A Little Positivity
There has been enough negativity around Nissan lately, a good moment to take a pleasant look at the brand’s past. We do that with a real Nissan Maxima.
The Nissan Maxima has been a real sales hit on the other side of the world until very recently, but here in the Netherlands we mainly think of Willem-Alexander’s wife when we hear Maxima. After all, only just under 4,000 Maxima’s have been sold here and the last new one was delivered over twenty years ago. The Nissan Maxima we have here is one from an earlier generation. This one was called Maxima QX in Europe, where the addition QX stood for ‘Quality eXcellence’, because the Maxima was supposed to be on a slightly higher level than the version sold in America.
‘Our’ Maxima also differed in appearance from the North American version. For example, we got rear lights that extended deeper onto the tailgate and a clearly different grille on the nose. Incidentally, the chassis of the Maxima became a bit simpler than that of its predecessor and smaller engines were also available than before. However, they were all V6’s; here in the Netherlands there was a choice of a 2.0 or a 3.0. A generation earlier there was only a 3.0.
The copy we have here, from 1996, has the smallest V6. That puts a relatively modest power of 140 hp on the scale and the automatic transmission takes some tempo out of it. So it’s not necessarily a particularly fast car. However, it looks neat and almost everything that was possible at the time is electrically operated. The mileage of only 86,406 km is remarkably low and matches the external condition of the car. So if you are looking for a Maxima QX that is still in good condition, this is probably one of your best chances for the time being. Small downside: it is not an original Dutch car. Oh and the asking price is not bad, unless this is exactly what you are looking for: €5,950.