Nissan is Looking into a Maxima Nismo

2016 Nissan Maxima (Credit: © Nissan)

Nissan has long called the Maxima its “four-door sports car,” though it’s never really had too much sportiness to it. Sure, it has looked better than ever in recent years, particularly the newest generation, but it has never had the sports sedan feel. According to a report from The Detroit Bureau, however, Nissan is debating letting its performance arm, NISMO, have a crack at sporting up the sedan. This report stems from statements made by 2016 Maxima product planner Vishnu Jayamohan.

In recent years, Nissan has promised new NISMO-tuned vehicles, and it has delivered a few in the form of the Juke NISMO and the GT-R NISMO. However, it hasn’t been moving at the pace most of us were hoping, and a Maxima NISMO may be a step in the right direction.

The details surrounding a possible Maxima NISMO remain unknown, but it is pretty easy to guess certain parts of it. The first task would be to axe the continuously variable transmission in favor of a dual-clutch transmission or a quick-shifting auto, then the NISMO team would take the Maxima’s chassis to task, improving the sedan’s handling.

After the undercarriage is complete, NISMO would then upgrade the wheels and tires, and add a functional body kit that ups the downforce.

What remains a complete mystery is under the hood. Nissan would have to squeeze some extra horses into the sedan to avoid abusing the NISMO name. However, there is no clear indication whether NISMO can tweak the 3.5-liter V-6 without affecting its reliability.

The other option would be to move to the 3.7-liter V-6 from the Infiniti lineup. This larger-displacement engine lays down 328 horsepower, besting the 2016 Maxima’s 3.5-liter by 28 horsepower before NISMO even touches it. The issue with using the 3.7-liter is that it would require some heavy modifications to get it to work with the Maxima.

While all of this sounds great on paper, Nissan first needs to crunch the numbers and see if the take rate on a NISMO-tuned Maximum is worth the investment. I personally think it is a great idea, but I am not one of Nissan’s bean counters.