road & track's 1995 nissan maxima se
Kinder, gentler, performance

By Ron Sessions, Photos by Kirk Willis

A mere 15 years ago, Nissan spun a luxury variant off it foppish Datsun 810 and dubbed it Maxima. As a flagship, the overstyled, underperforming sedan didn’t have the panache of its European rivals, but Nissan kept upgrading and polishing the concept. Gradually, the ungainly duck became a swan. By the time the third-generation Maxima hit the tarmac in 1989, Nissan was exporting nearly 100,000 of the sedans to North America every year. In 1990, Road & Track selected the Maxima as one of the ten best cats ion the world. The car built quite a well-deserved following among enthusiasts. In fact, in many ways, the 1989-1994 Nissan Maxima defined the Japanese soprts-sedan segment.

For 1995, Nissan is treating us to a completely new Maxima, one where sporting aplomb has been tempered by a more demure demeanor. Nissan is convinced there’s a core-value change underway in the U.S. It’s a Nineties’ kind of thing, with safety, reliability, practicality, and value taking equal billing with performance, luxury, and prestige. And conspicuous consumption is being dialed back a few clicks. Maxima’s mission? More of a quiet expression of luxury, one where understated elegance preempts in-your-face opulence.

How is it changed? The 1995 Maxima is roomier, more luxurious, softer, and quieter than its predecessor, while outperforming the old car in every measurable category. An all-new engine and rear suspension make their debut here. A strict diet shaved 150 lbs. From the previous design, while Nissan claims that the car’s structure is 10 percent stiffer than before.

Engineers stretched the 1995 Maxima’s wheelbase 2.0 in. but overall length remains the same, effectively pushing the wheels toward the four corners and increasing rear-seat leg room 1.1 in. Width is up marginally, mostly to address 1997 side-impact regulations, which Maxima now meets. The new car stands about a half-inch taller too, that space contributing to a feeling of spaciousness is a greenhouse that’s large, offering great outward vision. Overall, interior space is up 3.9 cu. ft.

Inside, it’s no coincidence that the dash configuration emulates more expensive near-luxury sedans such as the Acura Legend and Lexus GS 300. As on the previous-generation car, the SE sports black on white gauges that reverse out for nighttime viewing, while other Maximas get normal white-on-black dials. This time around, the tach and speedo are large gauges in a stately domed binnacle. Once again, the Maxima’s controls and witch gear are first-cabin in tactile response and location. The only glitch is the operation of the driver’s power seat controls, which get tangled up in the outboard seatbelt pivot. And last year’s motorized shoulder belts have been sent packing in favor of dual airbags with proper 3-point active belts.

Outside, Nissan resisted the trend to add pasted-on styling cues or accents, instead striving for a “continuously evolving form.” The exterior is a collaboration of Jerry Hirschberg and his band at Nissan Design International (NDI) in San Diego, California, and the Nissan Technical Center in Atsugi, Japan. My favorite view is profile with its handsome, sweeping C-pillar and door aperture theme that so defined the 1989-1994 car. The Hand of Hirschberg is also evident up front where a smoothed nose and tiny grille suggest a Maximized Altima. Least impressive is the Maxima’s squared-off tail with its abruptly truncated trunk.

Does this new focus make the new Maxima a performance lightweight? Hardly. The 1995 Maxima showcases an all-new 3.0-liter V-6 engine, the first of a family of bent sixes (also displacing 2.0 and 2.5 liters) that will power numerous front- and rear-drive Nissans, including the next 300ZX, well into the 21st century.

The Maxima’s new 4-cam, 24-valve all-aluminum V-6 is a gem. It replaces both the SOHC 12-valve 160-bhp base engine (around in one form or another since 1983) and the 1994 SE’s DOHC 24-valve 190 bhp of the same displacement and shares not a single part with those cast-iron-block V-6’s.

For starters, it is 108 lb. Lighter than last year’s 3.0-liter, helping improve the Maxima’s font/rear weight distribution. A 2-stage chain cam drive (which permits use of smaller exhaust-cam sprockets) and cast-aluminum timing-chain cover and oilpan (which incorporate mounts for accessories) make the engine more compact, govong more space to the passenger compartment. Nissan engineers reduced mass of items such as the pistons, crankshaft, rods and flywheel som 17 percent, which when combined with the engine’s shorter stroke, makes for easy revving and delightful throttle response. Power-robbing friction is reduced by the use of moly-coated piston skirts and micro-finished crankshaft and camshaft surfaces.

Aerodynamic port development keeps intake-charge velocities high through the crossflow head, even at low engine speeds. The V-6 developes an impressive 205 lb.-ft. of torque at 4000 rpm, but more important, more 90 percent of that peak torque is available from a lazy 1600 rpm to a freeway-flying 5500. This is one flexible, responsive engine that acquits itself nicely without the aid of variable cam timing or induction tuning. And it’s quiet at idle and smooth as silk throughout the rev range, aided by electronically tuned fluid-filled engine-mount technology.

Teamed with either the SE’s standard 5-speed manual or optional electronically controlled 4-speed automatic, acceleration is brisk throughout the a wide speed range- about a full second quicker than last year’s car. As one editor put it, “sort of a Sentra SE-R for the older folks.” Indeed.

Most of the Maxim’s underpinnings should be familiar to devotees of the previous-generation car. A disc brake lives at each wheel. ABS is optional. Up front, the strut suspension and engine-speed-sensitive rack-and-pinion steering have been carried over, but the turning circle is 2 ft. less, aiding around-town maneuverability.

However, controversy surrounds the Maxima’s new rear suspension setup. Officially dubbed Multi-Link Beam, Nissan has nixed the 1989-1994 Maxima’s independent strut rear suspension in favor of this time-proven design. On one hand, it’s true that Volkswagen, Audi, General Motors, Chrysler and Mitsubishi have used beam rear axles of various configurations in their front-drive cars and minivans for years. It’s just that we’ve been accustomed to Nissan overachieving in this category, treating us to techno items as multilink double-wishbone suspensions, 4-wheel steering and so on.

But to the time-honored and less sophisticated beam rear axle, Nissan introduces a new, er…twist. In addition to the trailing arms and lateral link common to most beam axles, the new Maxima adds a control rod between the axle and lateral link called a Scott-Russell Mechanism. This little bit of engineering helps eliminate scuff change, am undesireable circular motion of the body around the axis of the lateral link in response to wheel travel. Because the bushing connecting the control rod and beam axle is pliant laterally but stiff vertically, the lateral link is, in effect, articulated, allowing the rear tires to remain vertical with wheel travel, thus aiding stability. The control-rod setup also minimizes body jacking during hard cornering.

Compared to the strut rear suspension employed on the previous model, the Multi-Link Beam suspension is lighter (with five mounting points compared to the eight before) and less costly for Nissan to build. As a bonus, shorterj rear shock absorbers are used, reducing trunk-floor intrusion. Get used to it; Nissan plans to use the Multi-Link Beam rear suspension on all future front-drive sedans.

So how does it work? The numbers accompanying data panel speak for themselves. The 1995 model generates .007g higher lateral cornering force and threads through the cones in our 700-ft. slalom 4-mph faster than ever before. We suspect the beam axle will get a bit juddery over reallly awful, pothole-infested stretches of road. But in the 1200 miles of West coast terra firma we traversed, the new Maxima never failed to offer up the right balance of stability and responsiveness that continues to make it, even in its middle years, a car to drive. Appropiate technology for a more practical age.