Nissan Maxima 3.5 SV W/Premium Package (vehicle, 2013, alarm, tire)
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I am going to test drive this car this weekend. Any other cars I should be comparing it to? Acura? Or, should I wait to also compare it to the newly designed Altima? I am sure the Maxima is far superior, however it is 10K+++ more.
I am going to test drive this car this weekend. Any other cars I should be comparing it to? Acura? Or, should I wait to also compare it to the newly designed Altima? I am sure the Maxima is far superior, however it is 10K+++ more.
I've actually test drove the 2011 Maxima with my old man last year, it was the same car as what you're looking at 3.5 SV Premium. We were cross-shopping it with the Caddy CTS, Ford Taurus SHO, and Buick Lacrosse.
I was VERY impressed with the Maxima, it was one heck of a nice car! Not quite as nice as the Cadillac but had a bit better materials than the Buick and Ford. The Maxima ran perfectly, very comfortable, but it's fairly difficult for someone older to get in/out of as it is fairly low to the ground.
I wouldn't compare it to the Altima as it's a much larger and nicer vehicle. Maybe an Acura but I'd actually say the Maxima could be nicer than the Acura. It really was a wonderful vehicle and it takes quite a bit to impress me, I was VERY impressed for the price ($40K ish, fully loaded). I can't think of many things I didn't like about the vehicle other than it was a bit lower than my dad liked and didn't have the best headroom in the backseat.
I am going to test drive this car this weekend. Any other cars I should be comparing it to? Acura? Or, should I wait to also compare it to the newly designed Altima? I am sure the Maxima is far superior, however it is 10K+++ more.
I've driven an Altima plenty of times. The seat is horrible. The base of it is just too narrow. I've driven a Maxima a few years ago and also a few Infiniti's. Nissan really doesn't know what they're doing with interiors.
You're in the range of a 3 series, so why bother with anything else. The 2012's are pretty incredible. There's a reason why it has been on Car and Driver's Top 10 list since it was brought into the market. The Maxima hasn't been on the list in almost 20 years.
In terms of test driving, just be aware that there's a ton of emotional bias to your test drive. Were you to test drive a few different cars in a few different situations with a few different people you'd choose differently every time. Try to keep the emotion out of it. Plenty of automobile journalists have test driven things for you already.
Compare it to the Maxima SV with the sport package. As I've said in another thread of yours about car comparisons... I recently bought a Maxima SV w/sport. This car is sooo much fun to drive. I did drive a SV with premium package. I like how the sport handles better with less sway. The ride in the sport is supposed to be harder, but I don't notice that... the roads around here aren't bumpy.
The dual sunroof in the premium does look cool, yet when open is much noisier than the sunroof in the sport version. I also didn't like how if you had the shade on the dual sunroof open, both parts have to be open. Which was going to be pretty much me having it closed all the time so my kid isn't in the back screaming that the sun is in his eyes.
This is the first car I've owned that my husband even likes driving. He willingly takes it to work! He sheepishly admitted that he's had more comments about the Maxima than he has had about his own car which is a Mini Cooper. I tease him about that.
Overall, I can't say anything really negative about the Maxima. You can get one fully loaded with every option for about $34k. Edmund's might still be running their $2k rebate. So that would bring it down to $32K. I just got my rebate last week.
I personally had no interest in the Altima. It's a good functional car, but boring to me. So, I never considered it.
On paper I was interested in the Maxima, Volvo S60, new BMW 3 series and the Infiniti G series. I only test drove the S60 and the Maxima. Maybe I should have lengthened my car buying experience and test driven a few more on my list for the hell of it, but I don't think I would have made a different decision in the end.
I've driven a Maxima a few years ago and also a few Infiniti's. Nissan really doesn't know what they're doing with interiors.
You're in the range of a 3 series, so why bother with anything else. The 2012's are pretty incredible.
What do you mean Nissan doesn't know what they are doing with interiors? Materials? Layout? What?
Sure you can get a 3 series for just over what you'd pay for a loaded Maxima... but that BMW is going to be stripped at $35K... no leather, no sunroof, no alarm.... the list goes on. Once I tallied up everything I got on my Maxima, I would have paid $45,000 on the 3 Series.
The Maxima is a great buy, interior is as good as an Infiniti, good room, tons of features. With teh sport, you lose the ability to have the trunk pass through.
I've driven an Altima plenty of times. The seat is horrible. The base of it is just too narrow. I've driven a Maxima a few years ago and also a few Infiniti's. Nissan really doesn't know what they're doing with interiors.
You're in the range of a 3 series, so why bother with anything else. The 2012's are pretty incredible. There's a reason why it has been on Car and Driver's Top 10 list since it was brought into the market. The Maxima hasn't been on the list in almost 20 years.
In terms of test driving, just be aware that there's a ton of emotional bias to your test drive. Were you to test drive a few different cars in a few different situations with a few different people you'd choose differently every time. Try to keep the emotion out of it. Plenty of automobile journalists have test driven things for you already.
Did you drive the updated Maxima or the old version? Huge difference between the 2008 Maxima and 2009 restyled Maxima. The 2011 I test drove was an awesome vehicle, it really excelled at being a comfortable, fairly sporty, family sedan. It's obviously NOT a 3 Series (it's much BIGGER for one) and doesn't aspire to be.
And automobile journalists have no bias? Oh come on, have you read some of the most recent car and driver or motor trend articles? Not biased my ass...
We looked at Nissan's today because they have a special sale going on. There were two 2013's out front. I liked them, but my husband saw some material where the tire is stored that he did not like. He said that type of material would break easily, so I guess that one is out.
We looked at another car a couple of weeks ago that had a plastic flap to hide the gas cap. When you see cheap materials on cars it makes you wonder how many cheap things you cannot see. Those two cars are out for us.
The biggest problem we have is that we are presently driving a Buick LeSabre that gets 26 mph in town and between 30 and 35 mph on the interstate roads. Nothing we have looked at will come anywhere near having the carrying capacity or the gas mileage of our "alas" 10 year old car that has more than 130,000 miles on it. I wish Buick would bring back this car looking just as it did ten years ago. I don't care about the style so much, just give me the comfort and quality I am used to with this car.
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