Does anybody know why they took the lock off the 6th gen's trunk?

 

think about it.. only the persons with the remote or key can access the trunk... thieves have to break the window or so to get to it..

theft issue maybe........

 

Before the first one rolled out... Does the 5.5 have one?

 

Design feature, there's no good looking place for a keyhole so they shined it!!!

 

yes it does.. this is my old 5.5 gen...

 

Lots of good reasons.

Theft issue (mentioned above).
Styling issue (mentioned above).
Redundancy issue. If headed to the trunk from inside the car, there is a simple lever on the inside of the driver's door that opens the trunk. If headed to the trunk from elsewhere, it is easier to just push a button on the fob than to fumble around inserting the key into the keyhole and turning it.

For those who ask why it is a styling issue on the 6th gen and not the 5th: Both gens have 'MAXIMA' on the left side of the trunk, and that balances nicely with either '3.5 SE' or 3.5 SL' on the right side of the 6th gen. It does not, however, balance with the simple 'SE' of the 5th gen, and balances poorly with 'GXE' or 'GLE'. Nissan placed the keyhole on the 5th gen on the right side of the trunk, and inline with the 'SE/GXE/GLE' symbol, adding visual 'weight' on the right to help balance the view from the rear.

 

Except for those times when the car is already running and you need to get something from the trunk...

Or if you get out to get something and forget to hit the little lever... now you're BACK to the front to open the trunk. Or if you happen to open it and it slips closed again... the walk of shame to the front to open the trunk again.

Seriously though... as far as a theft issue, it's just the same as a door. If anybody wants what you have in your car, they'll pop a lock just like they'll pop a trunk, or they'll bust a window. Nowadays a thief knows that it's not 1982... breaching a portal WILL sound the alarm, so the days of popping trunks for the goodies without fear of infernal noise are long gone.

I think Nissan did it entirely out of styling... and it's one less place for us to put a backup camera and one more possible hassle for those of us used to opening the trunk that way when we have to. And don't even get me started with the fact that the trunk lid doesn't "swing"... it just sits there and mocks you, so you HAVE to use your hands to open it even if they're full.

Yeah, I'm a little bitter.

 

Theres even a button in the glove box to keep it locked.

 

I've had my 04 for a year now, and had never noticed it didn't have one. That shows how important it is and why it's not there anymore.

 

And its one less thing for me to black out!!

 

thats funny deus but i believe theres only one keyhole on the whole car

 

Keyholes are so.............nineties

 

viguera - One can still open the trunk when the car is running.

In fact, if the car is running, the key will be in the ignition and not available to use in a keyhole on the trunk. If the car is running, the driver's door lever or the trunk-open switch on the fob would be the only practical way to open the trunk.

As for 'forgetting to hit the lever', I have never done that. But even if I did, it is only a couple steps from the trunk to the driver's door.

As for the trunklid falling shut, I find I have to pull the lid downward to get it started, else it will sit open as long as the car sits there, even with a stiff wind blowing.

As for the 'walk of shame', I can't imagine giving a hoot as to what anyone on this earth might think if I accidentally closed the lid before I was finished in the trunk, did not have the fob with me, and had to step to the driver's door and repress the lever. I would have said that was because of my advanced age, except I don't remember a time in my life when such 'imagery' made any difference to me.

I found it very easy to put fifty-five years of having a keyhole on the trunk behind me, and am glad the 6th gen does not have one.

I agree with you that it would be nice to have a trunklid that went all the way up when unlocked. I remember installing a stronger trunk spring in my '78 Datsun 200SX so the automatic lid-raising system could handle the new spoiler I had added.

But the situation with the 6th gen is a tradeoff. With the old style lid hardware that intruded well into the trunk (crushing whatever was there), adding springs to automatically raise the lid was not difficult.

With the new 6th gen lid hardware that does not intrude into the trunk, leverage for an 'auto raiser' becomes more difficult. As for me, I will take the non-intrusive feature over the auto-raise feature. Someday (7th gen?), we will have both.

 

I've done this "walk of shame" minus the shame b/c i could really care less. I figure they're so enthralled at my Maxima I have room to walk back and forth all day. I've hit the trunk instead of the gas out of habit opening the trunk everyday.

keys scratch around keyholes. plus, if my hands are full, it is so much easier to hit a button than unlock a hole. I was very pleased at no hole. have you seen the older Nissans with the logo hanging off to the side exposing the hole? not good.

 

agreed! That's not good.

 

My 96 taurus was great because when you pressed the trunk button...BOOM trunk swings wide open...i remember a guy at a tire place thinking that was very trick lol. But that car didnt have the plate and all that other heavy stuff on it...i suppose the current tauri dont do that because the plate is back up top, as they are on most cars.

 

never used it on my 5th gen either.

 

I guess I'm just used to it from my other car... but it's not the keyhole I miss, it's the fact that it doubles as a button and when the car is unlocked you can press it and up swings the lid.

I have never used a key to open the trunk -- and the last 3-4 cars I've owned have had power locks so I don't miss using a key at all, so for the key in the ignition being unavailable I couldn't care less... I'm just used to just walking up to the trunk and either pressing the key fob and having the lid open unassisted (so I can just drop stuff in) or needing just one finger to push the keyhole/button in and having the lid open. With the Max now you have to have a free hand to swing the lid up, and if you're outside the car then you're walking up to the front no matter what.

Matter of preference I guess... It's my laziness plus what I'm used to that makes me think this could have been done better. You can have your opinion too.

 

That's what I'm talking about right there... the lid swings and you can catapult little kids and small animals from it

 

Viguera, That's what I want. Hmmm wonder if Jesse James has some left over monster garage parts. Also usefull if anyone touches my max, hit button and the hand is no longer touching it (that is why I don't like the Nissan commercial, ppl think its ok to touch, well I can do without the scratching potential).

 

?

Yeah, but it doesn't help you if your hands are full and the release doesn't swing the door. I don't care for keyholes, but it's easier to open the trunk from the outside by pushing it than walking to the front of the car. Again, maybe you're just not as lazy as I am...

But like I said, it's a matter of opinions...

 

I just bought an 05, and I love it, but my keyfob isn't like the one they show in the manual. It is short and round and does not have a trunk button on it. Just lock, unlock, aux and panic. Is there no other way to open it than having to open the door for the latch?

 

Have you tried holding the aux button ?

 

I'd like to know. After owning a 97 I splurged for a 2004 SL and am loving except the trunk does not always open with the fob or the door switch. I know about the switch in the glove box. Sometimes trunk will open most times it does not. HEre's the thing if the trunk is open then the key fob and the door switch will operate EVERY time. Any ideas it's driving me nuts having to go in through the back seat.

 

It is a great feature to have the Truck Lid opened by Key Fob or Button.

I can see the benefit in not having a Key Hole but if the only way in is via the Back Seat to pull the Tab, can be troublesome for our older Generation Drivers or anyone with disabilities.

Another thing to keep in mind if if the Battery should ever happen to go dead or too low in voltage to activate the Trunk Lid actuator, the only way to the truck to get a Booster Battery if one has one there or Booster Cables is again thru the Rear Drop down Seat.

So I can see Pro and Cons in not having a Trunk Key Hole.

 

Does anybody know why they took the lock off the 6th gen's trunk?
First thing is that this question is dumb. They never took the lock off the 6th gen's trunk, they just never installed one to begin with.
Second thing, this thread is extremely old and pointless, why revive it, just start a new one that is more relevant to your question.
Last but not least, if the trunk works with it open every single time, but not every time while it is closed, then it is probably getting stuck, get some wd 40 and spray the latch, cycle it a couple times and you should be good to go. Moving parts need lubrication most of the time to keep working smoothly.

 

When the battery is completely dead, you can't get into the trunk. You only have the little bypass in the backseat. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my jump box through the little hole. See where the problem lies? I was able to get my jumper cables out of the hole, but I had to wave someone down on the highway to jump my car.

How did everyone miss this huge flaw in the design?

 

Cheap. It was done in order to reduce cost.

 

Let me tell you a story about my 07...I had a bad battery, one that swelled up, corroded the negative terminal post. So there I am cutting away the old post connector pulling out the battery, sticky gritty mess that it was, set it in a safe place so it wouldn't explode or leak on the concrete...only to discover that the new on with new post connector is in the trunk and I had not opened it before I disconnected the old battery. Now with no post on it...oh, it get's better, sub box was screwed down into the floor of the trunk, so dropping the seat and getting around that took a long piece of aluminum and 30 minutes of contortion to get to the safety latch. I learned a lesson that day...

 

That's what I was worried about. What if my wife needs a jump and the cables are in the trunk? Is she supposed to go through the rear seats?