The old Accord/Camry/Maxima debate!
I have a 98 Maxima and a 97 Accord and my neighbor has a 97 Camry.
I think the Accord is overrated, I bought it at 150K and had to replace quite a few things and now I am doing the heater core. My first car of choice when i have to go on a long road trip is the Maxima, I trsut it the most and you don't have to worry about being smashed by a tractor trailer because of its acceleration




97ACCORD 4 cyl VTEC 153K

1. Styling Bland ..(that's just my opinion looks like everyother car--great if you have are on the run from the law)
2. Reliability Not as good as they say--failed hoses, radiator fan, ac fan, and now heater core
3. Paint Faded on roof badly-Power Avg
4. Repairs Easy. I have to be honest. however--doing the heater core next week...
5. Even my wife feels safer in the Maxima

97 CAMRY V6 Automatic 122K

1. Styling Stodgy ..(that's just my opinion great car for a piano teacher)
2. Reliability Excellent
3. Paint Faded slightly on hood
4. Power Avg even with V6
5. Repairs Easy
6. If its like my Corolla's i suspect it matches the Maxima in reliabilty and sturdiness, but its very anemic.

98 MAXIMA 5 speed

1. Styling Sporty....(that's just my opinion people will thing you are either a ladies man, a fighter pilot or a card shark..or all three )
2. Reliability Excellent
3. Paint Very Good
4. Power Very Good
5. Repairs: Not so easy--case in point, Water pump. However, haven't repaiered anything else!. Upper oil pan, small leak, and a big job.
6. Has a trusthworthy, strong and rugged feel to oit.

 

There's no debate. The maxima is an all around better car than the other 2 hands down. One may be slightly more reliable, one may have a more reputable name, but out of the 3, the max wins every time. Some are rolling around with 400K MILES and on original motor and tranny. God Bless the Max.

 

Plenty of hondas and toyotas running around with that mileage also. The debate becomes easier because we love maximas but I put 260k on my camery before the tranny went. They are all fairly reliable cars

 

Yes you are right. I loved my old Mercedes Diesels, my old Volvo 940 --they all died after being hit or stolen and I am sure the Camry/Accord/Maxima trio are all great cars, the post was more in jest. The only car that I would warn you about is the SAAB 9000. It has a cult following, but parts are very expensive. The Volvo was kind of expensive too. You vae to love the Camry/Accord/Maxima line because parts are not expensive.

Nexet time I am going to buy American and either get a Dodge Intrepid, a PT Cruiser or a Ford Focus. My friend had a Dodge Intrepid with 240 K.

 

jesus christ. most boring cars ever mentioned in one post.

 

intrepids are no bueno mi amigo . my mom has had 4 of them with less than 100k on them and for some odd reason , they have all failed her .

 

Not really. My Volvo 940 was a Turbo model. I put on a larger Turbo and I changed my ECY curves. She put out about 220 hp.

Likewise for my SAAB 9000.

 

The Maxima was my first new car. Then came the BMW 335i coupe. Now we just bought a GM SUV that cost even more than the BMW. So I can say I own Japanese, German, and American. I already have my doubts about American, but just thought the Pilot and Highlanders of the world were too boring. I thought the '98 Maxima had initial build quality issues, you should see GM. Has a UAW sticker on the driver's door and it's crooked.

 

Maxima > all. Not biased at all

 

I'm not going to biased and say the Maxima is the best car ever built because that's not really true. I don't even think there is such a thing. In most cases the car quality always follows the previous owners and how well the car was maintained (if you buy used).

Say for example you take 2 97' Honda Accords.
the first was bought in a dealership with 10miles on the clock by an older guy
the second was bought in a dealership with 10miles on the clock by an average aged man.

Now fast forward 5 years. The older guy still has his Accord, it has some mileage after 5 years but he's always changed the fluids, always used synthetics. It's had regular maintenance the car is always garaged, washed and well kept.

The average joe took decent care of his but decided to sell it after 3 years. Now it's on to it's second owner. Now that the car's warranty is up and the person that is driving it doesn't know how to maintain it himself they have to pay shops to do maintenance such as oil changes etc.

Fast forward 10 years. The old man still has his Accord, still takes just as good care of it as he did the day he bought it, hardly any body damage well maintained etc.

The second Accord has already been through 5 owners by this point. It's beat up do to people who don't "care" the engine runs rough from lack of service. Etc etc.

I think you get my point. The car is generally only as good as it was maintained from the start. Sure there is some bad eggs that come out of the factory, and after 10years things like starters, alternators, radiators etc need to be replaced.

However if you can find that golden egg though, that was taken care of. That car will run for 400K+ no matter what make/model of car it is. I've seen Nissan's/Ford's/Mercede's and all sorts of other cars run past 300k and keep going.

I love my Maxima though and wouldn't trade it for anything else. I've formed a bond with it that I don't think could ever be broken. Just as I'm sure most of us have here.

 

Not being biased myself but my stepfather had an Acura Vigor. Somehow honda got a straight 5 cylinders in there but that car moved. The problem with that car was the rear seating. The rear suspension was bought further in which created that loss of room. Overall not a bad car but no room to work on replacing stuff at all and it still had a timing belt.

As for the camry, my best friend owned one which was a 94 xle which I gotta say took a serious beating. It must have had 5 or 6 lights on the dash and this guy still drove this thing into the ground when the tranny went at 140K. He rebuilt it and then got rid of it.

I convinced him to get a 4th gen max like myself and found him a 96 with 82K for $2500 with a prestine black interior and all it had was a hole in the exhaust. Fixed it for him and he has been liking it since. He still neglects it but when he goes on vacation, I take care of it and he reimburses me. He is trying to find a blk on blk fully loaded which I told him is very very hard to come by.

Overall the 4th gen FTW!!

 

lmao this had me laffing over here.

bak on topic it really depends on how you take care of your cars.

my dad had an old 1985 g30 heavy duty work van . that van lasted him 300.000 + miles until it blew up . it was religously taken care of by him.

he went and bought a 2000 e250 with the v6, an old DHL shipping work van with 200,000+ miles . the e250 runs smooth and eats no gas. i love the dam thing even though its a ugly yellow with steelies.

but then my nieghbor has also a e250 that he uses for work with lesser miles and that **** looks lke its gunna fall apart any day.

 

We own:
'92 Toyota Helix 307k
'92 Ranger(mint) 200k 2nd original clutch still
'96 Suburban 185k
'97 suburban 35k (just got)
2x '95 maximas ~180k each

 

I think it definitly depends on how well it was taken care of. The post above meant to say second owner for the ranger. Dang mobile can't change posts ha.

 

The Helix never dies. Top Gear even proved it.

 

96 Nissan 200SX GA16DE 251k+ (runs extremely smooth, no smoke, no oil leaks and very economic in gas. plus it has good torque) paint is faded though =]

Maximas are one of a kind (design and reliability)

 

Maxima FTW

 

Considering that we are maxima ethusiast but of course we'll be biased to honda/ toyota. But i give alot of respect to our jdm counter parts. Corolla/camry, civic and accords sell like hotcakes. New or old there parts are easy to replace and are available OTC at most part stores . Plus the honda performance scene is serious. I' ve seen plenty of modded v8 cars lose to boosted civics on/off the track.

 

I love it when they run out of oil in 4x4 going thru snow. And then drive you home.

 

coming from a 97 avalon (in essence a 97 camry with a lot of leather and luxury options) i LOVED that car. hence why it's still in my garage even though i have an 02 6spd lol. another big difference between the cars is how it's advertised. my cousin had a 96 maxima se fully loaded and it had less miles then my avalon but i replaced the struts/springs with tokico blues and tein stechs, the avalon obviously felt sportier but power, reliability, and etc they were the same.


maximas were advertised as sports sedans out running birds, grim reapers, chasing the sunset, and etc wheree the avalon was advertised floating on clouds and taking people places.. accords were advertised as gas mileage cars lol.

just as someone said, a car is as reliable as you want it, my 97 avalon had a trd s/c, jpp headers, k/n filter and was outrunning v8's from a roll.. i love that car and its because i made it what i wanted, cause my parents thought they'd play it safe and hand me down an avalon so i couldn't mod. they failed =]

bottom line, the camry/maxima of similair years (v6 camry) are really alike, more aftermarket for the maxima but highly alike. after 2000, camrys are a bore lol

 

so nice

 

I have been a Honda guy for Years.

Since I got my 97 Max all I can say is:
























NEVER GOING BACK TO HONDA EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!

 

No debate: Maxima > All

 

hondas are straight, but i take a max any day

 

wtf is going on in here?

 

Well to be frank, I sometimes think I would prefer the old cars I grew up with that had carburettors and no sensors at all. None. And I could take the head off, regrind the valves, and have it back together running in about 3 hours.

 

for what it is worth based on my opinion, I work for Toyota and I drive a 97 max. Honda, Nissan, Max are all reliable cars, come on they are designed by the Japanese, they do everything better. I think the max is more enjoyable to drive though.

 

I would have to agree with boilerx, the maxima out of those 3 just is more fun to drive.

 

Sad that this debate no longer exists, today its more like Accord/Camry/Altima !

 

The Maxima is so much more full of "life" and has a spirited ride unlike the other two. I researched and researched the three due to having a family and went with the Maxima. The Camry is like a tank but I'm not on AARP so the Maxima was an easy choice and cheaper! Long live the Max