Hi everyone,
I just bought a beautiful white 2012 Maxima SV. My previous car was a 2011 Lexus IS 250 for all of 3 months because I traded it for the Maxima. I hated the IS250 for many reasons, most of which involves poor quality, including lots of broken items on the car cropping up and generally, all steak and no sizzle on performance. I am a former Infiniti G35X owner. I have owned three 2005-2006 generation G35X's and loved them all. At this point they are way too high miles to buy another. Now I'm back in a Nissan which I am thrilled about.

So far the only thing wrong with the Maxima is the driver's side mirror blinker flickers instead of blinks. The dealership where I bought the car is going to repair this on their dime since it was like this on their lot. It's with them today and I'm hoping they fix it today. I searched the threads on here and it sounds like a condensation issue. Not sure if they will know this as they are not a Nissan dealership, just a luxury used car lot. The car has 27K miles on it and is out of warranty at this point since it's a 2012. I bought an extended warranty. I love the car and am happy to let it be serviced to fix that blinker today. Other than that it runs great. WAY faster than the IS and feels like I'm back in my old G35X, sans the AWD.
Just wanted to say hello to you all and I'm glad to be here!
Mary in Boston

 

Welcome aboard Mary! Thanks for joining and we look forward to helping you as much as we can. Youll literally find anything and everything you need to know about your max on this site. The mirrors were a common issue but should be an easy fix. The 2012 was a good year especially in white. Hope you love it for many years to come as we all do!

 

Welcome Mary in Boston! Enjoy your stay

 

Welcome to the forums!

 

Thanks everyone!
Just heard back from dealer that in order to pass MA inspection they gotta remove the dark window tint. Bummer. It looks SO slick. It is quite dark, though. I don't wanna get pulled over for it.

 

Just make sure you remember to try your rear defroster, and radio antenna before you leave. It's a pain to remove off the rear shield.

 

Mikekay,
Since the temps are in the 70's this week, what would be the best way to fog up the rear window to test the rear defogger and also how would I test the radio antenna? You mean just tune the radio and make sure my stations are coming in? Thanks!
Mary

 

Yea just turn it on while in a shaded area and put your hand to it, cool garage is the best, and yes since the antenna runs through the back wind shield I would also check my FM stations to make sure everything is well on that front.

 

Congrats on the new ride, I live in Boston myself. I could see the dealership giving a hard time about the tint, but if u decide to bring it to local garage for the sticker lmk if your interested and I can give u the info. Most garages don't care will just tell u to roll the windows down

 

Thanks! I just don't want a ticket. I have a lead foot and will draw more attention with blacked out windows!!
I will eventually get the windows re-tinted with the 35% MA limit. Oh well. It looked nice for a while.

 

Welcome to the forum. You can also join us on the 7GM Facebook group. I'm quite surprised you ran into quality issues on the Lexus. I was actually cross-shopping between the Lexus and Maxima last year, but the Maxima seemed like a much better deal given I was buying it new.

The condensation issue is a common one on all the 7th generation Maximas unfortunately. Because you are out of warranty, and if the issue ever comes up again, you can purchase just the housing unit off of the Altima. Search on the forum, there are two part numbers. Bringing your Maxima to the Nissan dealer and asking them to replace it will cost ridiculously high because Nissan, for whatever reason, make you purchase the entire mirror as well per Nissan's service manual. You can just buy the two parts off of the Altima with the part numbers and they are interchangeable.

 

Ha! Let the mods begin.
RL-Ypipe, and RL rear strut brace are a great place to start.

 

Replied to this just recently:

https://maxima.org/forums/7th-genera...t-working.html

The two part numbers are listed there -- I linked to some ebay sellers, but you can ask the dealership depending on location might even be cheaper than ebay

But I did also link to the DIY off vq35.com and that is mega useful when pulling the mirror apart.

 

Thanks. I sent dealer the info on here about condensation issue since they sell all makes of cars, not solely Nissan. They ordered the LCD part. I am letting them fix it. They are doing it since I discovered it prior to taking delivery of car on Saturday. It will be in tomorrow along with 4 new tores I negotiated. They will also remove the tint at that time because they say they need a couple hours to get all the tint off. I'll bring it bacK for all this stuff probably Thursday. No problemo, as long as it's not on my dime which it's not. It's all seller side stuff.

 

Way to go! I did research before hand and new my cost was around 150 (using Altima part) and quoted them (using the Maxima part) the difference ended up in my pocket off the negotiated price

Your way works as well, check everything you can while in that warranty period

 

Welcome aboard!

 

Welcome, Mary. You should join the 7th Gen Facebook group, too. The forums aren't nearly as active as the FB group is. https://www.facebook.com/groups/7thgenmax/

 

Hope you didn't remove it already; you can definitely get it to pass inspection even with an illegal tint.

My tint (35%) has recently become legal in Rhode Island so it's a non-issue now, but prior to that I would just have a buddy help me out and I'd take care of him ($100) and that would be that.

If you're at 5% the. It would probably be a good idea to get it changes, but if I'm you and I'm at 20% the. I would keep it and take my chances. Because 20% looks best, IMO.

Just my $.02

 

^^

 

Make sure that defrost works after the tint removal. I would get it in writing before they remove that tint. 99% of tint shops make you sign a waiver saying if the defrost doesn't work after the tint removal it's your problem..........

 

Hahahahaha just trying to help!

Sure beats having to remove your tint if you don't want to.

j_dubb, I see you're in CT and I'm not sure how they do down there, but being a RI guy who travels to MA a lot, the way I feel about law enforcement busting your chops about tint in these two states is that anything darker than 20% then you're kind of asking for it IMO.

If I'm the OP and the car is at 20%, I would keep it that way, find someone to deal with on the low for the registration and if I got pulled over: I'd play the confused, "I didn't know / I bought it used that way" card in hopes of the officer giving a gal a break (which they probably would).

Besides, Boston PD is too busy with real sh*t to deal with anyway.

Whatever you do, OP, good luck. I'm in for pics of your new baby!

 

Dudemaine, all your points are valid but it's not bpd that worries me when cruising the streets, it's the troopers. One got me back in November on a residential street creeping, pulled me over told me my tint was too dark. Did let me off with a warning but most of the time I drive with the sunroof open

 

It is not really the Boston police department that I worry about it is the Massachusetts State troopers. I have a leadfoot as it is so I don't need any other excuse for a trooper on a highway to pull me over for ticket.

 

Tommy,
I had not even seen your reply about the state troopers but yes, that is exactly my point. MA State troopers love to catch people doing things that are very minor because it gives them a reason to fine you. $$$$$

 

Knock on wood but since I was pulled over and started leaving the sunroof open, I have had zero incidents.

 

Tommy,
What is the sunroof part? Not following.
It helps keep you from getting pulled over?
Mary

 

I just open the shade and it lets enough light day or night into the car so the tint does not look dark, I have 20% in the rear and 35% up front, here's a pic with the sunroof open, hard to tell from the pic but it lets a lot of light into the cabin

 

Dealer had my car overnight. They said they sent car to a detail shop and got all the tint off without harming the back window defroster. I will test it before driving away to be sure.

Driver mirror is being replaced due to the faulty blinker. I shared with him the Altima part swap for cheaper but they bought a mirror ($450!).
Also had them put new tires and wipers on (at their cost not mine).

It's a good thing I have a keen eye because I am the one who noticed the tires looked original and before taking delivery I tested every light and blinker and sure enough the driver mirror blinker was shot. I'd say I did pretty well on my pre-sale inspection/negotiation. I noticed things that needed attention and got them done on the dealer's dime, not mine.

Looking forward to getting the car back end of day today.
Mary in Boston

 

Mary what deslership is this? Really stepping up to the plate for you

 

Tommy,
Dedham Auto Mall. Online reviews are mixed so I have been sure to get them committed on everything the car needed. They even gave me a rental from Enterprise yesterday due to the delay of parts. If my car is completely perfect today upon pick up I will write a favorable review.
I think I paid a bit more than I should have but I wanted white and wanted close to home service. I live on the Dedham/West Roxbury line.

 

Got my 2012 Maxima SV back today. The dealer took all the tint off the windows and there is no damage to the back defroster. They put four new tires on it and a new driver mirror/blinker as well as ionized the inside overnight because I could tell there was a slight smell of cigarette smoke. They thoroughly cleaned the inside one last time and did a good exterior clean as well as new wiper blades. I got my inspection sticker as well. Ta da! Just in time for the long Memorial day weekend! The ionizing chemical smell is a tad unpleasant. Hope that dissipates. I have all the windows open airing the car out.
Mary in Boston
PS: I added a pic here but maybe it was too large to come thru

 

Glad to see a dealership make good for a customer

 

Welcome to the site Mary from Boston. You can learn a lot and you can ask any questions you need to and someone will help you out. Good luck.