1990 Nissan Maxima SE review from North America

Since accquiring this car last winter from my grandmother, this car has been extremely reliable. The only "major" repair thus far was caused by human error, when one of my automotive teachers decided to change my timing belt without checking the marks, resulting in 3 bent valves. Surprisingly, the car still ran and I drove the sucker home (even though it felt like it was going to die, it never did), and then drove it for 2 weeks until I could afford to send the heads out for re-machining. Over the course of the past year and a half, the injectors sporadically get clogged from time to time, but always clean themsleves out after anywhere from a day to a week. But they have NEVER been replaced. Other than that, I've only had to do regular service on it, brakes, belts, struts, tires, oil changes. Car only has 88,000 on it, has recentley developed a small oil leak around the oil pan gasket (which is common considering that it's 16 years old) and has some rust on the right rear quarter panel and right front fender. Other than that many parts on the car are still from the factory, including the entire transmission, vaccuum lines, PCV valve, and ENTIRE exhaust system. Not bad for a car that's only 4 years younger than me. And I figure, why replace the parts if they aren't broken? All in all, a good car, still has original paint, and is extremeley reliable.

In general, this car is awesome. I have a 90-plus mile commute to and from school 4 days a week, and its all highway miles, which means most of the time I'm doing 85 mph plus. It is very smooth, even though I put in stiff KYB performance struts. I have gotten this car past it's 125 mph speedometer, not even using full throttle. It just kept going, with overdrive on, and it felt like I was only doing 90. This car is also very quick considering it only has 160 hp, I have never lost to a Civic, even with mods, and I beat 6th gen (98-02) Accord V6's off of the line. Did I mention that my car has no engine mods whatsoever? Mod wise, I put some black rims with wider tires on it, which makes the black accents and white paint stand out, and also makes it handle even better than it did with the stock wheels. I put on cross drilled and slotted rotors all around, so now the car stops on a dime. I ripped out the entire BOSE system, which ended up dying anyway, and replaced it with newly wired Kenwood speakers and a Kenwood CD player, so now it sounds nice when I crank the music. This car also has a nice throaty engine note, which sounds mean when you get on it. I have only lost to a few cars in this thing, namely higher end and newer cars, but I have smoked first gen Audi A4's with the 2.8 on the highway. Alrite, enough ranting, in general, awesome car, handles great, moves (especially for an automatic), and is comfterable. Only wishes are for about 20 more horses, a 5 speed, and a gosh darn cupholder!