Nissan knows how to woo shoppers into a showroom.

The 2019 Altima is offered in S, SR, SV, SL, and Platinum trim levels, with increasing features that will challenge its rivals. One thing Nissan does better than some of those rivals: its base cars get most of the good stuff, already.

The base 2019 Altima S is hardly luxurious, but it is well-equipped. It offers cloth upholstery, Bluetooth connectivity, an 8.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, automatic emergency braking, remote start, keyless ignition, and four USB charge ports, for $24,645. The only demerit? 16-inch wheels with caps.

Everything else above the wheels is good, and we give it a point above average. The 8.0-inch screen is generous enough for a point too. It gets a 7 out of 10 on our feature scale. (Read more about how we rate cars.)

All-wheel drive is available on every trim level, including base for $1,350 more.

The Altima’s bottom line can swell past $35,000 with a top-of-the-line Platinum equipped with a more powerful 2.0-liter turbo-4. For that spend, Nissan offers leather upholstery, a leather-wrapped heated steering wheel, 19-inch wheels, power-adjustable heated front seats, navigation, premium audio by Bose, a surround-view camera system, driver-assist features (that we cover above), active safety features, and a moonroof.

We see better value in the Goldilocks zone, right around the SV trim level.

For $28,825, the 2019 Altima SV offers cloth seats, 17-inch wheels, heated front seats, a leather-wrapped heated steering wheel, remote start with climate conditioning, dual-zone climate controls, and active safety features including Nissan’s suite of driver assistance systems.

That last part is perhaps the most important: few cars on the road offer the same driver-assistance systems, and those that do can easily cost twice as much as the Altima.

We wouldn’t begrudge anyone for considering the SL trim level that, for roughly $2,000 more, adds leather upholstery and premium audio to the Altima SV.

Nissan steers sporty with the SR trim grade, but “sport” and “mid-size sedan” still go together in our ears like “peacekeeping” and “missile.”

Review continues below