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Monday, October 31, 2016
Sunday, October 30, 2016
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Wheels and Tires: Making or Breaking a Car
Most car buyers don’t really think about wheels and tires. The donuts made out of black rubber aren’t exactly sexy and are usually only remembered when they fail. Consequently, tires tend to be nothing more than round things on a car for most drivers. Still, people appear to like large wheels that fill the wheel wells, at least based upon what I see on the roads, so car buyers do pay at least a little attention to what’s rotating underneath their vehicles. If only people understood exactly how important the wheel and tire decision is when purchasing a vehicle and how that choice can make or break the overall handling dynamics and ride quality of an automobile, not to mention owner’s pocketbooks.
I recently spent a week in England in the new 2017 Mercedes E-Class. The all-new German sedan was fitted with optional 20-inch wheels carrying run-flat performance tires. Leading up to UK trip, I spent an extended period with a similar E-Class in the USA. That car was fitted with 18-inch wheels with conventional, non-run flat performance tires. Both cars carried the same optional air suspension at all four corners. I was blown away by how much the large, 20-inch wheels and shorter, unforgiving sidewalls of the run-flat tires compromised the relaxed nature of the latest Mercedes midsize sedan. The car I drove in England felt heavier and more cumbersome over imperfections, while also crashing over bumps and never feeling properly settled. Additionally, the big wheels bring along staggered tires — wide 275 mm rear tires paired with 245 mm front tires. This means that rotating the tires to extend the life of the rubber is out of the question. Why someone would want such wide, performance-oriented tires on a four-cylinder luxury sedan is beyond me. The 18-inch wheels carrying the E300 in the States made it a far nicer car to live with.
Unfortunately, it’s not as straight forward as just picking the size of the wheels. In the UK, the “AMG Line” models (“Sport” in the USA) all come fitted with summer run-flat tires while the base E-Class models (“Luxury” in the States) feature conventional summer tires (not run-flats) along with a fix-a-flat repair kit in the trunk. All non-AMG E-Class models in the USA carry run-flat, all-season tires but Mercedes-Benz USA is thinking about offering performance tires as a special order option — either run-flat or conventional, they haven’t decided. The E-Class will no-doubt handle and steer better on performance tires versus all-seasons, but that choice forces the winter-tire averse American buyers that live in the snow belt to purchase a second set of tires. I see no issue with this and always buy winter tires for my cars, but many people don’t see the clear logic or fully understand the benefits.
It’s also interesting to study the tire setup of various other models that are sold in both Europe and the USA. For example, the Ford Focus ST comes standard with basically the same performance tire on both sides of the pond. The difference is that our Focus ST carries a full-size spare, robbing valuable cargo room. In Europe, a fix-a-flat compressor and tire seal kit lives in the cargo area instead. Additionally, American buyers can order all-season tires on the ST in case they are looking to compromise the handling of their car (instead of the smart choice of a dedicated set of winter tires).
Speaking of winter wheels and tires, they can get rather complicated depending on certain performance options and brake upgrades. If you want to run winter wheels and tires on a Volkswagen Golf GTI, the optional Performance Pack changes your options. The base Golf GTI can run 16-inch steel wheels and winter tires, saving money. The larger Golf R-sourced brakes that come with the Performance Package force you to run 17-inch alloy wheels for your winter setup. It’s the same story over at Porsche and BMW. If you spec the optional carbon ceramic brakes, be prepared to shell out more money for larger diameter winter wheels and tires due to the dimensions of those expensive brakes.
There is also the replacement cost of large wheels to think about if you bend or damage one, even with more pedestrian automobiles. The 18-inch aluminum wheels on a 2016 Ford Edge cost roughly $590 each to replace — not crazy expensive for factory wheels. The 20-inch wheels, however, run $1300 each. Should you turn all four wheels into a taco-shaped mess after visiting a ditch, you are looking at over $5000 to replace the set.
The lesson here is to get down on your hands and knees and study the wheels and tires on the car you’re interested in purchasing, whether new or used. Do your research and understand what compromises you may be making in exchange for a certain look or optional brake or performance package. And take a look at all four corners of the car, not just one. A friend of mine bought a used, rear-wheel drive Mercedes S-Class from an out-of-state dealer a few years ago. He didn’t plan to drive it a ton in the winter so he wasn’t going to purchase winter tires but I told him that he would have to because of the car’s summer performance tires. He told me I was wrong as he confirmed his new car carried all-season tires. It turned out we were both right: the front axle had all-season tires and the rear had performance tires. Do your research and confirm everything, ladies and gentlemen.
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Why Infiniti Thinks Formula 1 is Relevant to its Business...
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Why Infiniti Thinks Formula 1 is Relevant to its Business
As Formula 1 completes its back-to-back North American swing this weekend in Mexico City following last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, Infiniti and Renault executives insist the Japanese automaker’s involvement in the sport is more than a marketing exercise. Instead, they say, there is real engineering know-how behind Infiniti’s partnership with the Renault Sport Formula 1 Team — to the benefit of both marques and their on- and off-track products.
If you follow F1, you likely know this represents a significant shift compared to the previous five years, when Renault officially powered Red Bull Racing’s grand prix cars, which also prominently featured Infiniti’s logo. But the Infiniti/RBR relationship stood for little in terms of shared technology. Other than its F1 involvement yielding what Infiniti identifies as positive brand exposure and awareness, its only remotely tangible results for automotive enthusiasts were the 560-horsepower, Nissan GT-R-powered Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge concept — effectively irrelevant, as the car never went on sale—and a limited-production, essentially forgotten Sebastian Vettel-edition Infiniti FX SUV.
“We wanted to become more credible,” says Tommaso Volpe, Infiniti’s director of global product strategy and motorsport. “We are not a sponsor anymore. We are an actual player in the sport. Totally different than where we were.”
We heard a similar spiel about “technology transfer” at the beginning of the RBR deal, too, but little of that occurred. Recognizing professional racing as a veritable swamp of public-relations hyperbole, often with little or zero substance, we pressed Volpe and Renault Sport Racing managing director Cyril Abiteboul on what has changed and why Renault this year resumed its position as a full-fledged F1 team for the first time since 2010.
“The core project is co-development of [the energy-recovery system], hybrid tech,” Volpe says. “We as Infiniti already use hybrid tech [in our road cars] as a power booster, not as a consumption saver.”
Abiteboul adds, “There was little credibility from Infiniti being in F1 despite awareness success. Renault has a lot of credibility but [got] very little exposure as just an engine supplier.”
When that exposure does come, there is no promise of the type of publicity it brings, a long-standing challenge in the sport regardless of manufacturer.
“When you are just an engine supplier … when you win it is either the driver or the team,” Abiteboul acknowledges. “When you lose it’s all because of the engine,” he chuckles with resignation. “We were incurring most of the cost that you need to incur when you participate in Formula 1. Because actually, [about] 50 percent of the budget of a Formula 1 team is the engine development. But you have far less revenue out of the engine development.
“When you have a team, it’s still 50 percent or so for the engine development, but you also have income from the prize fund for competitors, from merchandising, and from sponsors. So actually the business case for being a team is not so bad compared to the business case of being just an engine supplier. And by becoming a team, there is no question about exposure. Exposure will come with success.”
Indeed, success or lack thereof commands the spotlight in F1, often outshone only by off-track comments from the players in a racing series that spends a large chunk of its time mimicking a political soap opera. So it was perhaps inevitable Renault’s relationship with RBR disintegrated in 2015 when the latter pointed a finger publicly at Renault’s hybrid drivetrain, branding it the weak link in its package. That put Infiniti in a touchy position.
“We’ve been the most exposed sponsor in F1 for years, so we couldn’t complain from that standpoint,” Volpe says. “But the moment they started to make negative comments on Renault, of course we started to put the relationship in discussion. … [But] we made it clear since the beginning, as part of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, we would have [joined] Renault [if it became its own team]. Because for us, in any case after five years, we really wanted to make the step forward and become an active player in Formula 1. … [Despite anything said last year], we would have made this move regardless.”
Still, how much technical firepower in F1 can result from Infiniti’s knowledge of production-car hybrid drivetrains? The system it offers in its Q50 Hybrid Premium sedan, for instance, isn’t transferrable directly into a Renault Sport F1 R.S. 16 car, so it might initially seem a stretch to suggest there is potential for much crossover other than branding. But F1 teams value technical partners with established automotive processes, even though the specific parts in question are different between road and race cars. Another benefit should come in the form of having everything under one umbrella; Renault F1 previously outsourced its hybrid system, a weakness when racing against competitors who run full chassis and drivetrain programs under one roof.
“It’s really very much the hybrid tech, the electronics in particular [that we value],” Abiteboul says. “An F1 power unit has two electric motors, one huge battery, working in a particular way on the electronics involved with engine software. One of the difficulties is to get all of the engine and sources of energy, the fuel and battery, to all work in harmony at different times of race: defend, attack, overtake, save fuel, use fuel—all of these scenarios are what we are constantly improving, and software is important. This is typically an area Infiniti [knows], thanks to background and years of experience of hybrid tech—more than Renault, which no has experience [with those things]. The only entity [in our company] with that experience was Infiniti.”
Volpe adds, “The hybrid in the Q50 recovers energy from braking, it works the same as in F1. No, we don’t transfer direct material or systems to F1 because it is much different, but the know-how is very similar in some areas.”
Additionally, and like another Japanese manufacturer, Infiniti now moves employees from the production-car side in Japan to the race team in France, a practice for which Honda became famous and ultra-successful in the 1980s—though it will not confirm how many people are involved.
“We start with us helping Renault on a specific technology, but definitely we want in the future to take this expertise to our product,” Volpe says. “So the people now working in France will be transferred back to our R&D department working on our hybrid technology again, trying to improve in the future.
“This is much easier now because we have an actual technology we are working on in the car. But also, because of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, there is no problem transferring intellectual property or expertise. What made everything difficult before is when you work with a third-party company you always have strong limitations, especially when you involve Formula 1, where everything is highly confidential.”
Abiteboul offers, “Two things can happen [with such a program]. First it is processes: F1 is all about rapidity of development. We do a new engine in a year; a road car is five years. You improve your time-to-market, your capability of adapting to [the needs] of customers, so you put the company in better shape. Then you have a number of tech breakthroughs that apply to the road car. Not just the hybrid but, for instance, we made substantial steps this year with a new spec of engine, an extra 35-40 horsepower, which equals 0.3-0.4-second per lap. We are looking at putting [the development that gave us that improvement] on a road car for 2020, lowering consumption and improving power by overall combustion. This is the type of exchange we are trying to develop.”
None of this, however, is to say marketing does not remain a critical arm of the program, as is almost always the case in professional motorsports regardless of the category, from F1 to IndyCar to Le Mans racing.
“The image of hybrid tech in the U.S. is that it’s not for performance but is slow and not exciting,” Volpe admits. “Infiniti has had opposite approach, since the launch of the hybrid V-6, to add electric torque to the existing power of the engine. [We’re trying to tell] the story of performance technology, not just efficiency.”
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Saturday, October 29, 2016
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Champions Reflect on Audi’s Le Mans Program
In the wake of Audi’s announcement it will cease its Le Mans Prototype racing activities at the end of this season, I reached out over the past couple of days to three key people responsible for much of the success of Audi’s LMP1 program: Dave Maraj, owner of the Champion Racing Audi R8, and Audi factory drivers Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen, three- and nine-time winners, respectively, of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Maraj and his Champion Racing team were at the epicenter of Audi’s racing in North America, primarily with the Audi R8. “Audi leaves behind a beautiful legacy,” he says. He would know. Of Audi’s 106 total LMP1 wins, Champion claimed 38 of them. Champion also claimed five of Audi’s nine American Le Mans Series titles, six straight Petit Le Mans victories, one win at the 12 Hours of Sebring, and one at Le Mans.
Maraj is founder and owner of Champion Porsche in Pompano Beach, Florida. It holds the distinction, and has for more than a decade, of selling more Porsches every year than any other dealership in North America. Champion campaigned competition Porsches for a number of seasons, primarily in the GT class, and eventually made the switch to Audi and its R8 and R10.
“Audi and their methods made my good race team into a more sophisticated and great team,” he reflects. “Everything was important. It was all about details, details, details, which is why every part was perfect. We would stay nine days in Sebring and do a straight 48-hour test. These days, some teams show up at Daytona without doing a 24-hour test and think they can win. With Audi no stone was left unturned. It was mind-boggling in an extremely good way.”
The team owner feels the Audi cars he ran represented the pinnacle of racing tech. “The technology Audi brought to endurance racing was better than even F1,” he says. “We changed transmissions (the gearbox and entire rear end at Le Mans in 2000) in four minutes, 35 seconds. They changed the sport from endurance racing to an endurance sprint. And the cars became faster and more reliable. This is an era that would match the 962 and the Group C eras.”
McNish, who won two of his three Le Mans 24 titles with Audi, also speaks in glowing terms of advancements Audi brought to the sport. “The technical developments that came through the program, the R8 and then the R8 road car, the four-minute gearbox change at Le Mans in 2000, the FSI injection in 2001, the R10 diesel program which blew my mind with the power and torque when I first drove the car, wow! Then the R18 E-tron Quattro and hybrid power and how they balanced the efficiency without losing performance, LED and laser lights, and the list goes on.”
The Scot points out that several members of Audi Sport, “the core” as he calls them, including Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, Reinhold Joest, Joachim Hausner, Ulrich Baretzki, and Ralf Juettner, have been with the program since the first race at Sebring in 2000 and will finish up the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship season at Bahrain in November.
“When I think back through those times a lot of special races come to mind,” says McNish. “A lot of trophies on mantle pieces and a lot of driver’s careers made, all through hard battles on and off the track whether it be with the likes of BMW, Panoz, Peugeot, Acura, Porsche, Toyota. The determination, a never-give-up attitude, the times cars came back in pieces and mechanics set about and got it back out and often got a good result, it was pure racing from the heart.”
McNish points out that Audi’s time in Prototype racing and at Le Mans was longer than most driver’s careers. And he marvels at its ability to win. “The success rate on all parts of the globe, especially the French part, with 13 wins in 17 years , a 77-percent strike rate of wins—77 percent is incredible.”
If McNish was the heart of Audi’s LMP1 program, Kristensen was the soul.
Like his co-driver, Kristensen reflects first upon the program’s early days. “I will never forget the first contact with Dr. Ullrich after Le Mans in 1999—and the brief meeting ending with a strong handshake to a common future at his humble office in Ingolstadt back then,” he says. “It seems like yesterday. It meant the world to my career. The best times of my entire racing life. Absolutely. I look back at fantastic memories with great people and racing cars traveling the world for almost two decades.”
Kristensen, known as “Mr. Le Mans,” won seven of his Le Mans titles with Audi, five with Audi Sport Team Joest, one with Team Goh, and one with Champion Racing. His other two wins were with a Joest Porsche and Team Bentley, the latter effectively being an offshoot of the Audi program. Kristensen won the 12 Hours of Sebring six times, and five of those victories in Florida were with Audi, as was his American Le Mans Series championship in 2002, and the 2013 WEC title.
The Danish racing legend understands Audi’s desire to look toward the future. He was in Abu Dhabi when I spoke to him, at the opening of the first standalone Audi Sport Center. “The world is moving almost as fast as a racing car,” he says. “So does Audi Sport. New races are there to be won. Formula E is added to the motorsport heritage of the future.”
In these last few days the sporting world has looked back fondly to this German marque’s contributions and accomplishments. Kristensen is no exception. His experiences and memories are likely greater and more frequent than any other driver who sat in the cockpit, pressed the accelerator, and often stood on the top step of the podium.
His last words to me were, “But one thing is certain, Audi LMP1 cars will be greatly missed—racing hard during the night, at the Le Mans 24 Hours … ”
His voice faded away at the thought of an Audi prototype at full-song through the French countryside. Memories. History. Glory.
Gone.
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SEMA 2016: A Radical Raptor and Some Sick Super Dutys
More is an understatement at the SEMA show in Las Vegas and Ford is rolling out another round of over the top, after market trucks. Tuners and gear heads got their hands on a 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor and a couple of monster-sized Super Duty trucks for the annual extravaganza.
Here’s a quick look at some of the modified rides that are expected to turn heads (and maybe even a few stomachs) at this year’s show.
2017 F-150 Raptor SuperCrew by DeBerti Design
Ford’s F-150 Raptor is a great truck stock, but this “Bird of Prey” concept by DeBerti Design looks good and mean with a blackish gray wrap and neon green highlights. The concept was designed get you to the mall or off-roading down at Baja. The Foutz Motorsports team extended the suspension stance by 3-inches on each side, stretched the fenders by 4-inches, and slapped on a set of 40-inch tires on the wheels. Now it seems this Raptor is really ready to fly anywhere you take it.
2017 Ford F-250 Super Duty 4×2 Lariat Crew Cab by Air Design USA
The hood scoop, fender flares and roof pods on this BASF white and black concept would make any F-Series truck look badass. The two-tone paint gives the bulky F-250 a much sleeker profile despite its Dumbo-sized side mirrors. Bilstein shocks and a ReadyLIFT 3.5-inch leveling kit with twin I-beam drops give the truck a lifted platform. 22-inch Fuel Off-Road wheels and beefy tires complete the classic look.
2017 Ford F-250 Super Duty 4×2 XLT Crew Cab by Fabtech
Project Shockzilla by Fabtech wants to be “King of the Off-Road Beasts” and the modified F-250 would be at right at home in the mud bogs or swamps of South Jersey. Though we aren’t completely sold on the flashy paint job and bronze grille, once it’s completely covered in mud, it won’t matter. Aside from mudding, this Super Duty beast can roll plenty of coal thanks to its 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel engine. Best to keep it parked in the garage on Earth Day.
2017 Ford F-250 Super Duty 4×2 XLT Crew Cab by TSI Designs
This fast and flashy Ford F-250 by TSI Designs in silver with a black racing stripe and red trim looks killer. The 4×2-customized cab sports a wide-body kit and custom-fabricated fenders, which add a few inches to the front and rear, giving the Super Duty an aggressive stance. 26-inch Forgiato wheels and a full Katzkin custom leather interior will keep you cruising on down the Las Vegas Strip in style and comfort.
2017 Ford F-350 Super Duty 4×4 Lariat Crew Cab by Mad Industries
This luxury F-350 Super Duty is billed as “MAD Luxury with a Tow-Truck Attitude.” The Jet Black paint with Candy Red flare almost works — except for its wheels. The 28-inch one-piece Fuel forged alloy wheels up front would be trashed the first time you pull up to the curb. Looks like an expensive fix too, “brah.” Interior accents are said to mirror the exterior, with gloss-black and red-painted dash, center console, and door panel inserts.
2017 Ford F-350 Super Duty 4×4 XL Crew Cab by MBX350 Matchbox
Toy trucks are always cool, but toy police trucks are even cooler. This Ford F-350 Super Duty 4×4 XL Crew Cab concept by MBX350 Matchbox is not all show, but also ready for duty. The fully functioning police and tactical unit is every cop’s dream ride. Can’t you just see Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson behind the wheel? It’s equipped with a camper shell with a 72-inch roof rack to store tactical gear. Plus, there’s a pull out bed slide, truck vault and tactical breaching tools. You don’t want to mess with whoever is driving this thing.
Stay tuned for more wild vehicles coming from the annual SEMA show in Las Vegas next week.
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Friday, October 28, 2016
Thursday, October 27, 2016
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Mexico Says Adios to the Nissan Tsuru in 2017
The third-generation Nissan Sentra’s claim to fame was the debut of the sporty SE-R variant, but for the most part, the compact was yet another run-of-the-mill econobox here in America. It’s a much different story in Mexico, where the wildly popular compact is still produced (under the Tsuru nameplate), essentially unchanged from 1992. But after over two decades, Nissan announced it will end production of the Tsuru in May 2017.
Nissan says Mexican consumers are drawn to the Tsuru for its reputation for durability and reliability. The Tsuru is affordable as well, with a brand new base model selling for around $7,600. Powering the five-passenger sedan is a 1.6-liter inline-four rated at 105 hp and 102 lb-ft of torque.
To date, Nissan has produced 1.8 million Tsurus in Mexico. That number goes up to 2.4 million if you count the first- and second-gen models. Nissan says it has no plans for a Tsuru successor, and will instead point customers to the Versa. The current-generation Sentra is also sold in Mexico.
Despite the Tsuru’s popularity, it suffered from dismal safety records since most are sold without airbags. Reuters attributes the compact to over 4,000 deaths in Mexico between 2007 and 2012 and reports that it received a zero-star safety rating from the Latin New Car Assessment Program. Later this week, the NCAP and IIHS will perform a crash test of a Tsuru and a 2016 Nissan Versa. The demonstration is part of the NCAP’s effort to eliminate “Zero Star” vehicles from Latin America and other regions.
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One Week With: 2017 Nissan Maxima SR
Nissan needs to stop promoting its Maxima as a “four-door sports car.” That moniker does the car a disservice, raising expectations among those seeking a pulse-raising sedan while at the same time potentially turning away buyers who don’t want a performance-prioritized machine. After a week driving a new 2017 Nissan Maxima SR — the most aggressive trim in the lineup — I can tell you what the car really is: an extremely comfortable, lavishly equipped, fine-driving full-size sedan that delivers a ton for the dollar. A sports car, though, it isn’t.
You could call the Maxima’s front end overwrought (I do), but otherwise this is an attractive package with lots of interesting swoops and chiseled edges. I got lots of “nice car!” comments and “how do you like it?” questions from appreciative passers-by. Especially when tricked-out in Midnight Edition guise (a $1,195 option that adds 19-inch gloss-black alloy wheels, a rear spoiler, and a rear diffuser), it looks far racier than similarly sized competitors like the Toyota Avalon and the Kia Cadenza — enough so that you’d be forgiven for expecting to find an athlete worthy of Usain Bolt underneath.
There’s good power on tap — 300 hp from the familiar twin-cam, 3.5-liter six. The thing is, the Maxima doesn’t do a lot with those ponies. The chief hindrance is the standard continuously variable transmission. It’s not sporty. At all. Yes, you can shift manually using paddles mounted behind the wheel and, yes, you can switch the Drive Mode selector into Sport and shift behavior gets sportier, but never is the powertrain much fun when you’re hustling on a twisty road. Click the left paddle for a downshift as you approach a corner and the CVT responds — eventually. There’s nothing crisp or exciting about shifting up or down; instead, the transmission feels as if it would rather be left alone, free to whir into whatever ratio it sees fit. That’s the problem here: “CVT” and “sports car” are mutually exclusive terms. These days, with excellent automatics and harder-core dual-clutch transmissions so common, the Maxima’s CVT is a letdown.
Not much about the Maxima’s front-drive layout says “sports car,” either. In SR trim, the suspension gets stiffened while the standard Drive Mode selector offers a Sport setting that firms-up the chassis even further (in addition to the aforementioned tweaks to the CVT, Sport mode also quickens throttle response, increases steering effort, and boosts the exhaust note). Still, when pushed hard, the Maxima pushes back. The chassis grips the road well and the steering does a solid job, but ultimately, the SR wants to understeer in a big way. On a track, you might try a few workarounds (say, dumping the throttle mid-corner to unseat the rear end for some pivot), but on a public road that would be lunacy (that’s the term for attempting to drive at or even near the limit anywhere outside of a closed course).
All of the above being said, though, the Maxima SR is actually a sweet automobile. Don’t climb behind the wheel expecting a thrill ride and you’ll be well-rewarded. For one thing, the cabin is huge. My 16-year-old daughter, riding in the back seat, exclaimed after just a few minutes: “Daddy, why didn’t we have this car for that four-hour trip last week?” I looked around and, sure enough, the abundant legroom and comfortable bench just swallowed her up. A few minutes later, she was fast asleep.
The Maxima SR is also relentlessly obliging. Nearly every feature you could want is standard, from leather seats with premium diamond-quilted Alcantara inserts to an 8-inch color nav screen with Apple CarPlay (new for 2017, it’d be appreciated on our Four Seasons 2016 Maxima), a rear-view monitor, heated and ventilated front seats, keyless entry and start, dual-zone climate control, an excellent 11-speaker Bose surround-sound audio system with SiriusXM satellite radio and traffic, and much more. Standard safety gear includes blind-spot warning (with rear cross-traffic alert) and automatic emergency braking with predictive forward-collision warning. Given that truly hedonistic array of amenities, plus the cockpit’s spaciousness and the smooth (if not exactly sporty) response of the powertrain, the Maxima SR’s sticker is the ace up its sleeve: just $40,300 all-in, including the Midnight Edition package and $450 worth of splash guards and floor/trunk mats. That’s a lot of car for the bucks. Bonus: an EPA rating of 30 mpg on the highway.
What’s more, the Maxima is smartly thought-out. The central color touchscreen is easy to navigate and use. Gauges are big and clear. The seats (8-way power for the driver) look and feel superb. Fit and finish is top-notch all around. The cockpit is quiet, thanks to laminated glass and active noise cancellation (it works through the audio system much like Bose’s renowned noise-cancelling headphones). And Nissan has done the details right. Standard on the SR is an “Ascot” heated, leather-wrapped steering wheel with a perforated Alcantara insert in its center. Every time I wrapped my hands around it at 3 and 9 o’clock, my fingertips did a happy dance on the wheel’s cushy-soft backside. It’s a direct, gratifying connection that plays straight to your brain’s pleasure centers.
The Maxima SR has everything it needs to make a strong purchase case (in many respects it’s just as pampering as an Infiniti). Just make sure you walk through the door marked “Luxury.” Not “Sport.”
2017 Nissan Maxima SR Specifications
On Sale: Now Price: $38,655/$40,300 (base/as-tested) Engine: 3.5L DOHC 24-valve V-6/300 hp @ 6,400 rpm, 261 lb-ft @ 4,400 Transmission: continuously variable automatic with manual mode Layout: 4-door, 5-passenger, front-engine, FWD sedan EPA Mileage: 21/30 mpg (city/hwy) L x W x H: 192.8 x 73.2 x 56.5 in Wheelbase: 109.3 in Weight: 3,550 lb 0-60 MPH: 6.0 sec (est) Top Speed: 135 mph
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