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Comments
I never once felt it was underpowered . . .
As far as the memory seats being on the remote, it can be usefull but truthfully whats the difference if u press the remote or press the memory button and how often do you have other drivers driving your G, I know I don't let anyone touch mine.
However, I am sure that Infiniti will add the option next year. They have to hold back some things so that they will have some changes for next year or they will land up like Acura who did not make one change on their 2003 3.2 from their 2002 model.
only my thoughts of course.
You can probably haggle that G35 down to $33-34k, too.
-juice
I tend to keep my car for 10 years or 200K miles. So the resale question is negated for me. But long term reliability is paramount. And say what will about the superior performance of German cars, but in reliability - the Japanese are still superior. And by reliability, I mean little things like defrosters not working, or window seals peeling, or electronic gremlins, etc.
An analogy might explain - it is not the mountain ahead that will tire you, but the small pebble in your shoe that will wear you down.
-juice
shades80@mindspring.com
thanks...
I could not believe how packed the dealership was. Never seen such a scene at a Infiniti dealership before (it's usually empty), people were waiting their turn to drive the dealer's only demo. I smell a home-run here.
Having thoroughly wrung out the 323/325i in my quest for a car last year, I can say without a doubt that the G35 demolishes those cars in everything except for styling. I get weak-kneed when I see a Bimmer (something about the character lines and the almost invisible front overhang with 17s (or 18s!) bulging from thr wheel wells. It looks ready to pounce and to be honest it handles sublimely. But the engine is far too weak with an auto for it to provide the sorta fun I demand when driving. With a stick it's an engaging car, but not worth 30k. I'm not a stoplight dragger, but I do want to punch it at any moment and feel the car lunge forward. I hate being in a situation where I'm approaching a slower car and there's another vehicle in the adjacent lane and I know my car can't speed up in time for me to make the switch. Driving the G yesterday satisfied my need for such a powerful car until the day I can afford an M3 or M5. Power is always on tap with the G. The "sweet spot" is when the engine's running. I can live with the bland lines (heck I almost bought a WRX last year), it's the handling prowess, near-luxury features and exceptional powers, along with bullet-proof reliability that catch my eye.
When the IS300 was introduced, sticker was the price. But it did not take long for the dealers to start coming off that price, and now they can be bought for steep discounts off MSRP. Ateixeira is right, wait for awhile and the prices will drop. If waiting is hard, think of all the fun stuff you can do and buy with the extra money (perhaps 18" wheels and tires, audiophile quality stereo, road trip with Gabman's chick in a tong, etc.).
-juice
gandhim3@yahoo.com
And I am assuming the pic is not the same that I posted on the Yahoo G35 group.
Thanks in advance.
Now onto the subject. The car seems to only be available in certain package configurations which bothered me because I couldn't order one the way I wanted. Here are the option packages available in my area (Southern California)
1. Base
2. Sun roof & Splash guards (which don't fit)
3. Full size spare, sun roof, Bose, Winter (non sport), and splash gurads
4. Bose, sun roof, splash guards
5. Full size spare, sun roof, Xenon, premium, nav, wood, winter (non sport), splash guards
6. Full size spare, sun roof, Xenon, premium, wood, winter (non sport), splash guards
7. Sun roof, Xenon, premium, wood, splash guards
8. Bose, sun roof, sport, winter (sport) s.g.
9. Sun roof, aero, sport, splash guards
10. Sun roof, Xenon, premium, aero, sport, s.g.
11. Sun roof, Xenon, premium, sport, nav, winter (sport), s.g.
The Xenon's don't seem to be available without the Premium package. The interior I saw without wood or titanium trim didn't look like a $30k+ car to me, but it could be I just didn't like the black interior. I'm waiting till next week to test drive the sport package before I make any decisions.
on another note, what about a 2000 540i with 5,500 miles for 40K...????...
that place, I realized there are a lot of BMW owners who are insecure ego maniacs. 330i and 325i are both great cars, but some of these owners are giving BMW a bad name. I decided then that I won't join the BMW crowd. I'm not looking for prestige or heritage. Real car enthusiasts love all great cars; poseurs are in love with prestige, heritage and themselves. I also seriously thought about the A4, but too bad it's not RWD.
Buy what ever car you like, and screw what others might think about you.
-juice
Oh well, I am in no hurry - waiting for the manual.
boards where bmw owners were calling each other
snobs. Apparently, they didn't even think much
of their fellow bmw enthusiasts. All I can say
is that the bmw crowd are an interesting bunch.
entitled "DUDE WHERE'S MY BENZ" ?
Looks like BMW will be introducing a 1 series two years from now starting at US $20,000.00. May be old news but first I have heard about it.
"Luxury-auto makers are heading downscale to win over younger drivers. but they risk losing the exclusivity that appeals to well-heeled buyers"
boards where bmw owners were calling each other
snobs."
That wouldn't surprise me. Before I got my BMW, I worried about what others might think of me for owning one, but that's just silly, so I test drove everything, and bought the car that I liked the best.
But I question if they will be very successful. To quote Ferdinand Piech, (soon to be retiring) head of VW, "It is a lot easy for Volkswagen to move market that it is easy for Mercedes to move downmarket"
Mercedes tried to do the same thing with its A class and the Smart mobile. As far as I know, these small cars have not been the success that Mercedes had hoped for.
But the one crucial difference will be that the new 1er will be RWD. But the problem you run in to when you get into that price range is that the customer demographic changes. Folks shopping for cars in the $18K to $25K range also want a larger car. At that price, they want something the size of a Camry or Altima, not a Carrolla or Sentra.
The upcoming 1er will be very small - smaller than the 3er - which is already classified as a compact by the EPA. Interesting to see how the market reacts to it - as well as how current Bimmer "snobs" react to it.
I thought my "lowly" 323i w/ steptronic was pretty fast until I started reading all these posts. I started thinking, man I need more muscle. I started to use the steptronic feature recently and it does add excitement. Sure it's 8 sec to go 0-60 but who cares except the inner ego when you know a faster car is next to you and you know you can't beat them. The power band is great in the BMW and even if it is 8 sec to 60 it is smooth as silk and seems much faster. It has all the power I need, passing is effortless on the highway or in town. I think too many people get hung up on 0-60 times. I do like having a little fun if I'm first in line at a light and beat a vehicle but a part of me also says I'm a little embarrassed for even doing that after I did it. How childish was that, racing at a stop light. Imagine what others say--Look at that fool. Wow, he can go faster than me.
Corkfish: $28k for an '00 540i is low and impossible unless you were extremly lucky. I would not buy a stripped G in the first place so to even put it in the 540 league you have to option it out and this makes it a $33-35k car. Once the 2003 Bimmers roll out in a few months a 540 can be had for around this price(35k). I was not talking in todays dollars nor against a stripped G. Sorry.
I'm only considering upgrading b/c Bimmer's hold great resale value and I could take the proceeds and put them right into a $35k '00 540 or $30k '01 530i toward the end of the year and not be out a ton of money. I doubt 3 years from now anyone w/ an Infiniti could say the same based on the past resale figures. Reputations are not earned by one car or overnight and it will take years for Infiniti to be considered in the same regard as the others as well as hold a high resale value. I don't keep cars long as you can see so resale means a great deal to me.
It's not just about launching from a light. It's about freeway merging, about going up hill and changing lanes effortlessly, it's about slipping through holes in traffic without a care in the world because you know the lunge from 60-90 is near instant. These are things that I could not get with a Steptronic 325/323. I test drove used 323s and new 325s and neither car could deliver the kind of sure-footed punch I need 50% of the time I drive.
When I'm rounding an up-sloped 270 degree on-ramp to the freeway I want to know that as I hit the top of the hill I can punch it and break 80 without a strain. Otherwise I'm getting run over. When slicing through traffic I have to find my spots and hit them and the 323/325 auto (even manual) does not allow the sort of acceleration I want from a 30k plus vehicle.
If that's true, and the vast majority of cars don't have 260 (let alone 220) HP, then it stands to reason the vast majority of cars are "getting run over" as they merge. I hadn't heard of a nationwide epidemic of this. Seems most people can get along just fine in their low-HP cars?
In my area (NE) that's about the only place anyway that a driver can really let a car out without being dangerous. (I'm really nervous about the test drivers who talk about taking a new, strange car up to high speeds ... )
Take care.
Joe W.
And if Benz and BMW sales people deal with potential customers in a snob like fashion, it on't happen. I guarantee you that BMW will have to drill in some intense training with their sales fleet before they start selling the 1er.
Like they say about exotic Ferraris and Lambos - they have ergonomic and quality flaws with them that would be inexcusable in a car costing 10% as much.
The BMW and Benz sales folks will have to do some seriuos readjusting to accomodate the attitudes and expectations of the $20K buyer.
Profits in small cars are thin - the article below proves my point -
http://www.auto.com/industry/iwiri13_20020313.htm
I think the key differentiator in today's market is the dealership experience. Yes, there may be significant differences between the 3er and the G35, but one bad dealer experience is usually probably enough to make someone switch loyalties.
My personal experience is a good example. Since 1990, my family has purchased four Toyotas, three of them Camrys. But my last experience at the dealership has convinced me that my next car will not be a Toyota.
I purchased a new Toyota Camry in July 2000. The salesman was great, ironically enough. Very accomodating, and willing to work out a deal and negotiate - this, despite the fact that the Camry was the best selling car in 2000. But the service after the sales - from other dealer staff, and especially in the maintenance department, was mediocre at best. Things like the transmission fluid not up to required levels, NO washer fliud at all, wrong tire pressures, etc.
Toyota makes damn good cars, but if I keep a car for 10 years, the maintenance department better be damn good at what they are doing and provide great customer service.
Toyota did not do that, so I am moving to the competition.
(End of rant)
On a semi-related note, how is Infiniti after-sales service? Any previous Infiniti owners want to chime in?
They are. It's horrendous what happens at the Sorrento Valley 805-South merge. People hitting breaks, swerving, etc. Most people don't like to accelerate to begin with but when you mix in slow cars with people doing 75+, then you've got a very scary situation. The best way around it...go faster than all of them. Find the hole and blast through it like the Tazmanian Devil.
BTW, the 325 only has 184 hp and 175 lb-ft of torque (not the 220+ you mentioned, probably alluding to the 330) for a 3219 lb car! Not very confidence inspiring in my book. Heck even the pathetic Jetta 1.8T has those numbers and it's 200 lbs lighter.
I'll make sure I stay away from you on the highway. zig zagging in and out of traffic to save 2 mintues off your travel time sounds a little dangerous. To each his own. Sounds like you need a Porsche or M5 to satisfy your real needs.
> Sounds like you are trying to justify your BMW purchase. Who needs more power right?. Applying your logic, why get a Pentium 4 when a Pentium 2 does the same job only slower. If money was no object and you could choose between a BMW 325i or an M3 which would you pick?. I hope I've made my point>
Not trying to justify my purchase at all. The 323i is a great car. It just seems that the only advantage that the G35 has is the engine. To me that is just one piece of the pie. How big a piece that is is different for everyone. You're point would have been made if I was comparing the G35 to a NEW 540i or 530i. I'm not. A used 540 or 530 with less then 20k on the odometer is not much of a gamble in my books. Unless of course you like to buy new car and eat those first 2-3 years of depreciation for the rest of us. If you randomly took 10 people and put the G35, 540i and 530i in front of them I would say 9 out of 10 would go BMW. Let the past speak for itself. Have I made my point. As far as Pentium 4 vs 2 goes, if I blink my eyes once while doing the same program both will have the same result but the pentium 4 will have it done while I'm blinking as opposed to when my eyes open. I guess I'll stare at my monitor from now on. LOL
BTW-- I am sure people would choose a BMW 540 over a G35, since the BMW is more expensive and has been around forever, while the G35 is a brand new car.
Has anyone else experienced this? I have a pre-ordered car coming in 2 weeks and am having second thoughts about it.