Thinking about purchasing a Maxima. Any advice?

Um, excellent car, if a bit small. Drives well, quiet, very fast, and gets respect on the highway.

Dunno - I've met a few peeps with > 300K on their Maxima cars, but those were earlier models.

Chain

Um, what do you mean by "hot"? I live where it regularly gets > 90 over

2/3 the year. I have no issues.

Alternator - there is a recall. Other than that, not much. I've had a few intermittent injector issues, but nothing serious. (Currently at ~80K miles.)

Not that I'm aware of...

HTH

I would check Consumer Reports for this, as they draw from a pretty large group. My personal experience with my '95 Max SE has been extremely good. So far it's been the most reliable car I've owned. I bought it in '98 with 60k miles. Now it has over 150k.

If you want better handling install a front strut-tower brace. Inexpensive, and easy to install. It's the only thing I've changed on my car, and it makes a nice improvement. Starting with an SE would be a good idea. I think only shocks (possibly springs instead--I forget), wheels and tires differ from the others, but it does handle better.

David

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Sounds good. I am getting ready to go shopping around. Sounds like everyone I have spoken to with a 95 to 99 Maxima is very happy. Funny youmentioned the 2000. Everyone I have spoken with tells me to stay away from the 2k model. I am not a big fan of first year production models, but I know Maxima has always been somewhat 'bullet proof' in their drivetrains. Thank you for the advice. I will let you all know when I got my Maxima SE.

Avoid a manual transmission from 95 - 98, they have a factory problem - the differential bearing is overshimmed and around 60 - 120k, it will disintegrate and wreck the tranny. I had it happen on my original tranny, and then on a junkyard tranny, before I found

and found out what the problem was. Depending on mileage (I've had mine go at 60k then 100k), you'll probably have to replace the O2 sensors, 3 of them. Other then that, I've had two '96 Maximas and they were both reliable.

-Nick

Think again! If you're going to spend that much money buy a real car, an Accord or Camry!

Ex-Maxima victim.

What makes you an ex-Maxima victim? What year did you own and what happened? Do tell. I am ready to purchase and want to know as much as I can.

Thanks, Erik

?> Ex-Maxima victim. ? What didn't I repair. Actually I bought a '94 in '97 and it was great for 3 years, then everything started failing at 195,000 kilometers

head gasket wiper assy starter alternator (2x) transmission (2x) rear rotors due to caliper failure drivers seat track broke radio speaker amplifiers cut in and out wouldn't start when below freezing rust where there shouldn't be rust and a few more things I can't remember now car has 250,000 kilometers now and I can't even get $1500 for it, it's in my garage hoping for a sucker, err buyer in the spring

good luck, I think I had a lemon, but you never know

You're always going to find the odd person that had a bad experiece with any given car. I have a friend that had a Camry from hell, doesn't mean they are bad cars. The 4th generation Maxima (95-99) is an excellent used car. They are powerful, reliable, comfortable, and good on gas. That doesn't mean that you can buy one that someone thrashed for

100K without ever changing the oil and it won't give you any trouble. There's a reason that 3L DOHC engine won ward's best engine several years in a row. No other V6 of the time can hold a candle to it. 190HP, butter smooth, and 25MPG.

-jim

Erik wrote:

I've had my 95 SE since, well, 95. I've only got 95,000 miles but a lot of it has been city. I've fixed the alternator (think theres a TSB on this), clutch and ECU (probably my own fault after tweaking with it). The brake pads were replaced earlier this year. It's a great car, don't let the few bad cars scare you away. I did a couple 5,000 mile trips at

85-90 mph for hours at a time, no problems, rock solid engine.

Mike

Not much difference, maybe a couple trim changes. If you get an auto make sure it shifts well and change the trans fluid if it's >80K and you don't know if it's been done before.

Erik wrote:

It isn't ALL of the manual transmissions in those years. have a 97 M/T at 129k and not a hint of a problem. At least, the problem is now diagnosed so you can have it done without much trouble.

I had the alternator go on mine, (failed just 2 weeks after the recall was announced - so it was replaced for free :o) ), knock sensor (easy fix, $100 part), starter.

Generally these cars are quite tough and run well. Go to

and see the reviews on the car. I wrote a very lengthy review for the 1997 year that contains what I won't retype here. You can check out many, many reviews on that site.

Dave