Car and Driver, April 2001, letter titled "Blood Warmers", describes the Maxima SE as outperforming all the Euro cars tested in Jan 2001. (Saab, Mercedes, Lexus). And for less money and more reliable.
We knew it anyway.

 

That is comparing apples to oranges. The "Blood Warmers" are sports sedans, with European design and technology. The Maxima is a family sedan (front wheel drive), with sport sedan features ("firm" suspension.) Since this is a Maxima forum, I guess you wouldn't believe it, but as Infinit used to say, "Own One and You Will Understand."

 

meant for another thread?

 

I searched caranddriver.com and could not find article you referred to...is it on their site, if so where, or just in their print version....

 

Its not an article. Its a letter to the editors from the reader.

 

Oooops…that was supposed to be in the “C&D Letter” reply. Must have clicked, “Post New Thread” instead of “Reply To Thread.” Sorry everbody!

 

i have to comment on this post. i dont see how it is comparing apples to oranges. dont get me wrong i am a huge BMW fan and i do appreciate their fine automobiles. however when considering these cars in this particular comparison you have to consider the maxima, and here is why. you say you cant consider the max a sports sedan because it is a family sedan with sport features. so if you use that arguement, that would eliminate the lexus IS because it doesnt offer a manual transmission, right? correct. furthermore the mercedes again proves that they are overpriced garbage, 0-60 in 8.8 and 1/4 in 16.7. it pulls only.76 on the skidpad and does 56.8 in the slalom? (source c&d jan01) and it costs 36k? thats embarassing. and thats a brand new model!!! now getting into numbers, the 5 speed max does 0-60 in 6.7, which is .7 ahead of the pack's average, the 1/4 in 15.1 which is .6 ahead of the average, pulls .8 on the pad and does the slalom at 62 mph.(source MT july99) and it does all this while costing THOUSANDS less than the field. so the only strike it has against it is the fact that it is FWD. value to some people makes up for the lack of RWD. but then again i guess some people are willing to pay an extra 4, 5, and 6 thousand dollars for a pretty blue and white badge.

 

Hey, I agree on the value and bang for the buck side of this, but my mom has a 740iL and it can do a 0-60 almost as fast as my 5sp and that's a boat! I had orginally wanted to invest in a used 540i 6spd, but even used they're around $38K and up for the current platform. I could have gone for a 528i used but it's smaller and slightly slower, thus I chose the Max (and I'm very happy). I have tons of respect for Bimmers. There's alot to be said for they're features, build quality, isolation from noise and performance (huge brakes, beautiful handling and driver response). If I ever get something besides a Max it would most likely be a 540i.

 

Mikalsof has it right.
You can't compare a Maxima to the Euro engineered sports
sedans. Anyone can take a powerfull engine and put into
a medeocre car and then rave about it. But that car won't have the other systems engineering to make it truly a world class car. Also, check out the re-sale value of Maximas and
you will understand.
For what it is, it is merely ok and I own a 2K SE.
After 6,000 miles either I'm getting used to the stiff suspension or it is breaking in and getting a little
softer.

 

I checked out loads of cars a couple months ago at the Harrisburg (PA) Auto Show. Every other sports sedan there was more expensive, less power, slower, or smaller. If not a combination of two or more of those attributes. Some were all four of those (ex Lexus IS30)! I got in the IS30 and another guy got in the back seat behind me. I'm 5'5" tall on a good day and he had to ask me to move the seat up for him to get his feet in! He hit his head on the roof when he leaned back. Found a very cheap, thin plastic door handle on a Volvo that I almost broke off while opening the door. That surprised me.
I'll take a new Max, mod it up with the $4-5K that I saved over the Europeans, have much more room inside, and blow the doors off of them.They'll have their fancy European badge, but they'll have to wipe our dust off of it.