s that “Regular Car Reviews” Reddit thread above from a few years ago in which folks are spending lots of time time defining “Big Altima Energy.” Clearly, Altima drivers were an established group of motoring miscreants by that point. At least, according to the absurd stereotype. 

But as my dad likes to say, stereotypes are a shortcut for thinking. Just because we think Altima drivers suck at driving doesn’t mean they do. Given how many of Urban Dictionary’s Altima-related entries are outright prejudiced, it seemed the whole “big Altima energy” schtick runs the risk of being used as a cover for bigotry. Parroting the meme any further wouldn’t feel right unless I could prove to myself that Altima drivers really are agents of chaos.

The Data Behind The Stereotype

So I hunted for data on Altima drivers’ behavior for months, reaching out to various insurers and industry groups. None returned my inquiries. None until LendingTree, which offered me takeaways from tens of millions of submissions to QuoteWizard, its in-house insurance quote aggregator. This data is all self-reported by drivers, and is one of the largest and most complete sources of info on driver behavior out there.

The company also parsed data from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), which records fatal crashes across the United States. Specifically, they looked for crashes involving aggressive or distracted driving, which I’ll abbreviate “ADF” for aggression/distraction fatalities. It also contextualized info from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s public insurance loss database, which painted an unflattering portrait of Altima drivers.

According to NHTSA FARS data processed by LendingTree, Altima drivers ranked sixth for ADF crashes in 2022, with 63. They also stand out in IIHS rankings for midsize sedan insurance losses, with the highest rate of claims filed for personal injury. Altimas also rank second for claim rates on bodily injury, medical payments, and property damage, which also takes claim values into account. (These are all second to the Chevy Malibu, a comparison we’ll explore more later.) It also came in third for losses by collision, and fourth for losses on comprehensive policies. Interestingly, the all-wheel-drive Altima was ranked separately with significantly lower rates of insurance losses. I’ll touch on a potential cause of that later.

But hold your horses, because it’s too easy to draw a misleading conclusion from these stats at face value. If the Altima has poorer safety ratings than other midsize sedans, a higher rate of fatal crashes doesn’t say as much about its drivers. You may also wonder why the same-size Honda Accord—which ranked higher for ADF crash volume—doesn’t have the same stigma attached. Or for that matter, why the seemingly injury-prone Malibu ranks lower than the Altima for ADF crashes in 10th. There seems to be an answer to these questions, and it starts by touching on the list’s big hitters.

That’s literal, because three of the top five vehicles on the ADF list are full-size pickups. Their mass simply means crashes involving them can be more serious, while their popularity means they just get in more crashes. Popularity also explains the Accord-Altima-Malibu hierarchy, because it mirrors their last decade of sales.

Between calendar years 2014 and 2023, Honda sold 2,725,113 Accords according to Good Car Bad Car, with Nissan notching 2,088,302 Altimas and Chevy claiming 1,449,792 Malibus over that period. Compare that to their rate of ADF crashes, and you’ll find the Altima has an 11.1-percent higher rate of these incidents than the Accord. (Meanwhile, the Malibu comes in 3.5 percent below the Honda.) This isn’t due to any difference in how safe these sedans are, either: All three have five-star NHTSA crash test ratings at both ends of the 2014-2023 window.

“When it comes to IIHS safety ratings, the 2020 Altima performed quite well with good ratings in six different crashworthiness evaluations and a top rating of superior in our original 12- and 25-mph crash prevention tests,” commented Joe Young, director of media relations for the IIHS/HLDI. “In fact, combined with several other ratings, the 2020 Altima earned a Top Safety Pick that year.”

Young also noted that the IIHS’s ADF numbers were based solely on 2019 and 2020 models, meaning these statistics aren’t skewed by crashes involving older, less-safe vehicles. That means, despite competitive safety marks from both the federal government and independent testers, the Altima is still a statistical outlier. That seems to leave only one variable to blame: the driver.

The Drivers Behind The Data

“The Nissan Altima is a safe car that is often driven in an unsafe manner,” summarized LendingTree’s Rob Bhatt, a car insurance expert and a licensed agent. “Its high ranking for fatal accidents from speeding or aggressive driving is particularly troubling.”

From insurers’ perspective, Bhatt says the Altima is a “puzzling” vehicle. He explained that insurers determine premiums using data on how often a car is crashed and how expensive those crashes are. There are plenty of predictive risk factors too, like low safety ratings, complex or electrified drivetrains, and being a performance car. By all measures, the safe, simple, slow Nissan Altima should be as expensive to insure as any other run-of-the-mill commuter.

“The Altima is a gas-powered car with a high safety rating,” Bhatt said. “It should be involved in fewer accidents than other cars and have fewer repairs. It’s not an EV, hybrid or precision tuned luxury car, so it’s probably cheaper to repair than cars with more sophisticated technology or intricate features. In other words, it should have low claims frequency and low claims severity.

But against all logic, the Altima more than doubled the average rate of personal injury and medical payment claims for midsize sedans between 2020 and 2022. Its rate of crash claims was 45 percent above the average, too. To put things into perspective, Bhatt compared the Altima’s premiums to those of a vehicle you expect to be pricey to insure—a luxury EV.

“I recently reviewed insurance rates for 36 new model year cars to compare EV insurance rates to rates for gas cars,” Bhatt said. “The Nissan Altima had the 25th-highest insurance rate. Full coverage for a Nissan Altima costs an average of $228 a month, before discounts. That’s slightly higher than the $225-a-month rate for the electric Cadillac Lyriq. One of the more interesting aspects about this is that a new Lyriq costs more than twice as much as an Altima.”

“Unfortunately, the actions of its drivers are offsetting the positive qualities that should be providing low crash rates and low insurance rates,” Bhatt concluded.

So there you have it, Altima drivers really do seem to cause more trouble on the road than the average driver. But why? That’s a far harder question to answer. 

“Driver death rates reflect the real-world experience of a vehicle, which can be affected by where, when, how, and by whom they’re driven,” the IIHS’s Young told me. “If newer/younger drivers are drawn to a given model, that could affect its real-world experience because these drivers are more likely to crash. Similarly, men (especially young men) are more likely to engage in certain reckless behaviors like red light running, so a model that appeals to this demographic may be driven more dangerously in some cases.”

Identifying those demographics is tougher than it sounds, because the automotive industry keeps those cards close to its chest. When I contacted JD Power for current Altima-buyer data from its APEAL studies, whose publication Yahoo! Autos covered in 2016, it declined to share. Much of the info that is out there is of a similar, outdated vintage, and only addresses the new-car market. The body of Altima owners as a whole is better-understood by insurers, who didn’t return my emails.

But one demographic repeatedly pops up, both in studies from a decade ago and in contemporary reporting. The JD Power study covered above noted Altima customers were more price-sensitive than the average midsize car buyer, and also favored its thrifty fuel economy. A 2016 LendingTree study published in Media Post observed the Altima’s popularity with Millennials, a skint demographic compared to the average new-car buyer. More recently, marketing analysts at YouGov reported this year that Nissan customers in general are more likely to be from poorer households. According to the Federal Reserve, lower income correlates with the one demographic that LendingTree’s Bhatt suggested was worth noting — buyers with low credit scores.

“Past insurance industry research has shown that drivers with bad credit are generally more likely to get into an accident than those with good credit,” Bhatt said. “In most states, insurance companies can charge you more if you have bad credit.”

Bhatt emphasized how tenuous the correlation between crashes and credit rating are, and the flaws with the credit score system as a whole. That said, it’s an interesting coincidence that Nissan buyers previously ranked second-lowest in a 2020 LendingTree study of credit scores by car make. Only Kia ranked lower, and both makes have a reputation (deserved or not) for playing fast-sand-loose with who they finance. For what it’s worth, both were named by CarsDirect in November 2023 as good options for car buyers with bad credit.

[Ed Note: To be clear, we’re not saying that folks with less money are worse drivers. Insurance companies consider folks with lower credit scores to be higher risk (some experts seem to say a low credit score implies a recklessness that translates to driving, but that seems simple to me), though that can be due to a number of factors, like perhaps folks with lower credit scores being younger. This is a complex issue; just know that we’re not saying that your driving ability has to do with how much jingle you have in your pocket! -DT]

Additionally, it’s interesting that all-wheel-drive Altimas should have markedly lower crash rates than front-wheel-drive models. AWD is a premium option, so hypothetically, AWD Altimas are less accessible to buyers with the poorest credit scores (who correlate with higher crash rates). The reduced acceleration that comes with AWD may also contribute—though even the AWD Altima still comes in above average for insurance losses according to the IIHS. 

The Fastest Car In The World Is A Rental Nissan Altima

To scrape together one last small plate of food for thought, let’s also consider Nissan’s dependence on fleet sales to hit its targets in recent years. As of early 2018, Nissan was the top seller to rental agencies according to Grewal & Levy Marketing—a crutch that Automotive News reports Nissan had returned to as of March 2024. Rental-industry software supplier Rentall indicates that the biggest rental agencies replace their fleet vehicles after no more than a year of service, meaning they regularly offload lots of hard-lived late-model vehicles—disproportionately Nissans—onto the used market. These are circumstantial connections, but it seems safe to guess that there’s an abundance of ex-rental Altimas out there. They’re new enough to look reasonably classy, yet cheap enough that a shopper with a rocky financial history can secure a loan for one.

Knowing all of the above, I’ll let you paint the picture of the archetypal Altima driver in your head. They drive perfectly safe cars, yet they get into serious crashes far more than they should. Why? We can’t say definitively, because it’s a chain of correlation and circumstantial evidence. But there do seem to be compounding factors that make Altimas accessible to less financially stable buyers, who, at least statistically, are more likely to be in crashes. But again, it’s not just a simple correlation.

In light of all this, it’s much harder to point and laugh at Altimas on the road, even if we’re justified in giving them a wide berth. But this knowledge won’t serve us for very long. While the Altima seems to be going away in a few years, its drivers aren’t going anywhere. They’ll take the wheels of other cars and disappear into the crowd, remaining anonymous as long as they don’t make statistics of themselves. If they do, we’re sure to spot their descendants cutting through traffic in whatever takes the Altima’s place. And in time, maybe they’ll leave numerical tire tracks that pick up where the Altima’s leave off.

Top Image: By Author