Auto vs. 5 speed, I hear it all the time. What's your opinion. I'd like to know because I am planning to buy a 1997 Maxima SE Auto and I want to know if I am making a big mistake. Thanks.

 

i like it after my vb mod that i just got done today...otherwise no i hated it

 

Although many times I wish I had a 5speed, I must say I am content with my auto. I have to drive pretty far for work sometimes through NYC traffic and a 5spd would just **** me off. But I can't deny the fact that (assuming I could drive) a 5spd Maxima is about a half a second faster in the 1/4.

 

I like it 'cause I also sit in traffic (seattle) all of the time and my last car was a contour svt with a 5-speed. It got old, especially because I drive trucks for a living and get enough driving in. I like to relax in my car. If the car was low on power it would be a different story. However there are times of course when I would love the sportiness of the manual.

 

i like my auto but i'm going to switch over to a manual in order to get the quaife ATB diff cause they only make it for the manual

 

I likes my auto...I had a 94' Probe GT that was a stick, I miss it sumtimes, but then again I dont. Its about 50/50.

 

for me the auto is for cruzing and being relaxed. when i drive my auto and the take my brothers vq35 6 speed for a drive and then go back to my maxima, then i wish it was a stick. i want a stick cause i rarely sit in traffic and plus it is funner and the max feels alot quicker with a stick. depends on where u live and if u sit in traffic and how far u drive.

 

No complaints from me on having an auto. tranny

to each his own

 

Ditto. Exactly.

 

I bought this car (maxima in general) specifically for the auto.

This is the first auto I've ever owned after a decade of sticks. Very relaxing to be able to drive in any kind of traffic with just a few fingers, especially when I have a headache and the downtown connector is a parking lot.

If you are buying this car for performance then you will definitely want 5-speed. If you have to commute somewhere everyday you will begin to hate manual transmission very fast. Depends on how you are going to use the car. Mine is a commuter 1st, so the choice was real easy.

 

I've never driven a 5-speed, so naturally I'm biased to autos. But why do I see a big debate over this once the 5-speed guys read this and start saying "my 5-speed will waste your auto, and i'll have more fun driving."?

 

My car is an auto only becouse I bought for my wife.... but .... when we bought her a new car... I had gotten used to having the Max around so I sold my beater (daily driver) and kept the Max for my daily driver....shes now on her 2nd new car since the Max and I still enjoy having the Max as my daily driver..... had I bought the car for myself in the first place it would have been a 5spd

 

sure why not

 

I hate the fact that there's more drive train loss and the fact that the POS doesn't downshift when you need it. You pull up to a light and you start to slow down and the light turns green. There I am in 3rd or 4th going 5mph and it and it takes forever to speed up unless I step on it. It should automatically downshift to 1st whenever you slow down to like 10mph.

 

I like my auto, and gasp, I still find it fun to drive :P

Besides, even if I wanted a manual it'd be almost impossible for me to find a manual Maxima, they're very rare in NZ (and only available up to 97 or 98).

 

I like my auto too, sometimes it even goes faster than a stick.

 

i like my auto...but yea i hate the way it drives some times...it almost seems like its real ghetto sometimes, i wish i had an auto, since i inherited this car from my moms...for a GOOD price, i had to stick with auto...but for now im saving up to do the conversion im a newb and i know its HELLA money but the way i look at it is...since i dont know much and i have people that might be willing to help me, switching 2 stick would be a big learning experience...but hopefully i dont hate it in the long run..i doubt i will, but who knows lol all my cars have been autos....never owned a manual, but whenever i drive my friends manuals, I LOVE IT!!!

 

i dont mind driving my auto because its my first car, i wanna be paying more attention to the road and not shifting, that sounds dumb, but deer and dumb drivers are all around me. i know how to drive stick and my next car (hopefully another maxi) is going to be a stick!

 

I don't understand that last one. Do you look at your shifter everytime you shift? Once you learn to drive stick it almost becomes second nature. Besides, whether you have a stick or auto there will still be idiot drivers and deer around you.

 

I also want to add. . .

In general I have no problem with automatics, and I would love to have an automatic that felt and performed like BMW's automatic trannys. If Nissan made the transmission more sport oriented (or offered a "sport" mode), an automatic maxima would be lots more fun to drive.

 

i wish the now trendy sport shifter automatics where available on maximas back in the 4th gen era, or atleast offered it on the 97+ maximas. it would offer best of both worlds. i like my auto but it does seem to be a lil slugish, but if i had a 5 speed id have no hand to keep my beer in.

 

i like my auto with the traffic i run into, but some times i miss the 5 speed

 

Thanks for all the replies. I am more of a sport-oriented driver and I love being in control of the engine, but at the same time I drive about 25,000 miles a year and so all that driving would be great for an auto as well. I'm still 50/50 on the issue, and I have test-driven both the Auto and 5sp Maxima's.

Ok, here's the one thing I didn't like about the 5sp. I drove. Tell me if you guys experience this also. When driving the 5sp. in slower traffic I notice this jerking sensation ALL THE TIME. Every time I push the throttle lightly or lift off the throttle slowly there is still this jerking motion as if a motor-mount is broken and it shakes the whole car. Does anybody else have this problem or is it all in my head? I've driven BMW M3's and all kinds of other cars with a stick, and they never felt as bad as this 95 Maxima 5sp i test drove. This is my only gripe about the tranny, otherwise I really want it.

 

I think the jerkyness is something wrong with the car (dirty throttle body or something maybe? I don't really know). I love my 5spd. I do have a pretty long commute to school, but it's light traffic so not much of that annoying stop and go that might make me hate it.

 

take a stick if u are going to mod ur max to make it performance wise.

 

AMEN BROTHER BEN!

 

The only reason i like my auto is because i cannot drive a 5 or 6 speed very well, and i sit in alot of traffic daily. otherwise, i wish it was a 5 speed. the auto trans is very finicky, and i hate the way it shifts. as said by Magikone69, i wish they had a sport shift available like on VWs and Chrysler cars, cause then you have the best of both worlds.

 

I am a former automatic driver and sometimes I miss it. Luckly its still in the family and now I can compare my 5spd to my dads auto. I have ben driving my stick for months straight and jump into the auto and I hated it. When I wanted to go fast I had to wait for a downshift, which bites. Not having it shift is nice, but I cant stand the loss of performance. It would be nice to have an auto with the power of a 5spd, then I'd be happy. Also racing my car is fun but I know the auto is more precise. If I was an occasional track racer Id have an auto with nitrous, but I'm not so I'll stick with a stick.

 

Go with a 5 spd. It more fun to drive than a auto. Trust me. I use to have a 1990 300zx auto and whenever there was a race or I felt like experiencing a little spirited driving, i couldn't drive it the way i drive my 5spd. That's why i told myself "The next car i get will be a standard!!!!!!"

Plus when you down shift from 5th to 3rd, it knocks you into your seat. You can't do that in an auto.

Get a 5spd you won't regret.

 

in addition, I too have a stop & go drive to work and school so the auto tranny gets the job done and gets me to whereever else I need to go

 

Or try downshifting from 6 to 4th or 6 to 3 in a vq35 and ur *** will be in ur seat so hard that u will not be able to pull yourself forward. I cant wait until i start my auto to stick conversion during the summer. gett a 5sp and u will not regret it at all and u wont have to do a conversion later to a stick if u choose a auot.

stickshift rocks

 

Ok, I just test-drove another 97 SE Auto and it was far better than the last 97 I drove. This actually had the power it was supposed to which made the tranny feel alot better. However after a couple runs around the city here I've decided to get a 5 speed instead. The auto felt great no doubt, but I always have been a spirited driver and I'm going to look for a 5 speed if I can find one. I really love the power of the VQ and you guys are right...if I plan to mod it at all, I might as well get the 5sp from the beginning.

This forum is awesome, thanks for helping me decide. Now the hard part: to find a 97+ 5sp in the Upper Midwest!!

 

good job, I'm glad you decided to go with a 5speed. I think every car should be a 5 speed. Auto's **** me off.

As for whomever said they were worried about concentrating on the road, well I've only driven 5 speed cars (except when driving a friends car, etc.), I learned on a 5 speed, and I will never buy any car except one with a 5 speed (or 6!). As long as you have a little bit of common sense, after awhile of driving a 5speed you will not even notice that you are shifting, it just becomes natural. And yeah, I'd like to see your autos peal out on the highway ... yeah thats right ...

 

blah!! i hate my auto... i feel like i'm frickin 50 yrs old drivin an auto. i thought it'd be cool relaxing and letting the car shift by itself... i was wrong! me want 5 speed!~

 

There are quite a few powerful sedans that can compete with Maxima in general but the whole beauty and advantage of Maxima is that it was offered in manual transmission unlike many of those other sedans. Having a choice and picking an automatic Max over a manual does not give you that advantage - might as well pick a Camry or an Accord - they probably have better auto trannies anyways.

Since I live in FL where average driver's age is around 90, I could not find a manual for almost a year and that's why I have an auto...

 

A lot of you guys are saying that if you commute a long ways everyday, it is better to have an auto....I couldn't disagree more. I probably drive my car like 75 miles per day, and I love that it is a 5spd just for that. In fact, I knew that I would be driving mostly in traffic, and I wanted a 5spd, so that when I put it in a gear, it was there. I didn't have to wait on the auto tranny to shift, and then pass someone. It just gives me more control.
For sportiness, there is only room for manual.

Jime, you are the exception with all that NItrous.

 

i admit, i'm biased towards stick cuz i learned to drive a stick car @ 13 years old and still love it. and yea i wish my max was stick, god yeah. the reason isn't so much that i want stick for fun (and i do) as its because the auto tranny in the max's are horrible horrible mechanical abonishments! its seriously the worst auto i've ever driven. slow, sluggish, jerky..you name it, its a problem! do yourself a favor and get a stick if you know how to drive it, unless these types of problems don't bug you. but for me at least, its enough to make me want to get rid of the car (other than that i like the car though)

 

I like my auto, but sometimes I really wish i could shift myself. It's nice on the highway and long trips, but there are times when I don't want to wait for my tranny to switch gears.

 

For normal drivng, the autos are beautiful. Most of the time, you can barely feel it shift.

For racing, you have to manually control that sucker but I don't do it during 1/4 runs. I must have been doing something right running 15.6 with no mods. The autos can be driven.

I like my auto!

 

What is a vb mode? Can u please tell me more about it?