hi I'm Kelsey mays for cars.com here with the seventh generation nissan
maxima car that went on sale all the way back in june two thousand eight
well here we are five years later looking to see if the maxima still
competitive with other flagship sedans from non luxury automakers let's find
out the maximum isn't all that big it's under a hundred ninety-one inches long
just under 58 inches tall the redesigned ultima from Nissan is actually longer
and a little bit taller and traditional full-size sedans like the ford taurus
the chrysler 300 the toyota avalon
these are all four or five inches up to as much as a foot longer than the
maximum that translates to the interior which is a little bit more snug then
other full-size cars especially when it comes to the back seat
overall cabin styling still very cockpit like it's wearing ok this is an older
version of Nissan's steering wheel still as kind of a weird pivot point when you
adjust it for tilt and telescoping some decent storage space actually though
especially in the center console and the glove compartment
nissan is typically known for Kevin quality is ok
soft stuff here along the upper doors rapping from the headliner all the way
down the a-pillars pretty standard stuff that you find among full-size cars
visibility again not
excellent the rear windows have head restraints that kind of pitch up into
the view a little bit and the sloping roofline does cut a little bit of the
room
out front he sounds familiar 3.5 liter v6 makes 290 horsepower 261 pounds feet
of torque in the maxima
that makes four stout acceleration thanks to a pretty responsive
continuously variable automatic transmission
now CVTs are kind of all over the board in terms of responsiveness
nissan has some next generation CVT that seem to have reached the next generation
of not responding to your right foot
the maxima a little bit old school here nice snappy gets going when you want it
to really good there
nissan says the drive train has eight drive sport mode for the CVT it
simulates fixed gears kind of makes it feel like the engines revving up
actually it works pretty well could fool your passengers that you're driving a
car with a conventional stepped automatic transmission
unfortunately all that responsiveness does cost you
the pump the maximum is epa gas mileage 19 city 26 highway 22 miles per gallon
combined other two wheel drive versions of the Chrysler 300 ford taurus the
toyota avalon only comes with front-wheel drive those cars get gas
mileage combined EPA numbers as high as 23 all the way up to 26 miles per gallon
worse yet the maximum recommends premium fuel for best performance all those
others
most of them get away with regular fuel and they run fine on it from problem is
just over 14 cubic feet pretty modest nissan sentra a much smaller car has a
bigger trunk than this
competitors like the chevy impala have close to 19 cubic feet in their trunk
the for tourists has more than 20 cubic feet kinda makes this car's name seemed
a little bit ironic if they ask us to maximize trunk is little minima in five
male years the maximum is proven fairly reliable base model starts at almost
thirty two thousand dollars pretty expensive for a flagship sit in it does
come with standard features like dual zone climate control and dual power
seats things like leather are optional source of important tech features like a
backup camera and bluetooth streaming audio a lot of cheaper cars have those
features standards and Nissan does need up the technology there now the
automaker does sell about seven ultimate for every maxima so clearly the maxima
is a bit player in nissan's line up now nissan does need to improve the standard
technology in this car as far as standard features
it also needs to add room to the maxima one of those things
nissan can do in this generation the second will require a full redesign
yeah