I would have to disagree with you. Maybe if you're referring to the cloth seats, not sure, but as far as dash and door plastics/vinyls used, the 5th gen has some quality behind it. Step into a 6th gen and you'll instantly notice where they saved costs.

 

Mine has cloth seats and they are fine. I was talking about the vinyl coverings and steering wheel wrap. Most Maxi's I see (including mine) have wear spots/tears on steering wheel cover, and cracks/rips on the center console lid and around the armrest handles.

There's a lot worse I know (and given, it's 10 years old) - i.e., check out a Pontiac Grand Am, lol! Maybe I'm spoiled, but my BMW's never had a crack on anything (other than the leather seats).

 

The 5th wasn't as good as the 4th, but much better than most cars in similar price ranges. And certainly much better than the 6+ generation.

 

I'm ditching it I think.....

Funny this thread popped back up.

1. Horribly mated Transmission to engine, the 4AT is TERRIBLE, never in the right gear, always hunting, and the governor to drop gears is waaay to stiff (for lack of a better term), she hangs in high gear for way too long.
Even the 5MT is terrible for the VQ30, it doesn't match up! Nissan didn't spend enough time here to get a transmission that fits it's car's powerband/torque curve.

I cannot comment on the 6MT, but I know for a fact that the 4AT with the 3.5 is worse than with the 3.0.

2. Turning circle, well, as others have said, it's just ridiculous. The fact that they let this car go into production like this is astonishing.
If I would have known the turning circle was this bad before I bought the car, I never would have bought it, regardless of the insanely good deal I got.

3. I've spent a good chunk of change (over 1K) trying to make the 'ol girl handle half decent, and don't get me wrong, it's night and day better than it was, but this thing still has terrible steering feel, uneven suspension travel and angles, and overall is an Extremely chinsy, cheap suspension set up.

After all the money I've spent, any stock 150,000 mile VW, Civic, etc will out-handle me without skipping a beat. It's just shameful.

4. The back end. I know that with enough money and time, I can make the back end look great, but the fact is, it's ugly from the start. And it's hard to justify trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear.


In short, I am slowly deciding that the Maxima is never going to be the car I want it to be. Please don't get me wrong, it has a lot of things going for it, but there IS a reason these cars can be had so cheap, and personally, I'm ready to spend a few extra G's and get a better platform. Especially considering I've spent that and still have a car that can't turn around on a 4 lane road.

 

All I can deal with but the turning Radius oh my gosh a minivan does it better on a U-Turn, and recently messed up front bumper on a u -turn since lowered and went all the way out there like F33k....

 

I dislike that 75% of the 00-03 Maxima's I see here in New England (including mine) have rusted out rear fender lips. Turning radius shouldn't be what it is but people are blowing that one way out of proportion anyways.

 

Funny you should say that because I have rust starting on my rear left fender.

As for the interior I love mine. For anyone who doesn't like theirs they should go check out a Lexus IS300 or Evo of the same year. You'll have a new appreciation for the Maxima's afterwards.

 

I owned a 2001 IS300 for a short time. The fit and finish of its interior was just as nice as, if not better than my Maxima's.

As far as things I hate(d)? Wrong wheel drive, and solid rear axle. The rest of the car was nice.

 

Hate that it's was not built as well as my previous 1992 Maxima (3rd Gen).

Things I've replaced on the 03 that I never did on the 92:
-Muffler
-Alternator (Twice)
-Rear Brake Calipers
-Cam Position Sensor
-Transmission Wiring Harness

Still lover the car and has 90,000 miles on it now. Plan on keeping for as long as she'll run.

 

As did my cousin who bought one brand new then went right back to a BMW. By far the cheapest interior and car in general for the money that I've ever seen aside for the Evo.

 

Cheapest car and interior for the money? You've apparently never sat in a Cadillac from the same year, I take it.

I don't see how a car with Toyota's 2JZ is a "cheap" car, by any means. The motor in the car was top-notch, and for anyone into tuning, IS300's have seen well upward of 4-500 RWHP.

Lancer Evos weren't designed to have flashy interiors. They're about the performance aspect of cars, not having an "Ooo, ahhh" interior. Buying an Evo for the nice trim inside is like buying a mule and expecting it to win a horse show.

 

Different grades of leather, but after 10-11 years, it's expected. BMWs have hard leather to begin with. I had the armrest cover crack, called RedLineGoods. Seats cracked, G35C seats. Steering wheel wore away, swapped the wheel and ... have another project up my sleeve. I guess I don't see the wear gone wrong as they are forced upgrades. The dash quality and the rest of the interior has been solid.

The IS300, never was a fan of the interior to begin with. Agreed the cheapest feeling Lexus made.

Evo, interior should be stripped and caged anyways.

 

as has been mentioned before, I hate the crappy covering that the center console has.

 

Hate the stock suspension, hate the brakes, hate the bose....
Changed the suspension, upgraded the brakes, radio coming soon, I love my max...

I cant believe how all those little things bother some people, get over it or get a different car

 

...The crazy reset/learning procedures we need to perform. Seriously, most other vehicles figure out their base parameters within 15 minutes of being fired up for the first time. Why do we need to click the key over 18.2 times wait 3.6 seconds honk the horn in a church from the back seat to reset a fuel door light?...

Hahahaha... agreed. But I really don't hate on my girl too much, most everything has cons to go with the pros, so I just focus on them pros. I also DON'T hate that I can embarass mustangs haha

 

Other than the rust issue which I feel to be quite ridiculous (I've had mine "fixed" bs once and fixed with actual new metal another time and it still comes back), the other issues with the car are fairly minimal in the grand scheme of things.

The BOSE does suck badly, the relearn procedures are obnoxious, and I hate drive by wire...Mine stranded me twice in a 3 week span and I was ready to give up, then I looked around at what else I could get to replace it and I am still driving it so...Really cannot beat the bang for buck and reliability you get while still being a fun car to drive.

 

Once again if you people hate your cars why are you still driving/fixing/upgrading/messing with them????

 

My biggest gripe was the paint quality.

 

Not sure who are you responding to but if you read some of these posts it's more just mentioning things that need improvement but aren't large enough problems to warrant choosing another vehicle...

 

Or you could just disconnect the battery for an hour.

Does the exact same thing. Requires one 10mm socket.

 

it has four doors, it FWD

 

Only not really.

 

I hate this kind of comments in a thread where people talk about things that they hate about their cars.

I "don't like" that I just spend $120 for a IACV because the current IACV just died. But it the least of all the evils.

 

This.

 

 

I hate it has a puney under powerd 3.0 engine ooo wait that's the 5th gen, i have a 5.5 : )

 

I passed up a 5.5 gen because of the horrible torque steer!

 

Really?

 

That it was governed at 135

 

hah ahah what the h3ll that was dumd......

 

 

QUICK! Give him the meds! He's going back to normal!!!

 

Yes I do read, and I have read every single post not just on this thread but all the other "hate my car" threads... The point of the story here is that there is no such thing as a perfect car, every single vehicle on the road has problems, some more, some less... The general assumption after reading every single response here is that the car is complete POS, no one is really comparing the ups and downs of the maxima... Sure some parts fail, so replace them not a big deal... Sure the turning range sucks, but I also pretty sure that everyone who purchased a maxima noticed that on their test drive, and yet they purchased the car...

 

From memory (I Googled a while back):

2005 Honda Accord - 34 feet
2001 Maxima SE - 41 feet
1992 Buick Roadmaster - 40 feet


Need I say more?

Den

 

Interesting. I've got no wear spots or cracks except for the floor mat by the go pedal and the dead pedal pad came off. Otherwise I'd have to say better quality interior than some of the $40-50K YouCon's/TaFaux's I had looked at before deciding on a Navigator (and even then there were some cost savings that I would be upset about). Maxima quality pretty durable and expected for the price range/purpose. My 93 was equally impressive at 10yrs old when it was sold.

the thing I hate most would be the lack of performance parts and the cost of the parts available - Especially when I get the Itch to Mod.

 

I don't know the number, but My Navigator definately has a tighter turn radius, even with 24's (that's what I think he had on them). Our turn radius does indeed, umm - Oh - SUCK. But that's OK cuz I know how to use reverse.

 

 

IBwhiningoverchoiceofcar

 

me too

 

I have seven aftermarket parts on my car that were made specifically for my Maxima by other Maxima guys. Our little community of performance part builders make us some quality parts at very affordable prices.