Hey everyone. Ive been a long time lurker on here. Y'all have helped me out a lot in the past and maybe I can get everyones opinions on this subject. Ive been in my 04 SL for 6 yrs now and it has been the best car i have ever owned. Its time for me to make the change to a new car and of course its going to be another maxima. I will be getting a 13-14 model. more than likely 14 in pearl white with black leather for sure. What i want to know is what are the major differences between the Sport package and Premium package? I LOVE the look of the sport! But idk if i would be missing small minor features that a premium would have, like mood lighting or something. Thanks ahead of time!

 

The differences between the Sport and Premium on the outside are few. The Sport has 19" wheels instead of 18" and the Sports has a trunk spoiler and stiffer suspension. The Premium comes with a duel panel roof.

Most of the differences are on the inside where you opt for different packages for each model. You can view the contents of each what each package offers by going to the Nissan Home page and doing a little search.

Good luck on your purchase

 

You can, however, add the rear spoiler as an option on the Premium. Also, the sport model wheels have the dark finish which many like and some don't like. The Premium wheels are silver finish. And, no overhead sunglasses storage in the Premium, but it does have a rear window power shade (which I never use!). I guess it just depends on what you like... Both models are great cars, but the premium was an easy choice for me.

 

The sport model doesnt have a folding rear seat to give access to the trunk area. I guess it makes for a more sound design

 

The non filing rear seat is for a stronger rear shock structure . Kind of like having a rear strut tower brace installed . For better cornering .

 

It's not a sports car.
Regular drivers will never notice the difference in handling between a sport and premium.
Drive both to decide.

Easy decision for me

Folding rear seats are a must for me.
I've used the fold down option numerous times to save having to return to pick something up with another vehicle.

 

I made a list of differences between Sport/Premium, then decided which unique features I liked the most. For me, I really liked the darker sport wheels on the Pearl White with black leather, and when I asked the salesman how much it would be to add sport wheels to a premium and he said "many thousands of dollars" that sealed the deal for me in favor of the sport.

Either way, you cannot go wrong with either.

 

If you plan on going with white, the black panel roof will look great with it. Rims you can get later if you want...either OEM from a private seller, or after market with an offset to sit flush with the fenders.

 

Neither does the SV Premium...unless they made significant changes from the 2012 model I own.

 

I opted for a Sport model instead of the Premium model.
Nissan messed around with what those packages mean, so you have to look carefully.
for the 2013 year, the premium came with smaller wheels, fake wood, a panoramic sunroof, a folding rear seat, and a softer suspension. The sport came with a sportier suspension, a regular sunroof, larger and darker wheels, no folding seats (stiffer structure), and plastic accents (instead of plastic wood).
Looking back, I probably should have opted for the premium - my sports car is now a 2001 Corvette convertible. I'd prefer a slightly softer ride and the ability to drop the rear seats (though, admittedly, I haven't needed to do that once yet). I've heard that the panoramic sunroof can make things hot on a sunny day, but can't confirm it.
Basically, drive both, check the equipment, and get the one you like better.
You can't really go wrong as both can be optioned pretty much the same.

 

The SV premium adds cooled seats (Driver/passenger) and a privacy screen for the rear window.

 

I thought the cooled seat was driver only on any. I have sport tech SV and I have a cooled seat.

 

Lots of good replies in here. Theres things i like about each, but not much difference. I like the panoramic roof on the premium, but i don't like the trim (wood grain). Don't care much for the rear shade as ill have dark windows in the back anyways. But the split rear seat is a plus. On the sport i love the look of it. I like the trim a lot better. paddle shifters don't make a difference to me as its my family car. i don't plan on racing lol. the missing split seat is a minus. Its a shame neither one of these models don't come with cooled seats on passenger side. they can do it on an infiniti m series but not top of the line nissan sedan? makes no sense. i read on the nissan site that the premium comes with ambient mood lighting, including cupholders. Does the sport come with that as well?

 

I have dark tint & I still use the rear shade.

 

Neither premium or sport have fold down seats fyi. Also, the mood lighting in premium is just to tiny lights for the switches on the door. They both have the little light on the overhead console. That I hope is not a reason to pick one over the other. I choose the sport because I don't care for the wood grain and pano roof. Also, I think the 19" and the painted wheels were a nice touch. Nissan actually set the trend there as I see more and more cars on road or in auto magazines with them now. Good luck and you can't go wrong by test driving them. If you go to a good dealer I would think they would give you one each for a day.

 

Nailed it. Both the Sport and Premium have reinforced rear body structure that prevents folding seats. Just a small passthrough for slender things like skis (I have used that little passthrough for 2X4 lumber, long strips of trim molding, copper gutter sections, etc, etc many times). And BIGIRISHSTL is also correct regarding the mood lighting.

I have three granddaughters riding in back, so wanted the panoramic roof and the rear sunshade. I use both all the time. Both Sport and Premium ride perfectly well, but the Premium does ride just a tad softer, which helps on long interstate trips. That matters for an ancient octogenarian like me, with lots of organs that don't work as well as they did back in the 1930s and 1940s. I don't skip many rest stops.

 

Whoops, good point only the driver gets a cooled seat. But I also have a Sport/Tech SV without a cooled seat. Nissan really could do better with these packages.

 

My 2014 sport has folding rear seats.

 

It's not a sport then. You might have the Premium with the sport package options like spoiler, gear paddle shifters etc.
From what I know the sport model has just the middle access door to the trunk.

 

For myself I liked the options of the Premium. Rims I didnt care about, since I planned on after market rims anyway (factories I use for winter). Not having a fold down back seat is kinda crappy. I do like the panoramic roof. Plus the black roof looks great on the white, with gloss black after market rims! Wood grain trim inside looks pretty good... its not over done. Paddle shifters.. only have played with them a couple times. Factory rear spoiler I plan on adding this coming summer.

 

Just to clarify, neither the Premium model nor the Sport model have fold down rear seats. Instead, they both have a small rear seat pass-through to the trunk.

 

That's correct....the metal plate is there to help reinforce that area on the sport and premium models.

 

I specifically wanted the sport and not premium. While I don't know if it happens with these cars, but everyone i know that has a car with a pano roof gets creaks and noise from it, and a lot of people have had problems with them. I think I read somewhere that most manufacturers get these pano roofs from the same manufacturers? I also wanted the smoked lights and 19s. I don't like the way pano roofs look, and I also don't like wood grain real or fake. So for me the sport was the move,

 

^^ + 1

I knew I was going to mod mine some but I was not going to paint or overlay the wood trim and I don't need after market wheels since these 19"s look great. I am also not a fan of pano. It's not even cool or looks good IMO as I like a car to have a body color on the roof, not tinted glass.

 

The only reason I bought a silver car was because of the black pano roof. I think the contrast with this combo looks great. I originally was going to go with white, but when I saw it in person, I was sold.

My son put vinyl on the roof of his white Maxima. He liked the way the black roof looked on my car. It came out very nice on his.

That reminds me...We actually changed out the starter in his car yesterday, & afterwards, I drove his car around...02 SE...car felt nice & smooth still, even with 218K miles. Faster on take off than my 7th gen. Felt more solid too with less vibrations through the steering wheel. Reminded me just how much I really enjoyed that car.

 

so i went with a gunmetal colored 14 maxima sport. but what I'm finding disappointing is that for the price of the 14 maxima that remote start is not a feature. from what I've gathered you have to install aftermarket. can anyone elaborate on this?

 

There is a thread on this, use the search in the forum :-)

 

ok thanks.
what about installing a factory em nisssan gps system. is it possible? mine is just the 7" screen package but no gps (tech package). is it possible to install one?

 

To be honest, im sure it is possible, but its going to cost you more than what youre willing to pay. To date, and mods correct me if im wrong, there have been a few attempts at this from other members, but none have been successful. Your best bet would have been to buy one with it already installed.

When i sat down and wanted to do this to my 2010 odyssey exl, and trust me i went through every wire and connection, just the equipment alone was over a grand. Then the time and deinstallation on top of that. As always, we wish you the best of luck, and do plenty of research here and learn where the rest of us have done and what we have tried.

 

I have factory nav. Never use it. If you're a smartphone user, finding a good navigation app is far better than the built in nav. Personally, I use an app called Waze, have a cd slot mount that holds the phone perfectly in view, and stream the voice guidance through Bluetooth. And that's WAY quicker to set up and use each trip than trying to type in a location on the factory nav.

For my purposes, the factory nav is nothing more than a big colorful backup camera screen. Lol.

 

I have a unique perspective to share as I have a new Sport, which is at the dealer for the #1 bearing issue. I was given a 2014 SV Premium with Tech, w 7,000 miles on it, as a rental. It was very weird driving into dealer with my car and leaving in my car's close twin, as they are both white with black interiors. Here are my observations after a few days with Premium model:

Steering- The Premium requires a lot more effort to turn the wheel than the Sport (with stock 19's and winter 17's). Whereas the Sport almost steers like a rear-wheel drive car with minimal steering effort required, there is no mistaking the Premium as anything but a front wheel drive car. This struck me as strange since I did not think much was different between the two suspension wise.

Pano Roof vs Regular Moonroof- I love the look of the Pano roof and black on white color scheme, but the cloth covering the roof is cheap looking. Also, with the shades retracted they rattle over every little bump on my route. This would drive me nuts.

Seats/Stiching- The seats (and steering wheel) seem to be the same/similar, but the Premium has orangish/red stitching whereas the Sport has white stitching. I prefer the red stitching as it contrasts nicely with the black leather.

Rear Sunscreen- My kids would love to watch this go up and down. It is weird that Nissan won't offer it as stand alone option. I'd pay whatever ridiculous price they wanted for it. It helps keep the glare out of car at night.

Ambient Lighting- The Premium has extra ambient orange lights behind the door pulls on the front (not sure about back). It is a nice feature but barely noticeable unless you put your hand directly beneath it.

Tires- The stock 18's seem to handle much better in the snow than the 19's did. I probably would not need snow tires if I had the stock 18's on my car.

Sunglass Holder?- The lack of a sunglass holder on the Premium is a great inconvenience to me.

Overall, I do not think you can go wrong with either!