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!! This is especially bad for nissan automatics. SentraSE-R is dead right. I've been told by Nissan service people that rolling in neutral any length of time will damage the transaxle and this goes for all of their models, not just the FWD V6's. With the engine on, lubrication is still flowing so this is not harmful, but that said many transaxles are not designed for this, and some will still be damaged.
If your really gutsy short coast downs might not do much harm, but I'd err on the side of caution.
I was told, if you really must tow the car with engine off you can only do this for a short distance and low speed before the engine needs to run for a while again.
I have essientially the same car, but it was badged different for sale in eastern markets. Engine is a Nissan VQ, but a 2.5 with a variable intake manifold, instead of a 3.0 V6, these engines have pretty good ECUs, you'll find the injectors cut out when your decelerating off throttle (at speed, or above something like 900rpm, and when the engine is warmed up). It's because of this I've found that coasting in neutral with engine on is little benefit, because the engine is back to using fuel at idle speed. There may be cases downhill where you gain some mommentum you wouldn't have with engine braking.
Oh and from experience, I'm not a fan of EOC in Nissan Maximas, without the power brakes they are a little scary to get them to pull up. :S ... Is EOC for flatlanders?
It's quite easy to take advantage of the fuel cut with a pulse and glide technique with these cars, fully lifting off the throttle.
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