I took my 2018 in for regular service last week and my Nissan dealer still has a 2018 Maxima on the floor :-( ....

 

Eveyone is guessing what this all means for the future of Nissan Maxima. I for one would not like to see it cut. I also could not see the Altima as the
new flagship car of Nissan. Car sales across the entire globe are down, so this is not just a Nissan problem. Car manufactures have been raising prices
year after year with no concern of the buying public. There comes a point when the consumer says they have had it. Perfect example - take a look at the
transportation charge for new cars. Most are around or above a thousand dollars. Every year it goes up. Why ? Most dealers have stopped ordering new cars
because hey can't sell them. Lots are overfull.

I recently had a conversation with a Nissan Salesmen who told me Nissan seems to have decided for now that leasing cars are not what they want unless you are willing
to pay higher monthly's then the past. They have reduced the Lease incentives to almost nothing.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________


July 2019 Statement from Nissan CEO Hiroto Sailawa

Faced with evaporating profits, Nissan Motor trim a global lineup that includes more than 60 nameplates across the Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun brands.

The Japanese automaker last week said it will reduce its product portfolio by at least 10 percent by March 31, 2022. It's part of a sweeping renovation that also involves cuts in work force and production capacity.

The product reductions will focus mainly on small vehicles, including emerging-market Datsun models, Nissan Motor CEO Hiroto Saikawa said last week at a press conference.

We are mainly targeting sites where we made investments to produce compact cars under the Power 88 plan,” Saikawa told reporters at a briefing at Nissan headquarters, referring to an aggressive growth strategy spearheaded by Ghosn in 2011 to grab 8% global market share and an 8% operating margin.

Saikawa said a total of 14 facilities would be affected.

Nissan’s job cuts expand on redundancies initially announced in May, which affected eight facilities including in Spain - where trucks and vans are made - and Indonesia, where the March subcompact hatchback and Datsun models are manufactured.

Nissan also produces compact car models at facilities including in Mexico, Russia, France, and Thailand.

Roughly half the announced job cuts so far have cost the company around 40 billion yen, and further layoffs could cost about the same, chief financial officer Hiroshi Karube said.

 

I wonder how much money Nissan really has to spend to make the Maxima.

Since at least the mid 2000s, Nissan has brought out a new Altima, then a 1-3 yrs later the new Maxima arrives on the same platform. I would assume a lot of the R&D costs are absorbed with the Altima since they aren't creating a new platform just for the Maxima. This same platform is also used to create the Murano and Pathfinder. They do create unique suspension, interiors/exteriors and spend $$ on better materials/sound deadening. They also use a version of powertrain also used in other models, with some tweaks. A lot of these added costs would then be passed on with a higher price to the customer (even with high discounts from MSRP).

It seems that Toyota does something similar with the Camry/Avalon. Looking at sales, the Maxima is still outselling the recently all-new Avalon by over 1k units YTD through July (though they are catching up, but this makes sense since it's all new, though ugly!). Nissan has been bringing out all new Sentras and Versas, which per vehicle tend to have less per unit profit compared to higher optioned sedans/SUVs in their portfolio (general industry understanding).

 

Cost to develop a new car varies, but generally speaking, it's spread across multiple vehicles sharing the platform.

GM's annual R&D is about $7.8bn. BMW? $8.6bn (5.6% of annual revenue for GM vs. 7.2%.for BMW).

An all-new car - first on platform and with new engines - could cost $1bn to develop (spread over multiple years).
With electrification, 48V mild electric, highly complex infotainment (see: new 8th gen VW Golf is nearly stalled over issues with the infotainment), and safety - a HUGE factor - it's a big cost.
Once the car is developed, it has to be tested for safety, emissions (DOT, EU, China, etc.), etc.

And then there are marketing costs. See: 2020 Corvette.

 

Interesting that Car & Driver recently reviewed the new Versa and was impressed with the quality upgrades Nissan put into the car. I have no idea what this means for the Max but found it interesting that Nissan was upgrading this sedan.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...n-versa-drive/

 

I'm comparing my 2013 Acura TL to an Older 2008 Nissan Maxima with the first gen CVT which is horrible in gas compared to the Acura with a 6 speed automatic with pedal shifters. Acura has moved on to 9 speed automatics in the current replacement of my car which is a TLX. Also the reason her car takes off faster is cause its far lighter than my TL which is a much larger car.

 

It doesn't seem to make a ton of sense for Nissan to continue with the Maxima unless they are going to make it significantly different from the Altima. It continues to ride on the aged 2007 vintage platform and while the VQ is a great engine, it is also dated. I would guess that the Maxima, Z car, and Q70 over at Infiniti will be killed off.

 

Nissan sells quite a few Maximas so I'm not surprised they've kept it this long. Where I live, I see quite a few maximas when I'm driving. It may be outdated, but it's not stopping anyone from buying them

 

The Maxima is going nowhere! Now the Z, Q70, Qx80 are probably going to be fazed out.

 

Looking at Randy's comment (posted earlier), looks like Nissan has got the crosshairs mostly on compact cars. That offers a glimmer of hope. Still I think it's just as likely they will kill the Max and make the Murano the new "flagship ".

Veering a little off topic, I personally hope the Maxima gets reinvented as an all electric Tesla killer. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

 

And if it were 100K?

 

... and reasonably priced

I think the prices of electric will become approachable in the next few years, (ignoring the Prius which has always been a bit of an exception)

 

And elec Maxima would be in excess of
60K....Unless they cheapened it up A LOT!