Last year, Luke Aker dropped the mic on funny Craigslist ads with a video for his 1996 Nissan Maxima packed with all the luxury, opulence, decadence and pretension of an early Infiniti commercial. Then Nissan bought it, and restored it — and dropped the mic again.
It took months, top-tier talent, and a lot of champagne, but Luke's 1996 Maxima — aka "That Car You Drove In High School After Your Mom Upgraded To An RX300" — has been brought back to the absolute peak of mid-1990s luxury.
You think you know luxury? You don't know a damn thing until you've sampled this Maxima's built-in navigation (road maps), advanced back-up system (a mirror), state-of-the-art tape infotainment system (tape deck), and dynamic safety technology (turn signals.)
The restored Maxima now lives at Nissan's North American headquarters in Nashville. You can go visit it, if you think you can handle the decadence. And once again, kudos to Nissan for having a sense of humor.