Maxima to replace Altima?

Nissan’s new generation global Maxima sedan could return to Australia and replace the Altima as the company’s competitor in the large car segment.

Previewed by the sleek Sports Sedan Concept at April’s New York motor show, the production version is expected to debut at the Los Angeles motor show this November.

Nissan is pitching the new Maxima as one of the flagships of its range globally and it sits on the same front/all-wheel drive architecture as the Murano cross-over, which goes on-sale here next year.

Nissan has promised the production Maxima will retain the dramatic styling of the concept car as a template for the company’s future exterior look. It is intended for sale in more than 100 left and right-hand drive markets. Power will be provided by 2.5-litre four-cylinder and 3.5-litre V6 petrol engines mated to an Xtronic CVT (similar to Altima) but a petrol-electric hybrid is also on the cards.

New Nissan Australian boss Richard Emery, who joined the company April 1 from Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific, has confirmed he is interested in bringing the Maxima brand back to Australia. Indeed, Emery says, it might never have been replaced by the Altima if he had been in charge of the company when that decision was made.

The Maxima first went on-sale in Australia in 1990 and sold continuously through to 2014, when it was replaced by the Altima.

“I don’t think the company was very fair to Maxima,” Emery told motoring.com.au.

“It was a good car and its reputation got trashed. It was over-priced and then we had to discount it and it kind of got trashed along the way. But it was a bloody good car.

“Maybe in hindsight if had been in charge three or four years ago it might have been a different discussion, but I can’t really influence that now.”

Swapping back from Altima to Maxima would clearly be a significant call to make, but Emery has already made it clear that cars sold by Nissan in Australia will have to deliver volume, image or both.

“Put it this way, I wouldn’t do a Maxima if I was just doing it for 1500 cars a year,” he said.

“It would have to add something to what we stand for; design-wise, technology or whatever it may be. It’s the same with LEAF or GT-R... It’s why you keep doing Zed [370Z] even if it doesn’t make sense on paper, because it says something about what we are.”

Emery said the shrinking size of the combined large and medium passenger car market in Australia made it very unlikely that Altima and Maxima could be sold alongside each other.

“I think there is a place for Maxima. [But] Is there a place for two cars? I don’t know.

"As that large car segment becomes smaller it is nowhere near as sophisticated as the SUV market where you can justify having Juke, Qashqai, X-Trail, Pathfinder. They all can find their space

“As the large car-medium car segment gets smaller you can’t have that much room to move with different model lineups I would have thought.

“So that might come down to timing; as to when the Maxima is available, if it is available and what it looks like versus what Altima is up to at the time.”

One spin-off impact from a Nissan decision to revert to Maxima would be on Nissan Motorsport, which currently campaigns the Altima in V8 Supercars. Adopting the Maxima as its race car would require a massive re-investment in body panel design, aerodynamic testing and parity compliance.