After documenting shut to three,000 automobiles in automotive graveyards during the last 16 years, I’ve realized to maintain my eyes open for these with very excessive closing numbers exhibiting on their odometers. As of this writing, the most-traveled discarded Volvo I’ve discovered traversed 631,999 miles throughout its life, Honda is shut behind with 626,476 miles, Mercedes-Benz is subsequent with 601,173 miles, and Toyota continues to be within the Junkyard Odometer Prime Ten with 413,344 miles. I’ve had a more durable time discovering junkyard Nissans with galactically excessive complete miles; previous to at present’s Junkyard Gem, the highest Yokohama machine was a 1987 Maxima with 341,176 miles on the odometer.
I discovered this automotive just lately in a Northern California boneyard, and its closing odometer studying could be very spectacular. In truth, that is simply the third junked Nissan product I’ve discovered with higher than 300k miles on the clock (after that ’87 Maxima and a 1986 200SX that reached 309,222 miles throughout its life). It is potential {that a} 1989 Pathfinder I photographed in Colorado might need had higher than 400,000 miles on its odometer, however the mechanism was so closely broken that I did not belief its studying (the identical goes for the 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit convertible with a seemingly not possible 930,013 miles on its notoriously unreliable odometer).
The Maxima identify has an fascinating historical past, starting its profession as a trim stage designation for the rear-wheel-drive Datsun 810 within the 1981 mannequin yr. This automotive grew to become the Datsun Maxima by Nissan within the following yr, then simply the Nissan Maxima for 1984 (after the complicated “The Identify Is Nissan” name-change marketing campaign in North American lastly wrapped up the method of terminating the Datsun identify right here).
The 810 (generally known as the Bluebird 910 in its homeland) was an in depth relative of the Z-Automobiles of the identical period, however the Maxima moved over to a brand-new front-wheel-drive platform quickly after its Bluebird siblings did so in Japan.
The primary technology of the boxy front-drive Maxima was bought right here for the 1985 by 1988 mannequin years, when it competed for gross sales towards the Toyota Cressida. The Maxima received larger and curvier for 1989, and that technology stayed on sale right here by 1994.
The final yr for the Cressida right here was 1992, and its Lexus LS400 substitute was too huge and costly to be a Maxima rival. Maybe the Mazda 929 ought to be thought-about the principle competitors for this technology of Maxima in the US.
This automotive seems to be a Maxima GXE outfitted with the Luxurious Package deal choice group, giving it an MSRP of $24,794. That is about $51,188 in 2023 {dollars}. The 1994 Mazda 929 listed at $30,500 ($62,969 at present). The extra real looking competitors for this automotive (given the paltry gross sales of the 929) would have been Detroit machines such because the Buick LeSabre and Chrysler New Yorker.
The engine is a SOHC 3.0-liter V6 rated at 160 horsepower and 182 pound-feet. The recent-rod Maxima SE received 190 horsepower, whereas a DOHC model of this engine made 222 horses within the 1994 300ZX.
A five-speed handbook transmission was obtainable within the Maxima SE for 1994, however a four-speed automated was obligatory for the GXE that yr. The most recent Maxima I’ve ever seen in a junkyard with three pedals was a 1996 mannequin, although such vehicles had been obtainable (in idea) during the 2006 mannequin yr.
Whereas the digital gadgetry for the Maxima of the Nineteen Nineties wasn’t as wild because the stuff present in its predecessors, this automotive nonetheless has some futuristic touches.
We at the moment are residing within the closing yr for the Maxima, Nissan having introduced late final yr that 2023 can be the top of the street for the mannequin (whereas leaving the choice open that the identify may be revived in a while).
I often have an historic movie digital camera with me once I go to automotive graveyards (on this case, a late-Nineteen Thirties AGFA Cadet B-2 loaded with Rollei Infrared movie and outfitted with a 760nm filter), and so I captured this shot of a fellow junkyarder with the Maxima.
With commonplace V6 and keyless entry!
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