I will hopefully be buying a 94 se tonight, if everything checks out with the mechanic. All I need to know is, is there anyway to remove or convert the automatic seatbelts on the 94's.

 

Not gonna happen. It's the one facet of my Maxima that is a disappointment (and I'm the original owner). They are junky and crude, not to mention a PIA when other people ride in the car and are startled by the noise and qwik movement. Heck, even my Mom who rides in it occasionally when I visit her has never fully gotten used to "the fabric guillotine"!

BTW... my kids love them... think it's sorta robotic... I just think it's dumb!

Anyway...accept it and enjoy the ride!

 

canadian maximas have the normal seatbelts so I guess it could be possible, but its not gonna be easy to get all the parts and change everything up
just live with it and dont forget your lap belt. They discontinued these auto seatbelts because people thought they didn't need the lap belt since they had the shoulder belt, but after some decapitations, they realized they did need it

 

you guys dont like the auto seatbelts, i saw that as a positive when buying the car, dont ever have to worry about putting on your seatbelt, and if you dont wear a seatbelt just unclip it. whats so bad about them?

 

decapitation - see my post above

 

yeah thats understandable, but besides getting decapitated from wearing your seatbelt incorectly, why do people not like them, such as the 2 people who forst posted in this forum?

 

You have to understand that for me, as the original purchaser, I have had to put up with these things for a long time. When I was looking for my first real nice car after graduating college and being offered a fantastic career opportunity, I decided to go out on a limb and buy what was at the time (1989) a rather upscale sport sedan.

I had narrowed down my choices to the Maxima, Legend, and Cressida(!). Lexus was not even out yet. The Max and Cressida had those dumb belts and the Legend did not...it had an airbag. Granted, it cost about $5K more, but I never understood why Nissan or Toyota chose to install those belts on their top models. See, back then each manufacturer had to have a certain percentage of models with passive restraints. Most makers chose the belt route, but only on lower end models to meet the quotas. Nissan could have surely gotten away with using a D/Side airbag... heck, the PulsarNX and 300ZX got 'em in 1990!

So, even though I think they are low rent, I still bought the Max because I loved the car so much more than the other two (there were also LOTS of positive reviews in the media at the time). Of course, nowadays, they are an anachranism. Just yesterday, I met with my brother to shop for Xmas gifts for our parents, and he has been in the car a million times, but every time I started the car, he inevitably had a drink, or his glasses or something he was reading in his hands and they invariably became tangled in the moving belt. Also, I agree with the other post that passengers MUST be reminded to buckle the lap belt. I never forget... it is fully engrained in my brain to buckle it... comes naturally.

It is not that I think it is inherently unsafe, but that it was a cheap way out of a gov't mandate. Look, Chrysler in 1988 made airbags standard equipment (of course whether they reliably went off in a collision is probably important).

Final thought... if they are so great, why don't all cars come with them standard NOW, even with airbags ?

'Nuff said!

 

I agree with sammax89. If I could do anything about my '94 gxe, the first would be turning the auto shoulder belt to a conventional, manual one.

I'd also like an ABS, but that's my fault for not getting one with that option.

 

I think ALL European countries have them. My Max has normal seatbelts. When I was still leaving in the states, I had a Saturn(don't rag me about that one), she had the auto seatbelts. & ure right, I never put on the bottom part of the seatbelt. I was lucky VERY

 

u guys dont like auto seat belts? i love mine. they **** up every once in a while but i think they are cool.

 

I liked them too, but I'm still replacing them with harnesses. If I still drove my Maxima every day, I would probably keep the auto-belts. It's standard FACTORY safety equipment. Why risk it and replace it. That's accepting liability for the performance of the restraint in an accident, and you don't want that!

 

I like them too...it dropped my insurance by having those in there.

 

ooooooooooo.. forgot about that. Yeah, it dropped my insurance too! (now it's only $250/mo. )

 

HOLY/....$250. I'm in NJ, probably the worst state for car ins. I pay 350 quarterly, but that is like ghetto minimum coverage....how's you record..a bit soiled?

 

I must admit, I am surprised at the degree of admiration for the auto seatbelts. I know you guys are probably alot younger than I am, so maybe that explains it. I dunno, maybe they seem kinda retro to you guys and retro is back. Either way, certainly not a deal killer for me, but not ideal, to be sure!

BTW... $250/mo.? Yikes!
I pay $488/yr here in Florida (Orlando suburb) and that includes $500 deductible for Comp. (no collision... if I bash up my car and it's my fault, I deserve to pay for it all). Car ain't worth much, anyhow.
No accidents or bodywork yet.

I guess being old(!)does have it's merits .

 

Do a SEARCH on street racing threads and somewhere you'll find one where I explain exactly why my insurance is so high. I got busted for speeding down St Rd 37 in Martinsville IN (not a good place to be, it's a little hick town) doing 142mph in a 55mph zone. I was just joy riding for a minute, and got nailed. The Sherriff said I didn't pull over fast enough for him and they pulled me out of the car, beat me up, took me to jail and stripped my Maxima down (even removed the gas tank!). They ended up charging me with a whole lot of rediculous crap, including resisting arrest with a moving vehicle and DUI. The DUI was real rediculous because I was sober, but I had a prescription for painkillers from a surgery I had just had and it was in the car with me in the back seat in a book bag so they got me on DUI. Combine that with reckless driving and I'm lucky I even have insurance. Sad thing is, before that I had a flawless record, no tickets or warnings or wrecks. I had never even been pulled over before. 5 years of perfect driving down the tubes... two more years of outrageous rates

 

$488/yr is damn cheap. I was paying abour $800 in PA, but NJ is a whole different story. I can't wait to move out of NJ. Even doctors are closing up and moving to other states because malpractice insurance is like 275K a year, no joke. Jerseyites really like to sue I guess!! I may be joining you in Florida within the next year or so. My family lives in St. Pete and in Sarasota. I had ice on my windows this morning..I could do without that!