Where each one leads

Acura Legend

• Against cars of the same year, the Acura Legend comes out better in New York safety inspections (fails 5% less often than average) than the Nissan Altima (fails 19% more often than average).

Nissan Altima

• On Canada's official test the most frugal 2025 Nissan Altima uses 8.2 l/100 km, the 1995 Acura Legend 12.5.

Only measures that do not depend on how many cars were sold: pass and failure rates against cars of the same age, ratings, fuel use and CO₂. How we compare

At a glance

	Acura Legend	Nissan Altima
Model years in the US safety record	1986–1995	1992–2026

EEA new-car registrations (CC BY 4.0) · DVLA licensed vehicles (OGL v3.0) · RDW (CC0) · Traficom (CC BY 4.0) · generations: Wikidata (CC0).

Reliability and problems

	Acura Legend	Nissan Altima
New York safety inspections failed	1.2%	2.1%
… against cars of the same year	−5%	+19%
US owner complaints	382	15,482
Most complaints about	Equipment	Power train
Model year with most complaints	1991 (117)	2013 (2,313)
US recall campaigns	5	54
Manufacturer service bulletins	53	3,959
NHTSA defect investigations	17	41

Complaint, recall and bulletin counts grow with the number of cars sold and are not adjusted for it. UK MOT: DVSA anonymised MOT results (OGL v3.0); New York: DMV inspections; complaints, recalls, bulletins and investigations: NHTSA (public domain); odometer: RDW (CC0).

Safety

	Acura Legend	Nissan Altima
NHTSA overall rating	—	5★ (2027)

NHTSA New Car Assessment Program, most recent rated model year (public domain).

Fuel, emissions and price

	Acura Legend	Nissan Altima
Official combined fuel use, Canada	12.5 l/100 km (1995)	8.2 l/100 km (2025)

Canada: NRCan Fuel Consumption Ratings, most frugal version of the latest year (OGL Canada). Europe: EEA monitoring of new-car CO₂ and on-board fuel meters (OBFCM), CC BY 4.0. Price: RDW catalogue price (CC0). Finland: Traficom (CC BY 4.0).