We know this is a wildcard, but hear us out. We know the Maxima is already dead, but it never received a proper farewell. It’s a pity because the Maxima is well-known for providing cheap, luxurious speed.
In its final days, the Maxima was only available with a naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V6 that produced 300 hp and 262 lb-ft of torque. It sounds lovely, but the standard CVT transmission did the most to reduce the fun levels. Taking the QX80’s twin-turbo engine and nine-speed automatic transmission and putting it in a Maxima would result in an absolute riot. The Maxima was never built for scalpel-like handling, but it would be comical to see how the car handles more than double the torque and a 150 hp boost.
Likelihood of it actually happening:
Zero. As we already mentioned, Nissan is betting heavily on EVs. Plus, the nine-speed auto and V6 combination are engineered for longitudinally-mounted powertrains, and the Maxima had a transverse layout, making this technically impossible without a huge overhaul of the Maxima platform. Still, seeing the Maxima receive the recognition it deserved would have been nice.
