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On the Road, It’s Just the Ticket

SAUSALITO, Calif — We thought she was attracted to the car. But she was in uniform. She was drawn by the law. She wrote a parking ticket, for $15, that she placed on the windshield of the 2004 Nissan Maxima 3.5 SE.

We found it odd that she would bother. It was a pretty Sunday afternoon. The car was in the lot of the Cat ‘n’ Fiddle Public House and Restaurant overlooking Richardson Bay.

There were many vacant parking spaces, most marked with signs requiring a local permit. We parked next to one that said “Free Parking,” or so we thought. We reexamined the sign after collecting the ticket. It read, “Free Parking, 6 PM to 2 AM, 3-hour Limit.”

What a scam! Who comes to lunch in Sausalito at 6 PM? What kind of restaurant is attached to a lot that essentially allows parking for residents only?

E.J., my friend and sometimes agent, laughed. “You got ripped!” she said. And so I did, but it didn’t matter.

There are days and circumstances that are immune to life’s downside. This crisp, sparkling Sunday was one of those days. Driving the new Maxima was one of those circumstances. The car has grown up, literally and figuratively.

This was a pleasant surprise. The Maxima, first brought to the United States as the 1981 Datsun 810 Maxima, always was a good runner. But there were times when it seemed on its way out. In recent years, it had become a car of confused identity, barely distinguishable from high-line versions of the low-line Nissan Altima, or from low-line versions of the high-line Infiniti I35. It was a middle-income family cruiser that sometimes masqueraded as a “luxury sports sedan.” Very confusing.

The 2004 Maxima, coming to U.S. showrooms this spring, clears the fog. It is a premium sports car with four doors. Everything from the slope of its nose to the swept sail panels encasing its rear window suggests as much. There is a “Z-ness” to the new Maxima, which shares its 3.5-liter, 265-horsepower V-6 engine with the Nissan 350Z roadster.

The “Z” cues also show up in the Maxima’s interior, especially in the design of its three-port instrument cluster, which is reminiscent of the gauge package in the 1970s Datsun 240Z.

But it’s the road that defines the new Maxima as a sports machine, separating it from the common run of family sedans. The test car played nicely with the curves of U.S. 1 and moved with authority through the aggressive traffic on Interstate 80. It was tight and light, thanks to a 38 percent increase in body rigidity and the extensive use of aluminum in both its engine and suspension components.

The Maxima’s front-rear independent suspension system is all new, with struts, coil springs and stabilizer bar up front and a multi-link arrangement in the rear. The practical result of that setup is a discernible reduction in body sway; and a potential i ll effect of that improvement is an overwhelming temptation to take the car faster and more deeply into curves than common sense would recommend.

But that temptation was dampened by the absence of guardrails on some curvaceous hill and mountain roads. Getting a $15 parking ticket on a beautiful Sunday is one thing. Getting a coffin is quite another.

Nuts & Bolts

Complaints: I drove two preproduction versions of the 2004 Maxima, an automatic 3.5 SE with a manual-shift mode and, briefly, a 3.5 SE with a six-speed manual transmission, which I found choppy. But preproduction means less than perfection.

Praise: Nissan lately has been rolling out many attractive, sales-winning products. The 2004 Maxima continues that trend.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Triple aces in all categories.

Head-turning quotient: Turned the heads of many commoners but didn’t get many nods from drivers of high-end Europeasedans.

Body style, layout: Front-wheel-drive, front-engine, long-wheelbase sedan ranked by the Environmental Protection Agency as a “mid-size” car. The new Maxima is available in sporty SE and luxury SL trim.

Engine/transmission: Both the 2004 SE and SL get the 3.5-liter, 265-horsepower V-6 engine, which yields 10 more horsepower than the engine in the 2003 Maxima. That engine mates with a six-speed manual transmission or a five-speed automatic in the SE. It goes with a four-speed automatic in the SL.

Capacities: The Maxima 3.5 SE seats four to five people, depending on type of seats chosen. The preliminary figure (could change) for luggage capacity is 15.1 cubic feet. For fuel, it’s 18.5 gallons. Premium unleaded required.

Mileage: An average 27 miles per gallon in mostly highway travel.

Price: Prices are not yet firm for the 2004 Maxima. But Nissan estimates that prices will range from $28,000 to $35,000 depending on model and equipment chosen.

Purse-strings note: The Maxima now ranks as a genuine contender in the entry-level, sports-luxury segment. Compare with Acura TL, Audi A4 V-6, Toyota Avalon.