Took one home tonight!
After a good test drive but less than exciting initial price negotiation earlier this week (http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....33#post5062733), Mark from East Charlotte Nissan called us every day with a lower price. Even this morning, we were still too far apart (still more than a G35).

When I got home this evening at about 9:00, there was a new message on the machine from Mark. Seems they were pretty desperate to get two more deals to hit their next incentive level - they were willing to let their first '07 leave the lot at $300 under invoice (pretty damn good considering they wanted full MSRP just three days ago)!

On top of that, they bought out my '03 Max's lease, saving me about $1000 in excess wear and mileage I was facing to turn back the '03 to NMAC when it was due next week.

Anyway, I'm happy and they were another deal closer to their incentive (they were still calling people when I left with the car at 11:45PM!)

BTW, I was very pleased with my dealings with Mark at East Charlotte. I would certainly recommend him to anyone in the Charlotte area.

So far, so good with the car (my sixth Max!). Hope we get used to CVT!

 

let me be the first to say congrats and post pictures !!!

 

Grats on the '07 man!

 

And let me be the first to request that you give the CVT a meaningful test, and report back your findings.

I am sure the CVT will take some getting used to, and I don't necessarily expect you to 'like' it; what I'm interested in is exactly how it performs.

I don't mean for you to mistreat the car by measuring elapsed time with only 5 miles on the odo; That can wait until after breakin is complete. I am more interested in what happens when you let off the gas, then suddenly give it brisk accelleration. And how it performs on hills (does it do away with the annoying 'gear-search' of traditional auto trannies?). And is there any hesitation when accellerating from a dead stop?

Feelings and emotions aside, does the CVT do the job of smoothly and briskly moving the car along? Please tell us everything you can find out about the performance of the CVT.

Thousands of inquiring minds want to know.

 

Good luck with your new ride and please post some pictures.

 

Did mean $300 under MSRP? They are hard to get down on that price because people want that car now and they are limited in numbers. If you got it $300 under Invoice you are the man for sure.

 

I will post the obligatory.....



Now post the pics, ****er.

Congrats on the 07.

 

$30,218 vs $30,518 invoice vs $33,615 MSRP.

The funny part is I was up front with them, very nicely telling them that I liked the car but I wasn't gonna pay more than I could get a G35 or TL for. We left the first night figuring it would be a while before there was gonna be a deal there.

Every day Mark called with a better deal, always mentioning the end of the month. Finally, he called after closing on Friday (30th) desperately wanting to close deal.

I too am surprised at how easy, quick and friendly the whole situation unfolded.

 

BTW, they had about a dozen cars in stock when nobody else around here had any.

 

Congrats on the new addition!

I wrote a small review in the "07 encounter" thread. It felt very smooth, no hesitation at all and "shifting" was barely noticeable using the Sport mode. seemless when left in D.

 

Nice job throwing in the G35 and Acural TL for extra negotiating power.
According to Edmunds.com Invoice on this is $30,518 MSRP $33,615 just like you said. So getting it $300 under that is really good. I don't see any incentives availabe for the 07 at this time either. (Incentives for the 06 were$1500 cash back or 3-4% financing. 07 too new for that stuff though.)

Lesson learned: Don't bite at the first offer, buy at the end of the month and hold your ground. Good work! Looking forward to the pics.

 

First 07 owner on the Org?

 

naw, he's like #2 or 3.
first thread though!


I like the design of the grille (also liked my oem grille) but both are plastic so I see some aftermarkets comeing for the 07 aswell.

 

jacalabria; Great deal! The reason I asked you about the price is these butt holes here are trying to sell them near sticker because they are so rare. I will wait it out until they talk like they have some sense. I will never pay a dime over invoice for a Nissan product period. I have contributed my share in making them rich all the cars I have purchased from them in the past twenty years.

 

Yeah, they tried the MSRP deal at first. I think I just had good (lucky) timing. I'll tell you what... they would have just about given away an '06 last night if that's what I had wanted.

Gotta go take some pics. Just got up after being up till 4 am reading the owners manual (online... dealer didn't get them in yet!)

 

Enjoy, I am going to start taking off the aftermarket stuff off my car and return it to stock. You don't gain anything keeping any aftermarket add-ons when you trade your car, in some cases you loose money.

 

good luck with the new ride.... lucky #7

 

thats really crazy, ive never heard of a new model car selling below sticker...i had a guy in my store yesterday trying to buy an 07 and trying to negotiate price. He didnt leave with a car.

congrats on both the deal you got and your new car....how do you like it?

 

Here's a few quicky pics:I'll get some more/better ones together ASAP.

 

I really like it. That dark colored interior is going to make you angry when you step in and out of your car. It shows every speck of dirt on the floor mats and carpet. The seats are not problem, the carpet is. Plus it's hot as hell when you first sit on the leather after your car has been sitting in the sun half the day. Keep a hand vacuum in your trunk. I can't wait to read the reviews on how the CVT will sound with an aftermarket exhaust and more importantly a sound clip. A dealer near me has a Onyx one sitting on the lot with no options. DPP is mandatory or I won't buy one.

 

I like your pics better than Nissans. Just lower it and it will look HOT.

 

I think i like your house better than the car

 

Congrats, nice color; and nice house too. Keep posted on CVT as you drive it more.

 

Very nice! I hope there aren't too many bugs to work out of her! Is it just me or does there appear to be less wheel gap on the front than the original 6th gens? It still looks hot! I also agree, I love the pics of your car, and your house!

She's beautiful! What's her name?

 

I was thinking the same thing about the wheel gap... looks to be greatly minimized.

I also agree on the nice house.

 

Congrats!!!!

 

Actually, I insisted on it. The carpet in my Polished Titanium/Frost Leather '03 was a ***** to keep clean... and it wasn't just "dust". Carpet cleaners, oxyclean, garden house, nothing ever would clean the carpet mats. All of my other cars had black/dark gray carpet and that never bothered me. Now the hot black leather in the summer, that may be another story.

BTW, the house is the only reason my wife ever agreed to move here. It was a dead even swap with a dinky little cape cod we had in NJ. On the other hand, the miserable Charlotte traffic is the reason we gave up on the manual trannys... and that was coming from Northern NJ/Suburban NYC, where we NEVER had anything but manual gearboxes in any of our cars.

 

jcalabria - I know what you mean about traffic.

My last (of many) manual trannies was in a '78 Datsun 200SX. One morning I kept count of shifts during my 90 minute drive to work in downtown Atlanta. Once the count passed 1,000 shifts, I stopped counting; I already knew what I needed to know. Nothing but automatics (or CVTs?) for me from then on.

For those who may be interested, the '07 color 'Sonoma Sunset' is EXACTLY the same as the '06 color 'Red Opulence'. They both have the same color code of 'A15'.

Likewise, the '07 color 'Super Black' is exactly the same as the '06 color 'Onyx'. They both have color code 'KH3'.

But the '07 color 'Radiant Silver' is NOT exactly the same as the '06 color 'Liquid Silver'. 'Liquid' is color code 'KY1', while Radiant' is color code 'K12'. I don't trust the absolute correctness of the actual tints as shown in the brochures, so will not try to describe the difference between the 'Liquid' and the 'Radiant' until I have seen vehicles with those two colors side-by-side.

The 'Precision Grey' (W40) and 'Dark Slate' (K50) of '07 are neither exactly the same as the discontinued 'Smoke' (K11) of '06, but both clearly play off the popularity of the 'Smoke'.

Winter Frost and Majestic Blue are unchanged from '06 to '07.

The 'Spirited Bronze' and 'Coral Sand' of '06 were dropped for '07 and replaced with 'Pebble Beach'. I suspect 'Pebble Beach' was created by mixing leftover 'Spirited Bronze' and 'Coral Sand' paint, as it looks to be exactly between those two colors.

Caffe Latte cloth was available on several '06 Maximas, but is not available on any '07 Maxima.

The interior color known as 'Black' on the '06 Maxima is called 'Charcoal' on the '07 Maxima.

All '07 SEs with leather use perforated leather, while all '07 SLs use unperforated leather.

But enough details. I hear the server beginning to creak.



edit - Just had to mention the '07 Maxima is one inch longer due to the bumper changes (but same wheelbase), and the curb weight is up. The SE added over 100 pounds, while the SL added almost 100 pounds. That may be enough to slightly affect elapsed times.

 

I spent some time driving around with the car today... All I can say about the CVT is that I could NOT get it to lose its composure. I didn't abuse the poor thing yet, but I tried many situations that you would think might confuse the tranny but it responded perfectly every time. Lord knows it works way better than the 5 speed Aisin-Warner Geartronic in my Volvo.

I think my early impression is that it will be a better automatic for 95% of the people that would have bought an auto box anyway. Am I in that 95% or one of the other 5%??? Right now I'm probably right on the fence. Time and some instrumented testing will tell the tale. I think (hope?) that the perception of being slower is mostly a byproduct of the smoothness. Getting used to the monotone exhaust note... that's a whole other story.

Nissan's mistake wasn't switching to the CVT... it was making it the only gearbox. Even though Charlotte traffic and a bad hip have kept me away from a manual tranny for a few years, I really dislike the thought of a manual gearbox not being available. Sort of tarnishes the image many of us hold of the Max, even if we have autos in ours.

 

I did a similar color analysis, mostly trying to figure out what the colors really looked like since so few were available to see in the flesh.

I really wish I had a chance to see the precision gray... I think I would have liked it.

 

jcalabria - Thanks for the test report.

Your experience is pretty much in line with others here who have tested the '07: The CVT does the job, but the 'stigma' will take time for some folks to overcome. Others, for several different reasons, just aren't interested in giving up their shifting.

Some of the 'feeling' of powerful accelleration comes from that little 'bump of propulsion' as the gear changes and accelleration begins anew in the next gear. I know performance drivers miss that 'bump' and that feeling.

I think I will take the approach that CVT has the potential to outperform both muti-speed automatics and manuals, and will certainly 'get me there'. Even after 58 years of manuals and multi-speed automatics, I am perfectly willing to give the CVT every chance. I think I may find it just fine for my purposes. Especially since I love almost everything else about the Maxima.

 

One other thing I noticed today when the car was in the bright sun: It appears to me that the window tint is darker than what you usually see on factory passenger car glass. Its seems almost as dark as the darkest legal aftermarket tint you can have here in NC.

I wonder if there is a trend afoot?? I had noticed that Toyota was offering a darker tint as a factory option on the '07 Camry SE (yes, I'll admit that it interested me enough to look - then I realized that even if the 07 Camry was the best car in the world they'd have to change the name before I could consider one - improved as it is, its guilty (of bland image) by association)

 

Very nice, welcome to the 6th gen (or 6.5 gen side)!!!! Wheel gap does look a bit less but it still needs to be lowered!!

 

Félicitations et Bonne Chance!

(Congratulations....)

;-)

 

Congrats on the new ride and great job on the writeup.

 

Very nice!!

 

looks sick man congrats

 

Nice ride.

I'm still trying to collect my feelings about the new rims. The pictures posted in this tread had a pretty decent shot of the rims and they almost seem to be a cross between the previous Gen6 SE and SL rims. Obviously they are 18's, but them have more of that flat spot on the front like the SL's have. I have been preferential toward the SL rims on my '04.

 

Very nice car, love the color!

 

i only have one question...can i interest you in a sale of your rear spoiler??? lolxz...j/k nice ride

just waiting for the spoiler now...