Nissan Maxima 2004 Redesign

maxamillion1

I went to two Nissan dealers in Charlotte N.C. (Superior Nissan and Independence Nissan) and I looked and looked. I saw a coupe of Maximas that I liked. The interior is nicer than I had first thought. Maybe it is growing on me. I really really liked a Silver one that was on the lot. Do you have the skyview?

bowke28

justification for dealer charge: they want you to buy the '03's till they are gone. they do this by discounting old models...but sometimes thats not enough to sway the fence-sitters. adding money on the new model gets more old ones sold quicker, and getsmore money for the new ones. its a win-win for the dealer. profit is not a crime.

p100

I just looked at a fully loaded 04 Maxima SE with an elite package and the sticker was over $35,000. The elite package alone is over $ 6,000! I was surprised to see that this package does not include sunroof, which was additional $ 900. $ 35,000 sticker represents about $ 4,000 price increase over a fully loaded 03 SE. The elite package contains a few more gimmicks than previously available on the 03 (e.g. heated rear seats), but the price increase appears excessive. One good thing is that there are 5 equipment packages to choose from for an SE model and three packages for an SL model. Each lesser package is a subset of the next more expensive package. For those of us who can live without a heated steering wheel or power rear sunshade, a base SE with a premium audio package (Bose stereo) looks like a decent deal ($ 28K+).

One observation: Even cars in medium price range like the Maxima are getting overgadgetized these days. Can you imagine potential problems and associated repair costs with this car with an Elite package 10 years down the road? It will be like owning a BMW 750 iL, which comes with power heated rear bucket seats.

bowke28

granted, gizmos break, but the folks in the income levels to buy these generally dont keep cars more than 3 or 4 years at most. the risk comes with the 2nd and 3rd owners. and they can research problems with the gizmos before they buy a used car. new cars have warranties, so the 1st owners dont have to worry much.

Kirstie_H

Since this is now available for purchase, I'm going to ask everyone to swing over to the active topic in Sedans on the Nissan Maxima.

Thanks for the great discussion on this major redesign!