Is it a challenge to write for CC? Well, it all depends what one has to work with. Sometimes, it’s a true classic, something from the ‘60s or earlier – those are always fun. The ‘70s and ‘80s stuff is more hit and miss. And then you get to the ‘90s, and it’s more miss than hit. I’m not complaining. I have plenty of material in my files that would be more stimulating than the Cefiro, but a challenge is sometimes what you need.
Well, I’m not sure it’s what CC readers need. My JDM posts are pretty niche, to say the least – if this one gets ten comments, that’ll be pretty good. But there are many cars that CC hasn’t covered yet, and many of those are passing on my street downstairs. They’re not cars I’m familiar with, usually, which is part of the challenge. But they can also be rather boring, which definitely adds to said challenge.
The Cefiro we’re looking at though is not that novel. It’s just a different name for a car we’ve all seen before – though not necessarily noticed that much. Cefrio was the Nissan A32’s Japanese name. Well, that’s an oversimplification: a few other Asian markets also used the Cefiro nameplate – Yulon even built them in Taiwan, though they were badged as Nissans. The JDM Cefiro A32 saloon was launched in August 1994 and sold until December 1998 only.
In many global markets, the A32 was marketed as a Maxima (bottom right) – sometimes with the “QX” letters added in Europe and Russia (but not in North America) – from 1995. In Korea, Samsung built A32 saloons as the SM5 (top right) from 1998 to 2005. In the US, higher-trim Cefiros became the 1995-2002 Infiniti I30 (bottom left).
1988-94 Nissan Cefiro A31
This was the second generation Cefiro, though it was about as different from its edgy, RWD, straight-6-powered, Skyline/Laurel-based predecessor (above) as it could have been. Not unlike the Leopard, the Cefiro was a nameplate looking for an identity. For this second generation, it became a Maxima clone (that nameplate was also used in Japan) and emphasized a soft and plushy kind of semi-luxury, one step below the Cedric / Gloria.
The Cefiro and the Cedric / Gloria used the same 2-to3-litre V6 engines, but the Cefiro was a bit smaller and front-driven. Still, it was a finely-crafted conveyance, aimed at folks of a certain age. The Excimo (Eskimo?) was the deluxe trim version, with as much “wood” on the centre console as the poor thing could hold.
By all logic, given that Nissan only managed to sell 66,000 units in five years domestically (a rather poor showing), the Cefiro should have been dead and buried after production stopped in 1998, but the rest of the world was actually pretty hungry for the dull-yet-solid Maxima/SM5/Whatever Else. It wasn’t all things to all peoples, but being locally-built meant that it felt a little home-brewed to a lot of folks. The Infiniti version sold like hotcakes, the Korean one had Renault’s enthusiastic backing, the Taiwanese one became the default taxi on that island…
So the Cefiro was slated for a third generation, which took over from the A32 starting in December 1998 – right when the giant Nissan supertanker had to turn on a dime or sink. The former solution was engineered, but the A33 Cefiro did not prove to be very instrumental in this endeavour: it sold even less than its predecessor. By 2003, Cefiro joined the Laurel, Leopard and Silvia in permanent retirement.
It seems Nissan’s Japanese clientele never forgave the firm for having castrated the Cefiro and rendered it a docile, rounded and dreadfully boring Camry-fighting machine. I’m pretty sure the folks who bought them, if they’re still alive, are still enjoying them, like our feature car. Unexciting as they may be, they’re pretty bulletproof. The much-vaunted A31, on the other hand, has vanished from the streets – I might have seen a couple at most, i.e. very few compared to the other Nissan saloons of the era. Playing it safe was not a winning strategy for Nissan on its home market, but it did bear fruit abroad. Guess you can’t be right everywhere at once.
Related posts:
COAL: 1996 Nissan Maxima – No, I Haven’t Driven a Ford Lately, by Tom Halter
COAL: 1999 Nissan Maxima SE – Best. Used. Car. Salesman. Ever., by James Pastor
Yes there are still a few A31s alive in NZ being a Skyline relation most got boyracered to death in the mistaken belief they are a great handling speedy machine the next model with its bloated Sentra looks are around in small numbers they are thankfully aging off the roads Ive no doubt people like the nice soft ride they exhibit but being stuck behind one on a rural road is no picnic.
I am totally unfamiliar with the A31 Cefiro. Never knew it existed.
These, yes; familiar, dull but solid sedans.
This what the redesign of the 95 Maxima (a disaster as far as I’m concerned) should have looked like here in the US. It’s far more attractive; I recall one auto writer calling the “restyled” Maxima “dull as a hobnail boot.”
IIRC, Nissan took a page from the GM playbook and also decontented the suspension of the ’95 Maxima, which further distanced it from the excellent 89-94 run. Not sure how this car differed mechanically from the Maxima, but from the writeup, my guess is not much.
We did; as the ES300 rival Infiniti I30
As stated, the Cefiro was marketed in the US as the Infiniti I30. The A32 generation Maxima/I30 was the debut of the wonderful VQ-series engines, with the VQ30DE 3.0L DOHC V6. That engine was buttery smooth and made great power, and when backed up with the 5-speed manual was a hoot to drive.
Many magazines at the time lamented the cost cutting measure of the Maxima going to the simpler rear suspension, but having driven both under all but the most aggressive, canyon carving mountain roads it wasn’t a difference in how the cars drove.
Maybe it’s because it is so different from the 2nd generation Cefiro, but I actually kind of like the 1st generation model, even if it looks a bit much like a Honda/Acura product.
I agree with the idea that the JDM model looks a bit better, from the front, than the Maxima. Probably where most versions of this car are ” let down ” is at the rear…pretty uninspired looking, IMHO.
I’ve ridden in a lot of Cefiro taxis when I used to go to Taiwan, though I’d say it was hardly the default cab. And they were also very popular with the general public; I seem to recall that they were the best selling car for some time. In general, over the period I visited, from 1996 to around 2010, taxis provided a great way to experience a wide variety of cars, from manual transmission RWD Nissan Sunny’s in the first few years, to Cefiro’s, Camry’s, Accords as well as Ford-badged Mazda’s. The meter rates were the same regardless of car, so if I had a long ride or was with a group we’d hold out for a larger/newer/cleaner car. The best cab ride I got was in a Peugeot 405. Occasionally a vendor would get a private car for us, invariably a Volvo 740/760. Or a minivan.
Agreed on the comment about taxi models in Taiwan. Most of the taxis there are a class smaller than the Cefiro – such as Sunnys, Ford Lasers (equivalent to Ford badged Mazdas), though in more recent years there is less standardization of car sizes, as you’ve mentioned.
We got this Maxima minimally, a few being sold to those with one foot in the grave and the other foot also in the grave (which makes it sound like it was popular with gravediggers, or the dead, the former being unlikely and the latter being impossible, but you get the idea). Lots of fur-seat covers and pastel parachute-material outfits behind the wheel and well under the limit. And in the fast lane.
They could’ve got from Here to There quicker, mind, as the Oz one had the famous V-whatsit six in three litres, and could outrun a hoon in a Holden if need be: they never thought it need be, apparently, and now aren’t buying much at all (mainly due to the latter matter mentioned above).
I don’t believe the downfall of this car was the vehicle itself, as the Maxima wasn’t a bad old bag of boredom, and did quite alright elsewhere. No, I’m sure that that name – which sounds for all the world like it could be Latin for “severe excema” – was always going to put many, many off.
Perhaps it says all that needs to be said about the car-interest levels of the 66,000 who weren’t, and who would probably have not cared if it was called the Nissan Maximum Dandruff.
Those idiots! They obviously didn’t have jobs to go to, and therefore should have bought Alfa Romeos.
Actually the irony has just struck me that back hame in Scotland, especially if you go back a few years, Japanese cars seemed to be the default choice of people who wear leatherette driving gloves and clearly have nowhere to get to in a hurry, while the best selling make among the employed was Renault.
Maybe that’s a comment on how bad it is to work for British management types – “Yes boss, I know I’ve only been in two days this week, but I drive a Renault – my hands are tied”. No trains due to leaves on the line etc.
Hehehe!
I would think the autumn leaves causing somewhat less romantic results than a ’60’s muzak-ish ballad was something confined to the English – “but Lord Snotfarsh of Wester-on-the-Pest designed the train so this simply could not, and therefore did not, happen” etc – except that trains in these very parts are regularly delayed by, I shit one not, millipedes!
Seems they have some sort of migration season – no, really – and depart in hordes across obstacles of any type, here being the said tracks. Trains lose traction on the resultant grease of a million millipedes, and fail to proceed. There has even been at least one serious-ish train rear-ender as a result of friction-deprived same for stopping.
All this proves that, yet again, every animal in Australia is lethal. (Which seems ever so slightly off topic, but it’s worse than exczema, I guess?)
Ah. I suppose thr British climate can turn leaves into something akin to millipede grease.
I’ve driven the A32 QX, both in 2-litre and 3-litre form, and I loved them. The 3-litre was pretty rare here in Ireland because of tax rates. Sadly my pockets weren’t deep enough even for the 2-litre, as small sixes are not very good on fuel economy.
I remember getting out of the 3-litre and into an early diesel 3-series (2.5 straight six) and finding it very ordinary….
As usual, we got plenty of these here in NZ as used imports. We frequently get the same models as use imports that we do as NZ new cars (familiarity being a draw-card, I suppose), and in NZ the A32 Maxima was the same shape.
Engine-wise these were quite a step-up from the J30 Maxima’s VG30E engine, and they had a bit more space, but a noted by others, the de-contenting had begun, and they generally felt a bit cheaper comparatively that the preceding car.
Quite a good seller here in NZ new form, and as noted by Justy, quite capable of seeing off a falcadore at the lights. And of course this was when HSV and Tickford were big names with Commodore and Falcon, so Nissan NZ comissioned the SMX, with lowered springs, altered intake and exhaust, body kit and drilled brake rotors, some of which supplied through Stillen, tuning company of ex-pat NZer Steve Millen.
Most of the Cefiros we got here were 2.0, from memory. Quite a few 2.5’s, but very rare to see a 3.0 Cefiro. The NZ new Maxima’s were all 3.0.
The more I read about the motoring scene in NZ, the more I reckon we needed your guys in charge across the ditch here back then! I’d have been happy to trade some Aussie independence to get some product action happening here. Nissan badly needed something to lift their image after the ‘ultrabox’ R31 Skyline’s retrograde styling, but they never seemed to get it. The Maxima which replaced it had an image problem here; it had no image, and it seemed Nissan Australia was never allowed to tamper with it. And quality of the locally-assembled Nissans was a bit hit and miss.
If you bought a new Nissan, it seemed to invite the question “Why?” .
“if this one gets ten comments, that’ll be pretty good”
Okay, I’ve only read this far. This is your tenth comment, I see. 😉
PLEASE keep writing about these lesser-known/mundane Japanese cars. If you don’t who will?
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I’ll go back and read the article. 🙂
Okay, here’s comment #10A. (hang on, that sounds like an early Mazda rotary….)
A fascinating (to me, at least) story. Nissan seemed to have so many product names bopping and bouncing around their domestic catalog that I could never keep straight. And I suspect more than they ever really needed in the first place. We’ve seen the poor old Leopard blundering around all over the place in search of customers and seeming to fail at every turn; today it’s the Cefiro’s turn. But much more straightforward. Except for the transition from a RWD to a FWD platform.
But still, I’m getting confused.
So the car we (in the west) know as the Maxima was called the Cefiro in Japan. Right, got that. But go forward a few generations and the waters get muddy again, if not totally opaque, as the Aussie Maxima was the JDM Teana (once again, a new name seemingly out of nowhere – why?), while the concurrent US Maxima was – what? And going back in time, the US had Maximas which started off as RWD six-cylinder Bluebirds while we in Australia got similar-platform Skylines.
I begin to get the impression JDM Nissan nameplates were moving targets!
This generation as a Maxima still got a fair amount of respect and seemed to be a fairly common sight – roomy, V6, anonymous but non-objectionable styling, seemed hard to go wrong there. The Infiniti was a lot of extra gingerbread but did seem to sell well, I reckon it looked more like the Q (if you squinted a lot) than anything else on the lot. Lots of “gold packages” sold with those as I recall.
I too find the A31 interesting, somehow it looks Australian to me even more than Japanese. Perhaps the rear length? I don’t know, but interesting.
I wasn’t very clear in my prior comment. I don’t think the 1995 Maxima was a bad car; just a bit of a disappointment after the excellent prior generation. I owned a 1992 SE with a five speed and that car was truly a “4 Door Sports Car”; especially against the standards of the times. The styling was timeless and still looks fresh to me. Its successor not so much.
My story with that car is also bittersweet; I gave it to my brother in 2001, and got it back from him, in a way, nine years later when he passed suddenly, and I became his sole heir. By that time two power window regulators were non-functional, the paint on the bumpers had faded badly, and it had various other age-related problems. It still ran strong, though. I might have been tempted to keep it as a spare car because our daughters had or were getting their licenses, but the manual trans, its age and the association were too much. I ended up giving it to a friend of my brother’s who had helped him from time to time, and as far as I know it is still running.
I actually watched yesterday on Youtube, out of lack of inspiration for what to do with my time and having fallen into a rabbithole, an old Best Motoring midsize sedan Tsukuba track battle from 1995 featuring an identical looking Cefiro in Excimo G form, and it performed very well against the contemporary Toyota Camry Touring, Honda Accord SiR, Mazda Capella Zi, Ford Mondeo Ghia and Mercedes-Benz C200. The Cefiro finished the race 1st, narrowly beating the Accord (which seemingly was a reigning champion). Not what you’d expect from looking at it!
As for the 1st-gen A31 model, it seems it was successfully marketed/launched as a sort of Silvia S13 sedan in the public’s eye (or at least it’s discussed that way now in Japanese automotive media), despite sharing very little with it and fitting into the dealer structure as a sister to the Skyline, Laurel and Leopard sold at other Nissan dealer channels, and basically being the size of the Cedric/Gloria of the time. It arrived at the right time for a strong launch, as the R31 Skyline was at the end of its life, but within a year was then hurt by the launch of the much more popular R32 Skyline range pretty quickly, eventually leaving the Cefiro as a nameplate without a home going into its second generation, with the need for Nissan in the post-bubble economy to combine JDM models with international ones more ‘thoughtfully’. Shame, it had had so much potential.
My Uncle & Aunt had a ’94ish Cefiro Excimo 3-litre V6 here in New Zealand. They bought it in 1998ish, and ran it for about 15 years and many hundred-thousand kilometres – it was phenomenally reliable and refused to die. Eventually they replaced it with a Stagea, and more recently an X-Trail. The Cef’ was dark blue with nice factory alloys; although fairly bland they wheels and colour offered hints of quite elegance.
Thank you Tatra, for challenging yourself to write these posts about what are generally considered not such interesting vehicles. As most interesting vehicles are written up on the internet countless times, it’s precisely these sorts of posts that make your contributions from Japan so fascinating to me!
The Cefiro Excimo A32 was actually offered here in Germany as the Maxima. After my 95 Toyota Carina wagon died the head gasket death (and my trusted mechanic failed to fix it and ruined the block instead…) I came pretty close to buying a 95 Maxima, being on the lookout for cheap and realiable yet somewhat unusual (for Germany) Japanese metal. The specimen in question was dealer serviced all of its life and up for grabs for the steal of 1690 Euros!
I hesitated to pull the trigger as the 2 litre V6/auto combination was supposed to be very slow (0-60 in around 14 seconds) and still traumtized from my Toyota’s head gasket failure I was not sure if I could handle the anxiety of owning an older Japanese car that had not one but two head gaskets that might die on me the very minute I would accept the Maxima as a new family member (yes, I have car related emotional issues).
Be that as it may, the A31 Skyline based Cefiro looks absolutely gorgeous!
Much agreement with first paragraph.
In malaysia the A31 cefiro has a higher resale value than subsequent generations.
A32 and A33 have very low resale value be ause they are luxurious, heavy and fwd.
The A32 and A33 makes great value as a beater here. Cheap, solidly built with independent suspension.
I liked these well enough. At 35 years of age, these were a prime candidate for me among choices of cars when I first got my license. For a kid who was 16 in 2002, these were nice cars. I have always had odd tastes in cars though. I wanted mostly the Gen 3 Camry really bad. But I kept a few alternatives in mind. The Maxima, the Accord and Taurus were all contenders as well.
A business rival of my Father’s had one of these, bought new in 1995. It had the first pattern of alloy wheels that I really liked on these, not the facelift/SE Alloys. The GLE was the trim. It was black with tan leather. Very nice looking car. I believe that the family still lives on my old block in Denver and they still have this car after 25+ years.
I thought these were in the same vein as the Avalon or the Diamante. An upgrade from the midsize Altima. More room and amenities. More power and tad more respectability. I always thought the interior was very well done with these when fully loaded, but even a GXE with cloth was a nice car.
This Cefiro with it’s cloth and faux wood trim looks good. I like those woven lace head rest covers and upper seat covers they have in the JDM market. Adds a touch of class.
The Cefiro was quite popular in the Philippines. At its peak, it even surpassed the Camry and Accord in sales 🙂
Long time reader chiming in, love the writeup!
I bought a 1997 Infiniti i30 as my first car in 2015 for the grand sum of $1700 CAD. It had 189k kms and was clearly neglected as it was sitting for a while. All 4 tires were mismatched and the suspension had a bad clunk. All things pointed to it being a bad purchase (and it probably was!), but it started right up and reliably allowed for a 17 year old boy to do what typical 17 year old boys do for 50,000 trouble free kms!
It was surprisingly reliable as well, especially given the way that it was abused, with only a set of new tires, brakes, and semi-regular oil changes being done given that I was quite cash strapped at the time. But the best part of the car was hands-down the engine, Nissan’s first application of the famous VQ series engines. The 3.0 was smooth, torquey, and willing to rev, and kept up with a surprising number of late model BMW 330i’s, which was definitely the car of choice in my neighbourhood. It had all the luxury amenities that a teenager would want, with heated leather seats, Bose stereo, and a sunroof, and was much more exciting than an equivalent Camry/Accord.
Unfortunately, the i30 had developed a bad case of vermin, with rats chewing up the wiring harness, and was no longer viable to be repaired. At the same time it was being towed away, I already purchased its successor, a 2003 Infiniti i35 with the bigger VQ35 engine. being extremely impressed with the durability and the power of the i30. However, I was much less happy with the replacement i35, with torque steer being my main complaint. It also seemed less reliable, as it developed various leaks over the 1.5 years that I drove it, and eventually quite altogether at only 150k kms. Still, it sits in my driveway at the moment being a slightly unsightly decoration.
Even though the later A33 i35 did not live up to my expectations, the A32 i30 cemented my odd love for FWD “luxury” import sedans with a big V6, as my current daily is now a 2012 ES350. I always found the i30/i35 to be an interesting counterpoint to Toyota’s application of the same formula, with the Lexus ES/Toyota Windom finding great success over the years and still selling quite well in North America.
My apologies for the long comment, but just wanted to share my thoughts and experience about a underrated and often forgotten car!
I have a 1997 Nissan Eximo in very good nick 206,000kms
For sale 12,000 dollars ono .
Very collectable not many exist anymore.
Please contact 021 085 028 26
Ask for Rakai.