2000 Maxima SE Review
Zaphod
Sedan Leaves Sedate Past in Dust
By Warren Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 23, 1999; Page N01
Nissan was in trouble. Sales tanked. Profits vanished. Debts rose. Vultures
circled. Then came Renault SA, a French automaker, which earlier this year
agreed to buy 36.8 percent of Nissan for $5.4 billion. It was a heroic
gesture, similar to a gentleman officer coming onto a factory floor to swoop
up a hapless lover. But the business world laughed.
Renault, beset by lackluster products and profits and bereft of any
meaningful sales in the lucrative North American market, was in trouble
itself. Its alliance with Nissan Motor Co. seemed a marriage made in hell.
But there's evidence that the relationship will work. Success is in the
latest group of Nissan products, which the Japanese automaker offered
Renault as dowry.
First came the 2000 Nissan Xterra, an impressive, sensible compact
sport-utility vehicle that is bound to give the competition fits. Now comes
the 2000 Maxima, a mid-size "affordable luxury" sedan that probably will
cause trouble for American car companies, and could steal sales from
Japanese rivals as well.
There are three versions of the new Maxima--the base GXE, the mid-level SE
and the more-posh-than-thou GLE. I drove the 2000 Maxima SE.
The car shows what can happen when Nissan's traditionally conservative
leaders loosen up and let their designers design.
Nissan never had a problem with engineering. Its excellent 3-liter V-6
engine, which makes a freshened reappearance in the new Maxima, is proof of
that.
Nissan's problem was product definition. The company tried to please by not
offending, by passionately embracing the vanilla middle, and it got
clobbered in the process.
The new Maxima does not repeat that mistake. Nissan design chief Jerry
Hirshberg, exterior designer Doug Wilson and interior designer Alfonso
Albaisa had a good time putting this one together.
Kudos to Wilson for penning one of the most attractive rear ends given to
any sedan. The scalloped back lights sort of stand out from the car,
floating, simultaneously appearing to be attached and unattached to the
Maxima's backside, which curves prettily into the rear bumpers. Eyes
automatically follow the back lights, which is good for product recognition
and even better for safety.
Albaisa gets high marks for finding beauty in functional simplicity, as
evidenced by his arrangement of the new Maxima's center console, which
contains cooling, heating and audio system controls; a clock; a well-placed
automatic shift lever; and driver-reachable storage areas. Similar consoles
in some comparable cars are confusing busy boxes. This one is clearly marked
and angled for optimum ease of use.
Anyone who has driven previous Maximas knows that the cars are road demons
in clerical dress. The new Maxima runs hard and well, too--but with more
horsepower. It just does it in more revealing clothes.
Renault must feel quite happy about all of this. Through Nissan, it now has
something to sell in North America, and possibly something better to offer
in Europe as well.
Nuts & Bolts
2000 Nissan Maxima SE
Complaints: More work needed on the optional four-speed automatic
transmission installed in the tested Maxima SE sedan. The transmission in
the pre-production test car tended to downshift during acceleration. Here's
hoping that Nissan cleared up the problem in the regular production run.
Praise: Distinctive styling. Excellent overall build quality. Overall
excellent highway performance. Practical, comfortable and priced to beat the
competition.
Head-turning quotient: Yo, Maxima got butt. Ain't no other way to say it.
Ride, acceleration and handling: Aces for ride and handling. Very good
acceleration with a few demerits for downshifting in the test car. Excellent
braking. Standard brakes include power four-wheel discs with anti-locks at
all corners.
Capacities: Comfortably seats five adults. Trunk holds 15.1 cubic feet of
cargo. Fuel tank carries 18.5 gallons of recommended premium unleaded.
Drivetrain: Nissan's 3-liter, double-overhead-cam, 24-valve V-6 designed to
produce 222 horsepower (32 hp more than previous version) at 6,400 rpm and
217 pound-feet of torque at 4,000 rpm. A five-speed manual transmission is
standard on the GXE and SE. An automatic is optional on those models. The
GLE gets a standard four-speed automatic.
Mileage: About 25 miles per gallon in city/highway driving. Estimated
449-mile range on usable volume of fuel.
Safety: Optional side-impact air bags. Also, the sedan's side structures are
designed to bend away from passenger torsos in side crashes.
Sound system: Six-speaker, 120-watt AM-FM radio, cassette and CD player.
Sound by Dolby. Very good.
Price: The 2000 Maxima goes on sale this summer. The introductory base price
on the Maxima SE will be $24,144. Estimated dealer invoice on that model is
$21,600. Estimated price as tested works out to $24,664, including a $520
destination charge. Note: These prices are preliminary.
Purse-strings note: Very competitive. Excellent value. Compare with 2000
Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Chevrolet Impala, Ford Taurus/Mercury Sable,
Oldsmobile Intrigue.