Perusing the Edmunds.com forum I was shocked to see how many problems people are having with their new Maximas. One individual explained this as due to a new USA factory and the new redesign in 2004. As a 2000 owner with tremendous confidence in Nissan quality, I am now reluctant to buy a 2005. Any thoughts?

 

I was in a similar situation as you when I traded my 5th gen for an '05. I read a lot of posts here talking about the different problems people were having with their '04s. One thing that I did notice (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this) was that the '04s with the later build dates had less problems due to various improvements throughout the model year. This led me to believe that the '05s would be okay. I only have 1,500 miles on mine. All I can say at this point is so far, so good.

 

You are correct, both of you. in the beginning there were several problem with the 04. The most abundant being the shimmy and front suspension problems. Nissan had a handle of most of the problems by December 03 production. I believe in Mid 04 calender year Nissan sent over 200 engineers from Japan to both the Canton, Miss plant and the Smyrna, TN plant to fix more of the problems. Canton makes the Titan and all vehicles based on it. Smyrna builds the maxima and other vehicles. I have been a member for quite some time and have seen far fewer complaints about the 05. The only ones I can recall were flukes that nobody else has said has happend to them. Hopefully others can offer more information.

 

I don't like reading bout problems eighter, I bought mines on nov 04 and since then put 3500 miles on it with no probs yet...... 05 would be a best bet I guess since its just a newer year and they had more time to fix the small probs...

 

I have had my '04 SL eight months (manufactured in late May '04, purchased in late June '04) and the dealer was able to fix all problems under warranty during the only two times I took the car in.

Right now, I know of no problems, and absolutely love the way it drives. Sometimes I feel so good it it I think about just lowering the seat back and sleeping through the night in it. But then my wife prefers our bed, so . . .

 

I bought my 04 SE in late May, 03 and now have about 27.5K miles on her. Although one of the newer Gen-6 Maxs, I have had few problems. The only unusual problem I've had was that the rear end was not properly alligned and ended up putting cups in the tire tread. Because of rotation, this problem was not found until all 4 tires had cups. I live with the rumble the cups cause and will end up with new tires earlier than I should have to buy them.

I have not yet had the dealer replace the Sky-View under recall. Will get that done before summer driving. For me this has been a great car and one to love like I did my 86 Celica GTS (first production car with 4-valves per cylinder) and my 65 Corvette convt.

 

My 05 is my third Max (96 & 00), and so far it has produced the least problems of the three!

 

A year and a half and 27,000 miles on my '04 SE, and the worst "problem" I've had is a little discoloration on the back of my center-dash info screen (which, btw, is covered under warranty). It's such a bad thing that I haven't found time in the last 12 months to have it taken care of. Oh, and the Goodyear tire thing, too, but that wasn't Nissan's fault.

On the other hand, I have a reliable, comfortable, good handling, great-running car that looks sharp and gets 23mpg in town and 28-39 on the highway. Not a single regret here!

Mike

 

I've had mine since Nov'03 and have had very few problems:
Grill replaced for peeling
Screen replaced for fogging (on back order 6 weeks so far)
That's really it.

I think we hear more of the bads because when it's all good we're all out driving the crap out of our cars because we love them so much!!!!

There was a nice thread a while back started by Carcus,
read some of the happiness in here!!!
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=342957

 

Thank you folks, for your input. Very reassuring. I've driven several Maximas since 1990 and I'm happy to hear they're continuing to produce a solid product.

 

I've had my '05 SL since mid-December and now have about 1700 miles on it. I've been looking for anything to have the dealer adjust, tighten, correct, etc., when I take it in for its first service appointment and I can't find a thing so far.

 

Minor problems here, little fogging in the left headlight.....entire assembly replaced by dealer, shift **** broke....probably by the stereo shop that removed the dash, was the first 6th gen Maxima they worked on....**** replaced by dealer...

Glove box fix....minor, 2 min fix.

No problems with anything else....flawless.