I can answer this question. Before the forestor, I owned a 2002 Passat. Nice car (same class as a maxima). I loved the passat. I too, love my Forester. They are 2 completely different cars.
My passat was a nice highway cruiser. My forester is much more fun in the twisties.
My passat had nice big back seats. My forester, though will smaller back seat accomdatations has much more space for hauling things...especially odd sizes (like lawn mowers and such).
My passat was a great dry pavement car - but was not so hot in bad weather - especially snow. My forester with AWD is awesome in all weather conditions.
My passat cost me $28,000 (loaded V6). My forester XS cost me $22,000 (loaded XS).
My passat car insurance ran $1200 per/yr. My forester car insurance costs $1000 per/yr.
The routine maintenance on the forester has also been quite a bit cheaper.
I wont even go into the reliability differences between the passat and forester ...forester wins this one hands down. However, a maxima probably doesn't have much (if anything) on the forester reliability wise. They have a good track record.
So...there are my reasons for liking the forester more than a sport sedan. Granted, its not a sport sedan - but it is definitely a fun car to drive none the less.
Dom