Nissan Motor Co., one of the first Japanese automakers to enter the U.S., in 1958, was hitting its stride by the time the 1970s closed. It was a rocky decade that saw imports make major inroads as Americans embraced smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.
A decade later, Nissan had lost ground to Honda and Toyota. (Nissan's market share dropped from around 5.5 percent in 1980 to 4.7 percent in 1991 as the combined share of Toyota and Honda collectively rose from 9.7 percent to 14.3 percent, according to the Automotive News Data Center.)
Nissan entered the 1990s by unveiling a "three-sedan strategy" in the U.S. The program gained traction with the 1992 introduction of the 1993 Altima, an all-new model based on the Stanza. It was engineered and developed to better compete with the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Ford Taurus, the nation's top-selling cars.
Nissan's parent company started hiring American auto designers in the 1970s to consult on future trends in the key market. Extensive research was conducted to determine what American consumers wanted in a car. In 1979, Nissan Design International Inc. was established in San Diego. It was Nissan's first overseas styling studio.
The Altima was designed by the California design studio starting in 1989. The car's official name was "Stanza Altima," which appears in early owners manuals. Some 1993 models had a sticker that read "Stanza" in small lettering to the right of the Altima emblem on the trunk lid.
Nissan began output of the Altima, a replacement for the midsize Stanza, on June 11, 1992, in Smyrna, Tenn., a factory that opened in 1983 to build pickups. By the end of the year, the Altima had become the bestselling new import nameplate in the U.S.
The first-generation Altima was powered by a 150-hp, 2.4-liter, inline-four engine matched with a choice of five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission.
Some dealers were apprehensive about the Altima's sloping trunk line, which represented what Jerry Hirshberg, head of Nissan's U.S. design office, called an assault against "the tyranny of the wedge."
He later described the first-generation Altima as "close to pure sculpture."
Since its debut, the Altima has been among Nissan's top-selling models annually in the U.S.
