I drive a car that would make the most desperate of high school seniors blush, wince & flee: a gold 1992 Nissan Maxima. My wife and I bought it off a used car lot in 1995 for $10,000 and have been driving it ever since. And while it's been relegated to the status of 'station car,' at close to 200,000 miles it is mechanically perfect - its unseemly exterior of dents, dings and rivers of rust notwithstanding.
When dropping my son off at school recently there we saw a 2010 Maxima. 'It's been totally redesigned,' I told my astute 9 year-old pointing the car out to him. His response: 'Then what makes it a Maxima?'
I had been stabbed in the back by own son with none other than the old knife & handle paradox: If John has a knife, then he changes the blade, then later changes the handle, is it still John's knife?
The first Nissan Maxima dates back to 1976, when the Nissan brand was still sold under the Datsun name in the US. But it wasn't until the third generation (1989 - 1994) that the Maxima truly came of age. Powered by a 3.0L V6, the 1976 Maxima was the first Japanese to exceed Japan's width restrictions making it a comfortable sedan for the US market. Power plus comfort equals what is to this day is marketed as a '4-door sports car.'(1)
So what exactly makes the totally redesign Maxima a Maxima? Consider the following:
When is a Harley-Davidson not a Harley-Davidson? The correct answer is: It depends on whom you ask. To many hog loyalists the answer might be: When it was NOT built between 1969 and 1981. Those where the years that Harley-Davidson was by under the ownership of AMF. That was the first break the heritage of company ownership by the decedents of William S Harley and the Davidson brothers. In 1981, the company was purchased back from AMF by a group of investors that included Willie G Davidson - an innovative bike designer in his own right who also happened to be the grandson of co-founder William A Davidson. And that's just part of the answer which gets exponentially more complex when you take the issues of hard tails, Panheads and suicide shifters into consideration.
When is a Porsche not a Porsche? Remember the 928, that front engine V8, rear transmission powerhouse that was intended to supersede the 911 line of rear-engine designs? Loyalists ignored the car (despite the 928S being faster than the 911 Turbo of the time). Porsche halted production of the 928 in the mid-1990s after a 17-year run. (The 911 series, by comparison, has been in production since 1964.)(2) It was not until the vexing success of the Cayenne that Porsche again attempted to foist another front-engine design on the public with the introduction of the 2010 Panamera.(3)
When is a Gibson Les Paul not a Gibson Les Paul? I know guitarists who consider the Epiphone Les Pauls to be Gibson Les Pauls. In my book, however, a Les Paul is only a Les Paul if it was the product of the Gibson Kalamazoo plant - a fact that has been the source of much personal stress given the fact that mine was not thereby leaving me at grave loss for words when I'm asked about my guitars.
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In each example above, the product identity is determined not by a nameplate, but rather by a heritage, a product mythology - a product narrative that has different meanings to loyalist clans. And while clans may have conflicting definitions, what each clan shares is a believe a specific product narrative that clearly marks the boundaries of what qualifies as a Harley Davidson, a Porsche, a Les Paul.The Maxima has been in production since 1976 when it was introduced as a small, convenient, economical sedan. With each generation the car grew in size, power, and in technological prowess that at one point in its evolution included the most coveted headlamps in the industry.(4) Now in its seventh generation, not only is the 2010 Maxima bigger, faster and better handling than mine, but it sports a redesigned body of beautifully sculpted lines reminiscent of Luigi Serge, and its amenities equal those of the European sports sedans - the other '4-door sports cars.'
That, my friend, is what makes a Maxima a Maxima.
