The Nissan Maxima is dying. But it’s not dead yet, as 2023 will mark the nameplate’s final model year. Nissan very quietly released pricing for the premium sedan once known as the “four-door sports car” last Friday — so quietly that we didn’t notice until now.
The changes are, unsurprisingly, minimal. Nissan’s futuristic new-ish logo — a good logo, I reckon, considering how some other automakers have taken to patting themselves on the back for thinning stroke weights — now features on the grille, just in time for the Maxima no longer be a part of the brand’s future.
The range-topping Maxima Platinum has also received illuminated kick plates and seats upholstered in “semi-aniline leather.” I was not familiar with this leather, but fortunately there happens to be a domain on the World Wide Web titled Leather Dictionary that can tell you all about it:
In contrast to aniline leather, which is completely porous and very sensitive, semi-anilines have better protection. The protection is by no means as strong as for pigmented smooth leather, where the pigment layer acts as a barrier and the hair pores are no longer recognisable. Such leathers are mostly firmer and feel colder than semi-aniline leathers.
I’ve learned so much about leather in the last 15 minutes. Anyway, only the Platinum trim level gets these seats, and Nissan charges a fair bit more for the luxury: $1,100. In fact, the 2023 Maxima starts $300 higher than the 2022 version, jumping up to $38,140 before a $1,095 destination charge for the base SV model. The SR lifts that to $43,300, throwing in sportier suspension, paddle shifters and different leather seats that are not advertised as “semi-aniline.” So there.
No matter which Maxima you buy, you’re getting a 300-horsepower, 3.5-liter V6 driving the front wheels by way of a continuously variable transmission. You see how that sentence started really hopeful, but just got more and more disappointing as it went on? Such was the Maxima’s time on Earth.