Enjoying the ride since I got it!

Nissan puts out a fine set of automobiles. Unfortunately, Honda and Toyota have brainwashed Americans into thinking that the Accord and Camry are the best mid-size family sedan. If you are in the market for a mid-size Japanese family sedan, I bet you were planning to either get an Accord or Camry. I beg you to make one extra stop at your Nissan dealer to test drive a Maxima. I promise you you won't be disappointed!

The Maxima while MSRP is a bit higher than the Accord and Camry (fully loaded, the Maxima can get to $30K new), it is my experience that Nissan's unpopularity can be used to your advantage. For instance, my 1999 Maxima SE Limited (I'll explain all the trim models later, the limited isn't anything special, its basically a SE) stickered at about $29.9K (I had basically all the options). But the dealer sold it for $23.6K (it was April '99, the new 2000's with the 32 more HP were just around the corner so there were crazy rebates in effect)
before the tax and all the various fees that come with buying a car. So there are deals to be had on Maxima's, just shop around wisely.

The trim levels on a Maxima are GXE, SE, and GLE (in rank from lowest to highest). Basically, GXE is the base model, but it still contains all the basic power windows/locks features. The SE is my favorite, it comes with a sportier suspension, alloy wheels, a spoiler, fog lights, and a few extra goodies (check out Nissan's website to get all the details, they are very nice, they'll mail you full size brochures if you fill out your info online). The GLE is touted as the luxury model with a BOSE sound system, leather, wood trim (fake I think), and other goodies. The GXE & SE can be had in both manual and automatic while the GLE forces you to get an automatic. One of the little known secrets are if you like to "Enjoy the Ride", the SE model with its sportier suspension can be equipped just as well as a GLE, so you can have a "4 door sports car" as Nissan used to advertise the Maxima as and still have all the luxurious ammenities the GLE offers.

About the car, the exterior styling is either love it or hate it. Some people love it, some people hate it, that is solely for you to decide whether you like it or not. Inside isn't anything special, but the interior is well made, all the controls are easy to use and well within reach. The optional 200 watt BOSE sound system provides powerful and clean sound. Any basic feature you can think of is available, some of the more fancy ones including heated seats and side air bags, so just make sure you equip it wisely.

Driving this car is the best part. The engine has been praised by the automotive press highly. Ward's Automotive Review quotes "Nissan delivers what may be the best V-6 engine ever — yes, we said ever — in cars that are priced for normal mortals." The engine provides power at all parts of the rev band and revs smoothly and quickly. Just drive one for yourself to see what I mean. 0-60mph in a manual transmission will get you around 7 seconds flat while an automatic should provide about 8 seconds flat. While not supercar performance, it is plenty quick for everyday use. For the die-hard automotive enthusiast/performance nut/racer there is good aftermarket available, including a supercharger that makes the stick model as fast as a Lexus GS400 (they tested it in Motor Trend a few years ago). While power in this car is great, suspension is mediocre, I would heavily recommend the SE package as the 'sportier' suspension still can be a little more sporty. The suspension is a bit soft for my tastes, but that provides a more comfortable ride overall. The soft suspension means cornering at high velocities won't be as good. You can solve that easily in the aftermarket world with stabilizer bars, struts, and springs.

Reliability is top notch, in more than one and a half years of owning this car, it has only seen service for its oil changes and other regularly scheduled maintenance. I don't drive my car like a grandma either, my Maxima has seen its fair share of "spirited" driving and never complains!

The downfall of this car sadly is its resale value. People do not truly appreciate Nissan, and seem to hold it on a lower level than Honda/Toyota when ranking manufacturers. You can use this to your advantage however in securing a better deal for yourself. I would say it depreciates more quickly than an Accord/Camry, but still holds its value better than American cars. Also, some people comment on how "plain" it looks, or sometimes even that it's a little ugly! But hey, if I like how the way it looks, who cares what other people think! Other than that, maybe it's too fast for its own good, less than a month after getting this car, I got my first speeding ticket! You can find yourself cruising down the freeway at 80-90 and not even noticing it since it provides such a quiet and smooth ride.

Sorry if this review is too long, it's just that theres so many good things to say about the Maxima! I hope you will do yourself a favor and give it a test drive, you will fall in love. Check out www.maxima.org to see what kind of die-hard following the Maxima gets.