Nissan Maxima SE Review

Overall Rating

- Great acceleration
- Comfortable Ride
- Great gas mileage on highway
- 6-disc CD changer

- 6-speed manual has notchy shifting
- Poor paint quality?
- Gas pedal and brake too close together

I bought a Sterling Mist 2002 Nissan Maxima SE 6-speed manual about 2 weeks ago and I absolutely love the car so far! It is an ideal car for people who are looking for a practical/reliable family car that borders on luxurious, while at the same time providing performance that makes most other cars on the road envious. On the highway, while traveling at 140KM/h (85MPH), I was still getting gas mileage of 35MPG with a comfortable ride, and the 6-disc CD changer is a joy. One of my only complaints so far is with the manual transmission, I am finding the shift between gears to be really notchy and I am also finding when I am accelerating quickly that it is very difficult to shift smoothly. One other thing too is that I have only owned the car for a couple of weeks and have discovered 3 or 4 fairly significant paint chips already. I decided not to get the additional paint protector when I bought it and now I am beginning to regret it. Hopefully this is just bad luck and not a continuing trend. One other small complaint I have is that I find the gas pedal and brake pedal to be too close together for someone with big feet like me.

Members' Comments onBigFly.'s Review

• Jim. on 26th Apr 2003

  I have to agree with your assessment of the paint and the brake and gas pedal. I have several paint chips in a few weeks and my big feet hit that brake alot when going for the gas pedal.

• code_slinger. on 7th May 2003

  How do you figure 35MPG? Are you looking at the totally useless trip computer?
  
  I get 25 on my 2003 6 speed on hwy.

• BigFly on 23rd Feb 2004

  With regards to the 35mpg, I was looking at the trip computer at the time I wrote the review. I have since discovered that it is consistently 5mpg off. Also, keep in mind that I am from Canada so I am talking about a different sized gallon than you. On the highway, travelling at about 110 km/h, I can get close to 35MPG (30USMPG). Once I start travelling faster than this, the mileage drops significantly.
  
  Here are some other things I have discovered about the car in the first 18 months of ownership:
  
  - The paint chip problem has continued and I now have paint that looks 10 years old instead of 2 years old. Bottom line, the paint on this car sucks.
  
  - My left side stereo speakers are kicking in and out when playing CD's. This is a common problem on 2K2 maximas.
  
  - The stock tires (Bridgestone Potenza RE92's) are useless and truly a road hazard.
  
  - The 6-spd is still a challenge to shift smoothly. This is after 50,000 km on the car and 10 years experience with manual transmissions.
  
  - I still love this car.