Found this in a "New Zealand Car" magazine from February 1991. Its the roadtest for the New Zealand models, which were officially released here in February 1991, although were being sold in January 91. They were never known here as the 4door sports car like in the US. That was what we called the smaller Nissan Bluebird models. These were assembled in the Nissan plant in Auckland NZ, and had stiffer suspension and 5kw more power than the Australian versions, which were assembled in Japan. Our trim levels were 3.0i, SE and SEL for the 91-92 cars, and S, SL, SE and SEL for the 93-95 cars. Our SE's were similar to the US GXE in trim specification. They were only available with VG30E and auto trans.

 

Pretty Awesome!!

 

That's pretty cool. I had no idea Maximas were assembled in New Zealand.

Also, I was surprised to read that it came with folding rear seats.

 

Thanks for posting, did you order a back issue?

 

I love Maximas...

 

No probs. Bought it at a second hand book store, for only a few dollars. Have about 200 car magazines ranging from the 60's through to the 90's that I have bought from second hand book stores, or book fairs.

Im pretty sure the US 1st gen Maximas have fold down seats too. Pretty much every Nissan sold new in NZ during the 80's and 90's had them.

Seats up
Seats down

 

That's really handy. Since the 3rd gen rear seat is fixed in the U.S., I took my Camry to buy lumber countless number of times so I can carry it. I noticed the trunk floor is elevated where the spare tire is located. Did it come with full-size spare tire too? We got temporary spares in the U.S. Luckily, I never had to use it in 195K miles.

 

Its really handy. Im in the same position with carting lumber (we call it timber..lol) or a ladder etc around. Yep, we got the full size spare....steel spare wheel for the cars that had hubcaps, and a matching alloy spare for the cars fitted with alloys. Our current Maxima range still have full size spares.

The second hand Japanese import 3rd gen Maximas we got had the temporary spares, usually referred to as space saver spare wheels. By law here, the space saver wheels have to have a maximum speed and tyre pressure warning sticker attached that are in english.

A bit of a random question.....Why are Maximas in the US referred to by their generation and not by their series/chassis code? We have always known the 3rd gen Maximas here by the chassis code of J30, and 4th gen as A32, 5th gen as A33 etc. Its a question that i have pondered for a few years....maybe i have too much time on my hands.