Weekend before last, I drove home to San Fran and left my car for a plug & wire change out. Because of a foul-up, and the fact I had to get back to LB on Sunday, they arranged with Hertz to rent a Mazda Protege at no charge. I wasn't about to sit behind the wheel of one for 5-6 hours each way, so I sprang an extra $12 for a Maxima.

It's a nice little car and it's amazingly quick, but it's not the most confidence inspiring car on the road. That great solid feel completely dissappears around 90 mph, and the car starts feeling more than a little nervous. The steering feels way too light, the car travels as if it's on it's tippy toes, yet the engine keeps on pulling.

In another thread redzed refered to the "torque-steering Maxima", and he's right about that part. I had the automatic, and it still torque steered. But the really scary part is that it torque steers whenever you press the gas. Even if you floor it at 70mph to pass another vehicle! It's nervous disposition at speed doesn't help.

I drove a supercharged GTP some years ago, and GM's artificially heavy steering and the generally weighty feel made the car feel ok until winding roads. Maxima looks good, feels perfectly weighted, feels good around town, and it has more enough engine. But I wouldn't want to own one for the driving I do.

Anyone else have experience with this car?

 

Faster than a pre 99' Mustang GT...

 

I recently drove an Infiniti I35, which is built off the previous-gen Maxima platform. Maybe I'm spoiled with my Zed, but the power was nothing to write home about. And it seemed like the tranny was shifting to 2nd at like 5 mph, because unless you hustled immediately off the line, you would find yourself in 2nd and pulling about as hard as a Cavalier.

You're right about the torque steer, that's the first thing I noticed. That's a nice V6 and all, but it ain't that torquey.

Your high-speed instability is probably caused from too much positive caster, which is often dialled in to help reduce low-speed steering effort.

 

Not faster.... about as fast.

Didn't let the tranny do much on it's own thanks to that manumatic shifter (great idea!). As for the engine, it's not going to do an SRT-4 style burnout, but anything under 7 seconds to 60 mph is really good for a family sedan.

I hope you're right about too much caster in the front. It felt great in the city, and rolling along at rush hour speeds, but I wouldn't want one for a LA /SF, LV, or Arizona run where there are streaches where traffic speeds run 90 mph at times (no my east coast friends, I am not exagerating!).

 

How it drives means nothing to me as I cant get past the new one's styling. That skunk stripe fixed sunroof kills me. The old one looked very nice. O'well, the 350z and g35 were too good for the maxima to be good as well.

 

I think the Maxima and Altima are cars which have a chassis design that's one generation behind the engine output. From my experience, a Honda Accord V6 is only 5hp behind an Altima V6, but torque steer isn't present. Why? Honda was smart enough to build a lower-torque, higher reving powerplant. It probably would have been cheaper to have droped the 3.5 liter from the Oddysey/Pilot/MDX into the Accord, but the sacrifice in low down torque and acceleration keeps things from getting unruly.

We should also remember that GM produces some of the best high-powered FWD cars in the business. If a supercharged W-body isn't entirely immune from torque steer, it's not as far off as it could be. Cadillac is another story, and I've never had any issues with torque-steer in a Northstar powered car. I've flogged FWD Caddys pretty hard on country roads - perhaps harder than I normally drive my Z28 - and I can't complain.

All of those hard years, and big investments, gave GM alot of advantages in FWD. When I think about how even an "Iron Duke" powered Celebrity was a torque-steerer, I can say they've come a long way. Nissan still has a bit further to go.

 

Plus the Maxima's ugly...there is one outside my building with bling bling rims.........I don't look better in person

 

I think Nissan engineered-in the premature shifting not only to reduce torque steer, but to spare the transmission. However, I'm amazed they couldn't have done more to compensate with the engine control computer.

Saab put "electronic watchdogs" in to limit the torque applied to the 9-3 Viggen's manual transmission in the lower gears. Judging by the reviews, they weren't very successful in killing torque steer. Partly this was a result of the crappy Opel derived chassis, some elements of which dated back to the J-car of 1982!

Nissan could have tried the same technique, but the electronic "kill joy" would probably have been noticable. It all comes down to chassis design. Longitudinal-engined Audis and VW Passats have a front suspension design that is claimed to be impervious to torque steer - a surprising feature when you consider that the more powerful models come with standard Quattro AWD anyway.

In the final analysis, Nissan should have made the Maxima RWD, fixed the chassis, or detuned the motor. Maybe their design process has become too "efficient."

 

I was reading a comment in one of the magazines saying that one of the things contributing to torque-steer was unequal length half-shafts. They praised Neon SRT-4 for having them EQUAL in lenght to reduce torque-steer. SRT-4 actually had less TS than Altima, yet it was quicker.

 

I don't know about that... There aren't too many pre-99 pulling 14.4 or better. Weren't 5.0 and early 4.6L quite slow, convertibles running quarter mile in high 15's?

 

The GTP has suprisingly little torque steer for having 280lb-ft of torque. I drove the 4cyl Altima and it was bad for such a low output FWD car.

 

Have you tried a different haircut?

 

No doubt you're right (that's about what mine did).

The Maxima simply put is quick and fast. It reminded me of my 85 Stang. It wasn't a visious runner the way that car was, but in the way it performed, it did remind me alot of that car, but with an automatic. A very unstable version of a Mustang, but still impressively quick.

 

Don't let that slip out in the dating chatrooms.

 

QUOTE: "It's a nice little car and it's amazingly quick, but it's not the most confidence inspiring car on the road. That great solid feel completely dissappears around 90 mph, and the car starts feeling more than a little nervous. The steering feels way too light, the car travels as if it's on it's tippy toes, yet the engine keeps on pulling."


I just returned a '99 Maxima SE 5spd that had I leased for my wife 4 years ago. I liked that car about the first few months or so. I agree with the quote above. The car alway felt tippy to me too. Maybe this is something NISSAN believes is good ...

The engine was great, and the car looked good, but it just didn't feel as solid on the road, even well below 90mph. Plus, the ergonomics in the '99 were just plain bad. I'm only 5'9" and there was no way to adjust the seat and steering wheel to get your legs/knees out of the steering wheel. Fine for an auto to drive spread eagle, but not a stick. And, the shifter was terrible, no feel, except for being sloppy. It needed much better seats too. They were like padded dining room chairs, no lateral support whatsover.

I have to admit though, it was the easiest set of plugs I ever changed. That engine was easy to work on, and ran awesome.