What's New
It’s been 40 years since the Maxima name debuted, and the 40th Anniversary Edition is a limited-edition package for 2021. Highlights include date-embossed semi-aniline leather seats and retro white dials. It’s exclusively available on the priciest of three permanent models in the range, all now with leather seats, navigation, and connected services.
Choosing Your Nissan Maxima
The 2021 Maxima range is simple to navigate, with three trims and a single engine choice.
SV models cost $37,915 including destination, while SR and Platinum are almost identically priced at $43,075 and $43,145 respectively. While the SR is a more sporting model, the Platinum takes the luxury approach, and it’s also the only Maxima with the 40th Anniversary Edition Package available for $2,125.
Engine Choices
Every Maxima is powered by a 300 horsepower 3.5-liter V6 gas engine, producing 261 pound-feet of torque. This is supplied to the front wheels through a CVT gearbox, returning an EPA-estimated 20 miles per gallon city, 30 mpg highway, and 34 combined.
Passenger and Cargo Capacity
Cargo capacity for the five-seater Maxima stands at 14.3 cu ft with the rear seats in place.
Safety Features
There are some advanced safety features on the Maxima, such as vented discs and traffic sign recognition. Standard features include intelligent cruise with forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and warnings for rear cross traffic and blind spots.
LED headlights operate automatically across a range that also features six airbags in every cabin. SV models have basic lane keep assist, while higher trims receive more intelligent lane intervention. Every model enjoys rear automatic braking and rear sonar, coupled with front sonar on SR and above.
Connectivity
An eight-inch NissanConnect touchscreen is the centerpiece of every Maxima’s infotainment system, including navigation and WiFi hotspot technology.
There’s smartphone integration for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, USB-A and USB-C ports, and a CD player. The SV is the only trim making do with an eight-speaker audio system rather than the 11-speaker Bose Premium Audio setup in higher models, which also benefit from active noise cancellation.
The most affordable Maxima comes with sport-bolstered front seats including eight-way power and lumbar support for the driver. These seats are heated and clad in leather to match the steering wheel and shift knob.
A smart key supports push button ignition, and the engine can be started remotely to pre-heat or cool the cabin, with dual-zone climate also present. There are no packages available on SV or SR trims.
Riding on larger 19-inch aluminum-alloy wheels, the Maxima SR’s sporting credentials are reflected by its rear spoiler and aluminum sport pedals. This is the only Maxima to receive shifters for its CVT gearbox, or sports suspension with stiffer springs and retuned dampers.
There’s also intelligent lane intervention and an around-view monitor with front and rear sonar systems, plus LED fog lights and memory outside mirrors. The cabin receives a dual pane power opening moonroof, adjustable ambient LED lighting, climate controlled front seats clad in Ascot leather, and a heated steering wheel.
Platinum misses out on the SR’s mechanical revisions, but it gains a few compensations including a power tilt/telescoping steering column and rain-sensing intermittent windshield wipers. There’s maple wood on the dash and Ascot leather around the memory steering wheel, with power rear window sunshades keeping rear passengers cool. Other SR features like the moonroof, ambient cabin lighting, and climate-controlled Ascot leather seats are carried across.
Platinum is the only model to offer the 40th Anniversary Package, as a $2,125 upgrade. It adds date-branded semi-aniline leather seats with diamond-quilted leather inserts and a matching steering wheel, plus bespoke aluminum-alloy wheels and badging. In a pleasingly retro touch, white gauges hark back to Datsuns and Nissans of old; more contemporary flourishes include heated rear seats and quad-tipped exhaust finishers.
Compare Maxima Trims Side-By-Side
The $5,200 gulf between SV and Platinum models is significant, but the latter does gain a lot of features which make the Maxima’s cabin a nicer place to spend time. It’s harder to justify the SR’s attempts at turning Nissan’s flagship sedan into a sporting vehicle, and the stiffer suspension is more likely to irritate than enthrall.