Hello,

The wife and I have been looking to pick up a used Maxima SV. We're leaning towards the 2017 predominantly because Consumer Reports gave it higher reliability ratings and I tend to shy away from first year model re-designs. I know there are many happy 2016 owners on here. I'm also sure some will argue that the CR ratings themselves aren't reliable. Here's what CR says at a high level...

2016 - 2/5 Overall Reliability (Issues with brakes, then electronics)
2017 - 4/5 Overall Reliability (Issues with electronics, then brakes)
2018 - 2/5 Overall Reliability [Predicted] (Issues with electronics)

Any thoughts from actual owners? There are some feature improvements between a 2016 vs 2017 vs 2017.5 SV, but none of the features are super significant for us. For my wife, she just wants a reliable car. We could save a few grand going with a 2016, but trying to decide if it makes sense to stick with the 2017.

Thanks in advance.

zup

 

i have a 2016, i had a few issues with the car since i got it in july 2016. I always had brake noise issues with this car until recently. Replaced throttle body and valve body at around 30k miles. had a knocking sound start at 28k, they say its nomral but its def not. Gave up on that. other than that cars been good but maybe i just had bad luck.

 

Thanks for the feedback! Maybe try a different dealership for the knocking issue. It's hard to find good mechanics these days.

zup

 

 

2016 with 60k miles, not a thing has gone wrong. No repair besides tires and routine maintenance.

 

I have 2017.5 SR and have gone 37,000 miles without significant problems. Even the tires still have a ton of tread life. There are occasional rattles in certain circumstances, but not enough for me to be too annoyed. The forward radar will occasionally get blinded by road conditions such as extremely heavy rain or fog, and this disables cruise control. Of course, I probably shouldn't be on cruise in those conditions anyway and when the weather clears the warning quickly goes away. The brakes do squeak a bit at low speeds, but they still stop like new with no vibration.

All in all, I wouldn't be too worried. Quite a few of these end up in rental fleets, so I'd probably avoid one that was in rental service, but otherwise it seems to be pretty solid. The engine and transmission are proven, and it still rides on a revised version of the platform from the 2009-2014 car.

 

2016 SV with 40K MILES driven 2 winters in a Canadian area that uses more road salt than anywhere in the world. Honestly. No issues, not a hint of a rattle, but did lose front right wheel bearing. Only oil changes done. Not one dumb thing about the car.

 

My early '17 has this system as well.

 

I'd agree with what you said, from my research before I bought 2017 model, I read that they fixed major issues here and their, but you should test drive the car you're interested in anyway. you never know, maybe the previous owner wasn't that great when it came to maintaining a car

 

I have the '17 SL. At 20k miles now I have had no problems except for a small piece of plastic trim that loosened up on driver-side C panel. The engine, transmission, interior have been flawless, and EPA mileage estimates are a little conservative in my case. I also run her on regular grade gas and I can confirm there is absolutely no diff. in acceleration or mpg. Consumer reports verifies this.

I think getting a great car like ours is really luck of the draw from car to car. My dream car can be another's nightmare. Generally though there have been many owner satisfaction surveys about the new 8th Gen Max and everyone I've read show the owners just love them. Keep in mind that owner satisfaction surveys mean well more than standard blog and car mag reviews. I've seen terrible writeups on the Corvette and yet owner's surveys show very high satisfaction. I think this means there are so many good things about a particular car that the general feeling for the car outway any niggling and relatively unimportant "problems" experienced. Max's are this way, at least from what I've read on this board.

If I were you I would go with the latest year model you can afford, but I would not hesitate to purchase a '16 Max if a 17 were not available because it and the '17 are virtually the same as you say. As for major improvements between the 16 and 17, there were none, so go for the lowest mileage, most well cared for Max for the lowest price. PS- You should really look at the SL because there is a nice upgrade here... Bose radio (a real winner in my book), and the panoramic moon roof... and the suspension system is designed for non boy racers.

Good luck.

 

2017 SR here. 40K miles. Ive had two issues. One was a leaking electric power steering reservoir, replaced under warranty at 30K miles. The other, was discovered during an inspection for my extended warranty at 35K miles which was a transmission error code. They replaced the valve body in the trans under warranty. No driveability issues were noted.
So far the VQ35 has been flawless.

 

Not buying into what they say. The car is tuned for premium gas and does take advantage of it. Nissan would know themselves. Either way it will never see regular gas in ours and only Shell V-Power premium gas. I am in the mindset if a manufacture tells you to use premium and you don't. Then don't buy the car and look for something else that is tuned for regular gas. Nothing personal. Just my opinion. It simply amazes me people that buy expensive cars and the manufacturer says use premium gas. Yet they are to cheap to put it in and follow the manufacture directions. Maybe its a simple concept people cant follow or don't want to acknowledge. Certain cars are tuned for premium and take advantage of it like the Maxima.

 

Do you have any evidence that the Maxima takes advantage of premium?

 

I have a 17 S. My mud flap got detached several times and I've given up on it. The light on the bottom of the driver's door fell out--apparently it's held in by very cheap clips--and was replaced under warranty. After about one year of ownership the car started emitting a quiet but discernible hissing and grinding noise under moderate acceleration; so far my dealer pretends not to hear it. I may be just unlucky, but my impression of the build quality has been less than solid.

 

 

http://www.glendalenissan.com/blog/d...-premium-fuel/

 

Have had my 2016 Platinum for three years, but only 14,000 miles (mileage low because I have other vehicles); I had to have the double panel roof assembly completely replaced (under warranty), but everything else has been perfect. Maybe I am just lucky, but I have driven nothing but Maximas since October of 1984, and have had good luck with every Maxima I have owned. Yes, many had a problem or two, but usually fixed under warranty, and never anything remotely close to lemon-status. Drove two of them over 200K miles each.

 

My experience similar to lightonethehill's. I have had my '05 Maxima 13+ years, has 178,000 miles on it, and the reliability has been nothing short of excellent. Currently planning to get a '19 Maxima, but keep my '05 as a second car.

 

Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for the feedback. I appreciate everyone's input.

- zup

 

There may be more of us on here than you think that run reg grade in these cars with absolutely no ill effect, better than advertised mileage in many instances, and no detectable seat-of-the pants reduction in acceleration (torque). I am a "baby boomer" who has been around the track a few times. We grew up making things with our hands, tearing things apart and then assembling them again out of curiosity, and often fixing things to make them work better than mfg. did. With this comes a natural "rogue" approach to questioning builders recommendations and doing it our way, to save money (yes, we bend over to pick up a lost penny), expend less energy (our personal energy, fuel, whatever). If the rogue approach fails we admit it and correct the situation. If it works, as in the case of running an engine with lower octane than the manufacturer RECOMMENDS (not REQUIRES), then we smile at a few saved bucks and motor on down the road savoring our "discovery". Happy motoring Fatties. To each his own and no offense taken.

 

 

I have the SL!

 

Thanks for the page from owner's manual. Operative words in there, pertaining to octane rating use, are "may" and "could".

 

I kind of think Fattieman almost comes off as condescending in his exuberance to "correct" those us who use regular. We can't force anyone to save money but there is no detectable difference I can see using a good brand of regular. I am totally satisfied with my Maxima's performance so it's like using a sledgehammer to squash an ant to feed my car premium. More power (no pun intended) to Fattieman is the premium meets his needs. I'm ok getting to 60 a few ticks slower.

 

 

 

Condescending? Nahhh. Blunt and how I PERSONALLY feel about it? Sure! Will people have problems down the road keeping it long term that just put in regular? That is what folks will have to decide themselves. https://www.herbchambersmercedesbenz...emium-fuel.htm I wont take that chance myself.

 

Most of the time, I have agreed with your postings on this board. Appreciate your clarification on the gas grade debate. In this case, everyone seems happy with their fuel selection decisions so I believe its a win/win.

 

Interesting that the board seems split on whether to use regular or premium gas. Beginning with my two 1985 Maximas, I used premium the first 18 months, then used MIDGRADE (89 octane) full time the rest of the time I owned each Maxima. I still do that, and switched from premium to midgrade with my 2016 Platinum in spring of 2017. I do record the price, gallons to the hundredth of a gallon, and the mileage every time I put fuel in the tank. My MPG has never changed as a result of dropping from premium to midgrade. I have never made elapsed time runs to determine if performance was affected. I'm happy with my midgrade, and others here are happy with their premium or regular. We are all happy here, and that is why I have always enjoyed this board.

 

 

Engines now are getting higher and higher compression ratios. My '13 370Z is 11 to 1 from the factory and the latest Miata is 13 to 1. I understand the computer can make adjustments and take away some timing to compensate but there is a limit. I put a SC on my Z and it was tuned with/for 93 octane not to mention it has methanol injection. If I put 87 in it and beat the hell out of it it wouldn't take long before detonation would take it's toll even with my forged pistons. I also understand a Maxima's purpose is not to rip around going from stop light to stop light so that makes a big difference.

BTW.......New to the forum. Hello everyone. Will be getting a either a new or ever so slightly used Maxima the second week of November. It's killing me to wait. Ever see a 6' 260 lb guy get in and out of a 370Z ? It sucks, trust me.

 

 

fishlet - There is a fine line between being diplomatic and being a wimp. I aim for diplomatic, but am often just another wimp. I am glad we keep the politics low key here, because this is a bad time to get into either politics or religion. When the TV turns to politics, I turn to public broadcasting and watch something like Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes. Maxima.org is more civilized than most internet boards. That makes being here both informative and pleasant.

 

This is not a regular vs premium gas debate thread. Please stay on topic at the question at hand......... 2016 vs 2017 reliability.

 

Busted!

 

I don't think there is much difference in reliability between the '16 and '17. Nissan seems to still have some of the same issues that have dogged the Maxima from previous generations... i.e. rust on the rear trunk where the "chrome" meets the paint. But they have added some new ones. Overall, after 8 months in a 2017, I am dealing with small issues that become a pain when you live 2 hours from a dealership. Tomorrow they are again fixing the electronic sliding shade for the sunroof on my SL and have indicated that they are going to have to remove the entire interior "roof" to do so. I can't get a fix for my whistling sunroof when I exceed 80-90 MPH, depending on the weather conditions. It just seems that the overall fit and finish just isn't there like I experienced on my 7th gen. I will say though, that the Nissan 3.5 V6 is as good as it gets and the CVT is solid as a rock as this car is a gem to drive given what my expectations are for the Maxima.

 

"I can't get a fix for my whistling sunroof when I exceed 80-90 MPH, depending on the weather conditions."

Please allow me to be the first to comment on this. I doubt many of us will experience this problem. There are not too many situations where I would feel comfortable traveling 20-30 mph over the highest speed limit in the land. I see you live in Canada so maybe the roads up there allow relative safety at those speeds. I may be real ignorant in this regard. This said, I'll bet if you cracked open your moonroof at these speeds the howling of the wind (these roofs are terrible for wind noise) would drown out that "whistling" noise. Kinda like sticking your head into the intake duct of a B-52 engine at full bore.

 

 

In the real world, it is very easy to exceed the posted speeds when you are passing for example. Just returned from a 790-mile trip on the interstates from Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota The default cruise was about 80 MPH (31 MPG on Regular folks!) in the more rural areas, with me being in the middle of the pack. There was always a caravan passing us at 85 to 90 mph periodically. I would try to keep pace but realized it was about 90 to 95 MPH! It is very easy to see those numbers when passing as well. These were not all sports cars, but mainly min-vans and SUVs with refugee racks on top and bicycles dangling off the back bumpers! Going 70-75 makes you the slow boat in the interstate lanes. So I can understand how the whistling problem might surface, but my car does not make this noise!. No, I am not advocating unsafe driving but it is easy to see how the average speeds continue to be much higher than what is posted. I might add, being over the limit of 75 mph is stressful so good tires and brakes are a must.

 

Well put rob. Now that I think about it...............