Just recieved my Sport Compact Car today, and it has a comparison article on the '02 six speed Maxima and the '02 five speed Altima.
The Altima came out as a better pick, because it was FASTER!!!! The Five speed Altima was rated 0 - 60 @ 6.7 seconds, and the six speed Maxima was rated at 0 - 60 @ 6.9 seconds!!! I may be wrong, but as far as I know, all of the 0-60 times on the new Maxima has only been ESTIMATED, but no one has actually done a report on it, I was very suprised to see this, The quarter mile time on the Altima I think was 14.9 @ 95.5mph, and the Maxima was 15.0 @ 96mph, I may be a little off, but the 0-60 times are correct. I went to test drive the 6 speed at Mossy Nissan about 3 weeks ago, and I was impressed, but not that impressed, it really didn't feel a WHOLE lot faster than my current 5sp. Nissan is known for over-exagerating there numbers, but I thought that It would do a little better than that, anyway, the article is in the current magazine, and it's not up on the website yet.....

 

i thought the new 02 Maximas did low 14's in the quarter mile???

 

I noticed a significant differance between the 02 auto SE and my auto AE. It still depresses me to remember how much more powerful the 02 felt.

 

From my reading's of sport compact they always seem to dog nissans in general and especially the 4 door flagship!!!

I know, the altima is 4 door too ... but unless you have honda as a badge they don't really consider your car a contender. I was looking at last months article on the sports car challenge and saw the most nissans ever in one issue ... they were all "consumer" picks over the internet of what "we" wanted to see compete.

I would not pay too much attention to them. I would be willing to bet that they even shifted from 2-3 in the 0-60 run. I don't remember the gear ratios, but I am almost dead sure that you can still do that with the 6 speed. I know the 5 speed 1-2 shift will take you to 60. If they did shift 2-3 then that would account for a slower time.

But like I said, buy what you want and what you feel more comfortable with. If you think that on everyday driving (assuming their numbers are correct) that you can tell a differnce in 0.2 seconds then hey maybe you should look at the altima ... just redo the interior!

 

Man I can't drive worth a **** and I can muster better than a 6.9. Oh well, guess I might just give someone a nasty little suprise then.

 

6.9 sound a tad high to anyone else??


-Tom Z.

PS. I was always under the impression that the max was faster...

 

For me 5.96 stock
and 5.75 with just intake 0-60.


They probably did shift into 3rd for 0-60, 2nd goes up to 62MPH so you don't have to shift to 3rd. At best the Altima is as fast as a maxima, the best time still goes to the max @ 14.3, so until I see a altima beat that, the max is faster. Those guy's over at SCC need to learn how to drive! I can do 0-60 in hte snow quicker then them on pavement

You forgot to metion the dynoes #'s they did, the max had an extra 18FWHP and like 20 more FWTQ.