The 2.5-liter engine in the 2007 Nissan Altima serves as the perfect example of how far four-cylinder engines have come. While it revs like a four-banger and lacks the silky refinement of some V6s, this widely-used powerplant provides plenty of giddy-up, and with the optional CVT at work, revs make sure all 175 horses are constantly at the ready. No need to qualify this one as “just a four-cylinder model.” Furthermore, drivers can have a bit of fun with the CVT’s manual shift function, which we used quite often during spirited operation and may have lead to the 23 mpg average we recorded after a week of driving.

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