Test drive Nissan Maxima 2000 - 2004 sedan

"Nissan-Maxim"

Model - Nissan Maxima QX/›Nissan Maxim QX; manufacturer - Nissan; year of release - 1997; in operation while driving - since 1997; mileage at the time of the report - 72 thousand km; Previous publications - ZR, 1998, No. 2 and 6.
Our first 70 thousand km our Maxima ran without breakdowns and faults. The only unplanned replacement is the lamp of one of the back lamps. And all! Only a thorough inspection with a large one demanded to buy something in the suspension (details below). The remaining several thousand details of the car seemed to not even know that they work in extreme conditions of Moscow with its traffic jams, shaking on the potholes of roads and salt fogs. And planned costs required only replacement of expenditure materials and the submission of the machine. These are not only oil and filters, but also the rubber bands of the wiper brushes, which, when intensive operation on the dirty streets of the city, are enough for a year - when they are worn out, they no longer clean up, but smear the dirt on the glass.
We had to spend most of all on winter tires (we took one of the best, although very expensive-Gislavra-Nord-Frost II with spikes of $ 125 per cylinder), music ($ 800) and alarm ($ 900). Compared to these amounts, the price of a set of rugs on the floor looks completely funny. Rubber troughs for Lada ($ 6 per set) perfectly approached the luxurious Japanese. But someone orders branded on the service, especially for Maxima, for $ 95 ... By the way, we, like most owners of foreign cars, tried to forget the road to the corporate service, barely waiting for the end of the warranty period. Why pay frantic money for original filters, when on every corner quite worthy from equally eminent firms are sold? For example, the oil champion -S109 - $ 8, Air Mann -C2974 - $ 12, fuel Fram -G6400 - $ 10. On the service and filters and oils are three times more expensive, and every hour of work is calculated in dollars.
But we really happened to really see the predatory grin of the official dealer a year after the purchase of the car. The fact is that our Maxima has a congenital defect that did not attach significance at first - a barely noticeable crack in the rear lamps of the rear lights. We did not guess and replace it under warranty. Later it turned out that due to the loose fit of the panel, rainwater seeps into the rear lights, threatening to disable them. The new panel is only original, and for this primitive piece of red plastic, the cost of which is probably ridiculous, we were announced ... $ 600! I had to temporarily seal the gap with tape, and then we repaired the panel with a sealant. Is it necessary to explain that from now on the words original spare part invariably cut the ear ...
So, with the official - everything is clear. So can I try the service simpler, no worse equipped, but not so greedy? And then the case introduced himself - it's time to do a big then. Of course, we ourselves will be able to replace consumables, brake pads and check the condition of all car systems, and completely free. But why not investigate what this pleasure will cost the ordinary owner of the Japanese woman?
And our representative sedan hung on the lift of one of the well-known stations in Moscow, where Nissan cars have been serving since the beginning of the 90s. The first surprise is among the pleasant ones: they allow you to go to the Rembzone and willingly demonstrate everything that they do with the car. Apparently, they understand that the bourgeois has a manner of keeping customers in the dressing room, as the official do, it will not take root in Russia - after all, laying on the table, like well -bombed Americans, for some reason we consider to be a lead. And here we are respected - instead of blowing coffee and watching an idiotic video, we are in the thick of events. Mechanics with us print out a jar of corporate oil, packaging with filters, and the very way they deftly and carefully work with keys - in their way advertising: the client sees that they do not use their sledgehammer and the valves with sticky sand are not regulated.
The master invites us under the car and shows the backlash in the hinges of the front suspension stabilizer: well, do we change? - Okay, write out! Given the broken Moscow roads, we are not offended by Nissan - once for 70 thousand km. You can spend $ 36 per couple of stabilizer racks.
The work boils, the mechanics change the destron liquid in the gearbox, remove the wheels ... But the imaginary counter is completely prevented from enjoying the spectacle. Inexorably clicking, he reminds that time, including what is spent on the most primitive operations, such as replacing brake pads, is appreciated here - $ 40 for each hour and at the end of the path will have to be calculated ...
Having paid for everything about everything nearly 21 thousand (!) Rubles and having received a copy of the account, already at home, slowly, they began to understand. The filters from the station’s warehouse cost twice as much as in the store: oil $ 15, airy $ 39 and a pair of salon for $ 26. For a can of oil mobile 0W40, they paid with a merchant scope - 1770 rubles. The fact that in the nearest store it costs 1200, we try not to remember - why spoil our mood? Dexstron for an automatic box for 650 rubles is still tolerant, but half a liter of antifreeze for 70 rubles and a liter of brakes for 450 is already robbery. Most lost on the blocks: $ 110 front and $ 84 rear - even elite Lucas is half the cheaper.
But the most spectacular stroke - four nuts of fastening of the stabilizer racks (the old ones had to be cut off by a grinder). For each 10 -gram piece of steel (robots are stamped with such tons), we paid 50 (!) Rubles - so much asks for thick woolen socks a granny in the transition, who knew them for a week ...
Now let's compare the amounts paid for the work with those that traditional STO take for similar operations. For example, they took the prices of Anatoly Weissman, our permanent author, whose circle of clients has developed since the first Lada. Even taking into account the 70 percent allowance for a foreign car, a large, for example, would cost 350 rubles (we paid 2800), the replacement of all the pads would cost 500 rubles instead of 2200, etc.
So, having bought spare parts in the store, we would save at least 5 thousand and the same if we served the car on a small private service. Seven hundred dollars instead of 350 - is it not much for science?
But if you forget about the costs and the rapid depreciation of the car, we are satisfied with Maximka. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but after our publications about him on the streets of Moscow, such cars suddenly increased sharply. Three to five QX-ps of exactly the same dark green color at the entrances of commercial firms and solid state institutions-this, you see, is a clear sign of trust in our choice. A luxurious representative sedan with a full set of options for $ 29,000 (post -crisis price) - he will not buy a bad wheel ...

Anton Utkin

A source: The magazine "Driving"