Rental Car Review - 2017 Nissan Maxima

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I had a coupon for a discounted rental so I rented a 2017 Nissan Maxima SL for a weekend from Hertz. The car only had 41 miles on it and was brand new. First impressions were the striking exterior, clearly love it or hate it for some, but I really thought it looked great. The aggressive front end, 2 tone brushed aluminum/black wheels and the floating roof design made it look very upscale. Inside the material quality was top notch with only the lower door panels reserved for the cheap hard plastic. Everything else had soft touch/higher quality plastics. The drivers seat had all sorts of adjustments with heavy side bolsters....this car feels sporty behind the wheel with the flat bottom steering wheel and tall center console. The gauge cluster was clear and easy to read with a large LCD in the middle. The LCD is large but doesn't display a lot of information, you have to cycle through. This car could benefit from a configurable display like Chrysler vehicles. Infotainment was easy to use with an 8" screen, climate controls very effective. For a rental, the car had blind spot monitor, nav and intelligent cruise control along with the panoramic roof. This lead to a very pleasant driving experience. At 75mph the car cruised effortlessly down the interstate with little wind noise. The bose stereo sounded excellent. Performance is where this car surprised me. In "normal" mode the car is quick but feels like the CVT is holding back power for economy. In "sport" mode, this car feels fast, steering firms up and its quite a blast to drive. After a 400 mile trip with some spirited driving, highway and city driving, it returned a respectable 27.4mpg...not terrible for a large sedan. Definitely worth a look for someone interested in a sports car but needs 4 door practicality. The only complaint I had.....Nissan needs to learn from Mazda in terms of suspension turning/handling, this car doesn't handle as tight as a Mazda 6 but its certainly not a bad handling vehicle, just not as precise as a Mazda.
 
Unfortunately the CVT transmission torpedo'd the Maxima. Nissan went all in (2007) with the CVT thinking they would be ahead of the curve but it never caught on with the rest of the market (outside of rental cars). It is truly laughable that their built in shift shock attempts to replicate a standard automatic.

A 2006 Maxima SE was my DD for several years and I loved it. After driving the latest rendition I was deeply disappointed in the lifeless, fake, mpg chasing DNA of the new Maxima.

4DSC no more.
 
Had an 04 from 03-07 and thought it was very nice to drive, aside from torque steer, which it seemed to have lots of.
 
Isnt this an Altima with a v6 now? I had a newish loaner 17 Altima with some sort of sport upgrade.
Steering was horrendous, ride fair, power fair, ergo good, zero gravity seats fair (the seats in my Rogue are MUCH better for me).

Anywho FWD = Nope unless its sub or a micro.
 
Funny thing is the Altima is bigger in nearly every interior dimension but is a midsize car.

The good thing for 2nd buyers is this car has one of the worst residual values on the market. It's not uncommon for a 1 year old car to have $10k depreciation.
 
just cant like that CVT, tried in a rogue and maxima rental car and it was horrible driving up and down the mountains. Even on flat ground the RPMs would randomly spike.
 
This is one of those cars that only looks good in certain colors...the blacked-out c-pillar just looks odd to me except on darker colors.

I briefly shopped the Nissan rogue last year, and the Maxima in the showroom already had wear visible on the beige leather seat bolster...it didn't give me good vibes about how the car would hold up.
 
Looked at one when they first came out and popped the hood. Then couldn't get it to shut all the way. Then I looked at the latch and it was loose.
 
Nissan really needs to get rid of the Frenchmen experimenting with their stuff. The Nissan Patrol and the Nissan pickup they sell in Mexico are good vehicles with manual transmissions which outperform CVTs by days
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Looked at one when they first came out and popped the hood. Then couldn't get it to shut all the way. Then I looked at the latch and it was loose.


I had a 2014 Altima rental with 50 miles on it a while back. There was a horrible rattle in the back... turns out the trunk lid hinge was loose. It didn't instill a lot of confidence on the drive to upstate New York.
 
That "floating roof c pillar" design has got to go! Though I would say Nissan trumps Lexus with design aesthetic.
And what's with everything with the Ford Maserati Hexagonal grills Subaru, New Hyundai Elantra, Taurus and what else. I can barely tell the diff between a Ford Taurus and a Subaru Legacy.
 
I agree that Nissan could tone down the design a little. Looks oddly similar to the final generation Saab 9-5 before Saab disappeared.
 
They'll try anything to hang on with this segment of automobile that nobody wants these days. Nissan's bread and butter at the moment is probably the Rogue. Looks are subjective. I personally think the new Maxima is a nice looking, somewhat unique sedan. As Nissan has been for well over 20yrs, I'm sure they're an excellent second-hand buy in terms of price.
 
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