i purchased a 4th gen 97 gle black on tan 6 months back. carfax certified 82k miles 1 accident no major" girl said parking lot fender bender." for my fiance. i have done all the proper maintence on it and i am really impressed with the maxima.
im gonna start driving it and buy a bit newer nissan maxima or infiniti i30/i35 for her.

i have been researching VQ30DE-K and VQ35DE

i could imagine the VQ30DE-K being great as its a beefed up version of what i have ,and im pleased with. but, the bigger VQ35DE is tempting aswell, but the oil burning and other issues ive read about on here make me a little hesitant.

which would you 5th gen max guys recommend?

 

Owned a '99 previously and now an '03...I couldn't imagine going to a de-k and losing power.

My '03 doesn't burn oil but a good portion of 5.5s do. Just saying there are lucky 5.5s that don't burn oil.

 

It is a matter of what you really feel is important reliability or performance. Nobody can answer that question for you because you are the one who will either feel: "Damn I wish I had more juice" or "Damn I am tired of putting more oil into this *****". If you are a gambling man and can live with rolling snake eyes on a 5.5 get it; if you want the rock solid reliability of the DE-K go with the 5th. I will tell you one thing though don't think you are getting a power boost with the DE-k because ALL of the extra power is between 5500 and 6400 RPM which you will rarely see in street daily driving.

 

i get that not all do but its a common problem and the 3.0 are basically legends of reliablity.

of course i gonna want bigger 3.5 with 6-speed but i got a family and that aint cutting it auto only as she refuses. i'm leaning towards going with the i35...

is the oil burning more common on the nissan line than the infiniti line? or vice versa? or equal too?

 

Equal, with the exception of the 2004 I35 if you can find one from that model year you are golden. By then Nissan fixed the oil burning problem but also completed a new platform which happened to be the 6th Gen.

 

Also, since your wife will also be driving the car I'd look for a low mileage 2001 about 110,000 miles or less. Just to answer the question as best I could. If you have to monitor someone elses driving it is better to go with reliable over fun because a seized engine is not fun at all nor is constantly telling someone else to check the oil level or checking useage and mileage etc. You get my drift?

 

Other than some electrical reliability issues, the 4th gen is the much better generation, IMO. Both the 5th's have more power, but more downfalls also, if you ask me personally.

The biggest frustration that you will never, ever change with the 5th gen is the god-aweful turning circle.

If you can live with the turning circle, you should be ok moving up to the 5.5. However they are infamous for oil burning issues and precat failures, both of which could mean you get a dud that needs an engine. This actually happened to me after buying a 5.5, and has happened to many others. There's really no good way to know unless the engine is showing clearcut signs for pending failure like blue smoke, ticking, knocking, huge loss of power, etc.

Anyways, it seems like I constantly bash the 5th gen, because I do. Because I have reason to. These cars are awesome, but they are almost as equally aweful in a few respects, and for me, those few items are major ones that wreck the car for me.

These things just aren't built as good as they should be. And are not nearly as good as the 4th gen was.
If I could find one without rust and 300+ k KM around here, I'd downgrade to a 4th gen in an instant, clean it up and supercharge it. Cheaper than a 5th gen still, and signifigantly faster and all around better

Ok, now everyone yell at me

 

i had both 5th and 5.5 gen my 5th gen was my first car when i was 17 and i loved it, it was a auto then i learned how to drive stick 2 months later then another 2 months i bought a accord 98 with 225k miles and i liked the car alot but it lacked the power of my maxima then i made alot of cash selling it 200 percent profit so i bought a civic auto to drive as a temp car its good for what it is but i like faster bigger cars so i got myself a tsx auto and i love it (personally my favorite car I ever owned) and i still have it and i wanted a stickshift car again so i got a 03 maxima 6 speed i was more attached to my first maxima since it was my first car but my 03 doesnt burn oil and it looks better imo the bumper and grill but i like the 00-01 se tails so i had to swap them in lol

but to be honest maximas are great cars but far from the best in terms of reliability if i can only stick with one car for a long period of time my choices would be acura tl, keep my tsx, 08 accord ex-l v6 6 speed, honda s2000 but since i can sell my car whenever i want im happy i got another maxima yea sometimes i have to fix it but no huge problems and also i see my maxima as my little sleeper (looks close to stock)

 

at 202K miles on my vq30de-K i do oil changes every 10K and i drain the same amount of oil i put in it... i don't really care about the 3.5... seems like there are 1 out of 1000 owners that does not have the oil burning issue

 

its funny you should mention... here locally there is a silver 04 i35 with black interior @75k miles and asking just under $10,000 which is $600 under retail carfax certified reputible dealer

so the 04 i35 shouldn't really incounter the same oil issues as say the 03???

 

yes!! my max is 1 out of a 1000 lol but yea i agree if i didnt care for performance i wouldnt get a 5.5 and i prob wont get a max at all :P lol

 

No it should not and even though their is not a lot of 2004 I35 owners Out there I have never heard any peeps of oil burning in that year or in the 6th Gen Maxima. This is despite the constant grumbles from the 02 03 I35 crowd. You might actually want to post a poll on the I30/I35 forum to see if you can scrounge up some info. I'd would personally try to get that I35 down to about $8300 to $8800 myself. I think rarity keeps its KBB and NADA artifically high.