hitch bike rack recommendations - 4 bike

x 2, exactly what I have. Love the swing away feature. We have an Explorer with the hatch back window so I can put the rack down with 4 bikes on it and open the window to get out whatever I need.

I would not feel comfortable with 4 bikes on the smaller hitch.  I can't speak to whether your Maxima is capable of accepting such a hitch though.

I just bought a Thule (Roadway, I think).  It's for 4 bikes, but we recently tried getting a bunch of tri bikes on, not sure it would hold 4 since the bars are pretty wide.

As for the swing away, I didn't want to spend the extra dough for it, and I can easily get into my Pathfinder's rear area via the window with bikes on.  It does fold down for hatch access with no bikes on it, but that's only necessary when packing the car etc.

Just went from LA to Tempe to Sedona to Grand Cyn to Vegas to LA with a car full of stuff and a bike on the back with 0 problems.  Easy to install and take off as well, couple minutes or so.

Of course, my bike rode inside

ETA I originally bought a 1 1/4" model on clearance, had to return it since they don't make that size hitch for my car and no adapter (at least that's what UHaul said).  Honestly I feel better with teh 2" hitch anyway.