gto2050

I'm puzzled! The Altima 3.5SE with auto (no sticks on the lot) priced out at 27,500 (rounded off) with cloth interior. The Maxima SE with manual tranny prices out at $26,000. What am I missing here? The Altima has a better looking exterior than the Max but the Max looks better internally. I figure that a Altima SeE-R will be much higher than a similarily priced Maxima. The Nissan logic escapes me.

Zapata

yeah, i'm not sure either. I went to a dealership a week ago and everybody in the place was acting like the Altima 3.5s was a bentley or something. Nissan said they were going to get rid of the lower end Max because the high end altima would be pretty much the samething. I dunno. The guy had a real attitude.....so I just walked out, he was left standing there holding out his business card. I've gotten 2 calls and 2 letters asking me to come back in so we can make a deal

dhlesq

I could be wrong and this may have been brought up before, but I think Nissan is doing some lineup changes whereby the Altima will eventually be their "luxury" car and the Maxima will remain their "performance" car. Pricing is supposed to remain almost equal with the Altima eventually becoming slightly more expensive due to all those plastic "luzury" items inside.

I don't know a whole lot about marketing principles, but it seems that causing confusion amongst potential buyers would not be a winner at the showroom.

Zapata

Guy told me that nissan wants to get away from over production. They want to be where Acura is right now. If the altima is supposed to be the luxary then what is infinity? Honda is going to make a killing!

GoldTypeS_RENAMED

The Altima is just supposed to be the Altima... its a competitor to the Accord/Camry/Taurus group of cars. It's never going to be luxurious especially not with that cheap ass interior!!

gto - Are you sure that Maxima wasn't a leftover 2001? As far as I know, the 6spds haven't even been released yet? The Max's that were on the lot (loaded automatic SE's) were over $30k when I looked at the Altima last month. There's a definite price difference of $3-4k between the Altima and Maxima when similarly equipped.

The new Altima is like the Camaro of family sedans... plenty of power but at the expense of a nasty interior. No thanks. I'll spend the extra cash and get a Max...

SilverCL225hp

Let's just wait for the RWD Infiniti G35.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Gold... no, those prices GTO is reporting are accurate. About 2 weeks ago I went with a co-worker friend to a Nissan dealership to look at the Maxima's. She was all ready to lease a 2001 at a good rate when we realized that the '02 SE was about the same price. It was around $26k. Then there was an auto Altima 3.5SE in the showroom and the sticker was a tick below $28k. The only logic I have is that the Maxima is supposed to be redesigned next year, so I guess the pricing of the Altima reflects that. So the new '03 Maxima will be priced higher then the Altima, but for now, it's cheaper b/c the Max prices aren't going up until the redesign. Wierd.....

moomaster_99

I was reading that the low-end Max GXE production is going to be artificially held to 10-20% of Maxs...

2000MaximaSE

wow this post is just full of mis-information. lets open a door and let some of this out.....

The altima is basicly replacing the maxima which is sad when u think about it because it costs around the same price but has an aass interior.. It is competing with accord and camry and the like... I dont think nissan is worried about acura... its honda and toyota, not their luxury divisions they are competing with.... But they also got that covered with the G35 and what not.. They are moving the maxima further upscale to compete with es300 and tl i assume. I dont think its gonna be avalon size. god i hope not... Mark the 6 spd is available now. A guy on our board just traded his 2000 for one.. his name is paul6speed.

Adam

JRock

All i gotta say is if I was buying a car right now, I'd probably lean towards an '02 Maxima SE. Should be as quick as a CL-S and has more mods availabl, plus it's a little cheaper.

The Altima, on the other hand, is ASS.

gto2050

I dunno Mark. There were no stickers in the window. I really like the exterior design of the Altima. It's great looking. I don't like the styling of the current Maxima. Mostly the Daewoo grill and the tail lights. I liked my 98 much better. It was a black SE 5 spd. The sticker on mine in 98 was $28,500 or thereabouts. They made me a deal I could not refuse. $299 a month for 30 months at 15,000 miles a year. No drive off! It was a great deal.

haiduc

the altima got a power boost. i'm preety sure that the maxima is gonna get revamped and get a bigger engine so that is will still be one step above the altima.
but that is the last i heard about the situation. i could be wrong.*shrug*