The 8th generation Maxima will not be out until spring 2015 as the 2016 Maxima, and we can be absolutely sure Nissan would not present a concept car over a year before the release of the 8th gen Maxima that closely resembled the 8th gen Maxima.

Having said that, I would expect that some features of this concept car might resemble some features of the 8th gen Maxima. I will be very interested in seeing this concept car in full light of day. It looks exciting.

Of course I will be even more interested in seeing the 2016 Maxima, as I always buy the first model year of every Maxima generation. Yes, the first model year of each generation is supposely risky, but I have always had extremely reliable first model year Maximas.

 

I haven't been around lately and thought I'd jump in here to see if there were any updates on the 8th gen, so thanks for the heads up. My lease ends May 2015, so hopefully the darn thing is finally out there before I need to decide on what to do with what I have now.

 

I think the new Maxima will talk a lot of the styling points of the Q50 and throw in the typical nissan bar grill.

 

The Q50 has taken a a lot a whole lot from the current Maximas styling, look at the hood and rear fender flares, to be honest the Max has much more road presence than the Q50. I have seen several Q50's, even though it took a lot of the 7 gens attributes it does not have the "road presence" of the 7th gen and thats in the several colors I have seen it in in person Front end looks menacing but it quickly goes to WTF after that, rear light design is very boring!

 

I think a lot of the new Gen vehicles from Nissan (and others) have taken styling cues from the 7th Gen Maxima. Nissan was way ahead of the curve on this, dare I say BMW-esque!

WRT the q50 ... I saw an all black one the other day. Definitely did a double-take. It looked pretty damn good. From the front and side anyway. The thing I like about the q50 over the 7th gen Max is that there are not a lot of them on the road (yet). Of course that's to be expected with Nissans longest (production) running Max, but still I'm starting to get annoyed with how many Max's I'm seeing lately.

 

Maxima gonna be the new altima if they keep lowering the prices at my dealerships. Lol.

 

Whatever and however the 8th gen looks I just hope that it doesn't look like the many copycats currently on the road with the lights and grilles that I see. Give me speed, style, imagination, and of course some good technology. I sometimes can't tell the difference between a BMW and a Kia because there is so much frickin borrowing that goes on. It's like they all strive to be different but have to hold on to design cues of other cars. I hope that the Max is once again ahead of the curve in its class. I test drove a 2013 BMW 3 series before getting my Max and I wasn't impressed with anything except the exit out of the vehicle. The Maxima has my heart. Say what you want about it being a souped up Altima or a watered down Q50. It's just so sexy and when I do get another Max (I definitely will get one) I highly doubt I will trade my 7th gen in. I really really love this car and it's the sexiest thing to me. Now if Nissan decides to push back the Max to 2018 or something then I'm SERIOUSLY considering a Tesla Model S. ;-)

 

Infiniti is starting to do the low lease rates on it, so be prepared to see a bunch more Q50's soon. Here in the DFW area I see lots of 7th gens, with a nice portion being rentals (just look for that bar code sticker on the lower part of side back window). The Max has always been with a couple rental agencies as a Premium rental in small numbers but the 7th gen seems to be there in larger numbers, that's not necessarily a bad thing as it helps with the bottom line for Nissan.