Nissan Cefiro

The Nissan Cefiro is a mid-size passenger car that Nissan manufactured and marketed over three generations. Almost all were four-door sedans, though a five-door wagon was briefly offered from 1997 to 2000, and most used Nissan's VQ six-cylinder engines. Nissan sold it in the Japanese domestic market and worldwide under other names, including the Nissan Maxima in North America and Australia, the Samsung SM5 in Korea, the Infiniti I30 and I35 in North America and the Maxima QX in Europe and Russia, and licensed versions were built in Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan. The first generation A31 of 1988 to 1994 was rear-wheel drive with four- and six-cylinder engines and became popular in drifting; the A32 and A33 of 1995 to 1998 and 1995 to 2004 were front-wheel drive with V6 engines. The name derives from zephyr, the Greek god of the west wind. Nissan began using it in 1988 and officially retired it in 2012.