Maxima's..Future Car..How Are They..

Hey guys, right now i'm driving a 95 ford thunderbird 4.6L V8, but my next car will be a 98 Maxima SE or similair, as long as it has those awesome 5 spoke alloy wheel i love (stock i believe).

I did some research, and the 3.0 v6 is an impressive engine, the car puts out 190bhp and 200 ft lbs torque. Very good for the cars weight of a slim 3020 +/- lbs. Much better power to weight ratio then my tbird which is 3700lbs with 205bhp/265 ft lbs.

Anyway, back to my main concern...RELIABILITY.. My friend had a 96 maxima, then he bought a 00 Maxima SE, he swears by them, he said the engine are very forgiving. Do these cars have good dependability..? Will the tranny go south after 100K miles like LOTS of fords and american cars.. Overall how are they.

The maxima was always one of my favorite cars, i'm sick of the gas guzzling V8 i got now, another thing, i like Front Wheel drive much better along with 4 doors. I'M SICK OF COUPES.. Forgot to mention, will the manual trans have that much of an advantage over the auto..? Speed wise..?? Which is built stronger (last longer).

PS, i can pick up a 98 for around like 9-11K thats in mint condition..lots of them in the NY/LI area, but most of them also have 90K + miles on them. Hey..which car would be fast in the 1/4 also :-) My bird does like mid 15's on a good day.

Forgot to ask also, whats the top speed on a 98 maxima..? Are they smooth on the top end (no vibration etc)..

The manual is stronger. 5spds hold about ~10fwhp/10ftq more over the auto stock. Stock form they can squeak into upper-14's with a good driver. Autos fall into the low-high 15's, depending on driver. The 95/96's are the lightest so they are usually the fastest stock.

They are reliable with a few finicky things. As long as you know how to change your own spark plugs you won't have unexpected problems.

All across:
Oxygen Sensors (Notorious :D)
Knock Sensor
Timing Chain Chatter (Mostly 95/96 issue)
Idle Issues
Valve Tick
Rusting Out OEM Muffler (Just the outside layer)
Coil Packs (A mostly 99 production year issue)

You can max out the speedo for top speed. Might take a while though. The 1st gen VQ engines have no topend; car dies at 5,000-5,500rpm. True to Nissan engines, they are tuned for low-mid range power. I do find that our VQ's tend to be the smoothest compared to the 5/5.5gen's DE-K/VQ3.5L.

There are mods out there to fix that though (MEVI, 00VI); which I'll be able to enjoy soon :D

Wow thanks.. I just did a search on autotrader.com and they go for as cheap as like $6-7K..

I'll trade in my 95 bird (maybe like $2000 credit) and probably finance the rest. BTW, i'm not really going for a race car, i was going to get a 96/97 SS camaro, but like i stated i'm sick of v8's and coupes.

4 Door rules, especially if you CONSTANTLY have friends with you.

Yep, maximas are great...pretty quick cars, with room for all your buddies, and decent reliability and gas mileage to boot...doesn't get any better than that!

Man o man, i'm thinking more and more of getting a maxima.

Today my radiator fan motor said GOOD BYE.

Gotta love american cars..

I absoutely love my Maxima, well most of the time anyways. Great looks, decent handling for a FWD sedan, very nice interiors, good reliability. Did I mention the incredibly smooth and powerful bulletproof VQ engine that has been on Ward's "Ten Best Engines" list for 9 years running. Yeah, there's that too.

if a man with a vette is gushing over his maxima, you know it's gotta be something special.