Faults:

FYI: This car is 70% RENAULT, I think. Apart from the engine which is Japanese, I believe everything else was done by Renault.

1. Recall on all the door actuators - driver's door locked up and would not open up at all. Had to get in from the passenger side.

2. Alternator recall; second time lucky.

3. The fuel gauge is playing up. Dealer told me to leave it alone as repairing this could cost me big bucks.

4. Now there is a weird engine noise when I start the car cold. The noise goes away in 5 seconds.

General Comments:

The car drives good, but is guzzling fuel now.

Now it does more like 14L / 100km, maybe because I am only doing short distances everyday; more like 2km / day.

I will be neutral on this review, as most of the issues mentioned above were replaced under manufacturer recall.

Faults:

Replaced one of the oxygen sensors.

General Comments:

This was a one private owner, full service history car I bought in September 2010. It's the NZ-spec top of the range Ti.

I've always liked the look of the J31 Maxima, especially the interior. The use of the faux wood and shape of the dash polarized opinion, but I love it.

It's easy to see where the Renault influence is once inside the car, with its unusual style and very French-esque levels of comfort.

The leather seats are supremely comfortable and supportive too. The centre console is a design of simplicity, the only quibble there is that it's easy to confuse the fan speed buttons with the temperature buttons while on the move. Nice, comfy armrests too.

Externally, the car's profile smacks of Passat/A4 in profile, generally a very nice styling job. Front-on is its least flattering angle, the chrome grille and big headlights make it look a bit too "smiley" IMO.

On the go, the VQ35DE 3.5 motor is a stormer, especially above 4000RPM, where it seems to get a second wind. Make no mistake, this thing's a flier - various road reports put the 0-100 time at around 7 to 7.5 seconds. But when you floor the throttle, it has a strange habit of down-changing into 3rd for a split second then straight into 2nd, it doesn't feel very nice at all as it has a jerkiness to it.

It does need to sound a little better though - it kind of sounds a bit thrashy at high RPM.

The suspension is also heavily biased towards comfort, so the chassis can easily lose pace with that aggressive engine. However, if you plan the corner ahead of time, steer with the throttle and switch the traction control off, you can have some fun in the bends.

Go in all ham-fisted, and expect your Maxima to return home on the back of a tow truck. But I guess comfort was always the Maxima's primary design brief.