Its design was finalized by March 1991, and that date was significant given Japan’s economic timeline. Though it could not anticipate all this new competition, Nissan worked long and hard on its fourth-generation Maxima. And that’s if you leave out upscale V6 versions of the XV10 Camry, which was as we know quite good. Suddenly, the 1993-1994 era where Maxima had a market to itself was over, and there were five total competitors for the same sort of customer. There was other new competition in the mix, too: The second generation Mitsubishi Diamante was new for 1995, and so was the all-new and premium Mazda Millenia. To them, Toyota offered the Avalon in 1995. On the lower end of Maxima’s market was the Toyota customer who wanted a comfortable sedan, but not the flash and ruched leather of the ES. Its first XV10 generation ran from 1992 to 1996 (coinciding with Camry). At the upscale end of the Maxima was the Lexus ES 300, which was on its way to premium comfort sedan dominance. Though its primary competition in the Toyota Cressida died off after 1992 (it was not especially competitive, and Lexus needed the upmarket stage), Toyota had new options for consumers. It’s a very complex and interesting topic that’s out of scope for this series, but suffice to say it’s the reason the full-fat “Golden Era” of Japanese cars saw its last outing in the designs of 1995.Įlsewhere, competition against the Maxima had arrived. The bubble burst early in 1992 and sent the economy tumbling into a long period of stagnation. The situation lasted from 1986 to 1991 and saw the Japanese economy (especially with regard to stocks and housing) soar to new heights and experience massive inflation. The Japanese economic bubble that had created the excellent late Eighties and early Nineties Japanese cars had burst by the end of the third-gen Maxima.
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