In reading the posts here it seemed that many people used to own an American muscle car (Camaro / Trans Am / Mustang) and are now driving a Maxima.

I fall into the category with my old 1997 Pontiac Trans Am - Ram Air. I miss *some* of the power but I am so much happier with this car.

Anyone else care to share their experiences?

 

I went from a Z28 to a Gran Prix to a Max.
Does that count?

I think the Camaro was more fun to drive, but you can't beat the Max as 4 door family car. The Grand Prix spent more time at the dealer than it did in the driveway.

I bought the Maxima to get a reliable car that could go 200k miles. So far so good, it just may not have any paint left on it by then.

 

Sure that counts! I think that the Camaro/TA was fun to drive on a nice sunny day with 55% humidity. Anything other than that and I was all over the road. Not to mention that the suspension was so tight I used to pop off the road when it was bumpy!

Over all, I'm soooooo much happier with my Max. Then again, that could be because I grew up

 

Still got my Z28 in the garage- Needs a motor, tho. The 406 is still at the machine shop!

 

I love to have my Z28 back.
It was a great weekend car. Now that I have a garage, it could have been a great project car.

 

Anyone else care to share their experiences? [/B][/QUOTE]

I traded my 96 Camaro RS for a '02 SE Max. I loved the Camaro but had it for 5 years, (3 without a loan) and the mileage was getting up there and little things were starting to go wrong with it. Other than having 18 year old girls think I looked cool, (T tops and RS package were real nice), it was really a useless car, nice for right out of college though.
For the last two summers I was dumping money into it for one thing or another that was starting to go wrong with it.

I was looking at the 3 series and the IS 300 before settling on the Max with no regrets. It has more Hp than the other 2 cars and Nissan gave me $8000 for the Camaro, where the other 2 wernt even close to that!!

 

I'm really glad to be reading this thread.

I came VERY close to getting a 2k2 T/A WS6, and have kinda been regretting it in the back of my mind, especially after going to the track at Beech Bend on Test and Tune night and seeing them easily run 12s and 13s.

But I keep telling myself that I got a better all around car, and that I wouldn't have to deal with as many maintenance headaches either. Hehe...this thread is a good reassurance..thanks!

 

Hey I traded in my black 97 TA too. It was all pimped out but I like my max a lot better now. I got tired of the stiff ride and all the tickets, the only thing that I miss is the T-tops, Rear wheel drive and a little more attention from females ,but it was all well worth it.

 

Wow I was just thinking of starting a thread like this today after reading the one about the LT1 Camaro. I have had 2 F-Body's an '87 IROC-Z with the 5 liter was my first car at the age of 16. I bought it with 114k miles on it for 3 grand. I painted it, had to replace the rear, and the transmission during the 70k miles that I had it. That may sound bad, but to me it was a very good car. I beat the snot out of it and it still had teh original motor when I solf it at 186k miles!! My second one was a '98 LS1 Formula 6-Speed. I bought it new. It was a Black on black T-Top and was a blast to drive. It dyno'd at 292 at the rear and ran a 13.7 at 105 with a crappy 2.5 60 ft. Like an idiot I traded it in when I thought the rear was going out and the dealer couldn't get it fixed (it made a terrible whine at 60mph). Even dumber was that I bought an Accord, only to realize my mistake, and then at 18 months traded it in. Which leads me to the Max. I still miss that rumble of the Flowmaster muffler though .

I'm thinking of trading the Max in for a GTO in 2005. I'll have to see how it comes out.

 

Traded my 96 Mustang GT for the 2k2 Maxima. The maxima is faster and MUCH more comfortable, with none of the hassles.

 

I totaled my 94' Mustang GT on Sept 29th and Bought my Maxima SE on Oct. 19th. I am still off work and recuperating, but my wife really loves the car. She has never driven a car with so much go power that she is constantly amazed at what it will do. I see the miles she gets on a tank of gas and know she has a lead foot. She has raced a couple rice-burners already on my suggestion and that cracked me up. We bought it with 17 miles on it and have 2,000 on it now. Taking it to Las Vegas for the Thanksgiving holiday!

 

Yes...the 2k2 Maxima is MUCH faster then the '96 Mustang GT...unless you went from a GT 5spd to a 2k2 max auto,

 

Still have my Stang, don't see myself trading it anytime soon. Still love the Max tho'. When I first bought it, I took all the money I had saved up for my new longblock, and spent it all on the Max. Oh well, it was all worth it, because the Max is a much more enjoyable car to drive now.

 

I traded in my 96 mustang cobra for my 2k2 6 speed , i love the max much more than the cobra , the only thing i miss is the sound of the exhaust from the cobra!!..But the cobra was starting to burn oil with only 30k miles on it , so i knew it had to go...

 

I miss my 94 Z28 automagic. I regret not doing a torque converter, a 3.42 gear, cam, and heads. It was a strong runner, 13.4s@104mph, but it had it's share of problems. I really wanted some refined and more reliable. The Maxima fit my budget. My goal was 14.9s. I'm currently at 14.6@98mph which surpasses my wildest dreams for this car. What's amazing is that I think my Maxima would be able to walk my Z28 (when it was stock) from any kind of a roll. My Z28 went 14.0@98mph with a 1.9 60'. My Maxima has done a 14.6@98mph with a 2.3 60'. Now I've got the infamous variable intake manifold and my Max is wicked in the topend.


Dave

 

Owned a 96 WS6 T/A 6 speed, and an 89 5.0 LX.. both 12 sec cars....

 

My current weekend toy is a 95 Z28 camaro 6 speed. It dynoes 291 rwhp, 329 rwtq with bolt ons, I run 13.2@107 on DRs... Like I said, it's only my weekend toy. I enjoy it and wouldnt trade it for a maxima, however.... I have a 91 K5 blazer for a daily, but if my daily commute gets longer (which may happen) I think I'll sell the blazer and get a ~97 or so Maxima as a daily driver, something reliable, quiet, and a pleasant place to endure the crappy Denver traffic. that way I can have my Z as my fun car and a maxima as my main daily vehicle.

 

Actually, I'll bet the Maxima would still be faster

 

when i was looking at cars i had it narrowed down to 3 cars. a 2000 BMW 328, 2000 Camaro SS, and the 2000 maxima. I liked the BMW, liked the camaro, and liked the maxima. I went with the maxima because the bmw was pretty expensive and i couldnt do anything to it right after i bought it, the camaro was a cool car to have but didnt seem like it would be a good daily driver for the commute to school and wasnt very practical for the new england winters, and the maxima was much more practical and i am glad i went with the maxima. I do wish sometimes that i went with the camaro but i couldnt live with it as a daily driver i dont think. alot of my friends have camaros, and i love them, by far one of my favorite domestics. I would love to get an SS for a weekend car but the money just isnt there...someday lol.

 

Everytime I took my T/A out it was fun for like the first hour. Then the ride just got annoying. You can't ALWAYS drive fast..sometimes you need comfort. The T/A was like sitting on an engine!

 

Not only did I convert from a mustang to a Max, but it is the first import car I have owned. I have owned 7 Fords previous to the max.

 

What are you going to do with all the time *not* spent at the Ford dealer??? Get a second job???

 

I owned a 1974 Camaro, and then that caused too many problems and got my 1994 maxima, and then soon upgraded to my 2k2

 

I traded my 96 Camaro RS for a '02 SE Max. I loved the Camaro but had it for 5 years, (3 without a loan) and the mileage was getting up there and little things were starting to go wrong with it. Other than having 18 year old girls think I looked cool, (T tops and RS package were real nice), it was really a useless car, nice for right out of college though.
For the last two summers I was dumping money into it for one thing or another that was starting to go wrong with it.
[/B][/QUOTE]

Similar story but the timeline is shifted back 4 years. Camaros/Firebirds are a lot of fun but the maintenance on them will kill your wallet. I went from a 83 Firebird SE to 89 Max SE to 02 Max SE. Not one regret.

 

I have a 2001 Camaro SS. Mostly drive it on the weekends. The Max is technically my wife's car. We traded in her '99 V6 Camaro to get the Max.

 

[/B][/QUOTE]I was looking at the 3 series and the IS 300 before settling on the Max with no regrets. It has more Hp than the other 2 cars and Nissan gave me $8000 for the Camaro, where the other 2 wernt even close to that!! [/B][/QUOTE]


Yeah, I traded my 01 SS in for this 00 GLE. My payments were way too high in my SS (horrible financing) and it was having to go to the shop allot. I had had just about as much fun without getting arrested in it as possible. No tickets or wrecks. So it was time to get rid of it (after ragging the sh$t out of it the day before). I had always liked the Mazda Millennia so went to trade it in on one. The Mazda people kept trying to give me the Z28 trade in price for it. I explained to them that this was an SS, not a Z28. The software program they used (similar to Kelly BB) to get their base price had no entry for the SS. So they kept telling me this is what they would give me. At two different dealers. Not a little below Blue Book mind you, like 5K below. Because of the model difference. So, I told them to go to Hell. I drove down about a block and a half into the Nissan dealership. They gave me 2K over Kelly BB for it. Not to mention a good deal on the Max. Another nice thing was that I had to pay no taxes because my SS was worth more than the Max. On paper maybe.

I am extremely happy with my Max. Although I had my heart set on the Millennia, I now think it was a blessing in disguise that Mazda had their heads up their coola's (sp?). I don't know why I didn't even think about it having a Ford motor. I was swearing I would not buy domestic again. And the engine was what kept screwing up in my SS. That would have been an oversight. The Max is also more powerful. More reliable. Seems to have allot more mod opportunities. And everyone of my friends who rides in it totally loves it. Especially after all the interior mods. Which, I will post shortly after it stops raining, and I get the company digi camera.

 

On the contrary my friend, I have spent more time at the dealer with my 00' Max than all of my cars combined!!

 

You must not have taken good care of it then. I have NEVER, EVER heard of that happening on a 5.0 or 4.6 with only 30k miles. It was still under warranty, did you take it back???

 

I traded my 1999 Mustang Cobra Coupe for a '03 SE 6-speed. The Maxima doesn't have quite the power of the Cobra, but it is much more comfortable, quiet, better gas mileage, and lower insurance cost! I have about 3500 miles on my car now and am not sorry that I traded!

 

I'd have to agree with you. I'm on my first import. My previous cars have all been Fords and one Chebby truck (which crapped 3 trannies). The Fords I've owned held up to my daily abuse fairly well.

Puuuuhhhhleease...I have hung with and/or beaten several '99-'02 GT's in my *auto* 2k2 SE. A stock '96-'98 GT with a five speed still wouldn't stand a chance. It's a 14.9 car on a REALLY good day. Most 2k2 SE autos are running 14.7's all day stock.

Now as for my last car, I sold my 1998 Cobra this July, about a month after I bought my Max. Insurance on two cars was too much $$$, especially those two. I love the comfort of the Max, lots of interior room compared to the Cobra. I'm a big guy (6'3", 245 lbs) so it was a contortionist act getting in and out of the Cobra compared to the Max.

The thing I miss the most is laying the smack down on LS1's

-Johnny V.

 

Believe me when i say the 96 cobra was treated like gold , it was garaged in the winter and oil changed every 3000 with synthetic , it was never raced at the track or abused , i was surprised myself when it started burning oil , but it was past the warranty because it was older than 3 years , doesnt matter that it only had 30k on the odometer , it was my second mustang , the first went to 65k without a problem , but it was the first year of the 4.6 in the cobra , so maybe that played a part , but either way it had to go , i wasnt getting stuck with any repair bills..

 

What kind of mods did you have on your Cobra to put the smack down on a LS1's.

 

That's what I was wondering too.

 

Me three. I used to take Cobra (pre-03) with no prob in the SS. I'm glad I don't have to contend with the new Cobra's though. Those will do some damage to Z28/SS/Firehawk/WS6

 

 

Dude, I'm so stealing that smiley

 

You like! I got that from the f150 site along with the that everyone seems to be using as well!

 

No Nitrous, No SC, No Turbo.

Mods were:

1. BBK LT's
2. O/R H-pipe
3. Mac cat-back
4. WMS CAI
5. Densecharger Power Pipe (those who have owned or seen the MAF to TB pipe on '96-'98 4V's know the big "dent" in the stock unit that kills flow)
6. Cobra R aluminum flywheel
7. Tremec TKO trans
8. FRPP Aluminum driveshaft
9. 4.30 Gears
10. Tri-Ax shifter

AND...
11. License plate frame that read "Camaros are Great...I just ate one (this one was the biggest mod of them all )

Not a lot of stuff, but enough to put me in front of all but two LS1 cars that I ever ran against with those mods. I probably beat 15-20 with those mods. I beat a few before the LT's and the flywheel, but I would chalk that up to them being poor drivers. Before the LT's, Powerpipe, flywheel, driveshaft, o/r h, and the TKO I went 13.34 @ 105.5 with a 2.1 60' in mid-June at Thunder Valley in Noble, OK. Dyno with the mods at that time was 271 RWHP and 268 RWTQ. After those mods (the complete list above), the car made 292 RWHP and 290 RWTQ.

Remember, in the 1/4, 4.30's are King for a 4V. I almost had some 4.56's installed, but I sold the car before I got around to it. I never got to make any passes with the mods above. Just a dyno. I was graduating from college and I spent a lot of weekends house searching in the city my job was going to be in (about 60 miles from school).

So, for all of you who were wondering, it was not your bone stock '98 Cobra. One of the two LS1's that beat me was spraying an NX 75 shot, the other had a few bolt-ons and internal engine work (hot cam is what he called it?)

-Johnny V.

 

Not bad....You would of had trouble with my '01 LS1. Stock I ran a 13.1 at the track. With exhuast and lid I ran a 12.9 and dynoed 328rwhp.

 

I'd still own you tho' Note the plate