My Maxima is in the shop and I'm driving a rental. I just recently test drove a G37 coupe 6 speed amongst other things and I was thinking about how this car is the first AUTO I've ever owned. I grew up driving manual transmissions...and when I say that, I mean in Vermont where everyone used to have a 5 speed with 4wd option. Lol. Now I live in a big city and sometimes I feel like if I went back to manual there are times when I would want to jump out the window. I dont think the 2000 auto transmission is by any means an advanced transmission, but my ecu actually DOES learn my driving style and I find sometimes that it knows to kick me into low gear immediately even when I might lag a minute in a 5 speed. Sometimes I think I don't miss it at all!

 

ladies and gentlemen, the words of 2kmaxim *soft jazz clap*

 

I first read auto "mushings" and thought of this

 

Lol @Rob *bows*

Shyte, id love if my maxima was powered by huskies. Everyone else can lurch thier way around the city while i go to the pet store and they go to the local gas station. Lol

 

Auto for city is very nice indeed.

 

Don't mind my Auto, City or Highway still a Fun car to Drive...

 

Boooooooooooooooooooooo auto.

 

Apparently it is his Porsche... must be one of those many expensive options
+1

 

You have the valve body upgrade??

Mine is not fun to drive unless I take control with the 1-2-3 gates. Even then I deeply miss either the 6 speed I had way back in my Sentra SE-R or the 5AT i had in my G35Sport some years back. Both of those were great transmissions

 

I learned how to drive on a MT and have driven mostly MT cars for almost 20 years, and two years ago sold my 6MT 5.5 for a 5AT, NA 4 cyl. While I miss the VQ and MT big time, I like everything else about the car, especially when I'm sitting in bumper to bumper DC traffic. When I do get out for some spirited driving, I have paddle shifters to fake shift with in manual mode, and VTEC, so I can have some fun in the higher rpms. It's just quite a bit slower, lol.

 

Out of any AUTO car I've owned the 4spd in the Maxima was worst as far as slippage...that to me says a lot. I even owned a '74 F150 and it shifted better.

Say what you want but the Max auto wouldn't have been at the top of my list...not without a vb mod at least.

 

I don't have many problems with slippage really. I think the design of the transmission is such that when you go wide opened throttle it doesn't slam shift the gears.....I think the ECU/Trans tries to make sure the shift feels smooth to the driver, thus taking a second longer to engage when you are really stomping on it. That's my take anyways....

 

Love autos in traffic congestion, the other 95% of the time. i am glad I have a 6spd.

I just hate to see that manuals are still dying and that autos are usually faster. My GF has a CVT AWD Juke and while it is a blast to drive, I always reach for the shifter and am promptly sad to realize it is not a stick.

 

Reminds me of a time last summer where I was going on a business trip with the company car (AT Honda Accord). Traffic jam on I-77 down to Charlotte because of an accident, bumper to bumper traffic for miles... As soon as I passed the accident, I gunned it to get back up to speed. At the top of 2nd gear, I tried to shift the auto into third gear thinking it was an MT... bad idea, instead of pushing the clutch all the way down, my foot landed on the bake pedal The car nose dived at 70mph, my co-worker who was on the passenger seat almost left a couple of teeth on the dashboard... and it took me a few seconds to realize what had happened...

No more auto for me

 

Having owned both versions of the Maxima, I can say that while I love the short(er) gear ratios of the MT, the convenience of the AT was nice. Every time I pull my 6MT into the driveway I'm faced with either burning up my clutch by smoothly pulling up the curb, or messing up the front end by smashing up the curb. Traffic is bearable; the Maxima creeps along slow enough in 1st such that if you have enough space in front of you, you wont be riding the clutch the whole time. What kills me though is those people that pull up stupidly close behind you on a steep hill.

My only gripe about the AT was the thing rarely got the 1-2 shift right (even after having a new valvebody put in) and always had a soft 2-3. There were also "dead zones" in the gearing, ie 30mph, and 75mph, where it was too fast for a downshift into a lower gear but not fast enough to really pull away in the current gear.

In all honesty though, the AT isn't all that bad. It was fast enough, and I loved how flexible second gear was. The drop resistor mod was interesting as well.

Would I give up my 6MT for my old 4AT? Ehh, prolly not

 

Something to be said for both. Many times I wish I had the 5 speed manual....I'd already have over 200wtrq ..ha. Plus I like railing gears from time to time. Just when Atlanta traffic is bad...its real bad. MT nightmare bad.

 

My answer to this delima is having both. One auto (5.5) and one manual (3rd gen turbo).

 

Very nice, I thought about buying an earlier gen max and tricking it out instead of buying another 5th gen. Dont want to get too off topic but how much power does your 3rd gen make? Does it wax the 5.5?

 

I'd love a DE-K 5speed Turbo......or better yet Supercharger for reliability. How much can that transmission safely handle if it isnt slam shifted?