Has Nissan Lost It's Way With The Maxima?

Right now the Civic is pretty close to being better than the Accord. The only things missing are the V-6 engine, heated seats and mirrors, and that's it. The Civic now is smoother riding and more quiet than the Accord. Like bulldogz said, they don't design their cars around an old, dated car. Nissan is probably testing all of these upgrades on the Altima to see if they'll be a hit so that the Maxima can be the best they have.

I suggest you do. For your information, I've driven both and the Civic rides smoother and is quieter. Go drive one yourself! The 2008 Accord will be better than the Civic, there's no doubt about that, but right now, the 2007 Civic is just as nice/nicer than the 2007 Accord.

I suggest you do. For your information, I've driven both and the Civic rides smoother and is quieter. Go drive one yourself! The 2008 Accord will be better than the Civic, there's no doubt about that, but right now, the 2007 Civic is just as nice/nicer than the 2007 Accord.

No, both were normal gas engines. And I stick to my opinion that Civics are just as good/better than the current Accord.

Both Nissan cars look like a POS,the old Maxima was 10 times better!!

It seems Nissan has forgotten about the Maxima at the moment. The Altima was moved up several grades and became everything the Maxima used to be. But this article suggests that Nissan knows this and they'll make the neccessary changes to the next gen model.

"Lost its way" ?? Nissan simply cast the Maxima aside. There was NO EFFORT to upgrade the Maxima at all. It wasn't as if they tried so hard to improve the Maxima and failed... quite the opposite. It was as if all the good engineers worked on the Altima, and the Maxima was an afterthought of leftover parts.

It's been this way the minute Ghosn took over - he clearly loved the Altima and had zero respect for the Maxima. It's like the Corolla overtaking the Camry, absolutely ridiculous.

I agree with PlanB. The Altima has seemed to replace the Maxima as it used to be. As the Maxima grew in size, the sport character seemed to diminish also. The Maxima is now a more mature offering but still tries to be youthfully sporty. This a good time to re-design the Maxima to be an affordible near-luxury mid-sizer with more available space than the Altima.

...and for goodness sake...offer the thing with AWD!

The Maxima does not exist in Japan!!

NO! NO! NO! No more space and bloat to take the Maxima a class above the Altima. THe SPORTS-SEDAN category is ITS OWN CATEGORY and the Altima has never belonged to that. After the 1993 4dsc model (in a classs of its own), I almost thought Nissan would bump the Maxima up to AWD or rwd, lengthen the wheelbase, push the wheels to the corners, and take on the 3 series. Instead Nissan made us wait for 20 YEARS for the G- even though it threw in a whole new division to give us what the Maxima should have become. It is not too late. THe word Maxima means the highest point on a bell- curve/graph, and if the graph is meant to indicate Bloat- then the new Max is on point.
COME on NISSAN!! Where are the cojones? The Maxima NEEDs to be an rwd offering, of similar size but far superior sporting dynamics than the Altima. If you can't do it- at least stop calling it the Maxima.

My mother has a 2004 maxima and it's great but ever since the new altima nissan seemed to leave the maxima in the dark but this is the last year for this body style of maxima so the 08 maxima will be tatally new hopefully they will seperate it from the altima

As already mentioned, AWD is a must to differentiate the car at this point.

For a while, in terms of price, luxury and HP are concerned (and FWD, for the matter) the Max seemed like a good alternative to the Acura TL. This is the only car I can really compare the Max to. Before the recent Altima redesign, the Max had it's advantage due to the poor ergonomics and interior quality of the Altima.

How dare you compare a POS Maxima to the TL the TL is luxury Nissan is not luxury save that for Infiniti.

Nissan lost its way when it adopted the CVT for too many of its cars. The CVT is usually asssociated with cheap cars and I have serious questions about its reliability. It's a shame because Nissan does make really excellent engines.

Nissan is lost my friends. The Maxima (aka 4DSC)was always on the list of driver's cars. It was often referred to as a poor man's BMW. Why in the world would they put the Altima ahead of it. And I'm sorry but the new Maxima looks horrible. Looks like a bloated glad trash bag. Now it's just a has been since all the performance goodies were proliferated over to the Altima. By the way, jusy how much power can you effectively route through the front wheels??(Altima SE-R)

I had a 99', the best car I have owned to date. Better then my 06' CTS. I would of loved to have gotten a new one in 06, but i couldnt do it. Cheap materials, sloppy handiling, terrible tourque steer, lazy transmission and it was overpriced. It would of also cost me around $300 a month to insure, compared to a $100 for my CTS. The Maxima used to have one of the highest customer loyalty rates in the biz, but that has been lost along with the car's character. I hope Nissan can bring the Max back to life, and bring it back to its old glory.

Yes,

Nissan has lost its way. My post from the Maxima diesel thread:

I have owned an 85, a 93 SE 5-spd and currently have a 98 Auto for my beater. IMO the 3rd generation 89-94 was the best maxima. The materials used in the interior were top notch, the car had great handling for a fwd and class leading power, it really deserved to be called the 4DSC. The 4th gen 95-99 is when Nissan started cost cutting, interior quality while still nice went down and they went from an independent rears suspension to a solid beam axle in the rear which they said enhanced handling, but was really much cheaper to manufacture. It still performed well in a straight line, but the 3rd gen was much more nimble. I love my 98 still but REALLY miss my 93. Since then the maxima just keeps getting bigger and bigger and to top it all off, they get rid of the 6-speed manual this year. I can't really call it the 4dsc any more, and the maxima has always been one of my favorite cars........

Stone

If anything I think they recovered after the las-gen model which to me was the worst.

sigh, i dont see why they cant make it a RWD model .. albeit with the cheapo interior to keep Infiniti happy.

Wow... houstoncutie is very passionate about this subject!

I think the Maxima should die. They've ruined it. The Altima is much better.

I have owned 2 maximas. I had a 1991 Maxima SE and was at the time an awesome car. I even was able back then to get ABS as an option. That was a 4DSC. For the money nothing was close. The next maxima was a 2001 anniversary edition. I was very happy with that car but at that point competition was coming much closer. The most recent edition I believe was truly forgotten. They admitted years ago that Altima sales would cannibalize maxima sales. It made no sense that the Altima in too many ways became more advanced than the Maxima. It is not too late for them to produce a great car. I have a 2006 Infiniti M45 Sport and to me it is like a Maxima on steroids. I am confident that they can recapture the true essence of what the maxima was and bring it to the 21st century.

on steroids with power to the rear wheels...ahh sweet heaven

I live in Qatar, we have a different maxima here, that man which is designed and manufactured in Japan, which has the same design of Infiniti J30 or I30, I am not sure.... This one is completly different than the Maxima in the US...As a Maxima driver, it is one of the best car i have ever drive...Now, I am waiting the new design of maxima, which will has the same design of the one in the US...Until that time, I will never own any other car...