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Comments
Peete, I think the steering wheel vibration could be dued to improper balanced tire. "Warped rotor dued to salt in air"
Tony,
Anyway, how's the G35 Club, anyway? I'm so psyched about this car....like I've never been psyched about a car before...! I'm 37 yrs. old with two small kids even. Who's in the club? Let me know.
DJ
I wear a suit to work everyday, so it's an issue.
Otherwise, absolutely love the car, but it makes me nervous if, as I think, this was an oversight. Makes me wonder, what else did they overlook?
There is a more active g35 forum at freshalloy.com . I must warn you, that this is a Nissan fanatic site
Majority of owners are at that site, and we have a good time sharing knowledge and things about the car we love. It's a great place where we can organize meeting and gathering. Who knows, even make a few friends
Tony,
It went down hill from there. I asked what they would give me for my 2000 Chrysler 300m. After driving my car and checking it out for an hour or so and they told me the best they could do was 12k. I dont think so. Also got the tight availability, gotta sell at msrp speil. May be true but I am not in a hurry so will wait for a better deal.
Dig the car though. Salesman told me the car was built to be modular and easily switched to right hand drive. Hense the wierd location for seat contols ( would be in the right place for RHD) Also the instument cluster ( which did seem tacky) could easily be switched to right hand side. I wonder if that is why the manual shift mode is in the wrong place ( away from the driver). It would be right for a right hand drive situation.
By the way, regarding the shifter position away from the driver in manual mode, the Japanese version has it on the opposite side, also away from the driver. Go figure. I don't find it a big problem but I have long arms.
Anyway, cheers. I hope you find a dealer with class. There are some out there. Share your city location on the forums and ask about dealers that are decent. Some have been treated very well and I'm glad you walked out of that place you wandered into.
Actually all the controls make sense to me.
The seat controls are easier to access than the ones on the side of the seat (though some larger people have trouble with them). When the seat controls are on the door it looks tacky.
The shifter going to pretend manual mode makes sense, if your passenger reaches over you'd want them to knock it back to auto, as opposed to swithcing you to pretend manual mode.
The Volume switch is similar. It gives easier access to the passenger since the drive has the steering wheel controls...and it's actually easier for me having the volume on the right side, my arm goes right to it when I rest it on the shifter.
Even the foot parking brake, if it's an auto, why mess up the center styling.
I like the 2 smaller glove compartments, I need a location for small items which wouldn't go well in a basket type arrangement.
Even beginning to like the location of the power window controls.
It all keeps getting better...
Safe mode? Even if there was such a thing, wouldn't engineers/designers/programmers with even miniscule experience realize that brand new test drive cars would be driven extremely hard completely within there break-in period? and if these new cars all of a sudden started dropping into this "low performance mode", that it would spell disaster for the new model especially in its first year in the US. Perception is reality and consumers can be quite impressionable.
I think a more plausible sccenario would be the opposite and the engineers purposefully increased the level of fuel delivery to the motor via the control program, putting extra stress on the motor but delivering an incredible first drive impression. That would seem more inline with marketing 101
The whole safe mode thing bothers me in that if I was a litigator, I would be waiting by the phone for the calls to start pouring in about how Mrs X, was unable to get Mr X to the hospital in time to save his life because as she was speeding along in his new car, it all of a sudden went into "safe mode" and she couldn't drive it, or little Johnny, now paralyzed because as Johnny's Dad floored their G35 in what should have been an easy passing manuever, the car suddenly went flat in mid acceleration as a result of an "as designed" feature which caused them to be struck by an oncoming car. Sure it sounds ridiculous, but hey, just tell that to the lady who spilled coffee on herself, and sued Mcdonalds because the coffee was hot and she burned herself, I think she is a multi-millionaire now :P
I'm going to do more research on the whole thing, but I sincerely believe that the salesman was pulling your leg
Faenor/Dane4
One thing that you get used to in a big way while driving is that for that real burst of acceleration, you have to drop a gear just as you would in a stick... On the freeway this means all you have to do is knock the shifter into the manual gate with the back of your hand and Voila! you're in 4th and rocketing away.
Simply relying on mashing the pedal down to downshift the transmission is slower and not quite as positive a feel.
If you had to reach over, grab the shift knob and pull it toward yourself to accomplish the same thing, it would be even slower still...
Now all they have to do is release a computer software patch that makes it so that pulling the shifter back upshifts and pushing it forward downshifts... I still don't know why they have it set up the reverse of this...
Regards!
Faenor/Dane4
I must say that, I, like you, am not bothered by the control placements, especially with the steering wheel controls. The control that I use the most is the audio volume control, and I use it constantly. I haven't even learned where the audio power button is on the console, because I always use the one on the wheel. And my wife is more likely to adjust the temperature controls on the a/c, so that control is placed just right, near the passenger.
It may be weird, and overly positive to say, but it's kinda fun to have a car that looks just like the Japanese version. Heck, since it is our first American version of the legendary Skyline, what better car to be largely unchanged from the home market version?
I'm sure that Nissan saved some bucks with an easily "switchable" interior design, but, at least with the models with audio controls on the wheel, it's no problem.
"If the vehicle is driven under extreme conditions, such as excessive wheel spinning and subsequent hard breaking, the fail-safe system may be activated"
This will lock the transmission in 4th gear, by trun the car off and waiting 3 seconds it should reset.
However there was a guy on freshalloy whom had this happen and Infiniti repalced his whole transmission.
The Canadian dealer service says this response is normal for all Infiniti G35 models they sell. However, my recent internet search did not turn up any complaints of this kind from USA customers, but quite a few from Canadian consumers and reviewers (re: article in Toronto Sun).
Somebody out there with a similar experience ?
Could there be any difference in Canadian and USA editions of the Infiniti G35 ?
I would greatly appreciate any help.
can you be more specific about how long this hesitation is? I know you probably can't give a measure in 10ths of a second or anything like that, but is it severe? as in 1 or two seconds or longer? Some amount of time that might seem almost dangerous? Do you think it may be something to do with the "learning" attribute of the transmission control and how you have been driving just prior to your test?
I have almost 5500 miles on my G35 and I don't regularly do rocket type launches from stop lights, but everytime I have (there is this one lonely stoplight out in the middle of nowhere on my way to work) I get no more hesitation than I have experienced with any other automatic I have driven, and in most cases what "hesitation" there is, is far far less than what I have seen personally as typical.
Are you transitioning over from a manual?
I would suppose with an electronically controlled automatic transmission there must be a bit of "figuring things out" when you do jump on it hard from a standstill; measurements of various types, calculating things of other type, checking, predicting, setting etc... But this amount of time has always been less than a fraction of a second for me, and the resulting press into the rear of the seat and the exact shifting points left no doubt that if there was a delay, it was nothing compared to a mis shift or mistimed shift in a manual that might be running alongside you
Faenor/Dane4
Excessive wheelspinning sounds very much like you'd HAVE to have the VDC turned off, and if the original person who posted about it coming on had the VDC on then there must have been something terribly wrong with the way the car sensed "Extreme condition"
It still sounds to me that the car fell into a properly running failsafe mode, but the trigger was faulty.
The wheelspinning trigger sounds like you'd have to be doing donuts in a parking lot thru a couple of thousand degrees of rotation
Faenor/Dane4
To top it off they even knock off the Advertising fee which they could have legitimately charge me.
Stay away from Rosenthal! They have markup fees!
Back in March, Nationwide Infiniti of Ellicot City,MD didn't even budge from MSRP, they may be willing to deal now, a co-worker bought a G35 recently from them, so I think they finally got off their high horse and started dealing.
Tony,
Before buying the G35, I also test-drove the Acura TL-S (automatic-manual mode) and experienced only a small fraction of the hesitation I'm now having with the Infiniti.
what did you mean by "it shows a very hesitant throttle response during kick-down acceleration from stand-still" Kick-down from stand still?
You should be always starting in first gear from a stop. This was a problem in my Q45, always second gear starts, seamed slow off the line.
Personally, I do fell my G35 is a little slow off the line, very hard to burn any rubber at all, VDC on or off, but once I hit 2500rpm, it almost like a turbo kicks in. Have a G-tech on order to test my 0-60 times, will post when I get it.
Seems strange to me that this is built into the car. Excellent points made in thid forum about legal implications. Could it be the car is over-engineered?
After a thorough and unhurried test drive of the new Infiniti G35 and against the backdrop of effusive praise articulated by many on the board, I must admit to being suboptimally impacted by the car.
The main strong suit is unquestionably the engine with more than adequate acceleration and power and the handling is superb although certainly not superior to the BMW in my opinion. The appearance of the car is superb. The back seat is spacious and the adjustable rear back support is commendable. The outside temperature gauge and compass are nice and useful touches. The ergonomics of the dash are good. The orange-lighted instrument pod is satisfactory.
However, the remainder of my observations are less positive. I found the car overall was "buzzy" with overly intrusive road and engine noise, especially when pressed. This phenomenon is not a problem over a shorter period of time as the engine sounds are indeed exhilarating when the pedal is pressed to the metal. However, I suspect that over a longer period of time, such as on a long trip, this noise would prove tiresome.
The G35 did not feel as stable and secure as I expect a car in this genre to feel and did not particularly inspire me with a sense of confidence at speed. The driver's seat is marginal and the seat control placement is suboptimal being difficult to access and borderline uncomfortable (and I do not have an excessively large posterior or thigh!). The Bose stereo was a disappointment with significant distortion from the speakers. The volume control on the stereo head unit is inferior to a round knob control. That having been said, however, the steering wheel control is fine. The overall quality of the materials in the cabin is adequate but not overly impressive.
The MSRP of the car is reasonable and not incompatible with the overall sense of quality and clearly is designed to tempt car buyers considering other makes, specifically of Asian and European origin. Compared to the best domestic offerings, however, it is my personal opinion that there are better values out there.
On the subject of price, one additionally notes that the Infiniti salesman with whom I dealt, while not totally closed to the concept of 'dealing' on the sticker price, did project a bit of an aura of exclusivity as regards his wares. This observation is not the domain exclusively of the Infiniti salesman and indeed is even more observable in, for example, the case of the Lexus, BMW and Mercedes representative.
One gets the impression overall that the purveyors of some imported automobiles are given to fostering a reluctance to come off MSRP because they perceive the demand to be such that potential customers will fork over their hard-earned money regardless of price. While that may have been the case heretofore, present and oncoming economic conditions superimposed upon the background of a long overdue but recently burgeoning awareness by domestic makers of the importance of both quality and performance, suggest that an attitude of competitiveness will prove to be an asset and possibly a necessity in future successful automotive merchandising.
Try manually setting the gear to first with the VDC off and then floor it. I notice ZERO hesitation.
Holy expostulation Batman! and I thought _I_ could be wordy LoL!
Far be it from me to ever discourage anyone from actually using the language to the limit of its abilities, but Priggly, maybe you should be driving a Bentley or a Rolls!
Just kidding of course!... but when I read that first sentence I have to admit that I could almost hear, "Pardon me, but would you have any Grey Poupon?"
I can understand your comments about the dealers, and though I would balk at outright snobbery, I certainly wouldn't want my car dealer to walk up to me and say "Dude!" and they HAVE done that before...
I think all in all, the several Infiniti dealerships I visited before buying were all pleasant, well spoken and though some were more "pressure inclined" than others, it was never outlandishly excessive as I have been subjected to at Toyota and Chrysler dealers...
I particularly hate the Chrysler tactic (and I saw it 4 different times at 3 different dealers) when they tell me about the rebates and specials and discounts and such and go on about how the whole purchase is a "no brainer" almost accusing me of being stupid for not taking the deal. No brainer? I wonder why only 1 of those four salespeople was driving a Chrysler product then...
To me, I like it when a person pushes the envelope of "exclusivity" with me without crossing over the line of "snob", sure it is a very thin line, but if you think about it, it's a veiled compliment of the fact that you can be spoken to an intelligent manner as well as responding in kind.
I think many of the points you addressed are approachable from different perspectives, and though you made it clear that to your own tastes and preferences, they were not optimal, I actually think things like the placement and arrangement of the seat controls is spectacular! They take about 5 minutes to become instinctive (the two forward switches are for the more common forward/back and seatback incline, and the other two, less used and with differing tactile characteristics are for the less used seat tilt and seat raise and lower functions.
I'm fairly thin so I have to slide FAR over to even feel the controls and even when I have purposefully tried to sit myself so my right leg is right on top of them, I feel nothing at all...
I've been in many cars where the seat controls were on the left side of the seat and you had to wedge your hand inbetween the door and the seat to get at them... Without the possilbility of even a cursory glance, it becomes a "whoops, not that one... or that one either... oh there it is..."
Not many people have commented on it but the seat controls on the passenger side are, again in my opinion, placed in a terrific spot! When I have a bunch of people clambering in the car and a little person is getting in the front seat with a larger person in the rear, I just reach down and move the passenger seat forward myself before they even get in... as opposed to doing the dive and lunge to try to get at it in the more typical locations on other cars (usually involving taking off your seatbelt too) I suppose you could just tell the passenger to do it, but that can end up being irritating particularly if they are "tipsy"
For the output of the motor, the cabin is extremely quiet to me, particularly if you take into account that this is a sport sedan and the suspension is sprung to that definition. Quite a few automotive journals have rated the G35 as having the lowest interior noise levels of the sports sedan class at 70mph and this compared to the likes of BMW, Jaguar, and Audi... So perhaps you came from a far quieter riding vehicle? Have you driven a Porsche boxster lately?
The dealers being unwilling to come down from MSRP is probably the most troublesome thing I had to deal with as well... Luckily, I fought hard and got quite a nice chunk off of MSRP when the car had only been out for about 2 days and sales were more uncertain... I hear now that they are tacking on this "adjustment" fee of $1000 probably as a result of realizing that the car is selling better than their wildest aspirations, and people are out there that wouldn't think twice about paying it.
Its very unfortunate, and I actually feel for the people waiting for the Manual Coupe. with this kind of enthusiasm in sales for the G35, I would not be surprised ONE BIT, if the starting price "mysteriously" climbed several thousand dollars before the car is released in November.
Alot of people were waiting for the "other shoe to drop" as it were, with G35 pricing and waiting. With this "Market Adjustment Fee" rubbish, it seems like the trend is not what they were hoping for. I hope it doesn't continue.
So in the end, it seems to be a situation where the car doesn't suit your personal tastes, and there are definitely other nice cars out there (Thank God), but I've always been under the impression that cars that are priced equivalent to the G35 give less and are reliant more on their Marque appeal, and those that give more are priced far higher.
I've been in BMW and Mercedes dealerships and they've often used the rallying cry "Its a Mercedes" or "Its a BMW!" in answer to my technical questions, with no real definition of what that meant other than some intangible "aura" that I was about to be a member of the club.
When an Infiniti dealer said "It's an Infiniti." He was talking about hard data in response to my questions about reliability and quality of manufacture, and he even produced the data for me in the form of various published reports.
Performance numbers for the vehicle don't have to be justified, they're documented by car magazines and I can easily look them up. But the real intangible of reliability is something I need proof of, and Infiniti has that in spades. The performance aspects of the car are almost gravy to me.
A Ferrari might be 5 seconds faster than my car in 0-60, but not when it's in the shop.
I think that the G35 is aimed Squarely at the growing awareness of the need for Quality and Performance at a reasonable price... Its almost the definition of the car in my opinion. The designers offered up in it, performance that would outstrip European sedans of many thousands of dollars more. I used to be a Toyota loyalist, they lost me because they rested too long on laurels that were getting a bit withered... Now Infiniti has me, because they give me more, for less. relatively speaking of course.
Regards,
Faenor/Dane4
The same corner in the 330i and though the car didn't feel as though it were leaning as much, as the tires were beginning to lose traction the car began lurching as though the suspension were loading up and then unloading and the car felt as though it were "yawing" about its central axis almost as though the front and rear tires were alternately trading off grip. As the slide became more pronouced and started to feel more predictable and controllable, I let off a little on the throttle the same way I had with the Infiniti, and the BMW snapped back into line abruptly and didn't feel quite as poised on that one particular corner.
I know this is just one instance and one corner and one driving technique etc, but it just confirmed a bit more to me that the G35 suits my driving style more than that particular BMW. Maybe another model would have been much better (I have driven an M5 but no where near hard *smile*)
I'm still waiting very anxiously for the G35 to start entry into Touring car racing, and to see how it fairs on the race track in full racing trim.
It would have been nice to see a G in offroad rally as well, but I think it's too large, and the WRX would eat it up anyway
Faenor/Dane4
So what do I do? I just went out to the industrial park tonight (very dark and lonely) and tested it out.
Launching from a standing start in manual mode first gear and I stomped on the acelerator and my head snapped back and bounced off the rear head rest...
Now I have a headache...
The only thing making it feel better is that I can confirm as others did previously here that there is zero delay and as always AMAZING aceleration
Could it be a difference in the Canadian version as opposed to the American version? I would have thought that it should be worse for the states as I am in California and the engine is most probably choked back with all kinds of smog devices...
Faenor/Dane4
What is the opinion about the Max torque steer. I know the G35 handles much better, but I am curious about other peoples opinions. Id rather buy a G35, but the Max gives me soo much more for the $, that it may be a worthwhile tradeoff.Thanks
Hopefully the VDC will allow some wheelspin on launch in the 6-speed and coupe, so that the 0-60 times will crack into the 5's and bring some more attention. I think the 350Z and G35 coupe will be very quick cars, seeing these times for the auto g35.
First time was back in March at launch and was Luxury with the standard suspension. It was a very nice drive with lots of power but I wasn't wowed with either the cars appearance or the driving experience. (Demo car was gold/beige.)
The second time however (last weekend) with the sport suspension, I was wowed by both the appearance and the driving experience!
Great power and literally more cornering ability than I could ever use legally
Question regarding seat controls is while I'm not small (6' 220lbs) I have no issue fitting in my Maxima seats quite comfortably but have occasionally had trouble finding/getting at the seat belt connection in the winter when wearing winter appropriate "longer" coats.
Can any of our Canadian friends comment on whether or not they feel the access to the seat controls are compromised with longer/heavier coats?
Thanks for all your comments, I am about 90% sold on the G35 platform, just trying to decide if I can live with two less doors for the next 10 years! (Coupe vs Sedan.)
DK
Up until last month, I was all set to buy a 2003 Ford Cobra convertible. However, once I saw the G35, I started to have second thoughts. A new Cobra vert will be around $39,000 (including the gas guzzler tax), compared to a fully loaded G35 coupe, which shouldn't be more than mid $30's. For $39K, the Cobra comes with a great engine, 390HP, but that's about it. No navigation system, no memory settings for the seats, no xenon headlights, etc... Plus, a good deal on the Cobra is getting it for MSRP. Some dealers are marking it up by almost $10K (for a FORD).
While the G35 won't have the same kind of "in your face" performance, it will be pretty darn quick, and fairly refined. I guess it all boils down to your expectations. I can't wait until November, when the coupe debuts, and I will turn another year older. I'm sure most of you can guess what will be at the top of my birthday wishlist :-)
For all you doctor's out there, can I die from anticipation?
I had to apologize to the salesman.
Wheel slip only seems to be controlled when the VDC is on. I think, however, that there is still some degree of protection when lateral car movement is detected, even when the VDC is off. I've not confirmed that though.
http://www.brianv.net/newmaxima/
After I secured a loan with my credit union, I started to call around to find a good deal on a G35. This guy sounded reasonable on the phone and agreed to meet me midway between invoice and MSRP and I just need to come on down (we all heard that before but too bad I fell for that this time). So I took a friend with me thinking I would need someone to drive back my current ride. After we sat down with this guy at Rosenthal, he threw me some fast talk about how great this car is and 3 series is nothing, blah, blah and wanted to sell me one for about $500 above MSRP including some $500 advertising fee. When I tried to bring out our previous conversation, he suggested that maybe G35 is above my budget and I should have checked out a Sentra instead. I was so disgusted by this guy and walked. he told me he used to work for Jim Coleman Infiniti and I wonder why Jim Coleman dumped him out. Too bad for Rosenthal. This guy is so phony and acted like being very busy and a head and shoulder above other salesmen.
Naturally I am no longer interested in a G35 and recently put down a deposit for a 350Z.