With the 2004 upscale redesign, does the Maxima make sense again?
Written: Jul 28 '03 (Updated Oct 17 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Powertrain, distinctive styling, room
Cons: Flappable chassis, artificial steering feel, unsporting seats, controls
The Bottom Line: Great powertrain, good room, and distinctive styling. The chassis needs work, though.
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| mkaresh's Full Review: 2004 Nissan Maxima |
Although I had found the Maxima great fun in previous years, a test drive of the 2003 (my review can be found here) found it terribly dated. The suspension in particular lacked the composure that has come to define even moderately-priced sport sedans. It did not help that the Nissan Altima received striking sheetmetal, a larger body, and a powerful V6 in 2002. It thoroughly upstaged the aging Maxima.
For 2004 the Maxima regains its rightful place atop the Nissan line with a thorough redesign based on the same platform as the Altima (and the Murano crossover and Quest minivan, for that matter). I had numerous issues with the Altima: torque steer, flabby seats, cheap interior... Does the Maxima correct enough of the old car’s and Altima’s shortcomings to be worth a look from the driving enthusiast?
As in years past Maximas come in two distinct flavors, a luxury model (now tagged “SL”) and a performance-oriented “SE.” The latter is chiefly distinguished by a firmer suspension, wider tires (245/45VR18s!), standard six-speed manual, and optional five-speed manumatic (the SL gets by with a conventional four-speed automatic). Of course I drove the SE.
I did not, however, drive one with a manual transmission. Despite Nissan’s prominent placement of the stick in the brochure photos, the salesman told me his dealership will not be stocking any manuals; they must be special ordered. At least a manual is available. GM, Ford, Honda, and Toyota do not offer any sub-$30,000 sedans with a six-cylinder engine and manual transmission—meaning I will not be shopping at their dealers for my next car. Like VW, Nissan offers two such cars, the Altima and Maxima. Three if you count the Infiniti G35. So even if this particular dealer won’t be stocking manual Maximas, I’ve got to give Nissan credit for offering the retrograde enthusiasts who aren’t buying the whole manumatic thing more choices than anyone else.
(For the record, cars fitting the above spec are offered by BMW, Dodge, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lexus, Nissan, VW, and Hyundai. Yes, Hyundai.)
Epinions has recently begun providing cars with multiple listings that are not mutually exclusive. After much discussion with the category Leads and Advisors, I have decided to make the best of a messy situation by posting reviews of varying detail under the duplicate listings. This is my relatively detailed Maxima review. (There are about 2400 words in this review, 1400 in the other.) For my more concise review, click here.
Styling
In my review of the 2001 I summarized the history of the Maxima, one of the few true icons among Japanese cars. If you’re interested, that review can be found here.
The new car’s exterior styling resembles the Altima’s but manages to look both more upscale and more sporty. Credit a more aggressively arched roofline and less stubby rear end. The roofline and the severe downward slashes that define the rear edge of the rear door and leading edge of the taillamps recall the controversially styled Saturn ION, but the outcome is more attractive here. The ION’s lines are too vertical. Also, it’s proportions are far worse, with much more front overhang and a shorter wheelbase. The Altima remains the more attractive car, but the Maxima takes more chances and is more striking. At least the 2003’s clear-lens taillamps are gone.
The new Maxima introduces Nissan's new signature front end: twin trapezoidal grille openings filled with chrome cubes (last seen on various 1950s American designs) flanking a wide vertical chrome band with the Nissan emblem on it. Weird—the influence of Nissan’s French management?--yet it works on both the new Maxima and thoroughly redesigned Quest minivan. The mildly restyled 2004 Sentra receives a similar grille, and it fares much less well. The front headlamps resemble the vertical units on the Cadillac CTS.
Overall, a striking design that takes many chances and succeeds with most of these. The previous Maxima was parked next to the car I drove, and it looked bland, awkward, and boring in comparison.
Inside at least as many styling risks have been taken, yet the overall effect works. It helps that unlike in the Altima a cohesive theme is maintained despite the inclusion of dozens of somewhat risqué details. Notably, no attempt is made to include retro touches. Metallic trim abounds, most notably on the crisply styled center stack and door armrests. The ultra-modern appearance of the center stack recalls high-end audio equipment. The ultrasuede that adorns the door panels continues in a thin strip at the base of the windshield. Weird, but it somehow works. Like many other recent Nissan and Infiniti products, the instrument cluster is styled to resemble one out of a sport bike. It works better here than in most other implementations. All in all, a distinctive, ultra-modern interior that feels both sporty and upscale. The interiors of the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, and VW Passat are quite boring and much less sporty in comparison.
As in many other recent Nissans and Infinitis, the instrument graphics are orange numbers on black faces. I imagine this is supposed to look sporty, but it looks cheap to me. Maybe because the stripper Nissan pickup I drove for a delivery job back in high school had similar instrument graphics? An interesting font like that used on the original Q45 might help.
The major interior weakness continues to be the quality of the plastics. Though like the plastics in the 2003 Maxima they’re better than those in the Altima, and perhaps equal those in the Infiniti G35, they are distinctly inferior to the plastics in many Japanese competitors and any European competitor.
The control layout needs more work. The HVAC and sound system are controlled using an array of flush-mounted smallish rectangular buttons. Very 1980s somehow. Worse, which button to push to do what is far from intuitive, and even in Maximas without the optional navigation system all readouts are conveyed by a flat panel display. I found it far too difficult to make simple adjustments, both because the controls and the graphics on this display were too small, too clumped together, and too complicated. I drove the car at dusk, and as the sun went down things got even worse. Turn on the lights when there is still some light outside, and it’s very hard to read the display. Turn them on in the daytime—perhaps during a rainstorm—and reading the display likely becomes impossible. More and more cars are taking this route, and I for one hate it.
Accommodations
Compared to the Altima, the new Maxima has an inch longer wheelbase and two inches more overall length. The additional exterior size does not translate into a roomier interior. Both cars are about equally roomy on paper, but because of its sportier interior styling the Maxima feels a bit tighter inside. This isn’t a bad thing. The Altima and its direct competitors feel too large around the shoulders to be sporting. The Maxima feels about right in this dimension. In terms of legroom, there is an adequate amount front and rear for adults.
As in past Maxima’s I like the driving position very much. The dash is low relative to the driver, affording excellent visibility over the hood. Unfortunately, the seats feel much like the Altima’s. In regular driving they afford adequate comfort. Start tossing the car about, though, and the inadequacy of the side bolsters becomes apparent. They look large enough, but are spaced far too widely to lend support to my moderately slender frame (a 250-pound man might find this less of an issue). I found myself leaning a few inches this way and then that way to make contact with them. Once contact is made, the bolsters are thankfully a bit firmer than those in the Altima—which I tended to push right through—but they could be firmer still.
The lack of a driver-oriented door armrest doesn’t help. Both the door armrest and the center armrest (when raised—it’s height-adjustable) seem a good height for planting an elbow or two, but when I started to truly flog the car I felt in need of better support. This being an automatic, I found myself grasping the armrest’s grab handle. It’s mounted too far to the rear to serve this function well. Door armrests with forward-mounted grad handles like those in the G35 would do much better. They might not look as stylish, but I’d gladly trade style for function here. Expect passengers to make extensive use of the overhead handles if the driver gets frisky, as there is nowhere else convenient to hold on. Of course, if they transplanted the better-bolstered buckets from the G35 the location of the door grab handles would not matter.
The Maxima comes standard with a “Skyview” sunroof the runs lengthwise down the center of the roof. Though one piece of glass, the headliner divides it in two. I sat in a car so equipped, and it feels weird, as the glass is not directly over your head. It also does not open (though retractable shades are included). I prefer the optional ($900) conventional moonroof fitted to the car I tested.
The rear seat is mounted a bit low for top-notch thigh support. Room and comfort are good, if not great. Rear buckets divided by full center console are part of the top-of-the-line “Elite” option package (about $6,500).
As on the old Maxima and current Altima, the trunk is roomy and nicely shaped. The rear seat folds down to expand the trunk, and the pass through is larger than many these days. Interior storage compartments are numerous and of above average capacity.
On the Road
Even with automatic the 265-horsepower, 3.5-liter V6 feels very strong at every speed. It easily spins the front tires when floored from a dead stop. (My car lacked the optional traction control and stability control.) Though this engine is used in half the products Nissan sells these days, to my ear it sounds the best in the new Maxima, with a more refined note than in other applications.
The automatic kicks down readily when additional power is called for. Shifts are reasonably smooth, but not quite up to the class leaders. For more precise control a manumatic function is provided by sliding the stick into a slot to the right of D and then tipping it backward and forward for downshifts and upshifts. The current gear is displayed in the lower part of the speedometer. I found the transmission very easy to shift this way. Hit the redline and it upshifts automatically.
The Maxima's large discs prove easily up to the task of scrubbing all the speed the engine can deal out. The brakes are very powerful, yet not too touchy when only a bit less velocity is called for.
Even following a redesign the Maxima’s chassis remains much less gifted than its powertrain. Body lean is reduced, but many things I criticized the 2003 for remain present and accounted for. The steering is actually inferior to the old Maxima’s. It is non-linear, low in effort, and artificial in feel. The tires are very wide (245s), yet the ones up front squeal much earlier than they should in hard turns. (They are Goodyear Eagle RS-As; a different tire might help.) This is a nose-heavy front-driver, yet other such designs understeer less. The Mazda6 and Acura TSX (reviewed for now in my Acura RSX review) come to mind. Rear-drive competitors do better still. Body control over rough roads is well behind the class leaders. Accelerate through a bumpy turn and you’ll be greeted with steering wheel kickback, a jumpy chassis, and more than a little torque steer. Entertaining perhaps—I had fun flogging this car—but strangely dated. Driving it, I flung it into turns and let it plow much as I might a classic American barge. On the plus side, this plow was very predictable, and I felt comfortably within the chassis’ limits (which are far higher than said barge). However, most recent sedan chassis feel more stable and planted, especially those that hail from Europe.
The Maxima rides better than it handles, even in “sporty” SE trim. Though not pillowy soft, and busy on the nastiest surfaces, this ride never felt harsh. Expansion joints and the like produced a musical “ping ping ping” from the tires. On fairly smooth road surfaces the car has a smooth, solid, upscale feel to it. Noise levels when cruising are generally low, though I did note some wind noise around the side mirror on the highway.
Nissan Maxima Price Comparisons and Pricing
For quick, up-to-date pricing, and especially user-specified price comparisons, check out the website I created: www.truedelta.com. Why yet another vehicle pricing website? Well, I personally lacked the patience to keep using the others. They were too slow and required too much effort, especially when trying to compare prices. So I taught myself some programming and created a site where there is no need to dig through option packages, prerequisites, and the like one by one -- the TrueDelta algorithm figures these out for you in one swift pass.
The rest of this section dates from when the review was written.
The Maxima is fairly priced for what it offers. Those most interested in luxury with just some interest in handling will find nothing with this much power, a generally upscale feel, and distinctive styling for less money.
The only other boldly styled large front-wheel-drive sedan available is the 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. Even in GTP Comp G form the Pontiac sells for at least two thousand less once dealer discounts and rebates are considered. While it has a more composed chassis, it also has a much less upscale feeling interior and much less comfortable rear seat. Serious drivers considering the Maxima should at least take the Pontiac for a test drive.
The Acura TL is being redesigned for 2004, and should provide an interesting comparison as it offers similar horsepower to the Nissan and Pontiac in a midsize front-wheel-drive package. I expect a richer interior, better chassis, but less distinctive styling. The Acura will probably be priced a bit higher than the Maxima.
For the enthusiast, the similarly priced Infiniti G35 is a better bet. The G35 is less distinctively styled and feels less upscale, but handles better than the above cars because it is rear-wheel-drive.
Last Words
The 2004 Maxima is a luxury car with a touch of sport. Those who prioritize distinctive styling, room, and an upscale feel to their sedans will be happy here. Those who prioritize handling in aggressive driving will be happier elsewhere. I recommend this car to the former buyer (and would give it a fourth star with this less-sporting mission in mind), but not to the latter. To truly cater to the enthusiast the new Maxima needs better steering, a more composed and balanced chassis, and seats with more lateral support.
A Note on Nissan Maxima Reliability
I cannot practically cover reliability within the context of this review. However, many people are interested in such information, so I've started collecting my own data. Results, once they are available, will be posted to my site, www.truedelta.com, with updates every three months.
Unlike other sources, TrueDelta will clearly identify what difference it will make if you buy a Maxima rather than another vehicle by providing "times in the shop" and "days in the shop" stats (among others). You will be able to specify the number of years, annual miles, and types of repairs to include in Nissan Maxima reliability comparisons.
Before I can report results, I need reliability data on all cars--not just the Maxima--from people like you. To encourage participation, those who help provide the data will receive free access to the site's reliability information. Non-participants will have to pay an access fee.
For the details, and to sign up, visit www.truedelta.com.
A link to this website and alphabetized links to my other vehicle reviews can be found on my profile page.
Some of my reviews of related vehicles:
Acura TL
Acura TSX
Honda Accord
Infiniti G35
Mazda6
Mitsubishi Galant
Nissan Altima
Pontiac Grand Prix
Toyota Avalon (2005)
Toyota Camry
VW Passat
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 29,500
Model and Options: SE auto with sunroof and BOSE sound system
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