nissan maxima 40,000 mile test
We fall into a tempestuous, dangerous romance. Eat your heart out, Oprah.

BY PHIL BERG

If it's true, as the Mills Brothers sang, that we always hurt the ones we love, then we owe an apology to our long-term sweetheart, the Nissan Maxima SE, sedan of our dreams and again this year winner of our Ten Best Cars award.

We didn't exactly stomp on its heart, but after this spectacular five-speed V-6 sedan had dated us exclusively for 23,000 miles, it needed a doctor. One of its innards--the clutch--was crisped.

Which leads us to wonder: Did the clutch fail us, or did we, in our zeal to zip through its delightful gears, ask too much of it? Quite frankly, it is almost impossible to drive this car without gusto. Anyway, the clutch tab added up to a digestible $739, about what you'd pay for one of those curious Italian bicycle-riding costumes so popular these days.

During its 14 months here, our '95 Maxima gave no indication of being a gold digger. We paid an average of $49 for four routine oil-change and tire-rotation stops and $60 for a front-end alignment necessitated by 40,000 miles' worth of pummeling by rust-belt roads. However, an ambitious dealer in upstate New York clipped our own Brock Yates for what we figure should have been a $180 service at the 30,000-mile mark; this chap charged us $288, the extra $108 going for unauthorized transmission-oil and coolant changes, neither of which Mr. Yates requested. (Mr. Yates was not paying the keenest attention, understand, as he is an artist and views monetary negotiation as weasel's work.)

Clutch and the Yates overcharge incident aside, our official tally for maintaining the Maxima was $376. That's $193 less than we spent on our long-term '95 Accord EX with a four-cylinder engine, and $66 more than our long-term '95 Mitsubishi Galant, likewise powered by four cylinders. The cost comparison seems moot in light of our unanimous ardor for this wonderful performer. We loved driving it.

Here's what the Maxima SE offers: quick moves, rewarding cruising, and the ability to take on twisty-road driving with elan. It is terrific fun just shifting the gears (ironically, 90 percent of Maximas are sold with automatics, Nissan informs), though a slight squealing noise turned up at only 5000 miles. On a short commute at the 23,000-mile mark, one of us got a whiff of the tell-tale odor of fried clutch lining. But after a few minutes of cool-down, the weak-clutch symptoms seemed to disappear. We drove on, watching to see if the slippage would become severe. By 40,000 miles, the clutch was barely working. With the pedal about an inch off the floorboards, it would take several inches more of tiresome left-leg travel to engage fully. And this is a car with leg-saving seats, good thigh bolsters, and plenty of fore-and-aft seat travel. It was no way to treat a lady, so we got her a new clutch.

Some folks were put off by the white gauge faces, saying they look chintzy. Others of us, however, like the visibility of the white faces at dusk or on overcast days.

The remote power-door locks annoyed us on occasion. The system is interfaced with the power windows and you can roll the front windows down automatically if you hold down the unlock button for three seconds. Screw up in winter and you'll dump snow on the front seats.

In the looks department, the Maxima has a lot in common with the girl in high school who is described as having a lot of personality. Yates wrote, "The styling is so bland I keep confusing it with my daughter Stacy's (likewise black) Altima." Most of the problem seems to be its oddly shaped rump, contributing to a general dullness of design.

Nobody wrote that it was an ugly car, but perhaps when we ran out of anything else to complain about, styling took its turn. Of course we could be jaded, having become familiar with this sedan's shape since the model was introduced in almost the same skin in 1988. But consistent pleas for more, say, panache showed up in the Maxima's logbook in the course of our 14-month experience. "An extremely likable car--if not for the dull exterior design," is how art director Tom Cosgrove summed it up. We found the basic looks of the car inviting, but the spoiler tacky. It's time to come up with another styling gimmick to replace this kind of status codpiece. Fins, anyone?

Though staffers complained of styling ennui both inside and out, they raved about driving this wonderful Nissan. And drive it we did: to New Orleans, Chicago, New York, Mackinaw City, Cleveland, Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Not to forget Campbellsport, Wisconsin, where a Gordon Bennett Cup balloon landed and set a U.S. record for flight distance.

The Maxima's manners were very ladylike on the highway--quiet and competent. We were happy carrying family and friends, a testament to the Maxima's spacious interior. The front-seat area is a few cubic feet larger than in either a Camry or an Accord. The Maxima's fun-to-drive quotient is rare in cars with front-seat accommodations larger than a Buick LeSabre's. A real perk is that after 40,000 miles, its leather looked new.

The SE is powered by a 190-horsepower 3.0-liter V-6 that was brand-new for the 1995 model year. Torque is 205 pound-feet at 4000 rpm, and you can feel most of it beginning at 2500 rpm. When you plant your throttle foot, the front wheels only want to go their own separate directions for the briefest moment--more powerful front-drivers pull the steering wheel against your hands with greater force.

New, our Maxima got to 60 mph in 6.7 seconds, which is sprightly. The fastest five-speed V-6 Taurus SHO we tested made it to 60 in 6.5 seconds, and a Camry V-6 automatic takes 7.5 seconds. The Maxima's top speed when new was 137 mph. Today, with a fresh clutch and a fully broken-in engine, the car gets to 60 in 6.6 seconds and pulls to 140 mph. This motor feels every bit as strong as the numbers suggest.

We liked the Maxima so much that we'd pay the price of a new clutch every 40,000 miles and still consider the car a value. We asked Brock Yates, and he would too.

photo credit: Jeffrey G. Russell