Awesome story, love the part about the Millionaire.

 

Here in Staten Island it's popular. I know 4 or 5 people with one.

 

I'm actually "afraid" to floor it sometimes due to the "severe" torque pull. Heck, even on non-dry conditions I have found myself spinning the front tires for traction. I mean, I understand how they want to pull those who want RWD to the G series but pulling 4500 lbs with 290HP and 261 ft-lbs torque, it just adds up to the front tires wearing out very fast. Handling is fine but it's hard to really enjoy the full power of the car if you're getting pulled left (or is it right?) whenever you floor it

 

Severe torque pull

WTF are u talking about? This car by no means has severe torque pull. If anything, it has virtually no torque pull of any of the FWD vehicles I have had over the years. My TL has more torque pull then this car ever has.

 

+1

I thought at first it had really bad torque pull, until I realized I just didn't have the wheel straight and was driving over uneven roads that pushed the tires in different directions. On a straight road though with both hands on a perfectly centered wheel, it goes perfectly straight. If you have it a little off though because of the power it can pull off course quickly, I can definitely see that.

 

Naw, I get severe torque pull to. Maybe it depends on how the driver holds the wheel on how noticeable it is.

 

Next time you're on a dead stop. FLOOR IT. Then you'll know what I mean. Next time you're on a highway doing 60. FLOOR IT. You'll feel the car nudge to the right.

Then again, maybe it's different between SV Sport and Premium. SVS has sports suspension unlike my SVP.

 

I live in So. Cal and I see tons of Lexus ES & Infinity's but hardly any 7th gen Maximas. I kinda like it that way, it makes me feel like I have something unique. I can say that I have yet to see the exact model & color as mine.

 

There are 3 Maximas where I live in a 3 house radius near a T-intersection. It's funny, before I got one, I rarely saw them on the roads. I mean rarely in Union County NJ. Now that I am in one, it's kind of nice Besides, it's always a different color

 

Actually, I'm quite sure designing and making a FWD car is more expensive than designing and making a RWD car. CV joints are rather tricky things. So Nissan made the Maxima FWD for reasons other than saving money or making the rear seating area floor hump smaller.

Nissan DOES make a 4DSC with RWD. It has that little Infiniti emblem on the trunk, and is referred to as the 'G37.' Nissan tries to be careful not to undercut their luxury brand Infiniti vehicles, on which they average making more profit on each car sold (I certainly found that out when I price-shopped the G37 against the Maxima at my local dealers).

I bought my first Maxima when Nissan switched the Maxima from RWD to FWD with the release of the 2nd gen 1985 model in October of 1984, and one of the reasons I chose that car (I actually bought TWO 1985 Maximas) was I wanted FWD. RWD is better for running elapsed time sprints, and, for sporty drivers, is more fun on curvy roads. But FWD is generally considered to have safer driving characteristics, especially in wet or freezing weather. After all, the Maxima is promoted as an affordable FAMILY sedan, and I wanted both my wife and myself to be driving safe vehicles.

 

Light:

This is random, but have you ever owned a 4th generation Maxima? Just curious.

 

Silver '95 (with auto tranny); first car I bought from my current dealer, who had just opened for business. Driven mostly by wifey, as I retired right about that time. We liked it so much we advised sister-in-law to get one, and she bought a '98. Replaced ours on July 21, 1999 with a blue pearl 2000 SE.

2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th gens were what I call the 'traditional' Maximas; the true 4DSCs. Reliable, nice looking, spirited performance, and affordable.

I loved all my Maximas, but the one that totally stole my heart was the first '85 (we had two '85s) I bought. I drove that car for 206,000 wonderfully happy miles, and still saw it tooling around town four years after I sold it, and felt a tear on my cheek every time; almost like seeing a child you loved, but gave up for adoption.

Yes, I do tend to get emotional abut Maximas.

 

Yeah, I've done that and it pulls to the right a pinch but the wheel is so loose you only need one hand to gently correct it. Its not a big deal unless your nothing holding the wheel properly to give it the needed correction.

 

Mine doesn't seem to pull "always right" but it does seem to go one way or another if I don't have the wheel perfect. I agree that if you're flooring it you should probably two hand the steering wheel instead of doing the one-hand at the top which can be a pretty difficult place to keep the wheel steady from.

 

Here in Jersey - you kind of need to floor it every now and then especially when getting on highways...when you're stuck behind someone on an on-ramp doing 40mph merging on to a 70mph highway!

Definitely. After the first couple of times it was weird-coming from an '07 Altima SE-never experienced it with that power. However, I have learned to summon that power when needed with an extra light tap on the gas...or switching to Ds mode for the quick umph.

 

Well, if it is such an issue for you, but others and myself have not found it to be, then you should have gotten a RWD vehicle. Never would have to worry about it at all.

 

That is the same here in a nicer part of Kansas City. So many infinity's but i see maybe a handful of new maximas. Not kidding I saw 3 brand new infinity qx56 last friday on my way to work. 8 miles and 10 min commute. Wow. I got to ride in one last october a test one for nissan and they are nice nice nice

 

Unfortunately, RWD was never an option - especially here in NJ and the weather we have...including more snow today - but like I said - I've learned to handle the car.

 

There are plenty that offer AWD options with the RWD. I have never been able to find one Infiniti here in NJ, and very few BMW's that did not have the AWD on them.

I particularly like Infiniti's AWD b/c its on demand. 95% of the year you can drive around with RWD and then in the winter when you need it, push a button and AWD!

 

Yep, they really are very nice. I have three beautiful granddaughters, so actually looked at the QX56s (and the Nissan Armadas), but equipped the way I wanted, the QX56s were north of $60K, and Consumer Reports got 13 MPG on premium gas when testing them, so I decided the wise choice was to stay with the Maxima.

After an absence of a year, Nissan is bringing the redesigned Quest back this summer as the 2012 model. It will never be mistaken for a QX56, but should be a practical people mover with better MPG and much lower price than the QX56. But I still prefer the Maxima.

 

Have you seen the face of the new QX56, oh my is all I can say! . The last ones face was so so but this one....... You are right, the Armada and QX56 were criticized for their poor gas mileage and for not being so reliable like the previous Quest.......These were some of the cars that dropped Nissans reliability in recent years.

 

There are indeed - I did like the Suburu Legacy. But bang for the buck, I won't trade in the Max. The G25x would be in the same price range but I just hate the way it looks! Besides, when the time comes, wifey will be getting an AWD for us.

 

Had it moved to RWD the Max would sell like hotcakes. But Nissan won't do that because it would severely cut into G sales.

The redesign of the Altima(probably the largest reason) and the 6th gen also helped contribute to pushing the Max into the background.

It's a shame because the 7th gen is a brutally gorgeous car. And it preforms well... for a FWD car.

In my perfect world, the 7th gen would be RWD, the altima would be a 4 banger and the sentra would die to give way to a 250sx.

 

If it was moved to RWD, it would not be a Maxima. There are folks out there like me who have owned every Maxima generation EXCEPT THE FIRST, because the first generation Maxima was RWD, and at that time I was already aware of the superiority of FWD in inclimate weather conditions and NORMAL driving. Having over 60% of the car's weight over the drive wheels really makes a difference. The Maxima is now an upscale sporty family sedan, not a true sports car.

The Maxima has NOT been 'pushed into the background.' When Nissan moved the Maxima upscale, they made it the official Nissan 'flagship', and set the sales goal at only 70K units. A 'flagship' should be something special, not something we see everywhere we look. Nissan is selling Maximas at the intended pace, despite the recession.

By contrast, the Altima is the 'everybody's car' for Nissan. They would like to sell 250K Altimas every year.

Yes, you are correct that the 7th gen Maxima is a beautiful car, and it does perform well. In fact, it performs much better than RWD cars in inclimate weather, and does just as well as RWD cars in normal driving. The one area where RWD would be preferable would be when pushing the car hard on takeoff in dry weather, or when driving on curvy roads at high speed in dry weather. I seldom do either of those.

I certainly agree with your thoughts on the Sentra. I never liked the name; I always think 'scentra' when I see one. A 250SX would be neat. When Nissans were known as Datsuns, I drove a 5 speed manual Datsun 200SX for many years, and I loved that little 4 banger.

 

The new quest's look pretty good to me actually. I don't like minivan's nor do i really like suv's however the quest looks pretty good. I absolutely love the looks of the new QX56's. They are so nice and i like the looks a lot!

Light you are right on about the altima and the maxima! By the way the maxima has zero to no torque steer. They spent a lot of time and money engineering it out of the maxima. If you want to feel torque steer get a 2005 or ara TL. I also got a 2010 chevy travers as a rental, front wheel drive. And that thing ripped the wheel out of my hand. That was torque steer. The maxima is just not there.

 

In my area you can't drive more than 2 stoplights without seeing a 7th gen. Just the other day going around the interstate loop it was me and 2 others in each lane of the interstate right next to each other. 99% of them are the S model though. I can tell just from looking, but i'm sure other people think they're all the same.

I suppose it's in one's point of view. This being the first FWD car i've ever owned out of 10+ cars, the first time i felt it pull i thought the torque steer was HORRIBLE. And i can't capitalize HORRIBLE enough. Then again i suppose if you're used to driving FWD it may not be that bad *shrugs*

Then again in the 4 blizzards we've gotten this winter in my area i can't believe i can actually drive in the snow now haha.

 

brutally gorgeous indeed!

 

I disagree, I think a RWD Maxima would be a very warm welcome to the vast majority of car enthusiast. I usually don't agree with auto "journalist" but I think they were right on with a FWD car labeled a 4DSC in this day and age is pretty absurd(so many 4WD cars). But that again raises the issue that the Max would take a large bite of it's Infiniti brethren if it moved to RWD or even 4WD.

Also, it may be the flagship but the Altima took a large chunk from the Maxima faithful. Maxima was a huge seller, and well renowned and loved up until the floaty and bloated 6th gen(which does resemble a fat Altima). Even auto publications starting comparing Altimas with Accords and the like- it always used to be the Max that was brought to the test.

And when I was saying 250sx I was thinking of a more spartan car like the 90's 240sx with a RWD platform, sub 3000lb weight & a 200hp+ 2.5 liter.

I still do think the 7th gen is one of the best looking cars out there.

 

IMO it's the best looking japanese sedan out there, kills the lexus GS, ES, and the LS.

it's a car u wanna look at all the time and wash it every chance u get.

 

If they made the max rwd they would have to slap in the 7spd auto or 6 spd manual. I like the cvt, its responsive, the powertrain never gets confused and switches gears at the wrong time. Plus, manual shifts with the 7spd are devastatingly slow, because the clutch has to open, a new gear has to be chosen, then the clutch has to re-engage. This would kill the fun when it comes to Manual mode. Since we dont have gears we dont have to worry about laggy shifts.

 

I agree only slight torque pull if you have a rutted turn or something.
I did notice if you are not committed to the turn and back off on the gas a bit she'll hedge a little. If you come in hard to a corner, tap the brakes and squeeze the thottle firmly coming out of a turn they'll just fly.

At times, I even think it handles better than my Vette with the MR System. Now, I think that really says something about this car.
Really, I was extremely shocked when I took my Max on my local test track and saw how well she performed. Actually, took it to a level that scared me a bit. I expected her to squeal a little ... but, nothing. The Vette would have stepped out a bit. However, in a Vette it's completely controllable these days with the electronic counter measures and all.

However, give me a 1/8 mile and the Maxima is 7 cars back due to the extra 100HP and extra 100lbs of torque the Vette has.

I'm loving this car ... plus the Bose in really nicer than the Vette's.

Sorry, still need to post up picts .... Soon

 

ES and LS yes, GS that a tough one. The GS is sharp looking car in side and out, it was one of the 1st cars to get that coupe like design and it flows well. My Uncle has one and whenever we are in it, we get lots of looks and people saying nice car.

 

Well in 02 when Nissan started moving the Max upscale with way more available features etc, they stated in 01 that the then new Altima (02 model) would take some Max sales. They also dropped production from what use to be well over 120k units a year to 90k in 02, so this was part of the plan and it has remained that way since.

The Altimas place in the market is against Cam's and Accords, same positioning in the market with all starting out in the High teens with 4cyl engines etc etc. Maximas has always been a tweaner car (positioned higher than Accord/Cam) with its closest competition in the market being the Acura TL and to a smaller extent the Avalon (got to remember the Maximas purchasing demographics is mainly older). I agree that the Max lost its luster with the 6th gen (criticized for bad interior/quality, boat like handlling etc) but it is now back with the 7th gen!

 

You may not have read my post closely enough. The Maxima has been FWD for 26 years for a reason. There are more situations in normal driving where a FWD has an advantage than there are where a RWD has an advantage. The fact lots of drivers may prefer RWD is beside the point, as Nissan serves those with the Infiniti line.

You are correct that slapping a FDSC sticker on this car was a stretch by Nissan, but that has been hashed to death here from the day the 7th gen was released. Everyone agrees this is not a true 4DSC, nor is it intended to be. It is, as Nissan promised ten years ago, a near-luxury flagship.

You also missed the point about sales. Altima did not 'take a large chunk of the Maxima faithful.' NISSAN TOLD US in 2001 that THEY (NISSAN) were moving the Maxima upscale to near-luxury with smaller production numbers, and that the ALTIMA 3.5 WOULD REPLACE THE MAXIMA AS NISSAN'S AFFORDABLE 4DSC. And they did exactly that, as we saw with the improvements in the Altima, and the fattening and softening of the Gen 6 Maxima.

Yes, Nissan came back with a much sportier Maxima with the 7th gen, but that does not change the fact the 3.5 Altima is Nissan's affordable 4DSC. The Maxima is Nissan's upscale near-luxury flagship. That is obvious by the sticker prices, CVT and vehicle content.

It seems many Maxima gens 4 and 5 folks still do not understand where the 7th gen Maxima fits into Nissan's lineup. It is CERTAINLY NOT filling the role the Maximas of gens 1 through 5 filled. As you say, the auto mags used to compare the Maxima with the Camrys and Accords, but now compare the Altima with them instead. That is because the auto mags listened to Nissan back in 2001, and understand the Maxima is no longer even close to the same class as Camrys and Accords and Altimas.

I see from MONTE 01&97 SE's post above that he has been keeping up with what has happened with the Maxima during the last decade. Nice post, MONTE.

 

I agree, but its just too bad its been such a sales failure for Lexus. Hopefully the coming redesign will help it out. It's an oddity in the Lexus line up considering the rest sell very well.

 

Great points light as usual. I wouldn't go as far as to say the Altima is a 4DSC. In actuality, the 370Z and GT-R are Nissan's only true sports cars and the G37 has become Nissan's 4DSC. I agree with you and for someone reason other new people just keep coming on to whine about the lack of RWD, but if Nissan did put a RWD with a regular automatic and/or manual in the thing, people would be screaming to know end, more than even now, how useless the Maxima was and how its EXACTLY like a G Sedan. Nissan was smart in leaving it FWD and using the CVT to differentiate it from Infiniti but also giving it some sporty characteristics to appeal to SOME former owners.

People seem to forget that 10-15 years ago, there was no problem with the Maxima being the true 4DSC because there was a market for it, the Infiniti division was in shambles, and there was no G Sedan on the market. It was Nissan's 4DSC. Well, I hate to burst people's bubbles but in those 10 years, the market has changed very much, especially with Infiniti's offerings and the G Sedan has become Nissan's 4DSC, like it or not. Nissan can not undercut their luxury division. Without having to get rid of the Maxima, which has had a long, reliable, and established history here, they need to make some changes and improvements for a slightly different direction then where it was 10-15 years ago. While there are still some improvements I think they could make, I think they did a pretty good job overall.

People can complain all they want about the lack of RWD, etc but sales have proven last year that the Maxima is packaged right and sells at the top for premium flagship sedans, unless you count the Impala which is just rent a car fodder.

 

Thats because Guyanese people love Maximas lol. I'm a statistic, I know.

 

Yeah Light, I have owned every gen from 2 to 6 and is in a 7th gen quite a bit for work. Never owned a 1st gen but has driven 1. From 02-11 the Max is a softer more luxury oriented car, with none from those years feeling/being as nimble etc as prior years due to added weight etc. You are right as far as Nissan (not infiniti), the 3.5 SE Alti is Nissans "affordable" sporty sedan.

 

Well it is not a sales failure, it is actually doing what Lexus anticipated it to do as far as sales (It was never intended to be a big volume seller). One other thing is Lexus really has not offered alot of incentives on the GS or LS with the current gens, Lexus offers tons on the IS, ES, RX but no so much on the higher end LS,GS,GX and the big Land Cruiser based SUV.

 

no way the GS is a sales failure, u see many of them on the streets and hold great resale value.