2022 Nissan Maxima Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Though the Nissan Maxima is a carryover for the 2022 model year, it does get some additional top-trim perks.

Nissan’s four-door sports car, the Maxima, has been around for decades. Though its star has faded in recent years as the company struggles to find footing against brutal competition from Korean and other Japanese automakers, the car remains a stylish and lively option that brings more power and luxury than many of its rivals.

The Maxima got few changes for 2022, but the Platinum trim did pick up standard heated rear seats. The car is offered in three trims: SV, SR, and Platinum. All models come with a 3.5-liter V6 making 300 horsepower. It’s paired with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and front-wheel drive (FWD). Acceleration is surprisingly brisk, with a sub-five-second zero-60-mph time, and the car manages surprisingly agile handling despite its size.

The Maxima’s cabin is upscale and features plenty of nice materials and designs. It offers seating for five people, and leather upholstery comes standard. The SR trim adds diamond-quilted leather with Alcantara, and the top Platinum trim gets Ascot leather with diamond quilting. Heated front seats are standard, while the top two trims add ventilation to those seats as well. Power seats with lumbar and folding rear seats also come by default.

Despite its nice cabin, the Maxima offers one of the smaller trunks in its class. The car’s stylish sloping roof also cuts in to rear headroom, making the seat much less comfortable for taller adults.

Nissan equips an 8-inch touchscreen as standard, and there are no upgrade options. The list of features is long, however, and almost everything is included for every trim, making the purchasing decision a lot simpler. The Maxima comes standard with SiriusXM, Bluetooth, voice recognition, navigation, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and more. The only upgrade is for the audio system, which in the base car includes eight speakers. The SR and Platinum trims add an 11-speaker Bose audio system with Center Point and surround-sound.

Most advanced safety equipment comes standard, including blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, rear cross-traffic alerts, forward-collision warnings, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane-departure warnings, traffic-sign recognition, rear automatic braking, and a driver-attention monitoring system. The SR and Platinum trims add a lane-intervention system.

All of that gear adds up to stellar crash test and safety scores. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) gave the 2022 Maxima a Top Safety Pick+ award, which includes top marks in all areas except for headlights, where the car earned an “Acceptable” score.

The 2022 Nissan Maxima has a starting price of around $39,000, while the top Platinum trim starts at just over $44,000. Some of the car’s competitors, including the Mazda6, have been discontinued in recent years, but strong rivals remain. These include the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Volkswagen Arteon, and the Maxima’s slightly smaller stablemate, the Nissan Altima.