**Hands-On Review: 2022 Nissan Maxima**

I recently had the opportunity to test drive the 2022 Nissan Maxima, and I must say that it's an impressive vehicle. One of the first things I noticed was the ride quality. When I pressed down on the pedal, it didn't feel all that sensitive, which is a good thing. You know you're not going to have an abrupt stop by accident. The ease of modulation was also notable - as someone who has never used this type of CVT before, I found it very easy to adapt to.

While sitting in the interior, I noticed the various features and controls at my disposal. There's a nice little knob for using the menu, heated and cooled seats, automatic front windows, and a heated steering wheel. Additionally, there are controls over here that allow you to turn off your traction control, pop the trunk, and even adjust pad shifter settings. The CVT uses these set gear ratios that can be chosen to use in manual mode, which is nice for those who want more control.

I must say that I was impressed with the infotainment setup. Everything is pretty simple in here - intuitive to use, without requiring a lot of time spent looking at it to figure out what you want to do. The buttons are large and easy to read, with clear labels. Powering up the engine is surprisingly quick, especially when you put your foot down. I was expecting some lag, but there's none.

Moving on to the engineering, Nissan has made some significant improvements over the previous generation Maxima. Starting with the engine, they've worked extensively on the intake system, redesigning the intake valves and ports to promote tumbling of the air for better combustion. They've also shortened the intake run length by 20 mm and increased the diameter by 1 mm to improve airflow. The intake valves are even filled with sodium to help conduct heat away from the combustion chamber.

In terms of transmission, they've reduced the size of the oil pump, made use of a more efficient chain, and are now using a lower viscosity oil. This has resulted in a 40% reduction in friction within the system, meaning more power to the wheels and better fuel economy. The body rigidity is up 25%, thanks to the use of high-tensile strength steel, a strategic rear brace, and a redesigned strut tower brace. This has led to both an 8.8% improvement in front lateral stiffness and a 2.2 lb weight reduction.

Overall, the platform is down 82 lbs in weight, which aids in its favorable power-to-weight ratio. I was able to test this out by accelerating the vehicle, and it's actually quite solid - pretty impressive for a front-wheel drive vehicle. The torque feels great, and it doesn't pull too much - even at 300 horsepower.

I also noticed that the Maxima has similar fuel economy ratings as the Nissan Rogue Sport, which is an interesting comparison. While the FRS's manual transmission is more efficient in the city, the Maxima's CVT automatic version does better on the highway. It's worth noting, however, that this is for the manual transmission of the FRS versus the CVT used in the Maxima.

Finally, I want to talk about the seats - specifically, the zero-gravity seats that Nissan has implemented in the Maxima. They're extremely comfortable, and I thought that before I even knew that these were called zero-gravity seats. The fact that they feel so great is likely due to some significant design improvements. As someone who's driven other vehicles with similar features, I can confidently say that this seat just feels fantastic.

Overall, my experience with the 2022 Nissan Maxima was very positive. From its comfortable ride and easy-to-use infotainment system to its impressive engineering and excellent fuel economy, there's a lot to like about this vehicle. If you're in the market for a full-size sedan, I'd definitely recommend giving the Maxima a test drive.

**Additional Notes**

While driving around New York City, I had to make an emergency stop at a red light. Unfortunately, I squealed the tires a bit - sorry, Nissan! However, I'm sure that this vehicle would be quite enjoyable to rip around in on a back road or something similar.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone and welcome in this video I'm going to be test driving the 2016 Nissan Maxima and this particular trim that I'm in is the SR which is basically the sport version it has a sport tune suspension and this is going to be a little bit different than what I usually do because I'm actually at an event with Nissan rather than this sitting in my driveway for me to have it for a week and test out so I'm going to go on a short little driving Loop see how this thing feels um there's a lot of cool features about it and some of the engineering I'll get into also uh but basically we're just going to see how this thing drives so let's go ahead didn't get out of here now one of the first things I noticed actually sitting in the vehicle your front windshield is actually fairly narrow as is the rear windshield and overall I'd say visibility is fine uh especially looking out the sides checking your blind spot very easy to do but the front windshield is a bit narrow which is just something worth noting so I'm going to put this in sport mode why not it's there right uh this is the sport version so it has a 19in dime cut wheel sport ton suspension as as I mentioned uh and one of the things that's actually fairly surprising so this has 300 horsepower uh and it doesn't weigh all that much depending on the trim level it's somewhere between I believe about 3500 to about 3600 uh which actually believe it or not gives it a better power to weight ratio in the lowest trim form uh than the Audi S4 which I tested so you know a decent amount of power in this uh and not all that heavy uh for what it is actually pretty good Weight Wise you know it's got basically the same amount of horsepower as my Subaru STI and yet it only weighs about 100 a little bit over 100 pounds more uh depending on the trim level so ride quality so far very soft very comfortable uh definitely quiet so interior wise you know it definitely feels pretty nice I really like this steering wheel it's got a good amount of cushion to it uh it's got some leather small Al canara on it uh overall you know it's got plenty of controls on it as well you've got a nice screen up front and all of the Maximas come standard with navigation so one of the cool things they did is they went away with options and you just buy a grade so there's five grades of Maximas and you just choose the one that you want uh no need to customize and basically the reason they're doing this is you're kind of eliminating this need for online shopping where everybody wants you know something perfectly customizable and you can never find it at the dealership so because you just buy a grade uh then you will be able to find the grade you want at a dealership and you won't have to you know purchase and wait for the order to come in online so steering has actually a pretty decent weight to it and that may be because of the sport mode as well you know it adds a little bit of weight uh this does have a CVT transmission and so you know depending on how you use it it works differently so if you're at uh lighter depressing of the throttle pedal then it's going to act more like a traditional CVT where it'll just maintain a certain RPM if you put your foot down it'll kind of be stepped uh so it acts more like a regular automatic transmission where you actually have gear shifts uh where it changes between set ratios now I can't speak much for the brake pedal yet but the throttle pedal feels fine you know decent sensitivity to it uh and you get right into it right when you start touching it it starts uh to apply throttle so I'm going to come break here and actually a good feel to it decent amount of travel actually uh and not all that um stiff it actually has a good feel to it good Progressive rate as you press down on it and it doesn't feel all that sensitive so you know you're not going to have an abrupt stop by accident uh it's very easy to modulate and this is my first time using it so definitely something easy to adapt to okay so just while I'm sitting here checking out the interior you've got a nice little knob for uh using this menu over here and you've got the ability heated and cooled seats automatic front windows uh you've got some controls over here heated steering wheel you can turn off your traction control Pop the trunk uh you also do have pad shifter so you can have these uh basically set gear ratios that the CVT uses which you can choose to use uh put it over into the manual mode there for the most part I do like this infotainment setup everything's pretty simple in here uh intuitive to use it doesn't require you know a lot of time spent looking at it to figure out what you want to do pretty large buttons with large text actually does have some power wow surprisingly quick when you put your foot down yeah good torque I like that and cvts tend to do the manual activation better than traditional automatic gearboxes and this seems to be the case with this one as well uh downshifts are pretty quick upshifts seem to take a little bit longer to do um but overall smooth transition uh not jolty and you know it does happen decently quick especially on downshift so overall I think the manual selection is fine to use uh and certainly better than most automatic gearboxes out there I'm going to put it back into automatic mode now and just let it figure it out now diving into the engineering there's actually some pretty cool things Nissan has done to improve this Maxima over the previous generation starting with the engine they've worked extensively on the intake system redesigning the intake Valves and ports to promote tumbling of the air to better Aid in combustion they've also shortened the intake run length by 20 mm and increase the diameter by 1 mm to improve air flow the intake valves are also filled with sodium to help conduct heat away from the combustion chamber moving on to the transmission they've reduced the size of the oil pump made use of a more efficient chain and are now using a lower viscosity oil overall this made a 40% reduction in the friction within the system meaning more power to the wheels and better fuel economy body rigidity is up 25% thanks to the use of a high tensil strength steel a strategic rear brace and a redesigned strut Tower brace contributing to both an 8 8% Improvement in front lateral stiffness and a 2.2 lb weight reduction overall the platform is down 82 lb in weight which as I mentioned previously AIDS in its favorable power to weight ratio try that acceleration one more time it's actually really solid pretty impressive front-wheel drive and I don't notice torque steer at 300 horsepower going all the way to the front and it's uh pulls pretty well so pretty impressive you know it's funny that there is it looks like a FR FRS in front of me this actually has the same fuel economy rating as that F FRS 22 in the city 30 on the highway and yet that F FRS weighs far less than this does has a much smaller engine uh makes a lot less horsepower so it's pretty impressive that something this large is getting as good a fuel economy as that vehicle right there in the EPA ratings now just to clarify though that's for the manual transmission of the F FRS versus this is a CVT the automatic version of that vehicle does get better fuel economy so another thing worth mentioning is just that these seats are extremely comfortable same story with the Rogue and the Morano that I drove these zero gravity seats as they call them they're just extremely comfortable to sit in it's probably one of the first things you'll notice if you haven't sat in one of these new Nissan vehicles is just how comfortable these seats are in fact I thought that before I even knew that these were called zero gravity seats I sat in them I thought wow like these seats are really great uh and so I looked up to see like if there was anything specific they did with them cuz I thought man like Nissan's doing it right of all the vehicles I drove up at that event in Washington with the 20 7 uh trucks and SUVs I thought you know this Morano feels the best and same story with this this seat just feels fantastic so thank you for watching and if you have any on to noreast 145th Street then there is a traffic circle take the second exit questions or comments feel free to leave them below all right we're at a red light squealed the tires a little bit sorry Nissan things fun honestly like I think on a back row this thing would actually be pretty enjoyable to rip around inhello everyone and welcome in this video I'm going to be test driving the 2016 Nissan Maxima and this particular trim that I'm in is the SR which is basically the sport version it has a sport tune suspension and this is going to be a little bit different than what I usually do because I'm actually at an event with Nissan rather than this sitting in my driveway for me to have it for a week and test out so I'm going to go on a short little driving Loop see how this thing feels um there's a lot of cool features about it and some of the engineering I'll get into also uh but basically we're just going to see how this thing drives so let's go ahead didn't get out of here now one of the first things I noticed actually sitting in the vehicle your front windshield is actually fairly narrow as is the rear windshield and overall I'd say visibility is fine uh especially looking out the sides checking your blind spot very easy to do but the front windshield is a bit narrow which is just something worth noting so I'm going to put this in sport mode why not it's there right uh this is the sport version so it has a 19in dime cut wheel sport ton suspension as as I mentioned uh and one of the things that's actually fairly surprising so this has 300 horsepower uh and it doesn't weigh all that much depending on the trim level it's somewhere between I believe about 3500 to about 3600 uh which actually believe it or not gives it a better power to weight ratio in the lowest trim form uh than the Audi S4 which I tested so you know a decent amount of power in this uh and not all that heavy uh for what it is actually pretty good Weight Wise you know it's got basically the same amount of horsepower as my Subaru STI and yet it only weighs about 100 a little bit over 100 pounds more uh depending on the trim level so ride quality so far very soft very comfortable uh definitely quiet so interior wise you know it definitely feels pretty nice I really like this steering wheel it's got a good amount of cushion to it uh it's got some leather small Al canara on it uh overall you know it's got plenty of controls on it as well you've got a nice screen up front and all of the Maximas come standard with navigation so one of the cool things they did is they went away with options and you just buy a grade so there's five grades of Maximas and you just choose the one that you want uh no need to customize and basically the reason they're doing this is you're kind of eliminating this need for online shopping where everybody wants you know something perfectly customizable and you can never find it at the dealership so because you just buy a grade uh then you will be able to find the grade you want at a dealership and you won't have to you know purchase and wait for the order to come in online so steering has actually a pretty decent weight to it and that may be because of the sport mode as well you know it adds a little bit of weight uh this does have a CVT transmission and so you know depending on how you use it it works differently so if you're at uh lighter depressing of the throttle pedal then it's going to act more like a traditional CVT where it'll just maintain a certain RPM if you put your foot down it'll kind of be stepped uh so it acts more like a regular automatic transmission where you actually have gear shifts uh where it changes between set ratios now I can't speak much for the brake pedal yet but the throttle pedal feels fine you know decent sensitivity to it uh and you get right into it right when you start touching it it starts uh to apply throttle so I'm going to come break here and actually a good feel to it decent amount of travel actually uh and not all that um stiff it actually has a good feel to it good Progressive rate as you press down on it and it doesn't feel all that sensitive so you know you're not going to have an abrupt stop by accident uh it's very easy to modulate and this is my first time using it so definitely something easy to adapt to okay so just while I'm sitting here checking out the interior you've got a nice little knob for uh using this menu over here and you've got the ability heated and cooled seats automatic front windows uh you've got some controls over here heated steering wheel you can turn off your traction control Pop the trunk uh you also do have pad shifter so you can have these uh basically set gear ratios that the CVT uses which you can choose to use uh put it over into the manual mode there for the most part I do like this infotainment setup everything's pretty simple in here uh intuitive to use it doesn't require you know a lot of time spent looking at it to figure out what you want to do pretty large buttons with large text actually does have some power wow surprisingly quick when you put your foot down yeah good torque I like that and cvts tend to do the manual activation better than traditional automatic gearboxes and this seems to be the case with this one as well uh downshifts are pretty quick upshifts seem to take a little bit longer to do um but overall smooth transition uh not jolty and you know it does happen decently quick especially on downshift so overall I think the manual selection is fine to use uh and certainly better than most automatic gearboxes out there I'm going to put it back into automatic mode now and just let it figure it out now diving into the engineering there's actually some pretty cool things Nissan has done to improve this Maxima over the previous generation starting with the engine they've worked extensively on the intake system redesigning the intake Valves and ports to promote tumbling of the air to better Aid in combustion they've also shortened the intake run length by 20 mm and increase the diameter by 1 mm to improve air flow the intake valves are also filled with sodium to help conduct heat away from the combustion chamber moving on to the transmission they've reduced the size of the oil pump made use of a more efficient chain and are now using a lower viscosity oil overall this made a 40% reduction in the friction within the system meaning more power to the wheels and better fuel economy body rigidity is up 25% thanks to the use of a high tensil strength steel a strategic rear brace and a redesigned strut Tower brace contributing to both an 8 8% Improvement in front lateral stiffness and a 2.2 lb weight reduction overall the platform is down 82 lb in weight which as I mentioned previously AIDS in its favorable power to weight ratio try that acceleration one more time it's actually really solid pretty impressive front-wheel drive and I don't notice torque steer at 300 horsepower going all the way to the front and it's uh pulls pretty well so pretty impressive you know it's funny that there is it looks like a FR FRS in front of me this actually has the same fuel economy rating as that F FRS 22 in the city 30 on the highway and yet that F FRS weighs far less than this does has a much smaller engine uh makes a lot less horsepower so it's pretty impressive that something this large is getting as good a fuel economy as that vehicle right there in the EPA ratings now just to clarify though that's for the manual transmission of the F FRS versus this is a CVT the automatic version of that vehicle does get better fuel economy so another thing worth mentioning is just that these seats are extremely comfortable same story with the Rogue and the Morano that I drove these zero gravity seats as they call them they're just extremely comfortable to sit in it's probably one of the first things you'll notice if you haven't sat in one of these new Nissan vehicles is just how comfortable these seats are in fact I thought that before I even knew that these were called zero gravity seats I sat in them I thought wow like these seats are really great uh and so I looked up to see like if there was anything specific they did with them cuz I thought man like Nissan's doing it right of all the vehicles I drove up at that event in Washington with the 20 7 uh trucks and SUVs I thought you know this Morano feels the best and same story with this this seat just feels fantastic so thank you for watching and if you have any on to noreast 145th Street then there is a traffic circle take the second exit questions or comments feel free to leave them below all right we're at a red light squealed the tires a little bit sorry Nissan things fun honestly like I think on a back row this thing would actually be pretty enjoyable to rip around in\n"