Within the Renault-Nissan Alliance, some models were wearing different badges, depending on the markets they were sold. This is the case for the Samsung SM5, which is actually a rebadged Nissan Maxima. It had only two engine versions, a 2.0-liter inline-4, and a 2.3-liter V6. Those had 136 hp for the smaller engine and 171 hp for the latter.

Samsung Motors introduced the SM5 as its flagship model in 1998, and it was a badged-engineered product of the fourth generation of the Nissan Maxima.