Things missed from the 6th Gen Max...
07-14-2008, 07:19 AM
#41
Member
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 78
Power folding mirrors are an important feature. I am in a townhouse with a one car garage. I need to pull over to the right side as far as I can to so you can move down the left side of the car (garbage can, recycling, etc is there). So I hit the switch and the mirrors fold and in to the garage I go. With the manual ones I will have get out fold get back in the car then into the garage. A pain in the butt...especially if it is raining.
Looking at the brochure it says the if you get either the sport or premium package the 60/40 folding rear seat is replaced by a pass through. I work in sales and I occasionally have point of sale displays to get in the trunk and without the folding seat....problem.
No 09 for me
Looking at the brochure it says the if you get either the sport or premium package the 60/40 folding rear seat is replaced by a pass through. I work in sales and I occasionally have point of sale displays to get in the trunk and without the folding seat....problem.
No 09 for me
07-14-2008, 10:29 AM
#42
its a really nicely integrated system that has lines that guide you back where the car is going with the current steering position and as you get closer, the green guide lines change from yellow to red.
I do agree that looking backwards is still important and the camera kind of takes away from that but overall the system is great in the maxima (yes I tried the '09 as well)
I do agree that looking backwards is still important and the camera kind of takes away from that but overall the system is great in the maxima (yes I tried the '09 as well)
I guess I'll just have to experience it to really know... it may work perfectly and the color display may be gee-whiz and and all, but it just seems that I really don't need or want to have to actually look at anything to distract my attention from actually backing up. Still have two years left on my '07 sonar system lease anyway.
07-17-2008, 06:16 AM
#43
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2000
Posts: 888
The passenger door can not be opened. The driver is fine. The issue is that there has to be room to walk down the left side of the car with a garbage can, recycling container, etc there. Or if I park in the middle I would have to back the car out to get to the garbage....
07-31-2008, 04:44 PM
#46
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: a meadow south of Atlanta
Posts: 8,143
johnsd2 - That may be partly my fault. After having my headlight beams lowered several times (WELL below specs) so that the xenon low beams did not blind drivers when hills and curves threw the geometry askew, a Nissan tech told me it had probably been a mistake to have the low beams xenon. But that was almost four years ago, so there may be no connection.
07-31-2008, 06:19 PM
#47
NINE-time Maxima Owner
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Charlotte
Posts: 680
Have to disagree there... the 6G HID projector low beams are fine (maybe the best I've used) and I have never had a driver flash their lights back at me. What really sucks in the 6G is the high beams. They are one of the worst I've ever used. There is no way that one lens/reflecter combo can both be an effective flood light (low beams) and spot light (high beams). Cutting off the top of the very nice flood pattern is fine for the low beam, but removing the cutoff does not turn it into a proper high beam. All it does is light up the trees and overhead signs, but nothing is refocusing the pattern to light up the path further down the road.
The conventional halogen high beams in my '03 (which had decent non-projector HID lows) were vastly superior in projecting their beam further down the road. I expect that the 7G HID projector low beam with seperate high beam element will the best of both worlds. (Actually, the BEST would be seperate lens/reflector with two seperate pairs of HID bulbs... but cost would be prohibitive to a penny pinching car manufacturer).
The conventional halogen high beams in my '03 (which had decent non-projector HID lows) were vastly superior in projecting their beam further down the road. I expect that the 7G HID projector low beam with seperate high beam element will the best of both worlds. (Actually, the BEST would be seperate lens/reflector with two seperate pairs of HID bulbs... but cost would be prohibitive to a penny pinching car manufacturer).
Last edited by jcalabria; 07-31-2008 at 06:24 PM.
07-31-2008, 08:32 PM
#48
Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Chicago area, western suburb
Posts: 43
Have to disagree there... the 6G HID projector low beams are fine (maybe the best I've used) and I have never had a driver flash their lights back at me. What really sucks in the 6G is the high beams. They are one of the worst I've ever used. There is no way that one lens/reflecter combo can both be an effective flood light (low beams) and spot light (high beams). Cutting off the top of the very nice flood pattern is fine for the low beam, but removing the cutoff does not turn it into a proper high beam. All it does is light up the trees and overhead signs, but nothing is refocusing the pattern to light up the path further down the road.
The conventional halogen high beams in my '03 (which had decent non-projector HID lows) were vastly superior in projecting their beam further down the road. I expect that the 7G HID projector low beam with seperate high beam element will the best of both worlds. (Actually, the BEST would be seperate lens/reflector with two seperate pairs of HID bulbs... but cost would be prohibitive to a penny pinching car manufacturer).
The conventional halogen high beams in my '03 (which had decent non-projector HID lows) were vastly superior in projecting their beam further down the road. I expect that the 7G HID projector low beam with seperate high beam element will the best of both worlds. (Actually, the BEST would be seperate lens/reflector with two seperate pairs of HID bulbs... but cost would be prohibitive to a penny pinching car manufacturer).
Last edited by johnsd2; 07-31-2008 at 08:40 PM.
08-01-2008, 11:56 AM
#49
NINE-time Maxima Owner
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Charlotte
Posts: 680
My 04 and 06 high beams worked perfect. they had a nice cut off patter, not to high up in the trees and far down the road. There is plate in bi-xeon lights that moves to let more light out. There is 2 bulbs in the light. Google bi-xeon and there are links that explain how they work. When the lights are on bright there should be a 3 sided pattern ( /-\), (the middle dash lines up with the slashes) that you see with sharp cut offs, the cut offs should be no more than about 20 feet above the ground, at 100 feet. headlight aiming is very critical with xeons. On my 04 the left one was aimed to high from the factory, you could tell because the cut offs on high didn't line up, when fixed there was more light on the road.
From WikiCars:
Bi-Xenon Headlights refers to HID (High Intensity Discharge) Xenon headlights that offer both low (dipped) and high (main) beam lighting from a dual headlight system (as opposed to a quad headlight system).
A bi-xenon system eliminates the need for a separate halogen high beam bulb/lense by either moving the xenon bulb within the lens or by moving a shield up or down in front of the bulb (depending on the reflector design) to allow light to escape from the lense in a different pattern.
A bi-xenon system typically features dynamic headlight leveling and on some vehicles direction adjustability.
The Nissan version uses the "moving shield" method - the cheap way out, BTW, as it requires less precision - rather than physically refocusing the beam (i.e., moving the bulb) to a proper pattern (a wide pattern for low beams, a narrow pattern for high beams).Merely removing the physical cut-off shade to create a "high beam" does nothing to concentrate the available lumens in a tighter pattern that would project further down the road. A good example of refocusing a light pattern can be found in any MAG flashlight... by moving the reflector relative to the bulb (which is what happens when you rotate the lens housing), you can either create a wide (but less bright in any given spot) pattern or concentrate the light output into a narrow bright beam that can provide useful illumination at a much greater distance. Rather than do this in their bi-xenon headlamp system, Nissan chose to keep the the same wide pattern for both high and low beams, adding a shade to keep it out of oncoming eyes when on "low beam". You merely have a choice of "low beam with shade" or "low beam without shade" - it does not have a true high beam with a narrower, concentrated pattern to illuminate further down the road.
Both the 6.0g and 6.5g headlight systems work exactly the same way. I have not experienced 6.0g headlights so I can't say if they are better or worse than the 6.5g. They may or may not have a different reflector/lens design (with a different basic pattern), but it appears that the principals of operation are the same. Your 6.0g does not have two bulbs, as you stated.
The end result - for the 6.5g at least, is terrible. I almost never use the high beams at all because there is nothing to gain from them... nothing changes whatsoever relative to what is illuminated down the road... the only help they are is for reading overhead signs.
As previously stated, my '03 with HID lows and seperate halogen highs (with a properly focused pattern) provided vastly superior high beam performance. Even better than either the '03 or the '07 HID's was my all-halogen S60T5 headlamp system, which eschewed the fashionable but miserably inadequate clear lenses for a proper multi-element glass lens along with seperate and properly matched bulbs and reflectors. The result was amazingly good performance, even with standard bulbs, and unbelievably good when fitted with SilverStar Ultra bulbs.
Last edited by jcalabria; 08-01-2008 at 12:06 PM.
08-01-2008, 02:02 PM
#50
Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Chicago area, western suburb
Posts: 43
From WikiCars:
Merely removing the physical cut-off shade to create a "high beam" does nothing to concentrate the available lumens in a tighter pattern that would project further down the road. A good example of refocusing a light pattern can be found in any MAG flashlight... by moving the reflector relative to the bulb (which is what happens when you rotate the lens housing), you can either create a wide (but less bright in any given spot) pattern or concentrate the light output into a narrow bright beam that can provide useful illumination at a much greater distance. Rather than do this in their bi-xenon headlamp system, Nissan chose to keep the the same wide pattern for both high and low beams, adding a shade to keep it out of oncoming eyes when on "low beam". You merely have a choice of "low beam with shade" or "low beam without shade" - it does not have a true high beam with a narrower, concentrated pattern to illuminate further down the road.
Both the 6.0g and 6.5g headlight systems work exactly the same way. I have not experienced 6.0g headlights so I can't say if they are better or worse than the 6.5g. They may or may not have a different reflector/lens design (with a different basic pattern), but it appears that the principals of operation are the same. Your 6.0g does not have two bulbs, as you stated.
The end result - for the 6.5g at least, is terrible. I almost never use the high beams at all because there is nothing to gain from them... nothing changes whatsoever relative to what is illuminated down the road... the only help they are is for reading overhead signs.
As previously stated, my '03 with HID lows and seperate halogen highs (with a properly focused pattern) provided vastly superior high beam performance. Even better than either the '03 or the '07 HID's was my all-halogen S60T5 headlamp system, which eschewed the fashionable but miserably inadequate clear lenses for a proper multi-element glass lens along with seperate and properly matched bulbs and reflectors. The result was amazingly good performance, even with standard bulbs, and unbelievably good when fitted with SilverStar Ultra bulbs.
Bi-Xenon Headlights refers to HID (High Intensity Discharge) Xenon headlights that offer both low (dipped) and high (main) beam lighting from a dual headlight system (as opposed to a quad headlight system).
A bi-xenon system eliminates the need for a separate halogen high beam bulb/lense by either moving the xenon bulb within the lens or by moving a shield up or down in front of the bulb (depending on the reflector design) to allow light to escape from the lense in a different pattern.
A bi-xenon system typically features dynamic headlight leveling and on some vehicles direction adjustability.
The Nissan version uses the "moving shield" method - the cheap way out, BTW, as it requires less precision - rather than physically refocusing the beam (i.e., moving the bulb) to a proper pattern (a wide pattern for low beams, a narrow pattern for high beams).Merely removing the physical cut-off shade to create a "high beam" does nothing to concentrate the available lumens in a tighter pattern that would project further down the road. A good example of refocusing a light pattern can be found in any MAG flashlight... by moving the reflector relative to the bulb (which is what happens when you rotate the lens housing), you can either create a wide (but less bright in any given spot) pattern or concentrate the light output into a narrow bright beam that can provide useful illumination at a much greater distance. Rather than do this in their bi-xenon headlamp system, Nissan chose to keep the the same wide pattern for both high and low beams, adding a shade to keep it out of oncoming eyes when on "low beam". You merely have a choice of "low beam with shade" or "low beam without shade" - it does not have a true high beam with a narrower, concentrated pattern to illuminate further down the road.
Both the 6.0g and 6.5g headlight systems work exactly the same way. I have not experienced 6.0g headlights so I can't say if they are better or worse than the 6.5g. They may or may not have a different reflector/lens design (with a different basic pattern), but it appears that the principals of operation are the same. Your 6.0g does not have two bulbs, as you stated.
The end result - for the 6.5g at least, is terrible. I almost never use the high beams at all because there is nothing to gain from them... nothing changes whatsoever relative to what is illuminated down the road... the only help they are is for reading overhead signs.
As previously stated, my '03 with HID lows and seperate halogen highs (with a properly focused pattern) provided vastly superior high beam performance. Even better than either the '03 or the '07 HID's was my all-halogen S60T5 headlamp system, which eschewed the fashionable but miserably inadequate clear lenses for a proper multi-element glass lens along with seperate and properly matched bulbs and reflectors. The result was amazingly good performance, even with standard bulbs, and unbelievably good when fitted with SilverStar Ultra bulbs.
08-18-2008, 07:43 AM
#52
Supporting Maxima.org Member
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 56
Getting back to the original thread...
I don't think I will be buying a 7th gen, unless they come up with a manual tranny.
THBS, what I missed with my 4th and now 5.5th gens is the cornering light that my 2nd gen had.
If you are taking a corner at night, hit the turn signal, and 'voila', there's the road!
I don't think I will be buying a 7th gen, unless they come up with a manual tranny.
THBS, what I missed with my 4th and now 5.5th gens is the cornering light that my 2nd gen had.
If you are taking a corner at night, hit the turn signal, and 'voila', there's the road!
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