Anyone drive a Nissan Maxima or VW Passat?

My friend Theresa has a 2019 maxima. She loves it. She travels within our corner of the state for work so she needed something reliable and with good mileage. I’ve ridden with her a few times in it. It’s comfy but has low headroom for me. I’m 6ft and I had to slouch a bit.


Personally I wouldn’t consider the VW Passat. It was discontinued in 2005 and this is its first year back. I’ve heard dealers are selling it super cheap because it’s a dud.

I don't know if the new one is a dud (2020 is a redesign) but it was not discontinued in 2005. It's been continually sold in the US since 1990 carsalesbase.com/us-volkswagen-passat/

My daughter drives a Jetta. She will never buy another VW.

Passat isn't a dud and wasn't discontinued. All of the above it false. I worked for a dealership. It's a good solid sedan- my SO had one and it drove wonderfully. I no longer want a big sedan so I am not interested. If you can find one that is a 2019, you are going to get a much better warranty than the 2020 as they changed it again.

I have owned Nissans and I loved them. I do know that as a brand they are struggling. Would it stop me from buying one? No.

We had/have 1999, 2010 and 2012 Passats. The 1999 was pretty gutless, I would say, but it was fine on the road. The 2010 has turbo and that is nice. All have been very reliable and while somewhat expensive to maintain we like the dealership experience with VW, although honestly DH does most repairs after warranty and recall work (although he generally ends up buying most of the parts from the dealership). We also have a 2014 Jetta waiting for DS to turn 16. We like VWs, know a lot of people that have them and no one has had major issues with them. And some are getting high mileage - the 2010 we have is in the upper 200's and I know someone with a Jetta that is over 300,000. I like the style although I wasn't the primary driver of any of them. If I was, I would buy an Audi instead (more $$ but more power and sportiness).

I had a Maxima, 2012 I think, I like it, but a good friend has a new 2020 and I don't like it.. I feel like it rides like a big old american car rather than the sporty feel that mine had. She's a little older than I am and it's too much car for her. But she loves it. I went from a Maxima to a VW CC and it was a great car. I traded it last year for a Jetta sport and I'm happy with it, I thought it might be too small, but I love the size and economy I get. DH drives and Avalon and I much prefer my VW.

We had two 2015 VW Passats. I will never again buy a Volkswagen vehicle. My Passat had issues with the climate control system for two years before we finally gave up and sold it in utter disgust.

Our climate control issue was more than a "quirk," unfortunately. The system fan would work upon turning the vehicle on and then cease functioning soon after. It was a safety hazard and so frustrating as you never knew when the climate control system would function or not. I drove home from northern Wisconsin in freezing rain with zero defrost and zero heat, across Kentucky in July with zero a/c and zero air movement, through the mountains of Virginia in February with zero heat, zero defrost, along with all the typical Midwest weather here at home. It was brutal.

I had the vehicle into our local dealership multiple, multiple times. The dealership claimed that there was nothing wrong with the vehicle even though I brought it in repeatedly with the climate control system non-functioning. They would pretend to "fix" something and declare the issue all better. Eventually, our warranty expired after a year and a half of messing with trying to get the vehicle fixed.

We escalated it up to corporate level and were told that there was nothing wrong with the vehicle and since our warranty was expired, we were out of luck because they had no knowledge of this type of issue ever happening. If you search vehicle repair boards, you will see countless examples of the exact same climate control issues in VW Passats as we had. Never again...

I’d pick Nissan over VW.

My oldest has a 2010 Maxima and my 2nd has a 2015 VW Passat Diesel. We have not had any problems with either.