I had seen an old Gen4 Max in Red. Did they offer that before and then switch to Merlot? Personnally I think Silver would look quite nice. Sterling Mist is nice and depending on lighting it looks different. I would prefer a glossy silver, and Sterling Mist looks silver under certain light conditions. For example, in the brochure the SM looked nice!

 

They had red in the 4th gens, but then no plain ole "arrest me red" for the 5th gens, only the merlot you speak of. The silver is avaliable in 5th gens.

 

wait, i am not sure what you want, if you want an opinion, i say go with the silver.

 

I personally like the sterling mist and think it is very silvery (Then again, I'm biased owning a sterling mist!) As for the red, it's my understanding the red was available in the 4th and 5th gens, but only on the special (limited?) editions that were made the last year for each gen. I have seen the red, in addition to the merlot and maroon colors that were used in the individual gens.

 

I would suspect that Nissan will bring the red to the Max on it's last half year of generation production. The 3rd and 4th gen models, before they were revamped into the next gen, offered red as the limited edition Maximas. When this happens with the 5th gen, HOPEFULLY, I'm going to trade my 2k1 for it. I would love to have my max red, but I'm not willing to repaint it - cosmetic reasons and it's a waste of money.