actually since nissan is having a sale right now on teh Max sooo its odd but i can get a fully optioned SE for 26,500. it has basically the same interior as the GLE and then some~ like includin a sunroof. and damn the hand fittin and eveyrthing in that car is sooo nice!!! you sit in it you feel like your in the Infinit I35 which happens to be the same car with different badge. as oppose to the new Altima. the interior feels cheap as hell, even thought it was fully optioned, like with leather and sunroof and everything. pretty much these cars are dead even in features and eveyrhing. but hte bad seat is too short on the Max. my head hits the ceiling were as the Altima my head has like 2 more inches before it hits. but check this out. the new fully optioned 3.5 SE cost 27,150~!! now what da hell is a Altima doing costing more then the MAX? plus i don't think the MAX handles better. your comparin a fully indepent multi link suspension to a multi link beam suspension. if you compare the turning circle radius from curb to curb. its 37.4 ft i think on the altima compared to the 58.5 ft on the max. with the SE package, the radius goes down by only .4 inches. not much help. plus i think the Altima is hte looker of the two. cauase it has went from boring to nice. meanwhile the 99 maxima's will still be my favorite. sooooo its actually really hard for me to chose now. this is basicaly how it goes in a nut shell.
Altima: pros: exterior styling, more interior room, better handling.
cons: cheap interior, when you sit in it you feel llike your in a 20 thousand dollar car. more expensive. much much crappier build, and paint job. price.
Maxima: pros: better milage, better name, awesome interior, better resale value years later. had 2 years to work out all the bugs. price.
con: ugly (IMO) small back seat, worser handling. and it doesn';t have that dual tail pipe ( i know its just a gimmick )
and by the way, the Max does not have the helical slip LSD option yet. its coming later in 02. but i'm gettin one before jan 2nd sooo that the sale would still be on. damn its sooo hard to chose~~!! what do you guys think?