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Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
With options, price easily can reach that of premium brands
By G. Chambers Williams III
San Antonio Express-News
Published on Friday, Nov 28, 2008
Calling it a ''four-door sports car,'' Nissan has rolled out the newest generation of its flagship Maxima sedan, and it's easily the best effort yet for this premium model that the automaker originally introduced in 1981.
With a starting price of $30,160 (plus $695 freight) for the base S model, and $32,860 for the uplevel SV, the new Maxima is well below the cost of similarly equipped entry-level luxury-brand cars, such as the Lexus ES 350 or Acura TL.
With options, though, the Maxima's price easily can reach that of those luxury brands.
But that's what you get with the Maxima — a luxury car, minus the trendy name. And in the case of the Lexus ES 350, the Maxima offers more sport and much more compelling styling. Where the Lexus bores, the Maxima dazzles.
The Maxima truly fits the four-door sports car mantra, which isn't a new designation — Nissan called it that in market
ing efforts in the past, although not with the recent models.
Nissan says it intentionally has designed the ''sport'' back into the Maxima for this, the seventh generation, for two reasons: to help differentiate it from the lower-priced Altima sedan and to position it as a car for auto enthusiasts who want cutting-edge styling and great performance, but need a sedan for family or other personal needs.
Over the years, the Maxima has been one of the Nissan vehicles with the biggest followings, said Al Castignetti, Nissan Division vice president and general manager. He said in the past, Maxima buyers traditionally have been the most loyal Nissan customers. Four of every five Maximas ever sold are still on the road, the automaker says.
Designers were instructed to give the new Maxima a ''wow'' level of style that ''would clearly distinguish it from segment competitors,'' Castignetti said.
The car's design was inspired by the 2009 Nissan GT-R super car, and goals included creating ''the best-performing front-engine, front-wheel drive car in the world,'' Nissan said.
The company sold more than 60,000 of the Maximas last year and is looking for an increase in volume with the new model, although it has acknowledged that this is a tough year to introduce any new vehicle because of the steep decline in auto sales initially triggered by the higher gasoline prices of the spring and summer.
Sales have been encouraging. In October, Nissan posted a 33.5 percent drop in sales compared with October 2007, but Maxima sales totaled 4,341 for the month, up 33 percent from the 3,263 sold in the same month last year.
The Maxima officially competes in the same class of vehicles as the Toyota Avalon and higher-end models of the Honda Accord, but it's sportier than its competitors. As a result, it appeals to a younger range of consumers — especially the Avalon, which is aimed at people older than 50.
People who shop the Maxima probably also would be looking at such vehicles as the Acura TL, ES 350 and Infiniti G35, all of which come with similar 3.5-liter V-6 engines, and sport or luxury features.
Under the hood is a revised version of the 3.5-liter V-6 engine used in the 2008 Maxima and other Nissans, including the current Altima. In the 2009 Maxima, this engine got a boost of 35 horsepower and 9 foot-pounds of torque over the '08 model, yet has slightly better highway fuel economy.
The engine now is rated at 290 horsepower and 261 foot-pounds of torque, and EPA ratings are 19 miles per gallon in the city and 26 on the highway versus 19/25 for the 2008 model. Unfortunately, though, Nissan recommends premium fuel.
The only transmission is a continuously variable automatic that also comes with a manual-shift feature.
Maxima prototypes were tested at Germany's Nurburgring racetrack, which helped Nissan engineers tweak the suspension, steering and transmission to accomplish the goals of making it a sport sedan, the company said.
Our tester was the SV model with two options groups: the Sport Package ($2,300), which added the sport suspension, heated outside mirrors, front stabilizer bar, 19-inch alloy wheels, all-season tires, rear spoiler, high-intensity headlights, upgraded leather seats, heated front seats, heated premium leather steering wheel, power-tilt and automatic tilt-away steering column with memory, power memory driver's seat and more. The Sport Technology Package ($2,250) brought a navigation system, single-disc CD player and built-in 9.3-gigabyte hard drive to store music onboard, and a backup camera.
Other extras included a Bluetooth hands-free phone system ($300) and carpeted floor mats ($180). Total sticker on our car, including freight, was $38,585. Driving the new Maxima is great fun, and the handling of our test vehicle was crisp on some fun roads. But some enthusiasts would appreciate a manual transmission on this car.
Nissan used the chassis of the redesigned Altima for the new Maxima but altered it significantly to give the car its sporty handling.
Calling it a ''four-door sports car,'' Nissan has rolled out the newest generation of its flagship Maxima sedan, and it's easily the best effort yet for this premium model that the automaker originally introduced in 1981.
Get the full article here.
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