there have been a lot of threads asking about SL to Plat over the year so I thought I would share my experience with you. I Bought a SL in June 15 I really wanted a platinum but it was one of the first ones off the truck so I grabbed it. I took it in last Monday for service 15,000 actually had 15,500 on it the sales manager asked me if I wanted to upgrade it to an Platinum for sticker to sticker difference......$3K I said sure and sure enough they wrote it up.


Amazing I got to drive this great car for 10 months for $.20/mile So any of you SL owners out there wondering if its possible to upgrade to a Platinum


Yes it is!

 

Thats an awesome story. Thanks for sharing! Im between SL and Platinum myself- maybe better just to go plat. What do you like so much more about it than the SL?

 

Was it a brand new platinum or a demo? that is insane regardless. Wonder if they will extend that to me from SV to a Platnium lol

 

YeaH! I'd do that deal too. I think you will like the Platinum features! Only thing they left off was the paddle shifters.

 

Can you ask your dealer if they will offer it for me?

 

I guess what I didn't realize when they made me that insane offer there is currently a $1500 rebate.....but still it only had 6 miles on it so sticker to sticker is still an amazing deal got out with Transfer and Taxes for less than $500 and picked up another year of warranty........so far they only thing I miss is the leather. SL had really nice seats...but the cooled seats and the 360 camera in the platinum are really the features I wanted

 

The seats in the Platinum are not as good as the SL? That is odd.

 

I liked the SL seats better too when I drove it.

 

Is there a big difference between the SL and Platinum? I have a 2013 maxima and will be trading it in later this summer. I am interested in both but i like the 360 camera view and camera on SL including navigation system on the cars. I do think the blind spot light would come in handy. I also like LED lights on cars. The feature with starting the car without being inside of it made me want the platinum then i read that you have to pay for it monthly if using smartphone. Is it subscription based if used from the smart key?

 

Key things Platinum has that SL does not:
Access to Nissan Connect full apps suite
360 degree camera
Upgraded leather seats with cooling front seats (several like the more basic SL leather seats better, though)
Driver alertness monitoring
Rear sun shade

I decided to go with the SL and save three grand. I love the SL. It was a tough decision though, as the camera, cooled seats, and driver alert all were tempting.

The remote start from the smart key is "free" in both the SL and Platinum.

 

Some good responses here. The SL is a lot of car for the money, and a wise choice unless you are actually going to want and use the added features of the Platinum.

I am not wild about having the word 'PLATINUM' on the rear of my car, as it seems a tad ostentatious. I would like the letters 'SL' a lot more.

But I live down here in middle Georgia, where the sun is like a blowtorch half the year. I use the rear sun shade a lot. I always keep it up from around mid-April until around mid-October to help protect the rear seats and parcel shelf, as well as the necks of my three granddaughters (or whoever might be in the back seat).

My wife and use the front seat air conditioners very often during the warm months. When the sun is blisteringly hot, I can still keep a comfortably cool fanny without the standard dash AC vents blowing quite as much cold air on me.

My wife and I both use the 360 degree camera almost every day. We love being able to see exactly where the car is on all sides without opening the window and sticking our heads out in the rain. This is especially useful in pulling in and out of the garages builders are putting on homes these days. The garage doors on our old home were all ten feet wide, but our new home has nine foot garage door openings.

So the Platinum was the only option we considered. But many folks will have little or no need for some of the Platinum features.

 

That's not the whole story. The Platinum has the following "extras" that the SL doesn't:

- LED headlights
- Around-view camera
- Ascot leather seating
- Auto-dimming & tilt outside rearview mirrors
- Power tilt & telescoping steering wheel
- Rain-sensing wipers
- Rear window sunshade
- Heated and cooled front seats
- Front memory seats
- Nissan Connect
- Extra safety doo-dads


When you look at what it adds, it's worth the extra 3 grand.

.
.

 

LED headlights are one of the things i want especially having them show during day like when raining or at night but i thought SL had LED lights as well there must be a difference. I've seen pictures of maxima with LED lights that weren't a platinum that lit up at night. I think using the power tilt would be good. The 360 camera would be nice too. I will also use the navigation system.

 

They should have gave the Plat pwr folding mirrors too. As well as 19" wheels. I bet the 2017's will have something like this.

 

I think they all have LED "light pipe" running lights, but only the SR and Platinum have actual LED low-beam headlights.

.
.

 

Correct, they all have led daytime running lights.

 

Noticed the SR Midnight Edition is on the inventory search now- and it comes up with some cars- also the midnight apparently comes in many exterior colors now. Looks awesome.

I may go with the Platinum and have the dealer upgrade the wheels to the 19" midnight edition- would be perfect.

 

Just and FYI of all the rage on LED over the standard Halagon..........driving the SL for 10months I notice now yes the LED low beams are much brighter close up but loose the distance of the halagon I cant see nearly as far as I could with the Halagon.....so the deer is going to be much brighter when I hit it is my biggest fear.

 

It sounds like an HID plug and play kit may be the best way to go with these projectors unless there is a better LED kit out there. From the sounds of it sounds like LED headlights do not perform that well in this car.

 

Can you just swap for HIDs? Is it a big deal and expensive?

 

Not on the Platinums and the SR models. The low beam doesn't have access from behind. The LEDs are all encased and part of the actual headlamp assembly. If you have the S/SV/ SL models you can swap them with plug and play HIDs. I don't recommend doing plug and play LEDs as they do not throw far.

 

Folding mirrors would be nice, but I doubt we will see 19" wheels on the Platinum. 19" wheels on a sedan run 'firmer' than 18" wheels, and are associated with the 'sportiest' version of the lineup. Nissan wants the Platinum to have a more luxurious ride. Besides, if 19" wheels were added to the Platinum, that would negate one of the primary reasons for the existence of the SE.

But whatever changes may be coming, they will be on the 2018, not the 2017. Nissan very seldom makes any changes on the second year of a Maxima generation, but always makes changes the third year.

 

Good point, but I think the wheels on the Plat should be different than the S, SV & SL. To set it apart. After all it's the "Platinum". Just my .02

 

Have you tried adjusting them up a little?

Just like with HID's, the mfr's tend to set them a little low because the "whiteness" of the light output makes some people think they're being blinded, and they complain. It's just because many people aren't accustomed to the purity of light LED's (and HID's) produce.

I'll tell you this - I have 3.7v LED flashlights only about 6" long that will light up trees 150 yards away, so the 12v ones in cars certainly have the ability to reach out there if adjusted properly.

Just don't set them so high they DO blind other drivers!

.
.

 

If I'm not mistaken, it's not the source but the combination of the source and the projectors. The Acuras that have the LED headlights aren't stuffed in a projector standard projector housing that were used to.

 

Greetings All,
interesting comment...for me I have always disliked the paddle shifters and enjoyed the manual shifting on the floor shifter so the platinum (which we just upgraded to from a 2014) looks clean without those gawky paddle shifters. We as well enjoy all the perks the platinum brings above the SL, (YMMV) as we see this new maxima as not so much a sports car, more a nicely appointed mid luxury car.
cheers,
willie

 

I sat in the platinum last week and enjoyed the car. I think i will get the platinum some of the features that i knew i wouldn't use made me think of using some of them. that button for the shade in the back seems to be useful. I plan on trading in my 2013 maxima in July since i will have had it for a year and the suggested time from my salesman to trade it in was to wait a year

 

I have a 2013 as well. could you tell me how much do they pay for 2013?

 

That "upgraded" Ascot leather is worse than the sl "cheap" leather. Not sure wtf Nissan did.

 

me either still not loving Ascot after having the SL seats .....to make things even more confusing when I was in for service I saw a SR on the show room floor it had seude Ascot not smooth leather like the Plat. so from what I can see now you have one model with at least 4 different seat covers making it almost impossible to get what you really want