ujm

My son came in this weekend, he has a rental 2012 Maxima.

290HP, some funky transmission, you know, well, heck -

Yeah, it's nice......

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

CVT are the most god awful things to hit vehicles in years

shredda

my mom owned an 09 altima v6 for a while. the car was smooth. the 7th gen maximas are very nice cruisers as well, nice and planted. CVT's aren't so bad with the vq engines, but if you're into serious modding, then forget about it.

Cliff Clavin

iTrader: (11)

The Maxima used to be a sporty sedan and for a long time was the best FWD sedan available with a manual transmission.

Now, the Maxima is just a fat luxury rental car. CVT is fine for a commuter or highway car. It helps improve fuel economy and the ones I have driven are smooth and quiet. However, not much fun in that.

CMax03

iTrader: (3)

Only seen one 7th gen Max that really turned my head as being pretty sweet!

1990se5speed

It's still not what our cars were in there hayday they were able to take on 5.0 mustangs

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

thats all it is today, trying to reduce emissions like mad and get high MPG. Maxima has sold well enough in the last 30 years that Nissan knew they could throw crap like a CVT on it and they would still sell

more the reason i despised when OBDII came out, just a few years prior to OBDIIs mandation many JDM cars didnt even have any emissions stuff. all my Crown has is a cat converter, no EGR or any of that junk. thats the way it should be. even when CEL changed, it was just for emissions. the only reason the CEL exists is because emissions, all the light tells you is the cars not up to par and the engine symbol is to scare people into getting it fixed. in the 60s and 70s, all cars had were "EMISSIONS" lights or "SENSOR" lights if something was triggered, people just ignored those so they made the engine symbol to scare them. even my Supra just has the SENSOR light

long story short, emissions control has taken the fun out of cars

1990se5speed

Yeah our cars might not be technically smogable because of the regulations and a new smog machine replicating the old

DanNY

iTrader: (14)

it would be great if gas was 10 cents a gallon too and we don't have to worry about pollution.

CMax03

iTrader: (3)

OBD1 and 2 were both good things, made things tuneable with computer technology instead of wrenchs...Our cars are faster, handle better, brake better, than Ole school Muscle cars....Our cars just aren't as durable when you hit stuff!

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

OBD was mainly put into place solely for emissions though, if you have the know-how to diagnose stuff without plugging in a scanner i prefer old school 70s and 80s EFI by far. no big brother OBD crawling on your back. get me something like an old R31 Skyline and i can make it fully tuneable with a computer

as for durability, new cars are toys compared to old stuff. like they say on Nissan and Toyota trucks, kids today driving newer Frontier and Tacoma have no idea how much better they were 20+ years ago. todays cars are too much plastic

Levsimus

iTrader: (1)

The new stuff is better man, I like the old stuff as much as the next guy but the fact is two-three times the fuel economy and equal if not more power out of smaller engines speaks for itself. Luddites may not like it, but modern and future cars are superior to older cars! They might have too much plastic or too many crumple zones (the old "Back in my day my 57 chevy wouldn't even have a scratch on the bumper after a fender bender like that!" mentality) but cars are safer and more efficient than they've ever been, in pretty much every aspect all around better than older cars.

1990se5speed

Yeah you might be right but when that check engine light turns on with not a P code but a U code I don't think there is a lot of people that can diagnose that new stuff is better when it comes to fuel but come on I have seen new cars with blown head gaskets

Levsimus

iTrader: (1)

Any car can fail, head gaskets aren't magically any better on a newer car - its still the same principle, a metal gasket sandwiched between two pieces of metal. Only true way to 100% remove headgasket failures is to simply not have heads and blocks as separate pieces, which of course isn't reasonably feasible but it is what it is. Oil seals fail, CVTs fail (as Nissan knows all too well) and motors go, but then you'd see the same probability of issues with older cars too, fresh off the lot or beat to ****. Overall quality of parts is indeed up, and for the most part, engines are better built than they used to be, even if people won't want to believe it. Proportionate mechanical failures are likely much lower (although I can't prove it with science as I'm not aware of any scientific data proving this) to boot.

As far as diagnoses, yes, without the proper equipment it does make it more difficult to service a vehicle in your own garage but modern OBD systems are to a point where in a lot of cases, it pretty much tells you the exact problem once you've figured out the codes instead of having to play guess the smell like with these older cars.

Its like the saying goes - mechanics work on old cars, technicians work on new cars. With that said, there will always be technogeeks that want the latest and greatest and believe that newest is best, then the luddites who refuse to get with the times and accept that modern technology can, and generally speaking, is better, if more complicated.

I like to think I'm somewhere in the middle of the two extremes.

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

when i was in tech school thats what they stressed, we were no longer mechanics, because of computers we're automotive technicians

OBD isnt always that big of a help, if you get a code for something like say throttle position sensor, it could very well be the wiring to the sensor shorting to ground or something causing problems. on a old car with not as many sensors as todays, you can easily rule out whats wrong and check everything just the same

1990se5speed

I understand what you mean and yeah I would love my maxima to be like a prius with 50 mpg you have a point but you have to put in the human factor I work at an autoparts store and there is people putting autolite plugs on a Toyota on or 10w40 on a 2013 Chevy malibu if that don't say variable valve timeing code I don't know what dose the more things you put in a car the more things can fail plus a lot of parts in a modern engine are aluminum which can warp which is why synthetic oil was developed on old cars you already know what can go wrong on New cars you dont know its like the saying goes its better the devil you know than the devil you don't plus you know the best thing about a old car I don't have to make any payments to anybody you can do wonders to an old car with $500 that's shocks 60$, tie rod ends 20-70$, ball joints 20-60$,motor mounts 30-70$, plastic parts ahhh do you know how much they brake . It is horrible

Levsimus

iTrader: (1)

This is very true, and the guys who say "More sensors means more to go wrong" aren't entirely off the wall with the statement. As all of us know - as our cars get older, the connections and electrical components become more and more suspect. These newer cars will no doubt have the potential to suffer many of the same issues on a larger scale as we all suffer with our own aging 3rd gens (injectors, anyone? )

With that said, I'm interested to see how age affects these cars - connectors today are far better than they were in the past, and now that they're doing a better job of sealing the connection itself as well as sealing the harness side of the connectors from water intrusion, we might actually see better longevity than expected out of these connections. As far as plastic materials go, given that there are so many of our cars still rolling around with crappy 80s plastic materials, I have high expectations that most newer cars will age just as well if not better, with the higher quality plastics used today.

Naturally, entirely up to the maintenance of said vehicle, before I rescued it, my car sat under the blazing Wyoming sun for six years undriven, and it did quite a number to the plastic, rubber and leather components. Can't do much about neglect, but hell, everything held up great, just gotta be careful with some of the plastic trim pieces, quite brittle! I think it says a lot about what kind of abuse modern materials will be able to take if the older junk is surviving pretty well through such a harsh stretch of neglect. This car has been an absolute money pit and a pain in my ***, but I don' regret it one bit. I love this old girl, and while I will eventually buy a newer car (love all the new features and creature comforts, to be honest!) I haven't decided if I'll get rid of the third gen. I love the body style, the simplistic nature of everything, its very basic and straight forward once you've gotten an idea of where everything is, how its all connected, etc. Biggest challenge is the diagnosis part with so many aging components that can trigger the same symptoms and having no guidance thanks to a very rudimentary and (IMO) relatively ineffective OBD1 system.

jessi89max

Nissan. Is crap now 80s and 90s where the prime

jessi89max

Had a 03 altima nice looking 3.5 worst car ever

jessi89max

89-94 nissan max cheapest most reliable car for the money

dwapenyi

iTrader: (3)

Interesting point you make about head gaskets. Today's engines produce more power per cubic inch because their cylinder heads work much harder and are more complicated.

Modern cars have 4 valves/cylinder with single or dual overhead cams. So the cylinder head in today's cars are way more complicated than yesterdays with 2 valves/cylinder and no overhead cams. Not to mention that today's cylinder heads are quite a bit bigger than yesterdays cylinder heads by a long shot.

So maybe today's car do blow more head gaskets than yesterday. Would you rather have a "cam in block" 2 valve/cylinder motor or a dual overhead cam 4 valve/cylinder motor?

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

i wouldnt say todays cars blow more headgaskets than older ones. ive got both engines known to blow HG and both have blown HG, 22R and 7MGE. figure how many years those engines were used, and thats alot of blown HG. 7M were just because they wouldnt admit they undertorqued the headbolts from factory


pretty much this. 80s and 90s were when all the Japanese manufacturers were in their prime and pumped out how many sports cars. and R32 GTR dominated Bathurst in the early 90s and countless other races, nowadays theres only the automatic GTR or 370Z really.

CMax03

iTrader: (3)

Nissan is owned by the French (Renault).....back in the 70's, 80's and up to the mid 90's it was all Japanese decision making (Even though My 86.5 D21 Hardbody was assembled in the US)....I think Nissan is still an awesome brand but the fact is if it doesn't have a VIN starting with JN I don't want it! Alot of stuff made in Mexico, brazil, and the US now! That's why my next 2 vehicle will be an Infiniti G37 or Q50 and an US assembled Nissan Truck....

Levsimus

iTrader: (1)

Nissan is still its own brand, they share a corporate alliance/partnership, however neither company owns the other in majority - Renault holds only 43% share in Nissan, while Nissan holds 15% shares in Renault.

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

thisx1000. i would never own a Japanese vehicle unless everything was assembled in Japan. its all too coincidental that 6th gen Maxima werent made in Japan anymore and thats when alot of problems came about