[scottydoh]

Maya is a NURBS modeler so its definitely better for modeling organic shapes (characters and such) It also uses node graphs, so it operates similarly to grasshopper or other parametric programs.

EDIT: just to add my personal experiences, I use 3DS Max for its rendering features on a fairly regular basis, and I've explored modeling in Maya. Not to sound arrogant, but I'm fairly good with CAD software, almost completely self taught and pick things up pretty quickly. I had a lot of trouble understanding Maya, it has a very steep learning curve, but if you have the time to learn it the right way, I would assume it has a much better final product. Although, I think for the purposes of the safety animation and the like, 3DS Max is good enough.