Nissan marketeers have seemingly talked forever about the two-vehicle strategy to defeat its rivals in the mid-size 4-door sedan category — Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Ford Taurus.

The strategy went something like this: The Altima gave buyers a nicely equipped, comfortable little 4-cylinder car that didn’t use much gas, while the Maxima is bigger, more luxurious and has one of the greatest engines ever built, Nissan’s 3-liter V6.

Even though it sounded plausible, looking at market share, it’s obvious it hasn’t worked very well. Not necessarily because it was a bad plan, but more because the Altima was the weakest link.

Not any more.

Nissan is bringing to market a much larger, more stylish and luxurious Altima featuring a souped-up in-line-4, a powerful V6 and a smashmouth, in-your-face attitude designed to go head-to-head against its longtime class rivals.

I had the opportunity to drive the new Altima at a press introduction event held in Carmel, California. It featured a wide array of road conditions along with track testing at nearby Laguna Seca Raceway.

I came away impressed, wondering why, after driving it back-to-back with the Maxima, anyone wouldn’t opt for the Altima. I wasn’t alone in that opinion. Makes you wonder what Nissan must have in mind for the Maxima. When asked, officials from the company all just smiled and gave vague, non-committal answers — but that’s another story for another time.

This is not a makeover of the current Altima but a clean slate design. Nissan engineers started with a new platform that focused on three key areas — design, performance and roominess.

The new platform features a six inch longer wheelbase and wider track for greater dimensional flexibility and handling stability, an extremely rigid structure for a tight, quiet and solid feeling vehicle along with brand new state-of-the-art inline-4 and V6 engines,

Visually, the car at first glance could be mistaken for a Lexus G-Series with a similar sloping front grill, roofline and treatment given to the rear windows. The overall impression is of a distinctly larger, more upscale car than previous Altima’s. According to Ian Forsyth, the director of marketing at Nissan Canada Inc., the dramatic design makes it “looks like it’s moving when it’s standing still.”

Interiorwise, the new Altima offers more room than the previous version, with all major interior dimensions increased, including front headroom and legroom, rear legroom, and increases in front and rear hip and shoulder room. Nissan also made a point to raise the seating position to make it seemingly more comfortable for buyers giving up an SUV or minivan and going back to a mid-size sedan.

Instead of standard interior “color selections,” there are what Nissan has termed distinctive “environments.” These include both seat cloth or optional leather color and interior surface trim finish, including audio faceplate and HVAC controls. Power windows and door locks are also standard.

Instrumentation is a three-gauge pod that is very readable at a glance. There’s a multi-function trip computer, which includes an odometer, twin trip meters and displays for outside air temperature, fuel consumption, distance to empty, driving time and average speed. The climate and audio system control knobs are grouped in a single unit to reduce complexity. There’s also a power port inside the center console storage area for a mobile phone, a roof-mounted map light and a flip-down sunglass case. The large cup holders can accommodate a one-liter bottle.

The standard audio system is a 6-speaker 100-watt AM/FM/CD with speed-sensitive volume control and steering wheel audio controls. There is an optional 8-speaker Bose system with an AM/FM/in-dash 6-disc CD changer that also offers the speed-sensitive volume control and steering wheel audio controls.

Under the hood, an all-new 2.5-liter DOHC 16-valve 4-cylinder that produces 180 horsepower and 180 pound-feet of torque is standard. That’s an increase of 25 horsepower and 24 pound-feet from the previous Altima’s 2.4-liter engine.

But in my view, the real buzz about the new Altima revolves around the 3.5-liter V6, which puts 240 horses to the highway. This is far and away the hottest powerplant in the midsize sedan class. It’s been given a new timing chain for smoother and quieter operation, as well as a new dual exhaust system.

Whines: Being a horsepower maven, I personally would opt for the V6 as standard for this car. In my view, the 4-banger is slightly underpowered for this size of car, especially when coupled with the automatic. However, for the type of driving most people around here do, it will be more than adequate.

Applause: On the hilly, winding, two-lane back roads around Laguna Seca as well as on the track itself, the V6 engine was extremely smooth and very responsive. Using the gated shifter under those conditions gave me a real feeling of “oneness” with this car. On the track, after a couple of laps with instructors from the Skip Barber Driving School, I found the Altima to handle very responsively at high speeds, even through Laguna Seca’s famous “corkscrew” which is series of tight, downhill opposing turns that will put your stomach in your throat and is better driven before lunch. The new Altima held the corners with little or no drift and offered power to spare accelerating out of the turns and on the straightaways.

Bottom Line: The new 2002 Nissan Altima is a very stylish, powerful, responsive, fun to drive yet functional automobile. Except for the Z-car, it’s also perhaps the most stylish car Nissan has ever made. The Taurus, Accord and Camry are all getting long in the tooth. The new Altima has just raised the bar for all of them.