Should I get the Altima or wait for the return of the four door sports car ?!?

Mohammad Yamin north andover

 

the new maxima is already on the market i and im starting to see them alot actually i already saw close to 10 of them.. get the max it looks soo much better in person and white one looks great.

 

Don't get an 09 maxima. I'd rather not see myself all around town/America.

MM1

 

So you're going to buy an Altima or a BMW M5?

 

If you must have a manual, and the several manual override options on the new improved CVT on the '09 Maxima won't do for you, then you need to look at Altima or G35.

If you can deal with the CVT on the '09 Maxima (seems to be much improved over the '08 CVT), this new Maxima is rather exciting; moreso in person than in photos. It was introduced back on March 19th, and released to dealers on June 26th. My dealer has over a dozen on one lot, and 18 on his other lot. I go and admire them every week. The time is getting close when Bob Barker will fly in from Hollywood, stick his head in the door and yell 'The Price Is Right!', and I will grab one.

Some dealers are already letting them go for pices ranging from just a few hundred above invoice to halfway between invoice and MSRP. Don't pay anything near MSRP; you can do better.

 

The dealer told me that I did not have to worry about breaking in the engine on the 2009 Maxima I just bought re cruise control or performance pushing. So I have been using the engine as normal speeding up to pull out of intersections and onto highways and not being breakin careful. Then I read the manual with 800 miles on the car and it said for breakin not to speed up quickly or to use the cruise control until 1300 miles. Also it suggested no hard breaking and smooth accelleration and no quick starts for that 1300mi.

Have I harmed the engine or doesn't it matter?

Jack DeMember

 

You should be OK, Jack. These are fairly tough cars. You should be aware the onboard computer has dutifully recorded your sinful ways.

I am not surprised a dealer/salesperson would tell you not to worry about the breakin period. These are folks who were far too dumb to make it in the real world, so fall back on pushing cars for a living. What does surprise me somewhat is that there would be a human being who would believe a word anyone on a car lot would say about anything. We are talking about folks who lie for a living here.

As far as breaking in a new car goes, the word-of-mouth standard since the 1940s has been to go somewhat easy during the first thousand or so miles, gradually expand things during the second thousand miles, then after that, begin to open things up and find out what the car is really made of. Most owner manuals are not too far off from that tradition.

ALL owner manuals ALWAYS lay out the breakin strategy. Unfortunately, most owner's manuals are never opened until a problem or question arises. Of course there will always be urban rumors abut cars already being broken in when new. That is true only if the new car already has a few thousand carefully driven miles on it, and that is an oxymoron.

From your post, I don't think you have done anything to worry about. It is actually good to do a few slightly aggressive starts during breakin; just no burnouts or elapsed time trials. Just try to be careful and vigilant going forward, and you will most likely have no problems.

 

im just curious, what exactly needs to be broken in on a new engine?

i know that like brand new suburus "come tightly packed" from the factory and need some miles until you actually get all the power from the engine.

 

As wonderfully precise as these Maxima engines made in Dechard TN are, they are like all other engines in that the moving parts do not match up precisely when the engine is first assembled. It certainly takes a few hundred miles before the parts even begin to fit completely with each other, and around a thousand miles before the engine begins to be an efficient machine.

Although some auto technicians will say an engine is still doing some little fitting of parts up to 20K miles, I would bet 98% of fitting is complete by 10K miles.

By 'fitting', I mean that any tiny portion of any moving part that may be sticking out ever so slightly is gradually worn down to where it is even with the rest of the part. In some cases, the needed wear can happen on the surfaces of both parts. This wear results in every moving part fitting exactly, enabling maximum operating efficiency.

Untl this fitting is accomplished, engines do not operate at maximum efficiency. This is why many auto techs (including Nissan's) recommend waiting a while to replace dino oil with synthetic oil. Dino oil allows the needed fitting to occur, while synthetic oil lubricates so well it greatly slows needed breakin.

In fact, synthetic oil lubricates so well it enables an engine that is not broken in to still perform with some efficiency, hence some vehicles actually come with synthetic oil. If I was buying such a vehicle, I would have the synthetic oil replaced with dino for around 10K miles, then switch back to synthetic.

But folks here on the ORG are very dedicated (hence very opinionated) drivers, and if you asked a hundred of them about proper breakin, you would get a hundred different answers, some very good, others almost guaranteed to destroy your car.

 

Update:

I test drove the Altima V6 5 spd. It was a great experience. Read quite a bit about the reviews on Consumer report, etc. Then, economy hit. I am now looking for used Altima 2005+ 2.5S.

with best regards,
Mohammad Yamin North Andover, MA

 

i don't like the altima's