As far as looks go, I'd take a VW any day. Since the mid '90s, Nissan stopped making cars that were visually appealing (for the most part). If you go VW, the majority of their makes are quite nice looking, stock and modified. If your choices from Nissan are the Maxima or the Altima, the Altima would get my vote. The Maxima looks horrible stock and then they look worse modified. I saw a latest gen Altima just yesterday and thought that it looked pretty decent.
Overall? Volkswagen. Later, QD.