Paul,

I have only started to read the lists on this forum, but it seems that many 5th gen owner posts on Maxima.org say that some of you are unhappy with the Maxima and while I can't comment on the true Maxima reliability as I have only had mine a short time, although my research prior to my purchase suggests that it should be very good to excellent.

I have though had extensive experience of VW's now and would seriously recommend avoiding them at all cost. I just traded in a 2000 GTi for the Maxima simply due to it's terrible build quality and I also have a 1999 New Beetle that has had many problems as well and when the lease ends on it, I will not be touching VW again. The Beetle is Mexican made and the GTi was German made and while most of the problems have been small most of them have never been repaired satisfactorily and the Beetle has had an engine hesitancy problem since it was but a few months old and the GTi rattled worse than a 10 year old car, has had to have bodywork repairs done to repair poor factory paint work and spent 2 to 2.5 months at the dealer in it's first 10 months.

None of my problems quite qualify for the lemon law, but it made me hate the cars so much I just had to get rid of GTi despite the killing I suffered at the hands of first year depreciation.

What ever you do good luck, but seriously consider what I have said, one junker is bad luck but two can almost be considered habit forming!

If anyone wants more details on the trials I have had, let me know.