A friend that used to work at my local Nissan dealership told me about what Nissan is planning on doing for the 2003 Maxima. He said they plan on putting in the 3.5L V6 that they now use in the 2001 Pathfinder... its supposed to put out about 260hp-280hp. Now if this is true, I think ill be trading in my car when the time comes.

 

Sounds neat, i think i might be needing to do a little trade as well..

where do u live? Those mountains look familiar

 

this link. http://www.freshalloy.com
click news, then model matrix....wahla!

 

It would only save Nissan moeny if they went ahead and just used a "corporate" V6. The same goes for GM, Ford, Honda, and such. The Pathfinder motor would be geared more for torque and the Maxima motor would be geared more for mid range torque and high rpm power. Since the Maxima is suppose to grow in size and mass, it's gonna need a lot more power to compete and stay above it's rivals. The cool thing about the Maxima is it's kinda in it's own market. It's priced slightly more than the Accord and Camry but it outperforms them easily. It's cheaper than a Acura CL and offers nearly the same performance. I think the new Max is gonna move into CL territory.

Dave

 

I live in Layton, Utah about 30 min north of Salt Lake City... just incase you arent familiar with the area

 

It's true, but the next gen Maxima is going to get bigger too. It will probably move into the Toyota Avalon class, so it will need more power to move the extra heft. The Altima will move up to the premium midsize class and get a V6 to compete with Accord and Camry.

So, if you think about it, the 5th gen Maxima will probably be the last "midsize" Maxima. The 6th gen might be just as sporty, but I'm not a particular fan of large sporty cars. I could never really imagine huge cars like the Chevy Impala SS to be "sporty."

 

I think the Maxima will have the 3.5 in the current body style for one year before moving up in size. It's all speculation at the moment anyways.

 

I wish Nissan would tighten up the chasis of the 4th generation, and put that 3.5L engine in that car--stiffen up the ride some more, and perhaps we can have a totally awesome piece of machinery. Oh yes, while they are at it, they can also increase and revamp their quality control so that the car would be entirely flawless without little annoying things like shakes and rattles here and there...
and yes, I would pay extra for the looks and piece of mind.

I wonder if that would happen...chances are it wouldn't and it is ashame they need to make that car so huge...

 

If Nissan wanted to do it right (they won't), they'd make the Max rear wheel drive like the original. God, that would be a sweet car. RWD, 270hp, 3200lbs, 5 speed, LSD, and see ya later......

Dave