My first car was a
1985 Nissan 200SX. My second car was a 1993 Nissan Sentra. My third car (which I had for only three weeks before trading it in on the subject of this review) was a 1999 Nissan Maxima. My fourth car is the 2000 Nissan Maxima SE.
I'm the type of customer Nissan should want to keep around. Brand loyalty and all - I mean I'd never owned another brand of car. My parents also had a half dozen Nissan Maximas, ranging from their long discontinued 1986 station wagon to the 2002 GLE. I'm intentionally trying to skip over the 1984 Maxima of theirs that I totalled but that's another story. My brother also had a 1987 Maxima SE.
However, Nissan has lost my future business as a customer for anything other than service on this car. Once it goes, I'll be saying sayonara.
It's not so much that Nissans are bad cars. Other than a recurring rotor and brake problem, the car has been pretty reliable. It's even fun to drive. But this problem has been enough to make me want to buy something different. I don't like spending that amount of money in the service department on a regular basis and I don't like spending that much time switching car seats around and figuring out how to get my husband to work or the kids to school because we only have one car for the day or days or in one case, over a week. Is a rental ever offered? Not on their dime. Sometimes, Nissan has picked up the bill for the parts and labor but it's not been enough to offset the hassle caused by having to leave the car in the shop.
So, before delving into the long-standing maintenance nightmare with this car, I'll talk about why I chose this car and the rest of the information that might help you decide to buy (or not buy) one of these puppies on the used car lot.
I bought the 2000 Nissan Maxima SE because I didn't have much of a choice. I originally purchased a 1999 Maxima GLE at the very end of the model year, just as the first 2000 models were coming onto the lot. I wanted a 1999. I did not want a 2000. I thought the car was ugly and the front grille reminded me of Hannibal Lechter's mask from "Silence of the Lambs".
Unfortunately, my 1999 was a complete lemon. It was loaded with aftermarket items that the guy who originally ordered the car wanted. He then decided he didn't want the car so that's how I ended up with it. Half the stuff didn't work (like the keyless starter) and a bunch of things broke in those three weeks, including the speedometer (as I learned with an expensive speeding ticket on the Washington Beltway and it was confirmed by the mechanic that the speedometer cables were toast) and the power seat control and even the headliner fell out of the car. When the car refused to start at all, I'd had enough. The dealership agreed to buy it back for full credit but I had to choose another car on the lot.
There was very little I was interested in. I didn't want another Sentra or a Altima. The XTerra didn't excite me and I really didn't want a Pathfinder or a Frontier. We also had another complication which is that my husband is 6'5 and more of his height is in his torso instead of his legs. He simply doesn't fit in most cars. So, we were basically stuck with the 2000 Maxima. I cried. It was my first "new" car purchase and it definitely wasn't what I wanted.
Because of the problems with all of the aftermarket items and even the standard items on the first Maxima, I said I wanted a car with no extras on it whatsoever. I wanted standard factory features and not a single thing more. That meant I did not want power seats or a moonroof or even leather. That meant there would be less that could break. By making that decision I limited my choices on the lot to two cars: a Sterling Mist or a Satin Blue Pearl Maxima SE. My husband told me he really liked the blue so that's what we drove home.
Our base Maxima SE included plenty of standard features including driver and passenger front airbags, a rear spoiler, cd player, power windows, doorlocks and exterior mirrors, power brakes, a keyless remote entry (including the trunk)and alarm, tilt steering wheel, ABS, fog lights and cruise control. It has a standard 6 cylinder engine with plenty of oomph to accelerate in needed situations - so much nicer than my Sentra's chug chugging when I hoped I make it up the on-ramp before the next car came along! Aside from the airbags which I haven't had to use, everything has worked and I haven't had any difficulties.
As with my Sentra, there is plenty of room in the trunk! We've taken this car on numerous trips back and forth to Florida and New Jersey from the
Washington, DC area. At the time, we had a small child and we were carting her pack 'n play and a booster seat and safety gates as well as clothes and diapers and all the other assorted detrius that accompanies small (and not-so-small) children. We always had enough room in the trunk to fit everything and we did not pack lightly. The back seat has a 60/40 split so you can lay down one of the seats and slip taller items (like a set of bed rails or a pair of skis) through the trunk.
After seven years of living with the cloth seats (in Frost) on this car, they look pretty good. This is despite carting a dog with filthy paws about and a child who liked to do things such as projectile vomit after drinking red Kool-Aid (it stained the carpeting but not the seats). I even broke in the seats that way myself after an outpatient operation and a dose of Cipro. That also stained the carpeting. I don't see any rips or tears or much in the way of real wear on the fabric. I'm hopeful that a good steam cleaning may help the carpets but it's obvious that it's not that important to me since the stains have been there for a few years. On the driver's side seatbelt, the little button that keeps the buckle from sliding down the belt when the belt is not in use has broken off but that's about it for fabric wear and tear throughout the car.
The back seat easily accommodates my husband and his almost equally tall parents - even all three of them at the same time! It's not terribly comfortable with three of them back there, especially since the middle seat is not truly meant to be used despite the presence of a seatbelt but they do fit. When there are only two adults in the back seat, my husband assures me that he is comfortable.
The back seat does not easily accommodate all car seats. We originally had a Century Smart Fit Elite which we could not get to properly fit in the car, even after taking it to a certified car seat technician. We switched to a Graco SnugRide but it could not be used in the center position. To properly use our Britax Roundabout, we've had to use a couple of pool noodles underneath the seat and I personally cannot correctly install this seat in the car. Whenever we've had to remove the seat, I've always had to go to the fire station to get it back in the right way. I didn't have this problem with this car seat in our 1998 Subaru Forester and don't have it with our 2006 Honda Odyssey. I have not tried our Britax Marathon in the Maxima. Be aware that the car was made before LATCH was standard so there are no LATCH connectors on this car. You'll need a locking clip unless it's part of the design of your car seat (such as the Britax models) and you'll be using the seatbelts. It's very simple to use tethers in this car and they are easy to access.
I originally wasn't a big fan of the interior design when I first got the car but it grew on me. I'm not a huge fan of the titanium gauges in the daytime but I think it's a pretty sharp look at night when the dashboard is all lit up. I usually have enough cupholders (but I don't care too much for the liftout insert because mine is really disgusting right now and sticky but that's a personal problem) and there's plenty of storage for receipts and maps and cds and such. I also really like having a cassette deck in the car and I use that to plug in my mp3 player. There's too many problems with reception around here for a wireless setup to work. I've been going without when I drive the van and it's been major withdrawal for me having to actually listen to the radio.
I think we get decent mileage out of the car. It has an 18 and a half gallon tank and we average 26 mpg. You're supposed to use only premium gas for this car. I don't. We once had a problem with pinging so I switched out for a few weeks. The problem went away and hasn't returned.
Driving this car is usually a pleasure. I like the sporty feel of the suspension when I drive on some of the curvy and hilly roads in my area. Driving Route 9 into West Virginia is an awful lot of fun and one of my favorites (especially since I don't have to commute on that road daily). Given a choice, when it snows, I stay home. I find that the car fishtails a lot and it just doesn't feel secure, even with brand new tires. I'm not sure what the problem is with snow and ice. I do feel comfortable driving under those conditions as I learned how to drive in the northeast where you get that weather more frequently than not in the winter.
Overall, maintenance hasn't been a problem. Aside from our rotor problem which I'm going to get to in a minute, things have been pretty normal for a car of this age. Although we may not spend a lot of time on cosmetic care for the car, we're sticklers about regular oil changes, rotating tires, alignments and those scheduled maintenance visits. We've replaced the timing belt and we had a problem caused by
Amtrak when we took the AutoTrain which required replacement of the front left and right side wheel bearings as well as the right side center axel bearing.
The biggest problem with this car is the rotors. Without fail, between every 9,000 and 17,000 miles, we've had to completely replace the rotors on this car. Not resurface them but replace them and the entire brake pad assembly. The first time we had the problem, it took Nissan over a month to figure out exactly what the problem was with the shaking, squealing, steering vibration and shimmying. That's a long time to basically be without a car. Now, the service department manager knows me by my first name and Nissan has picked up the entire bill under warranty (and we don't have an extended warranty) three times according to my service records. If you go trolling the Internet for information, rotor problems are actually somewhat common on this car but Nissan has never officially acknowledged it. As far as I have been able to ascertain, there have been no recalls associated with this model year.
It's not so much the problem with the car but the amount of hassle with the car spending so much time in the shop for the problem. I don't like the way it has been handled by Nissan and the fact that they can't tell me if what appears to be an engineering problem has been resolved with their current models leaves me wary of purchasing another.
In any case, we tend to drive our cars until they die. Our 2000 Maxima SE has about 120,000 miles and 7 years of use on it. We're hoping to get at least three more years out of it and preferably more. It's currently driven 5 miles in each direction for my husband to go to work every day. Other than that, it gets the occasional spin around the neighborhood to go to the grocery store but it doesn't get out much. We keep our cars in the garage so it's not exposed to the elements. The body shows no signs of rust but there are some door dings along both sides of the car. Overall, aside from the stains on the carpeting and some cosmetic cleaning, it's in almost as good shape as when we bought it in September 1999.
I'm recommending this car with reservations. If it weren't for the ongoing rotor problems, I'd be giving this car five stars and jumping up and down about how reliable and awesome it is and I'd be lining up at the dealership to keep buying Nissan cars. The problem is, the rotor problem is there. It's not going away. Nissan is semi-acknowledging the problem by paying for some of the repairs, even when the car was out of warranty. It was an even bigger problem before the dealership was able to diagnose the problem and the car spent almost an entire month in the shop. So, I'd say this is a pretty good car but definitely be wary of the rotors. I also hear rumors of ignition coil and oxygen sensor problems but we haven't experienced anything with those.
Amount Paid (US$): 20,000
Condition: New
Model Year: 2000
Model and Options: SE Automatic
