It's been awhile since I've had a Nissan Maxima parked in my driveway, four years to be exact. Since then, I've put a lot of new cars through their paces - I know, it's a tough job - but through them all, the '91 Maxima has retained a warm spot in my automotive heart.
Until this past week, that is. Call me fickle, call me faithless, but after climbing behind the wheel of the newly redesigned 1995 Nissan Maxima, I can't seem to recall much about that '91.What I can remember clearly is the Infiniti J30 I evaluated last week and the BMW 325i that graced my garage last summer. Both those cars were delightful rides, but the J30 cost $39,000 and the Bimmer stickered at $43,000. The Maxima can be had for under $26,000.
Which wouldn't mean much, except that the Maxima SE I've been driving this week is faster, roomier and more fun to drive than either of those cars, and it also goes better in the snow - it's a front-driver, whereas the other two are both rear-wheel drive.
The Maxima has a bigger trunk and a much roomier back seat than either the J30 or the 325i, and it is satisfied with regular gas instead of the premium fuel required by the other two. Finally, it has virtually all of the luxury equipment of either competitor, although not the test Bimmer's convertible top.
You can see where I'm going with this. The Maxima is more than competitive with those upscale marques but it comes with a base price of $21,599 for the ultra-sporty SE model I've been driving, or $25,385 when dressed out with my test car's nearly $4,000 worth of options, including a wonderful Bose dual cassette/CD system, antilock brakes, power sunroof and a $700 convenience package that includes remote keyless entry, power driver's seat, power trunk release, security system and lighted visor vanity mirrors.
I usually argue against spending a lot of money on luxury options, but in this case they make the Maxima competitive with cars costing thousands more. In my book, that's called value, the big V-word for the not-so-gay '90s.
The heart of any great car is its engine, and the 190-horsepower, 24-valve, aluminum V6 under the Maxima's hood is a pure joy, rocketing the four-door, five-seat family sedan from rest to 60 mph in 6.6 seconds when mated to the standard five-speed transmission in my test car.
That's the kind of acceleration usually reserved for high-performance sports cars or gas guzzlers propelled by big-bore V8s. For a six-pack in a five-seat sedan to offer those kinds of grins, it's like having your cake . . . with no calories. Even when equipped with an automatic transmission, the Maxima's 0-60 mph time of 8.8 seconds is not exactly chopped liver.
Be warned, though, any time you drive a car that is fast and fun, you tend to get a bit more aggressive in your everyday driving. And aggressive driving can rack up points on your driver's license faster than Karl Malone on a good night.
The Maxima comes in three trim levels, the entry-level GXE, the sport SE and the top-line GLE, with base prices ranging from $20,000 to $24,819.
They are all excellent, and the differences in them aren't really that great, but the SE version has always been my favorite Maxima, and there is nothing about the '95 version to change my mind.
Most of the GXEs and GLEs will be sold with automatic transmissions, and auto shifters are available for the SE as well. But rowing through the gears brings the SE to life and makes Nissan's old ad line, "The 4-door Sports Car," as apt as ever.
Standard equipment on the SE includes a spoiler on the trunk lid, cornering lamps, fog lamps and 15-inch alloy wheels with H-rated all-season tires. It also has a sport-tuned suspension with firmer shocks and struts, body-colored door handles, blackout-style window moldings, sport velour seats and leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob. It also retains the controversial black-on-white analog gauges that people seem to either love or hate. I fall in the latter camp.
Of course you now get dual air bags as standard in all Maximas, and the SE and GLE include such amenities as air conditioning, cruise control, power windows, locks, mirrors and antenna, folding rear seat, tilt steering column, side window defoggers, cupholders, map light, intermittent wiper and tinted glass, among other goodies.
You also get a car that draws admiring glances of a type usually reserved for much more expensive marques. Nissan's design centers in Atsugi, Japan, and La Jolla, Calif., collaborated on the sheet metal to make a marvelous transition from the old Maxima to the new.
The lengthened wheelbase has made for increased interior space and a more sophisticated suspension that has to be considered state of the art for "near-luxury" sedans, a label that has more form than substance in the Maxima's case. The only reason to buy a more expensive car than the Maxima is just to show that you can.
The Maxima's power plant is also redesigned for '95 and is drawing raves. Nissan says the V6 is 23 percent lighter and five inches smaller than the '94 version, making it one of the lightest and most compact engines ever built for a production car.
The new engine produces 205 foot-pounds of torque that give the 3,010-pound Maxima a sporty driving character. Best of all, despite the increased power, the Maxima engine is more fuel efficient than its predecessor, rated at 22 mpg city and 27 highway.
What goes fast must also stop quickly, and the Maxima's power disc brakes with ABS don't disappoint. No matter how hard you put the car through a corner, you always feel that if anything goes wrong, the binders will rescue you. Still, the Maxima handles and corners so brilliantly, you really have to work at getting into trouble.
Be warned though, if you prefer cars with a soft, boulevard ride, the SE will turn you off big time. Everything about the feel of the car, from the seats to the suspension, is firm, maybe even hard. Personally, I like it that way, and I know that firmness will leave you less tired than soft after eight hours behind the wheel.
Nissan says the Maxima - following on the heels of Nissan's popular new Altima - represents a new direction for the company, one in which it eschews technology for its own sake. Nissan says it is attempting to keep costs down by sticking with technological advancements that add true function and value, not just gimmickry.
A word about the Maxima's optional Bose sound system. Awesome. It's the same unit as was in the Infiniti J30 last week, and factory stereos simply don't get any better. Also perfect is the climate control system, a set of silky smooth buttons and dials that allow much better temperature tuning than any "automatic" system I've found, and you don't have to read the manual to decipher it.
Incidentally, all of the Maxima's controls have a silky smooth, precision instrument feel that shouts "Quality! Quality!" every time you touch them.