It’s hard to keep a longstanding car model fresh and consistent over the course of decades. Cars such as the Chevrolet Corvette, the Honda Accord and the BMW 3-Series are a few models that have stood the test of time — a truly outstanding achievement that takes dedication, foresight and considerable R&D, as well as investment on the part of the manufacturer. Case in point, some cars models don’t even make it a few years (a post-mortem lite beer toast to you, Subaru Baja).
Then there are those models that keep on keepin’ on as the rest of us wonder why. The Nissan Maxima is quite possibly the poster child of this category. The Maxima emerged on the U.S. automotive scene over thirty years ago, and the third generation car was easily the best, bringing great design, solid performance and practicality together. After five generations and four complete redesigns in the states it remains alive and kicking, for some inexplicable reason. It’s grown in horsepower, weight and disjointed style throughout the years, and Nissan shows no signs of letting up. I heave a sigh of disappointment every time I see a current model on the road.
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Though the Nissan (formerly Datsun) Maxima had been sold in Japan as the Bluebird years before we ever got it, the predecessor to the Maxima sedan made its way to our shores first as the Datsun 810 in 1977. The Maxima name was official in 1982 and it wasn’t until 1985 that the Maxima’s design became noteworthy. You’ll even see some of the boxy second-generation cars around once in a blue moon, and they still look good, with the kind of squareness that begets a reputation of Asian automotive classicism — just like the second generation Toyota Cressida (the predecessor to the Avalon). But it’s the third generation Maxima that truly stands out in my mind as the finest iteration in the car’s history. As good-looking as the second generation was, Nissan smartly ripped up the old design in 1988 and made a decidedly more adventurous move toward something sleeker, simpler and as handsome as a sedan could be in the late 1980s (and even today, by comparison). It was marketed, quite deliberately, as a “4-Door Sports Car” and was so noted on stickers with “4DSC” prominently displayed on the side windows. The car’s performance, driving dynamics and especially the aesthetics were true to this new moniker.
The Maxima Through the Ages
This third generation was vastly different from the car it replaced, sporting fewer angles and harder lines while adding welcomed contours to the front and rear fascia, the greenhouse and all four quarter panels. The proportions were just right, with no dearth or excess of front and rear overhang, no extraneous body bulges, clean and slender head and taillights. It was sleek simplicity. Quite possibly the only thing wrong was its front-wheel-drive setup, but that execution was meant to make it family friendly — and it worked. A 3.0-liter, 160 hp V6 gave it a healthy pep without a hefty amount of torque steer. Even in SE form, the more sporting version, the 190 hp front-wheel drive sedan was more than manageable. The Maxima SE even had a variable intake manifold, sport-tuned suspension bits, a limited slip-diff and could be optioned out with a manual transmission. Even the deck spoiler, something that rarely works on sedans, looked proper. The Maxima of this era was, quite simply, one of the best-looking sedans of its time. Unfortunately, this would be as good as it would get.