2007 Nissan Maxima

Minus the manual, a take-charge kind of four-door

by Eric Peters

Nissan's Maxima wasn't the first fast four-door, but it did help popularize the "four-door sports car" concept back in the mid-late '80s. At that time, large sedans were typically doughy, ill-handling family-type cars of the Caprice/Taurus type with overstuffed seats and underpowered engines. The Maxima's powerful overhead cam V-6, excellent suspension, driver-focused interior layout, and (perhaps most important of all) available manual transmission presented an automotive oasis to buyers who had to have the extra pair of doors for family or work reasons, but didn't want the middle-aged spread that tended to come with them.

Fast-forward to the present and the Maxima now has lots of company. Sporty sedans with powerful engines, taut suspensions, and great brakes are now the rule, not the exception. There are at least half a dozen excellent cars of this type to choose from, including standouts like the VW Passat and Audi A4 and the Mazda6 and Subaru Legacy GT.

To keep the Maxima near the front of the ever-growing pack is the challenge; whether the changes Nissan's made for 2007 help or hinder that is a call you'll have to make.

Good news today

The good news: Inside, you'll discover a revised interior layout that would not be out of place in the 350Z. A central gauge cluster has big, easy-to-read gauges trimmed in brushed aluminum. An interesting dash pad shape adds to the street-fighter ambiance, with two convex speed humps on the driver and passenger side and a distinctive scalloped section in the middle that seems like it might have been set aside for an optional gunsight and .50 caliber cannon. The driver and front seat passenger are each strapped in to their respective compartments like the side-by-side pilot/bomber in an A6 Intruder.

Backseat riders can feel part of theMission, too, if you order the optional Elite Package that swaps out the standard three-across bench-type back seats for a pair of sport buckets with their own heaters and a center console with its own power point. At $4700 the Elite Package isn't cheap, but the two-across rear seat layout is pretty unique and adds to the car's sporting personality. Plus, you get a lot of other stuff, too including a power rear sunshade, top-of-the-line stereo (320 watts, six-disc CD changer, MP3 capability, RDS and your choice of either XM or Sirius satellite radio capability), xenon headlights, heated steering wheel, sonar rear park assist, Bluetooth hands-free cellphone and, of course, leather trim.

2007 Nissan MaximaThe standard SE model ($28,050) comes with 18-inch rims and performance tires, four-wheel disc brakes (with Brake Assist, traction control and Electronic Brakeforce Distribution, for extra confidence during high-speed/emergency-type stops). Stability control is available optionally.

A neat Maxima feature is the available Skyview fixed-in-place oversize glass roof section. It's not a sunroof (and doesn't open) so you won't feel the breeze in your hair - but it makes up for that by letting in a lot of light, which really brightens up the interior and makes it feel more opened up (sort of like skylights do in your house).

Or choose the softer-sprung SL - which gets less aggressive tires mounted on 17-inch rims, wood trim (in place of the SE's sport-themed metallic/brushed aluminum pieces) and xenon headlights.

For another $1800 (on either trim level) you can order an in-dash GPS unit with one of the best visual layouts currently available. Unlike most GPS displays, which look like electronic versions of standard road maps, this one projects your route in a way that lets you "see" the road ahead as if you were flying in an airplane a couple hundred feet up. Instead of looking down (and in one dimension) at squiggly lines, you look ahead toward your destination, with your forward horizon updating as you drive. This way of looking at things clicks in your head more readily than the standard GPS "map" format by helping orient you visually. You see where you are, what's around you, and where you're headed. All GPS units should be designed this way.