I just got my Max a few weeks ago, never owned a Nissan before. How hard can you drive a Max and still trust its reliability (assusming very good normal maintenance of course.) IE, how are engine and tranny reliability when pushed hard? All of my previous cars have been Toyotas or Hondas, which can REALLY take a beating...my 88 Accord which I had before this 93 SE was running perfectly when I sold it with over 140k miles, even though I drove it into the ground (redline? nah...that looks orange to me!)

I have been driving my Max really conservative and already these VTCs are ticking (conservative => I always shift 2200-2800 normally, have only opened it up towards 4500 a few times, when plenty warmed up, in some fun twisties that I couldnt resist). Any suggestions/comments would help. Thanks!

 

Nissans are damn good cars.Before I say all this I want to knock on wood.My Maxima has 206,000+ miles on it.I give it the regular maintenance required and drive give that thing wide open throttle atleast 10 times a day if not way more I am constantly on that pedal.I drive the hell out of it 110 miles a day to be exact.Stop and go traffic and wide open freeway driving.I get it to 100mph everyday.So I hope that answers your question.

 

I don't drive that much but when I do I feel like there is little devil on my shoulder telling me to go faster. The faster you go the better it feels because the car handles great. I love it!!! Work soft play hard. Ofcourse you have to maintain your vehicle and service it every time you need too. I had an 86 SE and drove that one very hard every day until I hit 200k miles and needed new head gaskets. I sold it and whoever bought it fixed it, and they drove it and sold it, and the last owner that I knew of just kept driving it. Just a little info. Good Luck!!

 

I have a 1990 GXE with 128k on it and I beat on it all of the time, if your car was well maintained and you keep up the maintenance you should not have any problems with it. Most things that will break, will break anyway if you beat on them or not. Have fun with your car, if you are going to drive slow please stay off the east coast.

 

i usually take it easy on my max, but here in kentucky there are some awesome country roads and sometimes i have to open her up and see what she'll do! i have my fun, but for 75% of the time, i'm good to her!

 

It also depends on what the previous driver(s) have done, especially the first owners. If the first owners beat the crap out of it the first 20,000mi, its not got a long life ahead of it. But, in general, most people buying a new Maxima treated their cars like their own children.

1993MaxSE - Stick or Auto. If youve got an automatic, Im sorry. You will probably have to rebuild sometime. The MT's are great though.

 

Stick or auto..!? Wow well I feel sorry for anyone with an auto Maxima whether or not those trannies need to be rebuilt...they're losing half the fun! Mine is a stick - I have never owned an automatic car except our family station wagon which I rarely drive. Thanks for all the confidence posts about your cars everyone...I love driving "fast and furious" (pathetically bad movie pun intended) but also love this car to death, I'm glad I can have fun with it and not worry too much!

 

Hey,The auto's are just as fun to drive.Plus when I get lazy I dont have to shift gears.If I put my A/T swith on Power then that thing shifts way high.I really like the Maxima's auto tranny it is really alot better than alot of people talk about.

 

I got it with 69k miles, its at 96k now.
in those 27k miles and 1.5 years of ownership I have had to make the following repairs:

2 fuel injectors
2 window regulators
2 lower ball joints
3 sets of brake pads (front)
2 drive axles

My VTC's also went out 10k miles ago ($$$$)
and I have some bad lifter/valve ratting going on too (more $$$). And of course I have a multitude of noises I cant even identify that seem to indecate other repairs needed.

I have also burned through a clutch and 2 sets of tires.

A lot of that was standard wear and tear, but some of it shouldnt have gone out so early. but what can I say, I love my car!

 

I have 104k now, try to take it easy but sometimes I can't resist... I'd say I drive normal with occasional surges of hard driving.. I got the car 20k miles ago, auto tranny died at 86k! that was the biggest repair I did, everything else u can call maintenance, there was a bunch of it though. Until the tranny went, I was driving my car fairly hard most of the time... Now, even the rebuilt slips and stumbles every now and then but my car feels a lot more dead because of injectors or some **** i haven't yet detected so I can't push it hard even if I want to because it doesn't pull anywhere.. dam..

ofcourse the more u beat on the car, the more wear u cause.. I'd say the max can take abuse well. My uncle is a nut with cars, he had a 2nd gen back in the day and drove it like he stole it, until it got stolen he had lots of miles on it, no problems though.. He still says it's one of the best cars he ever owned.

 

Wow I really like that blue color, looks great on the Max, I've never seen a 3rd gen in that shade before...and we all know 3rd gens look the best in general!

 

Drive your car hard and expect performance realted problems, sure you can do it and im not one to tell you not to seeing my car gets driven extremely hard, but things will start to suffer like your tranny, motor mounts, tires, brakes, etc.....not too mention the horrible gas mileage