What do you guys think the Maxima powerplant would be like today of the VQ would have been introduced in the 1989 Maxima? Do you think it woul dbe the VQ40 by now etc?

 

maybe not. japanese car makers are trying to make the car more efficient rather than make the car just for power, to try to make more hp in the same volume and to try to make better gas mileage.
VQ35 already put more than 250 hp. what about vq40? that'll probably exceed the 277 hp agreement. at least maybe not in a V6 and not in a maxima and not sold in Japan.

 

I have never heard of a Jap V6 car (not truck) that is or above 3.8 liters. If Japan has a rule against it (pollution) then fine. But this is North America. I wish the VQ was offered with big displacement..imagine the power we could get with 4 liters We'd be beasts

 

then 3rd Gen's would have been EVEN BETTER

..4th Gen's would have had the Gen1 failure-prone VTC's and would have been the definitive "Minima" and the worst Maxima's ever

..5th Gen's would have had the VQ35 to being with and the stop-gap DE-K engine would never have existed.

..and the current Pathfinder never would have had that 3.3L

 

Not to be blasphemous, but I don't think the VQ is that great. What are we talking about, HP/$?

Maxima was red-hot as a 3rd gen, the 4th gen was odd-styling at the time but good enough to be a 10 best in 95. But it seemed that after mid '96 the Maxima started to fall in stature. More HP/$ could not get the car to sell, and the poor sales never looked back. Think about it, in 2k2 you can get 255 hp at the same price as 190 hp back in 95-96, yet the car sold better back then. Not everyone is fixated on HP. Some people care about oh no, the dirty word, LOOKS. And then there's residual value, handling, prestige (yikes what's that), cost of ownership, service after the sale.

 

I remember reading an article where it stated that a reason why engine displacements are increasing is to make more hp to overcome the additional emission controls. It's also important to note that larger pistons have a larger surface area which decreases the efficency of the combustion. This produces more emmissions because of unburt fuel.

 

forget that. what if.....

it had stayed RW

 

There's a reason the VQ has been on wards 10 best engines list since introduction. It's a fantastic engine. It's not all about hp frank. First off, as far as hp goes the VQ is ALWAYS class leading in it's vehicles. Secondly, the engine is silky smooth and quiet. Without any intake this is a very quiet engine and buttery smooth. Also take into account that the engine can very realistically go 200,000 miles with no major problems. Add to that a low price and you have a winner. I believe last year ward called the vq "conan the barbarian: slaying all competition".

 

Well the competition has obviusly changed quite a bit since ohh say 1995.. 255 HP today is equal to about 190 back in the mid 90's. Cars like the Acura CL-S have had simaler boosts in power compared to there oldler models(acura legend) and still only sell the same in volume (or close to it). Also the maxima has been the best selling V6 sedan for like 10 years now, I think that is pretty good And finaly the "maxima" name still has a great deal off prestige to it IMO. I don't know why you see it fit to say other wise, ohh ya, I almost forgot you love to knock on maximas.

 

GS430, LS430, Q45...

 

v-6, winner, v-6.

 

i can't think of ANY v6 - japanese, domestic, or european thats over 3.8 liters.

 

Ford Exploders come with 4 liter V6's.

 

1)Ford Explorer Sport - 4.0L V6
2)Chevy Xtreme - 4.3L V6
3)Chevy Trailblazer - 4.3L I6


Just a few off the top of my head.

 

for a second there i thought your comment was We'd be Breasts..

i'm like what?

if you want displacement. buy a ford.

 

Perhaps if you delved into the engineering side of things you would think differently. Head design, valvetrain, reciprocating geometries, deck and block design, torque curves, smoothness just to name a few. But to each his own.

No. HP is only a tiny part of the 'Maxima' equation. See above for a few examples.

 

The Trailblazer is a 4.2 Liter I-6. And if this thread gets to include Inline 6's then we can include Nissans 4.8 Liter Inline 6 that can be found in Austrailia.

Lets not forget the 3800 from GM that the GTP and Grand National guys love so much. And the 3.9 Liter Dodge Dakota engine.
If we deviate from it having to be a 'V' 6 from Japan we could go on all day naming engines.

 

Delve into the engineering? I drive the car every day, you think I would think differently if I looked at a print of the motor? What color is your parachute?

You remember in college when you had people from the nearby school trying to fit in to your school's crowd which was clearly better, how they complained that you wouldn't let them into your clique and that school was what you made of it? They couldn't understand why their offer letters were for less $ either. This VQ business reminds me of that. Pat yourself on the back, it's the easiest thing to do.

 

Yeah so what. I look at things a bit differently than you. These are all icing on the cake that I already like. If those kinds of examples don't suit you then fine. You made it sound like the thing is over rated so I tried to explain why it deserves ALL of the credit that it gets.
And there are no cliques involved here. Everyone has the right to go out and buy their own VQ. And the truth is that us VQ drivers are the minority. Most people just do the sheep thing and conform to everyone elses ideas about what to buy. Thos people buy Camrys and Accords and have no idea that there may be something else that would acutally suit them better. It's the same thing with ignorant people who 'assume' that Dell makes the best computers. Most people buy on perception alone and thats pretty sad.

 

They would not have put that great motor in just yet. It would have been way too powerful compared to competition at the time.

Nissan was always building great motors. Little known fact:

The 1992 Maxima SE with the VE 190 hp motor was, for a short time, the fastest 4 door sedan in the world. Over the long term the VE did suffer from ticking VTCs, but that fastest sedan claim is a hell of a feat.

Also, Nissan built the variable intake manifold for the 1995-1999 VQ maximas in 1998. Nissan did not ship it to USA maximas. Why?? Cash cow. The VQ, as plain as it was, with no variable timing, fixed intake manifold, just plain rocked the competition. Why spend extra money on a motor that is still tops? They were saving all the new goodies for the all new 2000 Maxima. They were always ahead of the game. No need to work themselves.

Now, we have the 3.5 VQ, it debuted in the Pathfinder, but no one noticed, mostly because SUV 4x4 mode does not bring out the performance capability of a motor. The VQ3.5 get 255 hp in the Maxima, slightly bumped to 260 hp in the G35 series, and then boom, 287 HP in the King 350Z.

All part of the master plan. Nissan knows how to market their motors

OK kids, final exam on nissan motors next week.Class dismissed

DW

 

I fail to see how the '92 Maxima was faster than the BMW M5 of the same year?? Explain please (not being rude..honest question)

 

The M5 at the time was 315 HP, I think, and heavy with all it's RWD hi cornering duds, at nearly 3800 lbs. 0-60 wasn't fantastic, but on the autobahn, watch out That was the '92 M5, I think in '93 BMW fixed that by bumping the 3.5 liter to 3.8.

This page has some old M5 stats;

http://home.swipnet.se/~w-15465/m5.htm

DW

 

sorry, i was thinking cars...