I keep in contact with my Nissan dealer religiously about upcoming news, trying to get early orders in on new products. I have been told that the next generation Max will have the V8 that the Q45 uses, probably pushing 340 to 350 horses.....Anyone else heard anything like this?

 

I don't know about that. Let's see why it's improbable. The 6th gen. Max is based on the FWD current Altima platform and the Q45 V8 is already a tight fit on the large RWD Q45. The 2003 G35 will have 260hp, so does that mean the G35 in just 1 year will be forced to have a big power gain just to stay ahgead of the Max?

The only way I see the Max getting a V8 is if the current plan of sharing the Altima platform is scrapped and the next gen. Max will be a decontented and more spartan version of the Q45. That would be nice, allowing the Altima to stretch it's marketing span upmarket (with a GLE trim) while maintaining its budget 4-cyl. family sedan and sporty SE 6-cyl. footing. A nice but maybe not realistic lineup would be:

Economy: Sentra
Family/budget FWD sports sedan: Altima
3-series-killer RWD sedan: G35
Lex ES300 challenger: I35
VW W-8 challenger: a decontented Q45 named as a Maxima
Flagship luxury: Q45 (renamed Q50 for a 5.0L V8 with 360 hp at rpms below the 6400rpm limit currently and lots of torque)

 

For the love of the VQ... Look in these threads.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....threadid=88844
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....threadid=88628

Those are just the two most recent. I wish everyone would quit making stuff up though. Here is the official word from Nissan on the next car. http://www.nissannews.com/corporate/...927110025.html


No official word on the engine. I have an well informed source. He says he is getting trained on a new Nissan engine. He can't divulge the details. I'd suspect a V-8, but not the Q45's V-8 for the powerplant.

Stereodude

 

It will not be RWD, it will not have a Q45 detuned V8. It will be a bigger body, higher price, some more luxury features, based on the Altima platform, existing 3.5 VQ will get a bit of a push, another 20-30HP. Probably making the 2K2, the fastest Maxima ever. Dont ask me how I know this

 

I feel bad that you didn't include my post from the beginning of October http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....ighlight=340HP. This should be put up at the top of the list for newbies.

 

<<It will have 280HP. It will be front wheel drive. It will use the 3.5 liter V6...well, some version of it at least. It will be bigger and better and all of that stuff..... >> Soloblazer

That is exactly right. It will be a lot heavier, have an extra 25HP and now will start at $30K.

 

Now I absolutely hate to quote magazines, but I just got done reading some interesting informationin the February 2002 issue of Motortrend. They say that Nissan engineers can tune the VQ35 differently to provide distinct characteristics for each Nissan and Infiniti model, with a horsepower range of 240-290. They figure that the 290 horsepower model might be in the upcoming Skyline-based Infiniti G35 coupe.

We already know they can tune the motor differently.