| Income Bracket | Monthly Financing Cost Range | Cash Purchase Price Range | Nissan Altima Years | Honda Accord Years | Best Model Year: | Why? |
| < $5k | $42-$83 | $1,500-$3,000 | N/A | N/A | N/A | Only “worst of” model years fit this price range |
| $5k-$10k | $83-$125 | $3,000-$4,500 | N/A | 2004, 2005 | 2004 Honda Accord | Only Altimas marked “worst of” are in this price range and the 2004 Accord has better safety than the 2005 model |
| $10k-$15k | $125 – $187 | $4,500-$6,750 | 2010, 2012-2014 | 2006, 2007, 2011 | 2014 Nissan Altima | Similar reliability and safety with the 2011 Accord, but superior fuel economy with the Altima |
| $15k-$25k | $187-$312 | $6,750-$11,250 | 2015, 2016 | 2010 | 2015 Nissan Altima | Higher FIXD Reliability Score |
| $25k-$35k | $312-$437 | $11,250-$15,750 | 2017, 2018 | 2014-2017 | 2015 Honda Accord | More reliable and higher safety rating |
| $35k-$50k | $437-$625 | $15,750-$22,500 | 2019, 2020 | 2019, 2021 | 2020 Nissan Altima | Better reliability and fuel efficiency ratings |
| $50k-$74k | $625-$925 | $22,500-$33,300 | 2021 | 2020 | 2020 Honda Accord | Perfect 5/5 safety score |
See the methodology for the table above.
Anyone shopping for a sedan is surely familiar with the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord as these two mid-size cars have been duking it out since the Altima arrived in 1992. The Accord has been on customer radars even longer since it debuted back in 1976.
Over that span, there have been plenty of solid model years for both vehicles and plenty of stinkers. So, to help you sort the cream of the crop from the chaff, we’ve put together this comprehensive comparison of the Altima and Accord as far back as 2001 and as recently as 2021.
If you’re in the market for something shinier, please head over to our 2023 Nissan Altima versus Honda Accord matchup.
For those looking to take advantage of depreciation, on the other hand, you’re in the right place. This comparison of used model years distills the in-depth analysis performed as part of our best and worst model year rankings of the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord into one easy-to-digest writeup.
These rankings lean heavily on objective reliability ratings from one model year to the next as recorded and calculated by customer-installed FIXD devices. We also factor in those owners’ subjective feelings on their Altimas and Accords’ reliability.
Also incorporated are safety scores from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), current market values from Kelley Blue Book (KBB), fuel economy figures published on FuelEconomy.gov, and owner-reported annual upkeep costs.
But perhaps one of the top concerns when it comes to buying a car is budget. Which is what the table above zeroes in on. Each row is broken out by increasing ranges for income bracket, financing costs, and purchase price range per KBB. Lastly, we offer Altima and Accord options that have already been rated “best of” in our model year rankings.
Before you get too far down this path, be sure to consult our used car buying checklist so that you’re as prepared as possible. And if you’re on the fence with the Altima and Accord, have a look at some other options like the Toyota Camry, Chevy Malibu, and Ford Fusion.
We’ve also compared the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord to some of these competitors, which you can check out below:
Price History Comparison | Nissan Altima vs Honda Accord
Average Market Value – Based on Owners’ Self-Reported Mileages | Nissan Altima vs Honda Accord
The chart above plots market values for the Altima and Accord, per KBB, going back to 2001. As you’d expect, these figures drop steadily over time as older vehicles naturally have more mileage. Something else that jumps out is how the Accord (gray bars) is consistently more expensive than the Altima (green bars).
This advantage in resale values that the Honda enjoys is certainly a benefit to sellers, but buyers should also keep it in mind should they end up selling their car further down the line.
This trend correlates with a steeper depreciation curve for the Altima, as we’ll look at below, and is all the more interesting considering a base 2001 Accord was about $2,000 cheaper than a 2001 Altima. Some of this variance can be chalked up to consumers having a higher perceived value of the Accord.
However, notably large gaps in pricing, like with the 2013 model year, also have a mileage component. For 2013, Altima owners reported an average of 132,000 miles versus 113,000 for 2013 Accord owners. So, be sure to compare not only model year reliability but also how the odometer readings stack up.
Depreciation vs Maintenance Expenses
The two charts above overlay depreciation curves for the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord with the maintenance cost per mile of each car. As noted earlier, the Altima’s curve drops more steeply from right to left as the car ages.
No vehicle is immune from the effects of depreciation, but that steeper drop for the Altima means its resale values suffer versus an Accord of the same year. Typically, a new car loses 10 to 15% of its value after one year of ownership.
By year five, that value loss is close to 50%. If you look at the Accord’s chart, it shows a residual value of 25% – or a depreciation of 75% – for the 2012 model. For that Altima, that milestone happened with the 2015 model year or 3 years earlier, which helps explain the Accords’s reputation for resale value.
Why is this relevant? Because savvy used car buyers can look for an Altima or Accord that doesn’t have much room for depreciation left to save significant money. The black box on each chart highlights a sweet spot for these cars where there’s no more than 15% residual value and the cost per mile in maintenance is less than 9 cents.
For the Nissan Altima, that sweet spot is between 2007 and 2014. If you overlay that with the Altima’s best and worst model year rankings, you’d see that 2010, and 2012 through 2014 are all best years as well, making them ideal purchase candidates.
With the Honda, the 2004 through 2007 model years all receive a thumbs up on their best and worst model year rankings and fall within the sweet spot that runs from 2004 to 2008.
Reliability Comparison | Nissan Altima vs Honda Accord
Here we have two reliability charts. The one above on the left measures objective reliability. It comes from the best and worst model year series that covers the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord, which features data collected by owners’ FIXD devices.
On the right above is a chart comparing those owners’ subjective sense of reliability for their Altimas and Accords from 2001 to 2021. As you can see, the bars on this chart are often close together height-wise, meaning owners generally think their cars are equally reliable.
However, the FIXD chart on the left paints a different picture. In 12 of the 21 model years, the Honda Accord (gray bars) posts a higher FIXD Reliability Score than the Nissan Altima. There are only 4 model years where the Altima comes out ahead.
Model years with significant reliability score gaps in favor of the Accord include 2004, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2016, and 2017. And each one of those Accord model years lands on the “best of” side of its respective rankings.
Longevity Comparison | Nissan Altima vs Honda Accord
The graph above should help you get a sense of what is considered high mileage for a used Altima and Accord. Considering only the 2001 and 2002 model years, for both cars, are close to 200,000 miles, that would be a good high-water mark.
But more importantly, would-be buyers can use this chart to get an idea of where to set their shopping sights given how much mileage they’re comfortable with. Clearly, the 100,000-mile mark has been achieved with relative ease by both cars as recently as the 2015 model year.
Between roughly 2003 and 2010, hitting 150,000 miles comes with regularity, but not every buyer is comfortable with that kind of mileage. On this note, it’s important to weigh the odometer readings with expected reliability.
For example, the 2003 Altima may be cheap and may run deep into six-figure mileage territory, but it gets a thumbs down on its best and worst model year rankings. Looking at the above chart, this is not too surprising as the green bar in 2003 bucks the trend of ever-increasing mileage indicating possible reliability issues.
You can see a similar pattern with the 2008 Honda Accord, a model year we don’t recommend on its best and worst rankings and one that shows a decline in owner-reported mileage versus later model years.
Who Should Buy These Cars: The Legacy of The Nissan Altima & Honda Accord
| Frequent Use Categories: | Honda Accord | How Useful? (Out of 5 Stars) | Nissan Altima | How Useful? (Out of 5 Stars) |
| Family Vehicle | ***** | * * * * * |
| Lots of Driving (travel/long commute) | **** | * * * * * |
| Hauling/Towing | * | * |
| Office on Wheels | * | * |
| Sport/Fast Driving | * | * |
| Luxurious Driving | * | * |
| Outdoor/Off-Road | * | * |
This table shows how owners primarily use their Nissan Altimas and Honda Accords. Both cars show 5 stars (the highest score) as family vehicles. So, you can bet these cars rank highly for safety, a topic we’ll go deeper into below.
Lots of driving is another popular use category, which correlates with the previous section on how easily the Altima and Accord register 100,000- and even 150,000-mile odometer readings.
Though the rest of the categories all register 1 star, parsing the data shows an important note on the Sport/Fast Driving option. One star means that less than 10% of owners, on average, selected a given usage category.
However, only 1% of Accord owners ticked the Sport/Fast Driving box versus 6% of Altima owners. So, be sure to find out if the used Altima you’re looking to buy was owned by a leadfoot as this more aggressive driving generally means more wear and tear.
Driver Experience | A Summary of The Top 10 Nissan Altima vs Honda Accord Reddit Posts:
Data is nice, but unvarnished opinions are better, or at least more entertaining regarding vehicle research. For some of the most direct opinions, there is nothing better than the What Car Should I Buy Reddit, a forum for shoppers to hear directly from owners of the Altima and Accord on which one they think is better.
Sifting through this banter shows that for the most part, folks think pre-2017 Nissan Altimas should be avoided due to supposed CVT problems. But that sentiment gives way to mostly positive feelings for the Altima on newer models.
Honda’s better resale value is often cited as a reason to go with the Accord, but one Redditor notes that the Altima’s generally lower market value can offset some of this resale value gap.
Overall, these discussions are best taken with a grain of salt as they are highly subjective. This is illustrated by one respondent who noted, “Someone implied the Accord isn’t fun to drive; I’ve driven one, and disagree.” The point is, use this tool to gather insight but don’t let it cloud your judgment too heavily.
Year-by-Year Comparison | Nissan Altima vs Honda Accord
Best & Worst Years | Nissan Altima vs Honda Accord | 2001-2024
The red, green, and yellow timeline graphic above is a condensed version of the best and worst model year rankings for the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord. It’s intended to give you a quick reference point as to which model years are worth looking at and which are best avoided.
Model years in the green are good to go, while those in the red mean stop and be aware of reliability concerns. Any model years in the yellow section do not yet have enough data for us to formulate an accurate recommendation.
And if you’re looking at an Altima or Accord that has a blue circle accompanying it, this means it’s the start of a new generation. That’s a potential red flag as this is an occasion often fraught with reliability problems as the automaker irons out unforeseen production kinks.
Driving that point home is that the 2002 and 2007 Altima and 2003, 2008, 2013, and 2018 Accord are all the start of a new generation and from the “worst of” selections.
Conversely, the 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014 Altima and 2004 through 2007 Accord are all in the green above and within the depreciation sweet spot from earlier making these model years excellent options.
Important Features Timeline | Nissan Altima vs Honda Accord
OK, we’ve looked at budgets, reliability, odometer readings, and depreciation. This is all well and good, but what if you just want to know how long Nissan has been fitting heated seats to its Altima? Well, we’ll cover that here with a rundown of when sought-after amenities first arrived in these cars.
Heated seats are always a coveted creature comfort and one that both the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord have offered as far back as 2003. Ventilated front seats, on the other hand, are a more recent addition, available since 2019 in the Altima and one year earlier in the Accord.
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto have become increasingly common on new cars, but you could find these systems on the Accord as of 2016 and the Altima starting two years later.
Blind-spot monitoring (BSM) and lane-departure warning (LDW) are modern safety technologies that have been offered in the Nissan Altima for 10 years. The Honda Accord could be fitted with LDW in 2013 as well but didn’t add BSM to the lineup until 2018.
We’ll get to this in more detail below, but you fuel misers out there should know that Nissan made a hybrid Altima between 2008 and 2011. However, Honda’s Accord goes further with hybrid variants available from 2005 to 2007, 2014 to 2015, and 2017 to the present day.
Other content notes include the fact that all-wheel drive has only ever been an Altima offering that arrived in 2019. But both cars once offered manual transmissions. Nissan dropped the stick in 2012 and it stuck around until 2020 in the Honda.
Maintenance Costs (Year-by-Year Average) | Nissan Altima vs Honda Accord
As you can see on the chart above of owner-reported annual maintenance costs, the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord are within striking distance on this metric – most of the time. The Altima averages $705 in annual upkeep costs over 20 years versus $660 for the Accord.
However, the 2001 and 2004 Altima (green bars) define sticking out like sore thumbs. Both of these Altimas far exceed the average with the 2004 Altima being the only one to hit the $1,500 mark and then some. No surprise then that the Altima’s best and worst model year rankings give the 2001 and 2004 cars a thumbs down.
Honda doesn’t escape scrutiny here, however, as the 2021 model year is the only Accord with the dubious honor of cracking $1,000 in annual repair costs. It still sits on the right side of its model year rankings, but would-be buyers need to factor in these expected costs before pulling the trigger on a purchase.
Safety Rating Comparison | Nissan Altima vs Honda Accord
As mentioned earlier, owners of the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord often use their cars as family vehicles. So, the chart above, which displays average NHTSA safety scores, is predictably on the high side. However, you can see that the Accord (gray bars) often outperforms the Altima (green bars) when it comes to safety.
In particular, the 2001 through 2004 Accord safety rating was nearly 1 point higher than the Altima every year over that period. The 2004 Accord sits in the depreciation sweet spot as well as the right side of its best and worst model year rankings making it a prime purchase option.
The Accord also earns perfect safety scores of 5/5 from 2013 to 2022. For unknown reasons, the Altima also hits a 5/5 in 2013 – a year we recommend on the Altima’s best and worst model year rankings – but then follows a troubling trend of decreasing safety scores into 2017.
Something we do know is that in 2011, the NHTSA instituted new, more stringent crash-testing protocols. It generally caught the industry flat-footed and resulted in lower safety scores like with the Altima. However, the Accord did not suffer such a fate, as seen above, bolstering its reputation for safety that much more.
Fuel Efficiency Comparison | Nissan Altima vs Honda Accord
When it comes to the fuel efficiency of a used Nissan Altima or Honda Accord, the race is tight for conventional gas-powered models. On the above-left chart, we can see that the Accord edged out the Altima between 2001 and 2006, while the Altima noses ahead from 2013 to 2017.
Also worth paying attention to is how cars typically post fuel economy improvements from one generation to the next as powertrain technologies enable more efficient consumption. You can see this with the 2007, 2013, and 2019 Altima as well as the 2013 and 2018 Accord – all of which marked the beginning of a new lineup.
Bear in mind, however, that the first year of a new generation can also spell reliability trouble as outlined in the best and worst model year rankings of the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord. So, maybe look to one year past when a new gen starts to enjoy improved fuel efficiency.
If it’s serious fuel economy you seek, be sure to look at the hybrid MPG chart on the right. Green bars indicate the years that Nissan made a hybrid-powered Altima, while all the gray bars represent Accord hybrids and respective mileage.
If you ask me, the 2010 Nissan Altima and 2005 Honda Accord are your all-around best of the best model years. Why? Because both of these cars have already earned a thumbs-up for reliability, sit in their respective depreciation sweet spot zones, and offer tremendous hybrid fuel efficiency.
Methodology
- Compare two vehicles, the Nissan Altima and the Honda Accord, and provide a comprehensive analysis.
- Gather relevant information and data on both vehicles from reliable sources, such as manufacturer specifications, expert reviews, customer feedback, industry reports, and data sources like manufacturer websites, FIXD App, Kelley Blue Book, FuelEconomy.gov, and NHTSA.
- Collect data on various aspects, including performance, safety features, fuel efficiency, maintenance costs, reliability, owner satisfaction, and market value.
- Identify the key criteria that will be used to evaluate and compare the two vehicles.
- Ensure the criteria cover both objective factors (such as performance metrics, safety ratings, and fuel efficiency) and subjective factors (such as owner satisfaction, comfort, and features).
- Examine the safety features and ratings of both vehicles.
- Evaluate crash test ratings, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), active and passive safety features, and any notable recalls or known issues related to safety.
- Consider both NHTSA safety ratings and IIHS awards for a comprehensive safety assessment.
- Analyze the fuel economy of both vehicles based on EPA mileage estimates.
- Compare their MPG ratings, average full-tank range, and any significant differences in fuel efficiency.
- Assess the average annual maintenance and repair costs for both vehicles.
- Consider data from surveyed owners and other reliable sources, such as FIXD App owner surveys, to determine the overall cost of ownership over time.
- Evaluate the reliability of both vehicles based on owner reports, FIXD App data, and any known issues or recalls.
- Consider factors such as engine reliability, common problems by model year, long-term durability, and owner reliability scores gathered from surveys.
- Consider owner satisfaction by gathering information from forums, online communities (Reddit: r/whatcarshouldIbuy), customer reviews, and owner reliability scores.
- Summarize key factors that owners appreciate and any common complaints or drawbacks mentioned by owners.
- Compare the features and technologies offered by both vehicles.
- Highlight any notable differences in terms of infotainment systems, connectivity options, driver assistance features, interior quality, and available upgrades.
- Assess the market value and depreciation of both vehicles.
- Compare average prices, resale value, and how the vehicles hold their value over time.
- Consider average private-seller valuations from Kelley Blue Book (KBB) for a comprehensive assessment.
- Summarize the findings of the comparison, highlighting the positives and negatives of each vehicle.
- Provide a fair and balanced recommendation based on the comparison, considering factors such as budget, personal preferences, specific needs of the buyer, and the comprehensive analysis conducted.
Sources:
- KBB Values: Average private-seller valuations as supplied by Kelley Blue Book (KBB), based on a Nissan Altima and Honda Accord with typical mileage for that respective model year.
- Fuel Economy: Mileage-per-gallon estimates according to the EPA MPG on Fueleconomy.gov.
- Annual Maintenance/Repairs: Upkeep expenses as reported by surveyed Nissan Altima and Honda Accord owners.
- Safety Ratings: Crash test data collected and reported by NHTSA. We average all ratings for each year to come up with a simplified, average safety score. This makes it easier to look at on a graph. We also collected IIHS Awards for this article.
- Vehicle Features: Most or all information gathered on vehicle features were from the manufacturer websites, in this case, NissanUSA.com and Automobiles.Honda.com
Niel Stender grew up doing replacement work on his old Cherokee and sweet Mitsubishi Starion, which led to a degree in mechanical engineering and a job at Ford as a vehicle dynamics engineer. His writing infuses that automotive background with sales and marketing experience. Writing about cars for close to a decade now, he enjoys digging into some of the more technical mechanical systems under the hood and throughout a vehicle.
