2009 Nissan Maxima SV Sedan

The 2009 Maxima SV Sedan is a great value with an MSRP of $32,860.00. Gas mileage might also be an important consideration and the Maxima gets an average 26 miles per gallon on the highway and 19 miles per gallon in the city. Compare the Nissan SE with other submodels to find the vehicle that meets your needs.

Many are the mid-size sedan offerings, and most are sold in large numbers. Naturally, whenever a product is produced in great quantities, its very popularity will cause a subset of its audience to seek an alternative. Something a bit sportier, or more luxurious, or more stylish. The Volkswagen CC, the Nissan Maxima, and the Mazda 6 all hail from mainstream automakers, yet all three address this desire for something more in a mid-size car.

Volkswagen's CC - the letters stand for ComfortCoupe - is the newest of the three. This low-slung four-door is essentially a rebodied Passat. VW has wrapped its mid-size sedan mechanicals in a sheetmetal form that is obviously inspired by the Mercedes-Benz CLS (itself a rebodied E-class).

The Nissan Maxima has been a premium mid-size offering forever - or so it seems - but the 2009 version has been restyled inside and out to put more psychic distance between it and Nissan's volume-selling Altima, which uses the same platform.

The 6 is Mazda's volume-selling mid-sizer, except that it's never sold in quantities anywhere near those of its big-name competitors, theToyota Camry and the Honda Accord. That alone makes it a bit of an alternative choice, and we've long felt that the Mazda provides a greater degree of driver involvement than the typical mid-size sedan. For 2009, the 6 is brand-new, with a particularly shapely new design. West Coast editor Jason Cammisa came back from his initial drive raving about the new version, so we thought a top-spec 6 could hold its own in this company.

Styling is the first element you encounter, and although appearance is ultimately subjective, a few comments can be made. The Mazda's look is a major departure from that of its mundane predecessor, but the design is still perhaps not as dramatic as the other two cars here. The new Maxima is a vast improvement over the previous model and looks nothing like the Altima. The VW is a faithful copy of the CLS, from its banana-shaped profile to its slitlike side windows, but if you're going to copy, the highly successful CLS is a good template.

In all three of these cars, the emphasis on style means a rakish roofline that threatens to seriously clip rear-seat headroom. True enough, medium-height and taller adults risk a painful thwack if they forget to duck their heads getting into the back of any of these cars.