2019 Toyota Camry vs 2019 Honda Accord vs 2019 Nissan Altima

Watch the video of this comparison here.

With the arrival of the 2019 Nissan Altima, it’s time to re-evaluate which of the big three family sedans is the best buy. The Camry has not been topped in sales in decades, with the Accord always in second place and the Nissan always in third. However, as my comparisons have proven, more often than not, the Camry isn’t the best vehicle. Oftentimes the Accord or even Sonata have it beat. The Camry and Accord were new for the 2018 model year, and the Altima is brand new, so none of these cars are even half way through their product cycles yet. Should make for a good, particularly fair comparison.

2019 Toyota Camry

            Now, let’s start with our first area of evaluation, which is value. The 2019 Toyota Camry XLE starts at $28,925. Standard features on the exterior of the Camry are LED headlights, taillights, and daytime running lights. Also included are heated outside mirrors, door handles with a touch-sensor lock or unlock feature, and 18-inch wheels. In the interior, the Camry houses dual-zone climate control, wireless smartphone charging, and a seven-inch information display in the gauge cluster. Front passengers live with luxurious leather-trimmed heated seats that are power adjustable eight ways for both chairs. The steering wheel is also leather and has the car’s Bluetooth and cruise control buttons. The XLE has a woodgrain interior, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, and an anti-lockout feature. The smart key system works on the front doors and the trunk and it has push-button start. The main piece of technology in the interior is the eight-inch touchscreen in the dashboard that has Toyota’s infotainment system on-board. It has Apple CarPlay standard as well as a subscription to SiriusXM radio. The Toyota also has a HomeLink transceiver for your garage door and WiFi that’s limited to two gigabytes in the six-month trial (which is, of course, renewable). The 2019 Camry is packed with active safety features to help the driver be as safe as possible, such as lane-departure alert with steering assist, dynamic radar cruise control, a blind spot monitor with rear-cross traffic alert and a pre-collision system with pedestrian detection.

            The 2019 Honda Accord EX-L starts at a slightly more expensive $30,120. Exterior features that are standard on this trim are LED brake lights, fog lights and daytime running lights, heated mirrors with turn signal indicators and smart entry with walk away and auto lock. The Honda also has a power moonroof and 17-inch wheels. Moving to the inside of the car, we see a similar dual-zone climate control system, push-button start, leather steering wheel and shift knob, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror and HomeLink. Leather, heated front seats are 12-way power adjustable for the driver and four-way adjustable for the passenger. The driver seat has two memory programmable functions. In the center console is an eight-inch display with Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, HondaLink, SiriusXM, and a 450-watt audio system with ten speakers and a subwoofer. It’s worth noting that the Camry has a more standard six speakers. Active safety features on the Accord are lane-keeping assist with Honda Sensing, adaptive cruise control with low-speed follow, a traffic sign recognition system, collision mitigation braking, road departure mitigation, forward collision warning, and a blind spot information system with a cross traffic monitor.

2019 Nissan Altima

The Nissan Altima SL is brand new for 2019 and comes with a base price of $29,840. Exterior features include 17-inch wheels, LED headlights and fog lights, heated outside mirrors with turn signal indicators, and a power moonroof. The Nissan comes appointed with dual-zone climate control, remote engine start with intelligent climate control, and HomeLink. The Altima also has a smart key with push-button start. The seats are eight-way power adjustable for the driver and four-way for the passenger. The fronts are heated, and all seats as well as the steering wheel and shift knob are leather-wrapped. Interior trim in this version is wood, similar to the Toyota. The infotainment system touchscreen in the Altima is eight-inches like in the other two, but it also has navigation with voice recognition. SiriusXM, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and Bluetooth round out the standard technology services. The Altima SL has a premium audio system from Bose with nine speakers. Active safety in the Altima comprises of intelligent cruise control, forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, intelligent lane intervention, blind spot warning, and rear cross traffic alert with rear automatic braking. Nissan has developed a few of their own unique safety features called ProPilot and Intelligent Driver Alertness. ProPilot comes in different forms in other manufacturers, but basically it slows down or speeds up the Altima to match the vehicle ahead of you in a form of autopilot. It is especially useful in stop-and-go traffic. The driver alertness system monitors steering wheel inputs from the driver to make sure the driver is staying alert and awake, and if they aren’t it will chime at them to wake them up or pressure them to take a break. Of course, for people that would rather fall asleep and wreck into a tree, the system can be turned off.

Let’s now talk about the passive safety ratings of each vehicle. The 2019 Toyota Camry is a Top Safety Pick Plus from the IIHS, getting good in every category and superior in front crash prevention. The 2019 Honda Accord is a Top Safety Pick, and gets the same ratings as the Camry in every category except headlights, where it got acceptable, preventing it from getting the ‘Plus’ designation. The 2019 Altima has not yet been rated by IIHS at the time of this writing, but the 2018 model received a Top Safety Pick rating and got good ratings everywhere except headlights, where it matched the Honda and child seat anchors, where it got marginal. Typically, newer models don’t perform worse than previous ones, so I’ll give the Nissan the benefit of the doubt and rank it the same as the Honda. If it receives even better rankings than I am predicting, I will edit the comparison and adjust the scores.

Next, let’s look at the powertrain of each vehicle, and its corresponding performance. The Toyota uses the familiar company 2.5-liter four cylinder. It received an update in 2018 and is now rated at 203 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. The transmission was also updated with the launch of the new Camry and Toyota dropped the antiquated six-speed for a new eight speed slushbox. The Honda has a smaller 1.5-liter inline four cylinder, that compensates for its smaller size with a turbocharger. It’s rated at 192 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque. In the interest of fuel economy, the Honda uses a Continuously Variable Transmission, or CVT. These transmissions have no actual gears, and are instead constantly shifting RPM, instead of upshifting or downshifting. The Nissan also uses a CVT, so it’s interesting to see Toyota sticking with a more traditional automatic. Companies have increasingly been switching over to CVTs in the name of fuel economy, so we’ll see later if the engine and transmission combination in the Camry will hamper its performance relative to the Nissan and Honda. Anyway, the CVT in the Altima is connected to a basic 2.5-liter four cylinder like the Camry, but it’s rated at 188 horsepower and 182 pound-feet of torque.

These engines aren’t the most powerful or the most fun, but let’s see how they’ll do in acceleration tests. The 2019 Camry hits 60 miles per hour in 7.6 seconds, while the Accord manages 7.3. The 2019 Altima is expected to be right in the middle of those times at about 7.5 seconds.

More importantly, let’s see how the powertrains line up when it comes to fuel economy, which is an issue deeply ingrained in this segment. The Camry, with its eight-speed automatic gets a very good 28 miles per gallon in the city and 39 on the highway. The Accord tops the Camry in the city by two MPG at 30, but loses one on the highway at 38. The Altima matches the Camry’s ratings exactly. Apparently, Toyota was able to stick with a larger engine and traditional automatic and still remain competitive.

Next, let’s look at our only subjective category, which is styling. It used to be that the Camry was the homeliest of the group, but with the 2018 update, the styling actually got—dare I say it—attractive. The Accord is still my favorite of the group, and the car genuinely looks good—much better than the previous generation. The Altima is also much better looking than the previous generation. I like all three, but I guess I still have to rank the Camry last even though it’s actually good looking. The Altima has a cookie cutter rear end that’s surprisingly striking, but it’s sort of unoriginal. Some Lexus, Kia, and the previous generation Toyota Avalon all have extremely similar rear ends, though I do think Nissan did the design the best. On the interiors, the Altima has the cleanest design, followed by the Accord. The Camry isn’t bad but the weird darked out shape in the center stack doesn’t flow well. I think the steering wheel looks dated, and I don’t think it’s changed much from the 2012 Camry. The Nissan’s small center and svelte shape are much more attractive.

Our final category to evaluate is reliability. I get my ratings from Consumer Reports, which has been testing each vehicle for years and has amassed an extensive database. The Toyota is, unsurprisingly, rated Better than Average, and the Honda gets Average, which also isn’t anything new. The Altima, however, matches the Camry’s rating of Better than Average, which is unusual for most Nissans. Nissans of yore were plagued with reliability issues and were typically related below average. In fact, I have seen countless mid-2000 era Nissans ready for the junk yard much faster than their owners anticipated. However, the new vehicles must be of better quality, for the 2019 Altima fares well in this testing.

Well, that’s all I have for this comparison! Here are the standings ranked for each car on a scale from one to ten. As you can see, there’s a lot to digest here. In all my years of comparing, the 2019 model year has never fared so well for Toyota. Though it didn’t win, it was extremely close, and usually the Toyotas are objectively noncompetitive. Welcome back, Camry. As you can see, the spread that separates the winning Altima from the losing Accord is one point, so all three of these cars are not only extremely close, but also all very good cars that I would have no problem recommending to people. In previous years, the Honda almost always won, and the Nissan has never won a comparison before, so these new models are really bringing some changes about. The Altima offered significantly better features than the other cars for a middling asking price, especially navigation, hence its value score. The Accord wins overall styling, but loses big points in reliability, because I assign two points to every level up or down in Consumer Report’s rankings. The Nissan won by a half point, which can be chalked up to nothing, but it’s a victory for Toyota and Nissan to even be competitive enough to beat the Accord. Tune in next year to see if Honda has a response.

Here are the standings and how I ranked each car. Altima's asterisk is because it's official IIHS ratings haven't been published yet.

2019 Toyota Corolla vs 2019 Nissan Sentra--Comparison

For the video, click here.

The Corolla is the number two bestselling compact car, and the Nissan Sentra isn’t far behind at number three. The Civic outsells them both, so you may be wondering why it hasn’t been included in this comparison. Unfortunately, the 2019 Civic was not available for me to film yet, and as it becomes available I will release a new comparison featuring the three. For now, though, we’ll stick to the Sentra and Corolla. Naturally, consumers want to know which is the best car, so today I will be comparing them using multiple points of evaluation. I assess each category on a scale from one to ten to come to as objective a conclusion as possible. 

Let’s begin with our first area of evaluation, which is value. The features that are available on both vehicles here include push-button start, some form of smart key, a SiriusXM subscription, Bluetooth, and a seven-inch screen in the dash housing the infotainment system. Other features they have in common are 60/40 split folding rear seats, a leather wrapped steering wheel, heated front seats, and a power moonroof. Now let’s look at the differences between each car. The 2019 Toyota Corolla XLE begins life at $22,135. It has automatic climate control, but it doesn’t have dual zone capability. However, it does have an eight-way power adjustable front driver seat and even allows the passenger four ways of power adjustment. The Toyota comes with six speakers, and its wheels are 16 inches instead of 17. However, it does boast LED headlights and daytime running lights, which aided the vehicle in the safety segment that we will get to shortly. Speaking of safety, the Toyota does come with a lot of active features such as dynamic radar cruise control, lane departure alert with steering assist, and a pre-collision system with pedestrian detection. Let’s move on to the Nissan Sentra SR Turbo. The Nissan has some more premium features for its $22,570 price, such as LED headlights, dual zone climate control, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Fog-lights, 17-inch wheels, heated side mirrors, and 6 speakers are also present; however, it is also lacking some key features, such as any form of power adjustable seats, and active safety features. All it has in this segment is automatic emergency braking, lacking any form of lane recognition assistance or dynamic cruise control. 

Safety is very important for these small cars in a sea of large SUVs, so we’ll move on to that next. Of course, we have already discussed the active safety features, which were included in the value segment, so let’s instead look at the passive safety features and the IIHS ratings. The outstanding performance here lies with the Toyota, which received the Top Safety Pick award, and got a rating of ‘Good’ in every area the IIHS tests, except headlights, where it got acceptable. The Nissan wasn’t that far off of the Toyota, to be honest. The biggest thing stopping it from scoring as well as the Toyota were the headlights. The Sentra SR Turbo scored poor in this segment, which prevents it from the lauded award. The Nissan’s LED’s must not have been enough to earn it an ‘Acceptable’ rating. 

Something that buyers of these compact cars care about even more than safety is fuel economy. The Toyota gets 28 miles per gallon in the city and 36 on the highway, and the Nissan trails with 27 in the city and 33 on the highway. 

Something that buyers may care less about is the powertrain of each car and the corresponding performance, but that is a necessary point of evaluation for every car on the market. The Toyota sticks to natural aspiration with its 1.8 liter inline four cylinder, but only manages 132 horsepower and 128-pound feet. The Toyota has a Continuously Variable Transmission, or CVT in the interest of fuel economy. The Nissan is turbocharged, making 188 horsepower and 177-pound feet from its inline 1.8-liter four cylinder, which is attached to the industry standard CVT. Historically, however, turbocharged engines come with more variation in EPA ratings than naturally aspirated ones, but for the sake of the comparison the only numbers we have to rely on are EPA numbers. 

Let’s look at how each vehicle’s powertrain performs in a test from a dead standstill to 60 miles per hour. The Corolla is the slowest of the two, which is no surprise given its power deficit. It takes a sluggish 9.2 seconds to get to 60 miles per hour, compared to a quick 7.0 seconds for the Sentra SR Turbo. 

2019 Toyota Corolla

Styling is a controversial topic because it is purely subjective, so your tastes may differ from mine. This generation Corolla’s look was a much more disputed look than the previous generation, and I don’t think the 2017 facelift helped much. Personally, I didn’t mind the 2014-2016 Corolla’s styling, but it started looking weird in 2017. The Sentra hasn’t changed much, and it looks rather plain, but at least it isn’t ugly. Moving on to the interiors of each car, my tastes change a little. The Corolla has a better interior than the Sentra. Styling in general in this segment is sort of insignificant because they are both very close, especially interior wise so there isn’t a whole lot to say. 

Finally, let’s look at our last evaluation area, which is reliability. The 2019 Corolla is rated Much Better than Average by Consumer Reports, where the Nissan is rated Worse than Average. Nissan vehicles seem to struggle more in reliability than the other Japanese makes, like Honda, Toyota, Subaru and Mazda. Even some GM vehicles have been edging them out. The weight of this category is significant, so Nissan could really use to look at the quality of their product. 

Here are the final scores for the Nissan and Toyota on a scale from one to ten in each category I evaluated. As you can see, the Corolla pulls ahead in value and safety, but demolishes the Nissan in reliability, because they are the best of the best and worst of the worst in this category. The only category that the Nissan won was for powertrain, and even then, some people don’t like its CVT. I tied them for styling because I considered it a wash, essentially. Thanks for reading! See the infographic below to see how I ranked each car. This year, the Corolla won, although both are due for a re-fresh soon.