June 20, 2008 4:12 PM PDT
Photos: 2009 Nissan Maxima
Nissan gave journalists a preview of the redesigned 2009 Nissan Maxima in Los Angeles, a model Nissan is dubbing the four door sports car. The Maxima is Nissan's top line sedan, sitting above the Altima in the model line-up. This car tech powerhouse borrows a lot from its luxury sibling, the Infiniti G35, including live traffic on its navigation system and an internal hard drive for storing music.
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I still have great memories of my old 3G Maxima (yes Apple, we Max brethren were using the 'G' generation nomenclature loooonnngg before YOU ever heard of an iPod, so simmer down your legal staff), and for me it's been well over a decade since Nissan has made a good-looking version that's actually worthy of the nameplate, or its 4DSC acronym, not that the 3G was ever really a "sports car", but it was 'kewl' anyways when trash talkin' with the Honda, Mazda and Toyota boyz.
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Still, the car's remains a tail dragger, and that's a dynamic that will keep the G35 as the preferred choice between these two amongst the performance crowd, and that's before even pointing out the snob quotient associated with the Infiniti badge vs. the more pedestrian Nissan branding.