Maxima has a bad case of the Ugs these days... And is getting a little too big
I like the new Altima much better, in fact I would love to own one.
That's where Nissan completely F-ed themselves in 2003 with the last Altima. It's too good and eats away at the Maxima sales. Now the Altima is better.
The pics above look like a base model to me. The wheels are really undersized, it's about 1/2" too high, and it looks like they're missing some trim at the bottom. The old Maxima came stock with 18's. Those look like 16's.