Infiniti G35 Sedan 2006 and earlier

kd6aw1

After reading about the Nissan Skyline for years I was Happy to see that the Skyline was finally coming to the United States and Canada as the Infiniti G35. Having driven most sports sedans including BMWs, Mercedes and others I couldn't wait to test drive the new one. The test drive convinced me that I needed one real badly so I traded my beloved 1999 Nissan Maxima SE in and drove out with a garnet red G35 with the luxury package, xenon lights and navigation package. I am really thrilled with every aspect of this car. Super power and speed, great handling, quiet, and a very smooth ride plus having all the extras that anyone could wish for. In a lifetime of buying new cars which also included a Porsche none have enthused us as much as this one. I now have 650 miles on her and it is hard to leave the car alone. We even named her Gi Gi so you know that she is something very special to us. The navigation unit was included and works beautifully so the $2,000. that it cost was well worth it to us. The lady inside has a beautiful voice so we are never alone. All this plus the expected reliability and long warranty made this qualify as a best buy. Discovery Infiniti in San Diego were very nice to deal with and the buying process was made very pleasant. The only car I would rather have than this one would be the new Ferrari but I am too poor for that one. Just wanted to share our enthusiasm and hope this post may be of help to someone.

Paul and Joan Babcock
El Cajon, California

magnetophone

All it's making me do is wish I could afford a new G35 right now

joeandcarol2

Where is that 6 speed trans?????????????

cheerioboy26

are currently being placed in the 350 Z

sedans must wait until around the new year.....

sawjai

I can't stand it.... busting my butt here at work.... and clicking the hours away when I can finally get off to go pick up my G35. Argh.... if it wasn't for all these damn meetings today.... I would be enjoying the car now. Oh well.... 2 more meetings to
go before its time to say hello to my new G.

If people were curious to know what I ordered:
Brilliant Silver
DVD Navigation
Premium
Winter
Sport
Xenon

btate2002

Wow, I really like this car. I finally got close to one in the mall yesterday. I definately think the coupe version will be on my shopping list in a few years. Congrats on your new G35's!

dane4

I see that the rear spoiler is available seperately and I'm pouring over the images of the G35 I can find to decide wether or not I will modify the clean lines of the non-aero car to get closer to zero rear lift...

The kit mentions that it has all the hardware and instructions for the installation... I'm assuming that holes will have to be drilled into the trunk to install the spoiler... ARGH! drilling into the body of my G35?! The thought makes me cringe...

Has anyone thought about installing the rear spoiler? am I wrong about the drilling part?

Faenor

dane4

Congratulations! with any luck you are already on your way to pick up your new car I'm curious to see if you will be able to keep your foot out of the accelerator for the first 500 miles or so I know I couldn't..

Faenor

dane4

Does anyone have any reviews of how this product works for them on their G35? I heard that it is wonderful stuff, although a bit of a process to put it on the car correctly

Faenor

tonyg35

Do you have the garmin streetpilot 3 gps?
Can you enter a street address with that particular model?

I thought I wouldn't need the navigator gps option, but I'm so navigator envy now.

Tony

a3a12498

Someone posted this link on the Fresh Alloy forum. This guy did a thorough test of several waxes, and his conclusions are well worth the visit to his site.

http://www.deckowski.com/wax%20off/greatwaxoffintro.htm

tpell1

Hi, I am 30 and live in Northern NJ and finally able to get fun car to drive after years of hand me down Plymouth Sundances, Chevy Cavaliers and Toyotal Tercels!

I am trying to decide between the high end being the 330ci, the G35, the A4 and loaded VW Passat for the low end for a 3 year lease- shocking selections for northern NJ, I know

I love the look the G35 and it seems like it'd be a really fun car to drive but just leery of it being the 1st year of a new model- I'd be purchasing in July '02- would an updated version be out by then?

I have driven other people's BMW's and Passat's before and love both cars. What are pos/neg of the AWD option for the 330i? I don't see it talked about much. I am not a gearhead and a lot of the intricate stuff talked about on here while interesting, sometimes goes right over my head.

I know ultimately I have to decide for myself and I will, but coming from never even owning a V6, I am probably not nearly as demanding as a lot of people looking at these cars so I don't know how much stock I should put in some of the differences based on what I'd ever notice. Price is obviously an option, and the 330xi is the high end of what I can afford but I am just looking for any criteria or things maybe that might help me with how to look at each of these cars stacked next to each other.

Any info would help!

thanks

tonyg35

The G35 has just hit the US/Canada shore recently, however this car has been selling as the Nissan Skyline (not be mistaken for the legendary Skyline GTR) for over a year now. I think most of the bugs has been iron out.

I love my G35! I do suggest that you go drive it, however I must caution that unless you are ready to buy, leave your check book at home If you drive it, you'll want to buy it. You have been warned.

Tony,

dane4

Tony,

I know what you mean about the Nav Envy LoL! I regretted not getting the NAV package after about two weeks

The Infiniti Nav definitely has some advantages over the aftermarket systems, like larger screen, built in car management (fuel levels, maintenance schedules etc) but the Street Pilot that I got to quell my Nav desires is a great substitute!

It uses Navtech mapsource data which is unrivaled in metro areas though a bit less stellar way out in the "styx" I'm in the SF Bay area and I haven't found a street yet that it didn't know about, or even a small dead end lane...

To answer your question, yes, it does do street address level as one of the many options for routing (it will give you a complete list of choices if you enter something like "1200 Main St) finding every 1200 Main Street in the regions you have loaded in memory, which for me is every state in the western US...

Additionally you can cut down on your search results scrolling by toggling the return lists to "Find Closest" in which case it will from then on list all search points by order of distance Very nice feature!

For all the who-hah about routing features and recalculating routes when you go off course (which the SPIII does incredibly well) I think a little talked about feature with the SPIII is one of its most useful facets; that is, the moving map mode where there is no route, but it tells you what street you are on, the cross street that is coming up, and the address of the street all as you are driving along. So if you were on Main St, you would see the address numbers tick along up or down as you drove, and so far, the upcoming cross street being displayed has saved me from some hard manuevers in the dead of night or the alternative of crawling along at 2 mph trying to see the darned street sign. The text it displays for this info is very large and very easy to read even out of the corner of your eye.

Some things I have done with the SPIII just for fun, is to make it display all restaurants in the "nearest" mode, and as you drive along the list continuously updates... I found a great new chinese restaurant and an italian one that I never new existed right in my neighborhood *laughing*

Some practical apps for this would be to set the unit to list all the nearest gas stations, and when you were on a long drive and running near empty and the gas station you passed (an arrow points in its direction next to the name) is listed as 1.2 miles behind you and the next gas station says 94 miles ahead... you better turn around

For the G35, there are some neat coincidences as far as where to put the SPIII... In the cubby which is void because of no nav the SPIII nestles nicely in the opening with the lid of the cubby holding the unit stationary... you do have to move the antenna to the side position to clear the lid, but the antenna is removable and you can mount the antenna somewhere else with an extension cable. This has the effect of removing the clearance problem of the lid of the cubby and the antenna... I am going to open up two holes at the bottom of the cubby and feed the power and antenna wires behind the SPIII down into the console and to the rear deck for the optional low profile antenna (a little black round thing about the half the size of a computer mouse) and the power I will route to the accesory plug in the center console bin. I am a stickler for no wires showing at all and this is just the ticket.

As a bonus, the SPIII is made of stout plastic that is almost EXACTLY the same color as the graphite interior plastic... people who have been in the car with me have commented that it actually looks like it was made for the car (not as much as the real one) but at least it is not a hack looking tack on.

This post is getting way too long! but there are more features to this thing than I can put down in reasonable length... but one more feature that could prove dangerous to people is there is a mode that displays in large numbers all of your telemetry data, avg speed, current speed, time distance travelled, max speed etc... I got pulled over the other day because I "almost" ran a red light. I told the officer that I let off the gas and cruised thru the yellow because if I had braked, I might have skidded (no mention by me of VDC *smile*) he said to take it easy next time and as he was turning to go he cleared his throat and pointed to the SPIII. It was in Telemmetry mode and clear as day was the entry "Fastest Speed 118.2 mph"

GAH!

I kind of shrugged and he gave me that "catch you later look" LOL!

Get the Street Pilot III... Its half the cost of the other NAV systems and its completely portable!

Faenor/Dane4

tonyg35

blinker

I love my G35 and you should drive it. If you are going to do a 3 year lease and swap it, you probably can't go to wrong on any of the choices you listed. If you were going to keep it longer past warranty, it has been my experience with BMW and Audi (most recently), that then a factor comes into play--the repair factor. From my experience the Deutschland autos have been unreliable and costly (my last Audi cost me $2200 in repairs in 6 months on problems that shouldn't happen to a car with under 38000 miles and 4.5 years on it. As long as you've got the warranty and a close dealer all will be fine.

ligart

tpell1 Take a drive in each one and see which leaves you with the biggest smile / warmest fuzzy feeling. Get what you like, not what you others think is best.

faenor Do you really think you'll ever make use of zero-lift? If not, perhaps having the car look nicer would be of more benefit to you.

dpepper

Picked up my blk/blk G today, has been at the dealership for the past two days for window tint and to my pleasant surprise installation of the spoiler that was part of my deal with the Austin Infiniti.

It looks great! and my friends that saw the car before the spoiler was installed, thought it looked great also.

IMO, go for it.

Have over 1000 miles and love the car, except for the gas mileage, but I'll live with that.

faenor

Actually Tpell1, yes the zero lift would be of benefit to me in ADDITION to the looks. My commute takes me over 50 miles in both directions everyday and I, apologies to all, regularly cruise a 14 mile stretch of that commute between 90 and 110mph... Coefficient of drag at that speed dropping from .27 to .26 is not an insignificant thing as you have to realize that at 65mph 30% of your cars engine output is expended pushing your car thru the air... at over 100mph small undulations in the road tend to induce the car to "get light" and every ounce of impetus that I can gather (excluding weight) to keep the car flat and stable is something that shouldn't be ignored.

The looks are important yes, but the effect is 50% of it to me in this particular case...

Regards,

Faenor/Dane4

stockman41

The dealer in Jacksonville Florida wants $295. for documentation fees. Is this a ripoff? Called Dealer in Orlando, Fl, and he wants $399. Seems just another way to make extra profit. Can anyone post what documentation they were charged?

Also anyone get more than $5oo. off sticker price?

ruski

for me, Zaino seems less complicated than other good waxes to apply. Plus you don't need to buff it. Just wipe it on, go do something else while it dries, come back and wipe it off.

stockman41

I have another question. If you buy a G35 from a dealer in another city, is a dealer in your city still obligated to do the warranty work? Do they still have to give you the loaner car?

sosg35

faenor - Where in the Bay area are you able to do 100 mph for 14 miles during the commuting hours? I am going to have to find a new way home!

faenor

I am counter commute its a nice LONG stretch of 680 from the Benicia bridge continuing toward Vacaville and beyond... an incredible stretch of road! but windy at times... another reason for the spoiler...

jjx456

http://www.auto.com/reviews/ulrich11_20020411.htm

gerapau

Before installing an aftermarket spoiler make sure that the trunk springs/struts will be able to support it. You don't want the trunk to come down on your head some day. This is of particular importance if you live somewhere where snow is a regular occurance in the winter. A little snow and an aftermarket spoiler usually mean that the trunk will not stay open.

joeandcarol2

Altima 3.5 owners typically get 26 - 28 MPG on the highway with cruise control on. The G35 has 20 more HP and just a bit heavier. Same engine of course but tuned a bit different. Why is the gas mileage so bad? Seems to me there is something going on here that Infiniti needs to address. I don't expect great mileage but the numbers I'm hearing are terrible.

allen53fl

The Infiniti dealer here (Melbourne) is rather small and the G35's they do get go (very) quick!

I was trying to check the G35 inventory levels at the FL dealers on the web, and NONE of the ones I checked, (about 7), even have the G35 model listed! Nada. Their websites need some very serious updating ASAP...

I travel to Tampa/St Pete, Orlando and WPB/Miami areas often, and I was wondering if anyone had any pos (or neg) dealer recommendations? I have a dealer list and will pay them a visit when in their town, (btw, going to Tampa this sat/sun).

TIA, Allen

speedracer3

Allen,

When I went to test drive the G35 at Warren Henry Infiniti in Miami they had 20 Gs on the lot. They've been great every time I've gone, and although I have not bought yet, somebody from this board C3PO has gotten their G through them.

pdrumans1

If you go to Lokey Infiniti in clearwater or Infiniti of Tampa, let me know how they are. I have only gone to look at this time and have not talked with the sales staff yet.

pdrumans1

and you are right, their websites are out of date as I tried to verify inventory on the G35. I know that Lokey usually has at least 10 to 15 G35's on the lot.

c3po33

They were pretty cool at Warren Henry Infiniti in South Florida and when I went they had at least 20 G35's on the lot. When I went in March there were no Sport packages or blue cars on the lot. I did see my first G35 besides mine last Saturday at a restaurant and it was a blue one.

sawjai

Thanks for your message... I picked up my car last night at around 5:30.... but didn't get out of the dealership until 7:00. Yeesh... the amount of paperwork they drown you in... and the crap about this and that on pricing. Just give me the car! Haha!

Anyways... you are very true... this car drives like a dream. It is oh so very hard to not drive this car fast. A couple of instances I was talking to my girlfriend and next thing I know she tells me to take the foot off the accelerator cause triple digit speeds aren't good on Highway 101 (No more speeding tickets). I was like wow this car really moves and you can hardly tell how fast you really are going without looking at the speedo. I really need that radar detector I just ordered. Brakes are really sensitive.... they take a real good first bite when you just tap on the pedal.

I'll keep ya'll posted.

jhchan

Guys/Gals,

What kind of pricing did you get on your G35 sedans. I'm on a list for the coupe. I imagine it will be straight MSRP even for options? Also what kind of fees did they hit you with at Infiniti? I'm inexperienced when it comes to shopping for upscale brands (I helped purchase 2 nissans recently). I heard someone mention a $300 paperwork fee??? Another minus for me is I'm near Boston. Thanks for any info!

gandhim3

The MAX you should pay for any car, not just the G35, is MSRP plus destination charge (and of course tax, title, etc).

Anything above that, and you get up and leave. And I don't care what the damn car is - Bimmer, Benz, whatever.

As for G35, there have been some posting of $500 to $1500 below MSRP. I have not shopped myself (waiting for the manual).

dane4

A quick, and rather obscure question for all of you G35 owners out there.

Where is the G35 Nav systems satellite antenna located on the car? and is the antenna connection present even when there is no Nav system installed? (i.e. imbedded antenna in the rear glass not hooked up to anything if no nav system)

I am going to have a look at the infiniti severvice manuals when i get home, but I thought someone might have the answer more quickly while I am here at work...

Thanks in advance!

Faenor/Dane4

dane4

A quick, and rather obscure question for all of you G35 owners out there.

Where is the G35 Nav systems satellite antenna located on the car? and is the antenna connection present even when there is no Nav system installed? (i.e. imbedded antenna in the rear glass not hooked up to anything if no nav system)

I am going to have a look at the infiniti severvice manuals when i get home, but I thought someone might have the answer more quickly while I am here at work...

Thanks in advance!

Faenor/Dane4

vmaturo

Have had a few family & friends buy from them. Excellent service. Especially the Sales staff. In particular, Stan Powell is about as good as it gets when it comes to sales people. He has been with Infiniti since they stared in 1989.
Good Luck

kd6aw1

In the dash.

Paul

jmess

I don't have a G35 but my car gets similar mileage. If you do the math, one or two miles per gallon difference really doesn't amount to much. I have had my car for 3 months and the smiles per gallon far exceed the miles per gallon. I don't even care any more. I just fill it up with super whenever it gets empty. My mileage varies based upon the mood I am in when I drive the car.

I hang around here because I enjoy the enthusiasm that the G35 has generated.

tonyg35

Don't worry jmess, even if you own an is300 :P j/k

We welcome all car enthusiasts, as long as the discussion is civil and respectful. True car enthusiast recognize and give merits to cars regardless of its brand be careful, if you hang out here too much, we may persuade you to trade in your IS for the G :P

Tony

kdshapiro

It's always nice to go back and forth with you because you have a great attitude.

scotth501

I agree with jmess. I started an Excel spreadsheet when I bought my 300ZX to keep track of it's thirsty high-octane habit. I've got some 115 or so line items for each fill up and corresponding calculation of days driven, miles per gallon, gallons per day, fuel cost per day, etc. The only useful stat I've determined is that when I'm cautious and fill-up at around 1/4 tank left, I get worse gas mileage than when I push it to the "E". I've tried to remember to back when I flew airplanes and its weight is an important factor, but I think each gallon is between 4-6 US pounds. I end up getting about 2 mpg more when I drain the tank, versus filling up at between 1/2 and 1/4. Carrying extra weight is the only thing that seems consistant.

Or it could just be that I'm less aggressive on the throttle when I'm worried that I'll be walking to the nearest gas station. Just enjoy your car, it doesn't seem to make a difference of more than about $0.75 a day from my experience.

Scott

mica88

"Our only complaint with the steering is its oversensitivity immediately off-center. It makes the car harder to drive smoothly and makes the body do a slight lateral wobble at turn-in that is unbecoming of a sports sedan."
Can someone explain this in different terms?

vnk42

I have been following the discussion on the gas mileage with great interest. The reason being - my G seems to be a little too "thirsty". The odometer already reads 1100 miles and I still have around 16 miles per a gallon of 91-92 octane gas. While I gladly accept jmess' "smiles-vs-miles" concept and I do not worry that much about money spent on gas, I am beginning to wonder if the engine of my G is OK.
Any comments from those of you guys who know cars better than me (vast majority, would be my guess) will be highly appreciated.

stsurbrook

First 300+ miles I put on (after the 400 of it being driven to the dealer of my choice) I got 24.7mpg in mostly highway (70-85mph). Last tankful was about 19.7mpg (mostly city and I was getting on it more... .

A US gallon weighs about 8 lbs.

I have to admit I'm having a love/hate relationship with the seat controls. I'm a bit "broad in the beam" and those controls end up digging into my hip. However, the good news is that I'm developing a matching numb spot there, so it is bothering less and less. Personally, I would rather see those controls by the auto shift. Shouldn't be too difficult. Just put a multi-position slider for the type of adjustment and a rocker switch for adjustment.

As all have noted, this car BEGS to be driven hard. REALLY hard for me to resist.

It is a great contrast though. It shows its stuff when driven hard, the engine growl is reminiscent of the older sport cars. On the other hand, when driven "normally" it is very quiet.

Wish I didn't have to share with my wife (her car... .

Scott

hrrodz

Recommendations for the WDC-No Virginia area?
Salesman? Thanks.

tonyg35

Ken,
Thank you and it's always a pleasure to have an intelligent exchange with you also.

Back to gas mileage, I got real crappy gas mileage on my first fill up, however the 30 lbs shoes I'm wearing doesn't help situation either. Approx. 16 mpg, (mostly city driving). It has improved since then, it's up to about 19 mpg now (half city/half hwy)). My car is at 680 miles.

Tony,

tonyg35

Go to Jim Coleman in Bethesda,MD. Talk to Easton, he 's a pleasant salesman to work with. Tell him Tony refer you.

a3a12498

I have been driving conservatively so far, about 350 miles, just filled up for the first time, from full tank from dealer. More stop and 30 MPH than highway n first tank, and averaged 18.2 MPG. So far on second tank, with more highway than city, getting 19.2 MPG. Not great for a V-6, but better than the 14.2 MPG I was getting with my BMW V-12 behemoth.
I hope it gets better, as it is less than I was expecting. 0-60 time is bettter than my 322 HP V-12 BMW 750iL, by about .5 secs.