When I first got my car it was great, but now all the dam scratches and crappy suspension has me ****ed. I have it in a covered garage from Mon - Fri but it's still all scratched up.
What also got me; is that the thing is only 3 months old . As for the suspension it handles better that my 95 GLE but it still feel mushy and soft. I drove my cousin's 1999 Cadillac Catera and it did not feel like a caddy it was very quick and nimble plus the suspension felt nice and stiff. I will never buy a Catera but it was just something to compare the Max to at the moment.

Does anyone have any tips on getting the scratches/shrills off that is not a full day project.

My wife had her eye on the BMW 528 or 540. I believe one of those will be my next car. Might not be the greatest car but I bet the paint and suspension quality is better.

 

Don't count on the paint being better. A guy at my place of business has had his 328xi(I think 328)wagon for as long as my Max and its not much better. I bring this up because we drive the same path to work and his countless chipsm although less than mine, are still more than a car of that cost should have.

Another guy just bought a 330i so we are going to watch that one as well.

The suspension is probably better though.

 

if you are serious and not just venting, turn around right now *TODAY* and march down to the Nissan lot and unload your car.

Right now the 2k2s are in demand. You will lose 1-2k. Take your lumps and move on. Otherwise, if you own the car any longer it will begin the resale freefall. As the altima continues to be Nissan's pride and joy and rumors of the '03/4 max start to solidify, I would think that your resale will really hurt you.

I too have factory scratches, they are under the clear (no my car wasnt repainted either).
I should have sold mine when I started feeling the way you did. Now I'm really kinda stuck in it. (I dont want to take a bath with it)

 

Catera is not a Caddy product. It's actually an Opel from Europe. But your opinion is still valid I guess. Catera is also smaller

 

I'm tired of you guys whining about your Max, if it sucks so much, fine, get another car...stop whining!

I've had my Max for 2 years now and have not had to take it to the dealer once! It's never garaged, I drive on I-95 daily, sometimes stop & go, sometimes 100 MPH+, snow, salt, hail, extreme cold, extreme heat, rain, I put 360+ miles on it weekly...not once have I had a problem with the Max.

Perhaps we should have a seperate forum for all the whiners cuz i'm damn tired of it! If you guys could afford a Bimmer to begin with, then why the hell didn't you just get one?!??

It's like hearing my girlfriend whine about her friends...$hit if you hate them so much, don't be friends with them! It's that simple!

 

Don't really care about retail value I'am leasing, would never buy one because of the poor retail value.

Thanks

 

I can understand the complaints about the paint.

The suspension was the same when you bought it as it is now. So, why complain about that? BMWs have great suspensions, I'll freely admit - far superior to the Maxima. But how much would it cost you to get comparable performance? Go check it out.

Try a strut tower brace. It'll cost $100 and will make a tremendous difference.

Funny, we've heard a ton of new SE owners complain about the "harsh" suspension on the SE . . .

 

Handling could easly be improved with a strut/spring upgrade. Paint is another thing. However, I thought that car covers were supposed to be used for long-term storage. Perhaps the constant on/off with the cover is scratching it? Or is it only scratched in certain areas?

Jim

 

I never understand comments like that. Because we wanted a Maxima.

I generally agree with your whole post about whining, but that's kind of what this board is here for, at least partially.

 

I was not whining. I was stating a fact, The piant on the car is no good. Do you thing I made this stuff up.

For your information I can afford a BMW or a Lexus or whatever. I wanted to give nissan a second chance becuase they had every thing I was looking for with as nice price tag. But beleive me there won't be a thrid chance.

 

In support of your comments, you guys know the average American millionaire purchases a used American car for $27K, so all the comments about being able to afford something an therefore, necessarily purchasing it are ridiculous.

I am sure that the majority of people on this board have chosen not to purchase something which they could, in fact, afford.

 

All I did was make a statment about the piant on the car and was told I was whining and I should go buy a BMW if I don't like it.

I'm not a millionaire but at the same time I don't flip burgers ("No offense to the ones that do flip burgers"). Yes I wanted a 330i and my wife wanted a 540i but we went with the Max because of the roominess and price ("yes I did like the low sticker price"). I am not a label guy; I could care less if a car said BMW or nissan on the front, but what I do expect from a car is quality. If a car manufacture reguardless of which one puts poor material into there vehicle I will said someting about it.

But I guess in this forum an individual's opinion does not matter.

 

Wow. I guess the paint on the 2K2's are just as bad as the 2K-2K1's. When will Nissan learn that good paint is just as important as a good engine. I owned a Ford prior to my Max and Ford's paint held up much better.

 

Right...okay, so I think I agree with you...not really sure you were actually intending to respond to me. My post, which you replied to, was a response to NJ_MAX2000 who posted asking you to stop whining. I think you can post all you want about your opinions. I certainly don't think you should "go buy a BWM."

 

Sorry about the misunderstanding.

 

and it makes no sense considering you can buy an Infiniti G20 for about six grand less with great paint. Nissan should be ashamed to be putting that crap paint on their thirty thousand dollar flagship.

 

More satisfied Minima owners.....

 

I've owned my car for 6 months and I have 6 small chips on my hood. Worst paint I've ever seen on a car. Either I get the 3M clear bra or I will sell before the year is up. The worst the chips get the worse the resell value will be.

 

Sorry to **** some of you off but the car nor the paint suck IMO. Most of the claims of vehicles being in disrepair are coming from those WHO HAVE DONE MODS,and at least for me this should be expected if you go against what the engineers have designed the car for. As for the paint chips I don't have ONE chip on my Max and this is without any special attention given to my driving habits as in not driving too close to high profile vehicles (trucks,SUV's,busses or ANYTHING without mudflaps) on the highway. This is my third Max and my current "01" AE has almost 10,000 trouble free or scratch free miles and I'd be eager to purchase another Max anytime. I've stated this opinion in many posts here along with others but thought I'd give some more credible evidence than my personal experience....The current March 2002 issue of MotorTrend Magazine (pg. 122-127) reviewed a 2000 Maxima SE after a 4000 mi. trip. They mentioned the claim of a fuel-cut problem (for example) Max owners were complaining of. MotorTrend set up the same conditions under which owners said their Maxima's would buck or hiccup, but they were unable to duplicate the problem. They also went on to say the car HAS "ZERO" DURABILITY PROBLEMS! This was at 7,500 and 15,000-mile intervals which is early but some of the post I've seen were almost out of the showroom door before they were complaining. Look, I don't work for Nissan and I am calling no one a liar and I definetly don't intend to flame anyone but it seems people are going to be a little more responsible with their vehicles and I'm sure it will be good to you in service and appearence.

 

And NO, I don't tailgate trucks and I DO take care of my car. My commute involves only 11 miles of highway driving each way. But YES, I do have 6 small chips on my hood in 6 months. Sorry, but it is true.
http://www.nissanpaint.com

 

Ok I am glad that you have good results from your car - but I take care of my car, wash, polish and wax once every two weeks (winter now so it harder to do once a week). My car has chips, and I do take care not to tailgate, etc. Does the paint suck - IMO - yes it does because my previous car a saturn (yes a saturn) with 100K + had less chips. As for motor trend and fuel cut issue let's not get that one started up again.

 

You dont have a clue.. dont generalize about me, and I wont make any generalizations about you. All my problems are build and engineering related, no mods.

Congrats on getting a perfect car and service dept. Lucky you..

Just don't pull a Russ and come whining to us if you do have problems. We'll remember you said it was all our own fault and don't know how to drive (fuel cut TSB*).

*btw, have you wondered why Nissan put out a reprogrammed ECU? again, your car must not apply. Lucky you.

 

I have been using Zaino for years and I tell you it can make a big difference on how the paint looks, even Nissan's poor paint. It covers up the scratches and surface marks very well to the point you will not see them. Try it.

 

So one car out of how many creates the perfect "sample"? I love my Max, have done 0 performance mods on it, yet ( ), but find some of the problems that everyone has.

My car:
1) has poor paint. I drive 22 miles on crowded freeway and I have a bunch of chips everywhere. How do you chip the roof? Their paint is soft, but then I have not seen much better at this point from other manufacturers. BUT that does not give Nissan the right to ignore the issue. I even got the 3M stuff and boy it has helped, but I can't 3M my whole car. Though, I wish I could. Less stress on me! You must have gotten lucky with your car and its paint. Relish it! I am envious.

2) Has the fuel cut. And those that say it does not exist, come drive my car. Between 1.2K and 1.8K you CAN NOT maintain constant throttle. It dips or soars. Never stays constant. It is kinda annoying but I can deal with it.

3) Rear window whistles. It will be going back for the 2nd time to fix.

You cannot make broad claims based on 1 car or a magazine article. C&D can get 5.6 outta a WRX, but how? Would you do it on your car?

I will continue to drive and love my max barring a major issue. You do have valid points about modding and then issues after modding, but thats a chance anybody takes while "improving" the design of a factory car.

 

First of all, without having to do a survey for you, I know that many folks on this board can afford a BMW. It is not a problem of $$$, in that Motor Trend article, they also compared it to a low pried five series. My Max is a great car but, my last car was a 2000 Accord Coupe with ZERO manufacturer problems. Now b4 anybody starts flaming, let me explain that. I have owned my 2000 SE for seven months and am sick of bothering the dealer. First, @ 20k front rotor problems, had them resurfaced and went on my merry way. Secondly, whole front bumper had paint chipped, had dealer paint it, went on my merry way(in fact has been four months, do have a car bra on and paint is coming off again). Next, Bose CD started literally scratching the surface of my discs(have had it replaced twice, still scratching my discs. Now, the car has 38k and no longer has any of the 3/36k warranty. Now, I paid damn good $$$ for the car, I paid $22.5 for the car in July, it had 17k on it. While i love the room, the luxury of the car, the engine and stereo and the looks that I get while in the car. Unless the 04 is a V8, rear wheel drive , has better interior than Altima, forget about selling me another Nissan. Now, if you ask, do I regret not buying another Accord Coupe wit a sweet V6, damn skippy. My car is worth $16-17k. Nissan did not even ask us to bend over. My Max is a great car for the $$$, but for $30k, stop smoking crack. The flame that most people have against Nissan, fighting to get service, getting poor service on things that they are actual manufacturing problems. I not once had to get my Accord serviced under warranty, but from dealing with them for other service, I can actually assure you, no fighting match would have ever happened. By the way, it went down with 45k on the speedometer, I feel that by that time, I would have known if it was a POS. Sorry fot the long post.

 

I did not generalize about you or anyone else. I stated my OP on the best evidence I had personally and that I could find in the time it took to make the post. Sorry if you felt slighted in any way.

 

I dont want anyone to be get flamed, but I spent less than most of you on my Maxima. Yes, it has no options, but it is 5 spd and can haul ***. I also have problems with paint, and ride but I knew that I got pretty much what I paid for, nothing is perfect. And BMW 540 is waay different car than Maxima, which makes it invalid comparison. Still, 2k2 is a new fakin car so enjoy it.

 

Just buy yourself a Bimmer, and stop whining! You're like a friggin little school girl with all this whining. Hey if you think you're the shiznat and you think Nissan sucks, then go right ahead and sell the Max.

As for the paint, my paint is fine thank you. The only major blemish on the paint is from me accidentally scratching it.

Please sell the car so that we have one less whining member on the .Org

 

Dude, you think that if they slap a V8 in there that it'll magically make all the other problems disappear? You are truly disillusioned. Please immediately give up ownership of your Max and never buy another Nissan again since you know you're never gonna be happy with one so hell, get an Accord or whatever, do yourself a damn favor.

 

that's nice

take care of your paint and I am sure that it will help out alot. Go get a paint treatment done, it worked great on my explorer I bought, and it was my first car so you know I beat the **** out of it.

I don't really understand your theory of buying a whole new car for a better suspension setup, why don't you just make the one you have now better, I don't know how stiff you want it, in my opinion its pretty stiff already, maybe you like rattling your teeth out?

 

Listen young lady. Read the post b4 flaming. No crying little girl. As much as I enjoy my car, what many, as well as myself are saying is that while for the money it is a great value to buy(sadly enough), really puts you upside down come trade-in time.

 

Amen, some of these guys have to suck it up and grow up!

 

Hey then I got three words for you: "Don't buy Nissan".

Is it truly that simple?!?! Why yes it is. It's all logic you see. If you try to take your new 2k2 Accord to a Nissan dealership, then they'll have a real reason to reject your repair request.

 

The only reply I can have to that is, thanks. That might be the best advise that anyone of us can take from this thread. Thanx.

 

That's life, you figure if you eat spicy food and it upsets your stomach, then don't eat it! If you don't like something, then don't buy it! But for god's sake, if you bought it knowing all the problems about the paint (which I don't have) and the suspension (which I'm happy with), then you are a foolish person. As far as the suspension goes, it's called a test drive, I assume you took one?

 

It is a very serious discussion here.

Come to think of it, you will get hurt on resale value with ANY car. If you want a sound investment then put your money into money market funds and buy yourself a Honda Civic. To avoid unneccesary flaming, no Maxima owner is 100% satisfied including me; but hey, it is a car, to get you from point A to point B. If you think of it as of a luxury object then maybe you shouldn't have spent only 30K on top-line sunroof-CD-***warmer model but paid modest 20K like I did for my poor mans GXE.

P.S. I think it's unfair to even compare Honduh Accord here because it is everything we stand for here. My close friend had his engine blown on a brand-new '00 Accord EX 4cyl auto cpe when it had 10K mi(!), so rotors and CD player scratching is nothing in comparison.

 

What you claim is wrong with the Maxima:
What you claim would redeem the Maxima:
Somehow I just don't see how getting a V8 and RWD would magically fix the paint quality issues, CD player issues, rotors, and the long list of other problems other ppl have with their Max.

Simple solution: My 4 Step Guide to Fixing Paint/Tranny/Suspension Quality Issue.

1) Stop whining and suck it in, you think a car is an investment? then you are a financial fool.

2) Sell your Max tomorrow while you can still get a decent price on it.

3) Go to your nearest Honda/BMW/Mercedes/SUbaru/Acura dealer and get yourself a new car.

4) Plz don't come back to the .Org whining about your other car!

 

You are so correct about you spicy food anology(LOL). However, what you are not bothering to consider is the fact that, most of us did not know about faulty brakes, paint, suspension, etc. Now, the main reason that many of us bought the cars, was beacuse of prior experience with Japanese manufacturers. If any of us go trade in our 2k, or 2k1's for 2k2's, we fully desereve those problems. There are people on thie site already complaining about paint problems on their 2k2. Now,ain't that the ****?

 

Yet you keep whining about paint problems.....will it ever end?

Plz de-register yourself as a .Org member since you obviously do not love your Max. Why are you even hanging out on the .Org? You clearly think your Max is a POS. Why are you here? I love my Max, I love Nissan, I love anything made by Nissan. I will never buy anything made by Honda/Acura/Lexus/Toyota/American/Subaru/Mitsubishi/etc. I cringe in disgust anytime I am forced to sit in a vehicle not made by Nissan (and is not German/Italian/British).

If someone gave me a free Honda/Acura/Lexus/Toyota/American/Subaru/Mitsubishi/etc., I would sell the POS and buy another Nissan/Infiniti.

Plz, tomorrow morning, immediately go to your nearest Honda/Acura/Lexus/Toyota/American/Subaru/Mitsubishi/etc. dealer and trade in your Nissan. I wouldn't wait to sell it privately since your car's value will depreciate 50% each day. After you purchase your new Honda/Acura/Lexus/Toyota/American/Subaru/Mitsubishi/etc., go hang out on their boards and whine about your problems with Honda/Acura/Lexus/Toyota/American/Subaru/Mitsubishi/etc. POS's there.