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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday October 22, 2008 - 23 FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED You'll Love Our Service! 905-335-4080 BURLINGTON LINE Nissan Maxima gets better with age By Lorne Drury METROLAND MEDIA GROUP The timing was right for Nissan to redesign its flagship Maxima sedan. Although only in its fourth year of the current model run, sales were starting to head down the slippery slope earlier this year. In fact, during the month of May which saw overall sales up 19 per cent for Nissan, Maxima sales were off 28 per cent and a whopping 45 per cent overall year to date. Fast forward to August following the launch of the redesigned 2009 Maxima and things are back on track for the Maxima with sales of 214 units, up 78 per cent from the previous September. What a different a redesign makes! Maxima has had a long run for Nissan and is now in its seventh generation after starting life in 1981 as the Datsun 810. Today's Maxima is far removed from the 810 model, but Nissan is attempting to create lightning in a bottle and bring the Maxima back to past glory. A return to its sporty roots and to create "the best performing front engine, front-wheel drive car in the world" was the goal of engineers and designers. Product literature refers to the 09 Maxima as a return of the "four-door sports car." While that may be a bit of a stretch, there's no doubt the Maxima is improved over the previous generation and is a serious contender in the entrylevel luxury class. Key to the sports car goal is a huge boost in power, up to 290 hp and 261 lb-ft of torque from a 3.5-litre DOHC V6. That's a jump of 35 hp and nine lb-ft of torque from basically the same engine as last year. The engine has been tweaked to boost performance, while at the same time providing better fuel economy. Fuel consumption is rated at 10.8L/100 km (26 mpg) city and 7.7L/100 km (37 mpg) highway. Last year, the numbers were 11.1 and 7.9 respectively. Based on the same "D" platform that is used on the Altima and Murano, Nissan set out to differentiate the Maxima from the Altima because over the years buyers had started to gravitate away from the Maxima to the V6 Altima. Thanks to the new look, Nissan designers have succeeded in making the Maxima look larger even though the wheelbase and length have been reduced. The vehicle is wider, though, and has plenty of room inside to accommodate four adults in comfort. It has, what Nissan calls a "super cockpit", combining Continued on Page 26 The Maxima, the flagship of the Nissan fleet, has undergone a complete redesign for 2009 with a more aggressive, sporty look.