Just curious if those who have a 7th gen Maxima miss not having a manual transmission as an option. Besides our other reasons for having a manual, I just like the better control it gives me. I even wrote a letter to Nissan back in 2006 asking them to keep the manual for the 2007 model year, to no avail. I know they didn't sell a lot of manual-equipped Maximas, but I bet they would sell more manual-equipped Maximas than they will sell GT-Rs. Just like the GT-R, the manual transmission Maxima would be an image car. The 4DSC designation just doesn't fit without a manual transmission. We're buying a used, low mileage 2006 through CARMAX, and I've noticed manual Maximas disappear very quickly from the CARMAX site. How many others would like to see a manual in the new Maxima?

 

Not me. After driving the CVT and using the Paddle Shifters I don't think I would ever (by choice) go back to a purely auto or manual transmission. I really like the choices Nissan gives me...permanent clutchless control via the paddles (and or selector,) temporary down/up shift via the paddles even in D, or a very smooth auto only mode. I love the balance the engineers came up with and think the 4DSC moniker is well earned in this iteration of the Maxima.

 

Why must everyone mope about the 7th Gen not having a manual option? I love manuals, I hate autos. If I wanted another manual I would have got a vehicle with a manual option. I thought the CVT was a fantastic compromise between the two.

 

Nope. I don't miss a manual. I would not have purchased a manual transmission for my daily driver. My daily roads are simply too congested for a manual, and my wife has difficulty operating a manual (physical, not by choice).

The manu-matic operation of the CVT is great. I use it on a most every drive mainly for downshifting and cornering purposes, then flip back to automatic mode.

 

Ds mode is the BOMB!

 

The trouble is there's really no other car anywhere close to the Maxima that you can get with a manual. The Lexus IS is an itty-bitty car, and the G37 rides like a buckboard, and has an awful clutch engagement. So the best we could come up with was a used 2006.

 

I drove manuals in the 1940s and the 1950s and enjoyed them. I drove manuals as late as 1984 ('78 Datsun 200SX 5 speed manual). The last time I drove that 200SX to and from work in downtown Atlanta, I must have shifted a thousand times each way, and seldom got over 20 MPH. That is total insanity.

No, I no longer have the slightest interest in a manual. The traffic around where I live makes them no fun at all to drive.

Moreover, having experienced this great new seamless, tight '09 Maxima CVT, I will never again drive any shifting tranny, manual or automatic. This CVT is a more efficient tranny than those that shift.

Thank goodness Nissan did not waste money engineering, certifying and building a manual '09 Maxima that dealers did not want, because they only wasted parking space on dealer lots until dealers let them go way below invoice in order to get rid of them. The manual Maxima became a wasteful money pit for Nissan over a decade ago.

 

You can have a manual with this car. The CVT in this car is very efficient and shifts just as good if not better than any auto-manual i've driven...
I'm sick of shifting when i just drive around ... shifting might be great for racing, but this CVT does a very good job! hats off to Nissan! oh by the way, i won't miss 3rd with the CVT

 

I just don't see the importance really, now if this was a RWD platform I would be interested. Hence is why I just picked up a new 370Z last weekend! Problem Solved!

 

I tried a 370Z on for size and it did not fit, my feet are too far from my hair.

 

I do miss a manual alot, but every day I drive the Max I appreciate the CVT more and more. I absolutely love it now and I am convinced that it is superior to a conventional auto, but still miss the connection you have to the 'mechanics' of the car with a manual.

 

well in a decade or two we wont even be driving anymore. We will be telling a machine where we want to go

 

I wonder if my robot will whine about not having a manual option on his max....

 

I fell off my chair ROTLMAO

 

And since when is wanting a car your way whining?

 

I have a CVT in my Civic, and I find it downright boring, but I guess at a certain point I might find a CVT adequate for doing all my shift thinking for me.
Nissan has all the engineering needed to put a manual in a Maxima--it's still basically the same engine as it was in 06. And the manual Maximas at CARMAX are being snapped up about as soon as they're posted, and new manual Altimas are disappearing off the dealers lots in no time.

 

Some people may consider saying "I miss a manual" to be whining, but here is how I feel about it:

I bought this car KNOWING it was a CVT, not a manual. I could've got into anything in this price bracket, many of which would've been available in 6-spd manuals. But I didn't because I was so impressed with the Maxima and HAD to have it. I don't in any way regret this, although at first I had second thoughts. I absolutly love the CVT now, especially how it stays in the "sweet spot" of the RPMs when you accelerate. Some people hate that sound, but I can't get enough of it.
There are certain aspects of driving a car with a manual transmission that I miss sometimes, but they are more than made up for with the countless amazing features of this car.

Basically what I'm saying is that this car was not a manual and didn't ever hint at being one. If someone bought it and really wanted a manual tranny then I can respectfully say that they are an idiot.

 

But yes, a manual option would have been nice, and I woulda gotten one...

 

Since when do people buy cars they don't really like? Trying to impress the kids at school?

 

I fail to see the humor in this statement but everyone is different...

Why do people want a manual for racing anyway ? For turbos it helps keep it spooled, but a CVT would be perfect for that ... i guess it's the launch then ? Because it can't be the shifting ... too many mistakes can be made... i guess it's more control, more fun.. esp. a rear wheel car for drifting ?

 

I found the humor in it hilarious as well. Anyone who owns a Maxima should not really miss a manual, the reason being is that it has a Manual.

Maybe not a Manual in the traditional sense that you have an extra pedal and that you do your own shifting instead of the computer doing it for you but nevertheless you do have a Manual.

When I get bored with the CVT shifting for me (which I hardly ever do) I switch over to the Manual and play around with it, soon I find myself bored with it as there isn't much room in the city to be rowing gears.

On the highway is a different story but it still isn't exactly the same as a conventional Manual, however, I'm ok with that because the CVT is a fine piece of machinery.

 

I know how you feel. I gave up buying a new car because I really like the Maxima, but I needed the manual, so I'm stuck with buying used. I would have much preferred a new car, but no new car had what I wanted, and I had actually sworn off used cars. If I didn't need the manual, I could have gone with the CVT--I have one in the Civic, and I hated not being able to get a new Maxima. The 96 I put 145,000 miles on was the best car I've owned so far.

 

wat

 

You are greatly mistaken if you think the driver has no control over the CVT. It takes more touch with the gas to keep the RPMs exactly where you want with this CVT than with any of the many manuals I ever drove. Those simple old manuals had a fixed ratio for each gear, and that ratio is all you ever got. This CVT has an infinitely broad response range, if only the driver takes the time to learn the nuances.


As for Nissan having the technology to produce the manual, of course they do. And they produced Maximas with it for a quarter of a century. But the percentage of Maximas selling with the manual gradually dropped to between 2 and 3 percent. Dealers hated them because they couldn't give them away, and Nissan was losing money on them. Nissan was very wise to drop the manual from the low-volume upscale Maxima and keep it as an option with the high-volume Altima. Made perfect business sense.

As for 'snapping up the manuals', that is an unrelated illusion. Buying a five or ten year old Maxima for the manual is a totally different thing than buying a new $30K + manual Maxima. The manual Maxima became a money loser for Nissan in the late 1990s, and things only got worse in the early 2000s. Nissan is trying to stay in business, not waste money on a very low-volume seller like the manual Maxima.

We can push/twist/squirm/plead all we want for the manual Maxima, but it simply stopped selling many years before Nissan finally pulled the plug.

 

Buy a used S2000 it's an excellent car, I just sold mine and got a 370Z last weekend. Maxima won't ever have a manual ever again IMHO, they have gone upscale and that crowd has no interest in rowing gears plus Nissan needs to make money we can't have Nissan go Chapter 11 on us... I love my Maxima for what it is, you want a manual you have to look elsewhere. Why not the Altima that is an excellent car especially with the VQ!!

Other words move on this topic won't ever make you happy, get a 6 speed and enjoy the ride...

 

The S2000 is way too small for me, besides, I have no use for a two-seat sports car. The Altima is OK, but it doesn't have the features of the Maxima. Besides, finding a Manual Altima is hard to find, especially if you want to get it equipped. I have my 2006 Maxima heading our way--should be here in a couple of weeks.

 

Someone just figure out how to do a 6 speed swap already...

 

Somehow I think that might just void our warranty

 

Because there are other forms of racing besides quarter and eighth mile straight lines?


Between this . . .
and this

there may be insight to Per's point of view.

Once you move away from direct control of the mechanical bits, you have to accept somebody else's driving style preferences, as that's what determines the transmission programming (and the range of its capacity to "learn" yours, if such is available). Maybe I'm just a throwback, but a car is a physical, mechanical device, not a video game, so electronically permitting "manual" operation comes off as insulating the driver from what he's doing.

Either automated shifting or continuous variability effectively puts the driver in the position of asking the PCM for permission to drive in whatever way, and that permission can be denied via electronically overriding the "request". Not everybody is comfortable with that. Obviously, such people should not be considering automatic-only cars, but it's a shame that cars that are really nice in so many other respects limit buyer choice in this.

No offense, light, but the basis for manual gear selection is in large part a subjective "feel" kind of thing, related to the driver's evaluation of the situation at hand as well as engine rpm and speed or acceleration requirements. It's not necessarily consistent or predictable, as computer programming prefers. You lose something once throttle and gear selection control are connected in any way.


FWIW, I saw very recently some figures regarding percentage fitment of the three various transmission types. Stumbled across it while investigating transmission fluid, and I think it was a Valvoline-developed report. Anyway, it's in the USA and Japan that automatic transmissions are widely fitted (90%, IIRC). In the US, manuals have remained fairly steady at 8%, and CV's are 1% - 2%. In Europe, the percentage of manual transmissions is much higher at around 80% (Edit - found it - though that 80% is dropping - Link.



Norm

 

I have not driven a stick since around 1984. I like automatics. Put the car in Drive and let the machine do my work for me. This leaves an empty hand to mess with the Nav system, radio, holding my gals hand, etc.

 

downshifts are too slow with the cvt.... my opinion still

 

Downshifts on the CVT? Do you drive one today?

 

When you use the paddle shifter,
And yes I did drive one today

But overall I love the 7th gen... I can't lie haha

 

I don't have the paddle shifters, but if i use Manual Mode, downshift or upshift is instant... i mean it isn't faster than powershifting a manual (although if you make a mistake you'll know it real fast )but the CVT in the 09 Maxima is very responsive... I'll admit it doesn't quite have the punch and when shifting gears won't break the tires, but it's still a nice tranny. If i wanted a manual, i wouldn't go with an Altima.. a G37 S would be nice.. 7600 rpm shifts Although it's $$$!

MAXIMA SE-R 6 speed manual with a GTR powerplant

 

Here's a G37 7 speed Automatic doing 0 - 60 !

Seems to start @ .13 and end @ ~.19 - .20 ?

so I would say that a 6 sec run ..

I'm using a stop watch and trying to exactly go when the speedo starts to move from 0... he's setting the rpms at first, so it's @ 2000 1700 2000 1700.. whatever ... what do you guys get ? I know it isn't the most accurate method, but it doesn't seem to shift that much different than on 09 Maxima in DS mode... ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEZtmTJOXfc

Now the paddle shifters... i'm getting 5.4 sec .. that's what C&D got ... this is more like it... take #2!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqhCF...eature=related


best i've seen for this guy published was 5.0 ... they do mention .3 sec difference in runs and they take an average....

 

I really like the audi dsg trannies... But that may be too much to ask =)
maxima se-r with the nismo 370z 350hp and a manual tranny =)

 

It's instant on my Max sure you were driving a Max?

 

Better switch to the FM platform or add AWD to handle that power...

 

I posted that G37 doing 0 - 60 and i don't see much of a difference in shifting when he's in DS mode with that 7 speed Automatic... (other then rpms...) Shifts the same with the Max in DS mode... as in the same lag time which is almost none.
I mean obviously the 09 Max CVT and the G37 7 speed auto aren't turbo 350 tranny's on a Z-28 when you would manually pop it into second and it would bark the tires .. using 4.10 gears But the G and Max seem the same to me shifting wise... so what's this lag people are talking about when shifting the CVT using Manual Mode, Paddle Shifting or DS Mode?

 

One point about the manual transmission in a Maxima: The Cadillac CTS is also offered with a manual transmission, but try to find one on a dealer's lot! I would think a manual CTS is only available through special order, but I can't see why Nissan couldn't do the same. After all, they have all the parts from the 2006 model; I doubt there is much difference.
I also realize the 2009 owners are happy with their tranny--nothing wrong with that!