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Comments
I own a 2003 G35 Sedan w/ Premium Package, bought in July 2002, and have 33,500 miles on it. (I drive a lot.) I had the rear brake pads replaced recently under the old TSB for squeaky rear brakes (TSB 2003-002). It worked for about 2,000 miles, and then the noise came back! Anybody have any news about fixing this? The brake noise used to occur under light braking on downhill grades or when slowing from higher speeds, say 55 mph+ before the fix, but now it happens all the time!
I was encouraged to hear that Infiniti will start a brake program, but it's too late for me. Hopefully, they will pay the $415.00 (per the posting above) I spent on the front brake pads and rotors earlier this year when it needed the work at 19,000 miles. I understand letters went out, but I haven't gotten mine yet.
I was also curious to know if the person who had the dashboard/instrument panel wear (the paint weared off from contact with the free keychain) around the ignition caused by the keychain, which Infiniti gives you with their new car, got their instrument casing replaced for free by Infiniti. I never saw another topic posted on it.
I'm having my driver's seat frame and CD changer replaced within the next two weeks. The seat frame is in stock, but I'm waiting on the CD changer to arrive at the dealer. Infiniti finally came out with a permanent solution to the rocking driver's seat which does not involve replacing the whole seat. The CD changer on my BOSE system is being replaced because it doesn't accept CDs in the 4th or 5th slot periodically...it spits them back out at me.
I know that this will sound trivial, but...Anyone who owns a 2003 G35 notice that when you drive a 2003.5 or 2004 that the center display above the clock looks slightly different in the sun? In my car, when the sun shines off the center display, the circuit board stampings are visible. The newer models seem to have a black colored shield that surrounds the numbers and blocks the reflection of the sun off the circuit board stampings.
Decided to keep my 200 Acura RL and wait for the 2005 RL.
Now I know what the Edmunds review meant by touchy brakes.
Had a pretty good deal too $ 750 over invoice.
Hope everyone problems are quickly resolved.
Cheers for the holidays.
By the way my brand new Honda with 700 miles on it has a hard time starting but I'm not gonna degrade honda for it. I will give them a chance to correct it when I take it in.
Mark
It's a shame some people would decide not to buy a car because of a minor issue. The brakes issue scared me when I first read about it, but the more I thought about it, if that is the biggest achillies heal it has, it could be a lot worse. Most every car has one...the TL and its' trans, Lexus and their trans...BWM and Mercedes their..well, read their boards. NO car is perfect. While I won't accept a poor quality vehicle and will have any minor problems fixed, I am somewhat understanding that wear will happen and a minor problem here and there is not the end of the world. Plus the fact that Infiniti has a good track record and has stepped up to take responsiblity for the brakes. I'm not here to say the G35 is the most well built car ever made, it certainly isn't, but I see nothing to stop from recommending it to people.
I did do a little researching now I all I got to do is test drive one. The only thing that bother me is the leather. People complain that it's not that great, even Edmunds puts it a "average".
The G35 leather is cheap with a silver lining: it is easy to clean if you have anyone prone to spilling. Almost like vinyl if you ask me. Spray Nine cleans it very well.
IMHO - The G35 interior parts appear to be sub-standard. Seems like Infiniti puts all their eggs into the engine rather than into the creature comforts. If you know this going into a purchase, then you will not be unhappy after you buy. The lower-end Mercedes and BMW are also cheap inside and their engines are not as powerful.
Again, Nissan/Infiniti stepped-up to the plate with the brakes due to public outcry and government pressure. It was/is not a proactive measure. You think they are making money doing the brake pad and rotor replacements? In any case, the bottom line means victory for the consumer.
My wife and I are looking for a new vehicle and the G35 Sedan AWD quickly made our short list.
However, I have been reading most of the posts here with much concern. It would seem that some of the posters would go about there purchase differently. I was wondering (if we were to go the G35 route) what you would want upfront from the dealer?
ie. - a written acknowledgement of the brake problem
seat problem?
Thanks,
Jason
I just got my 04 G35 coupe delivered on 21st of November. This weekend I noticed that the metal which holds the side view mirrors is turning white. It is like a fire effect it starts from the edge and going upwards. I am not sure why this has happened. I called the dealer and they are looking into it. I am wondering if any body has the same issue
THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM FOR ME WAS SIMPLY TO INVEST BEFOREHAND INTO AN INEXPENSIVE, RELIABLE 93 HONDA ACCORD WITH FRONT WHEEL DRIVE. FOR AROUND 3K + INSURANCE I'VE GOT PIECE OF MIND AND MADE IT THROUGH THE BLIZZARD WITHOUT A THOUGHT.
I've got plenty of friends and contacts in Jersey,so I know how terrible insurance is. Sorry to hear about your dilemma.
I am staring at a cheque from Nissan Canada in the amount of $ 750.00 representing 100% refund of amounts which I paid to dealer for brake work along with all sales tax paid.
Thank You Infiniti Canada
You may view your purchase as just as a beautiful, and powerful car, which we both certainly have in the G35. However, I didn't purchase just that in the G35. I would have never paid close to $40K for just a pretty, and powerful car...I can get that for less. I bought a brand promise based on the equities of quality, service and support. My G35 ownership experience was supposed to be about trust and reliability of the product, and status, and pride of owning it....
Infiniti failed me as a customer when that promise was not met.
It failed me when after sending the complaint about these issues, they have not even gotten back to me with suggested solutions..yes, they opened a ticket, but with no follow up...It failed me when I can trust the dealer and brand as much as I could trust a Chevrolet dealer...It failed me when I can not be proud of the car I drive, and when I have people coming at me reminding me about the bad decision I made, and the liability it is...it failed me when I have to spend 30 minutes, at home on a snowy Sunday writing a note like this....
If you had complained about the the brakes, seats or other manufacturers defects, then I'd understand perfectly why you'd detest Infiniti. But complaining about a sports coupe because it's a sports coupe? If you'd done a little research before you bought the car, you would have known that it's built more for performance than snowmobiling. Is it Infiniti's fault that you wanted a beautiful, powerful snowmobile?
"I wonder, if RWD performance cars are not to be driven above the snow line, why is that Infiniti is selling cars in Pittsburgh, with a package (18inch sport) that is not made for this climate, and that can not accommodate local driving conditions? why is that they are not even offering "a winter package" to help make this machine more winter friendly (as it is done with the base model)? , and even worse, why is that they are not telling their customers the inherent danger, and cost ($1500+ of going to 17 inches wheels to make it drivable in light snow) of buying such a car?"- freeflier.
You've got to be joking, right? Plenty of people are buying this car above the snow line. Most already know that the car should not be driven in snow. There are plenty of other fair weather vehicles sold in the northeast- are those manufacturers also responsible for warning others of the inherent danger of driving in snow-such as Porsche and Harley-Davidson?
Bottom line is YOU made a terrible decision. But it's not too late to rectify the situation. The G coupe has outstanding resale value. Next time I would suggest just doing some homework and not just buying a car that's pretty to look at and goes fast.
all your other rants about them failing you for selling the car to you really doesn't make much sense. adults, at times, need to take responsibility for their actions.
bryann, thanks for the suggestion. I already looked at TireRack and decided to but the Michelin Pilots..the problem now is that they don't have the rims (original rims are close to $1000! from the dealer)...nothing seems to come easy with this car..
bryann, do not be so hard on freeflier. No all of us are car buffs who would know that the G35's 18 inch tires could not be fitted with snow tires. It is not something that one would consider after driving Corollas and Camrys for 30 years as I have done. 18 inch rims and 17 inch rims, what the hell are they? As far as I knew, there were big and small tires and for every car's wheels all-weather and snow tires were made. Before buying my G35 coupe I read every car magazine article I could get hold of and read many things about the car, but not a one, as far as I can recall, mentioned this. I guess they all assume that those who are interested in buying the car will know. But what of the first time buyer of a "sporty" car like me or like freeflier? How were we to know? I did not even see it mentioned on any of the web postings that I read; all they spoke of were the supposed advantages of front-wheel drive over rear-wheel drive when driving on snow. So please cut us new guys some slack, but thanks for the helpful suggestions.
This may be a stupid question so no flames please:
Can one put 18" rims and tires on the G35 Sedan? Are the wheel wells large enough to support a larger rim without the tires rubbing? Does anything need to happen with the suspension if one can use 18" rims?
Wider tires don't have a larger contact patch in AREA.......the width may be wider but the tread length is not as long.......duh!
X amount of weight on a tire divided by the inflation pressure is the AREA in square inches!
Tire to road friction is a function of weight on the tire and tire compounds and how they react to temperature.
What most don't understand is Summer tires are only designed for Summer temperatures below 50F they get funky as the tread compound hardens!
In many parts of US to achieve optimum friction you need 3 sets of tires: Summer, A/S for Spring and Fall, Winter/Ice for Winter temperatures.
Something owners don't understand and surely don't want to pay for thus ignore - Physics.
also, centraljersey and freeflier, i just re read my post and it came across more harshly than i had intended. i apologize. factory anything is always very expensive. i would consider buying a nice set of aftermarket aluminum rims in 17's with all season tires. is the point i was trying to make. $1000 for the factory rims is ridiculous. having driven in a lot of snow and having bought many different sets of all season performance tires, i guess the shop that i go to has really educated me on the decisions that i make in regards to tires. anyway, sorry for the long post, but wanted to try and set the tone of my original message straight.
In between my post, there are a lot of problems with driving in the snow. Glad I live in S. Florida.
Centraljersey- if you do plan on keeping the coupe, I'm sure you'll be able to find after-market tires and rims (that won't void your warranty) in northern jersey or the ny area at discounted prices. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't go back to Infiniti just for rims.
Could care less about optimum friction and temperature as the car is seldom driven in adverse conditions.
Regarding cars pulling: most cars come off the assembly line out of alignment. Then, the carrier truck ruins it more. Always get the car realigned before delivery. Years ago, Mustang GTs had a terrible problem with uneven tire wear. Ford finally figured out the root cause was the factory AND the transport trucks and rectified the matter. Tires on that car were not inexpensive!
X amount of weight on a tire divided by the inflation pressure is the AREA in square inches!"
What was your major in college?!
Dude, remember I said I didn't want to get into the physics? Even though just canceling lbs by the inverse of psi gives you inches it is not a good solution. Things are more complicated that that. If that were true you would be telling me that a bicycle tire running at 50 psi and a car tire at 50 psi with the same weight on them have the same possible contact patch.
But don’t take my word for it – here is a quote from a Physics teacher on a website:
"Friction is proportional to the normal force of the asphalt acting upon the car tires. This force is simply equal to the weight which is distributed to each tire when the car is on level ground. Force can be stated as Pressure X Area. For a wide tire, the area is large but the force per unit area is small and vice versa. The force of friction is therefore the same whether the tire is wide or not. However, asphalt is not a uniform surface. Even with steamrollers to flatten the asphalt, the surface is still somewhat irregular, especially over the width of a tire. Drag racers can therefore increase the probability or likelihood of making contact with the road by using a wider tire. In addition a secondary benefit is that the wider tire increased the support base and makes it hard to turn the car over in a turn or in a mishap."
Answered by: Stephen Scholla, B.A., Physics Teacher, Vienna, Virginia
www.physlink.com/ae200.cfm
Why are those smaller tires on the fuel efficient cars? Yes they may be running at high pressures, but the smaller contact patches give less rolling resistance. Why make wider tires? More area to make contact and better lateral grip. So going back to my original statement, heavier sports cars running wider tires (G35) normally have worse snow performance than smaller fuel efficient cars (CIVIC) running tiny narrow fuel efficiency tires. Read the original post where the ? was on why those cars were doing fine and his coupe wasn't.
Or take the Tire Racks’ website:
A wide, low profile or large tire has to "plow" a wide path through snow which causes more resistance. The narrower the tire, the easier you can get through snow.
You may wonder why I took this tone in my post or you could just keep writing like you are the supergenius and getting confused between inflation psi and pressure being transmitted to the ground. Of course who ends up saying "duh" then. Your choice Homer.
The wider surface area cools the the carcass faster........this is why to some minor extent wider low profile tires SEEM to have more friction under certain conditions.
Wider low profile tires tend to be SUMMER COMPOUND tires thus are pretty useless when the temperature drops below the plasticization point [40-50F].
Narrower conventional tires tend to have a wider temperature range thus a lower plasticization point........All season [spring and fall] tires are examples at the ultra premium ones may function down to 25-30F.
The compound is 3-4 times more important that the tires aspect ratio........Note you can now get really good compound snow/ice tires in 18" and really bad ones in 15".
Seems to me though, that given the same tread pattern and compound a skinnier tire will do better than a wider tire in the snow because of that whole "plowing" tendancy. It might not be making contact with the road, but it might be making contact with some snow right?
Come to think of it I remember a few years ago some guy was marketing rims that allowed you to mount two skinny tires side by side to achieve an overall wider profile. He claimed better wet/snow performance than a wider tire etc... Price was pretty high though.
I got the car into my dealer a couple of days later, and they told me the transmission was broken! I don't know a whole lot about automatic transmissions (or manuals, for that matter), but they were going to have to replace the tranny. The tranny was shipped from Nashville, and I got a loaner of Thanksgiving. (The loaner was an I35 -- not a bad car, but geared more for my dad's demographic, I think.)
They never did tell me why the tranny broke. I have not heard of ANY trannies breaking in the G35's. In fact, that was one reason I shied away from the Acura TL-S. Has anyone heard of tranmission failures in G35's, and does anyone know what might have happened? I've tried following up with the dealer, but I don't think they're in the loop anymore because Infiniti has the old tranny now.
On the bright side, the repairs didn't cose me a penny, and I got to try something new for 2 weeks (took a little longer than usual with the holiday). On the dark side, I worry that my transmission may fail again, and it could be in a dangerous situation.
Other points: my brakes are starting to squeal...usually on light braking, but inconsistently. I will have this looked at as well. I'm not too worried, at least for the first 36,000 miles!
Also, I have had no trouble whatsoever driving in the snow. I live in Iowa, and we have had 4-6 inches twice so far, in addition to several dustings. This is nothing like 18 inches, obviously, and I do have tires with only 5000 miles on them. Granted, I have to go a little slower, but this is true for any vehicle. I used to live in Minnesota, so I am used to driving in 12+ inches of snow. I wouldn't expect to get too far in that much snow with anything slort of a 4WD Wrangler/Hummer with great tires and balance and huge clearance. I do think common sense dictates that sport cars with RWD and performance tires will be quite lousy on any wet/snowy road surface.
Weight / Inflation PSI = AREA
So if I had 0 inflation PSI I would have an infinite area?
Yes inflation PSI has something to do with the amount of tire in contact with the ground. In fact underinflating reduces your AREA as well as puts the wrong part of the tire in contact with the ground. However the correct way to form this equation is:
Weight/Area of contact patch = Pressure on the pavement.
See that physics prof's quote. Wider tires spread out the same amount of weight over a greater AREA.
Obviously the simple equation cannot take into consideration the sidewall stiffness which makes it nonlinear till one approches the 20-51 psi range.......tire patches are measure at 35 psi [industry standard].
The other problem is the void ratio [the blank space between the treads and designs]......vs a slick which has no void space .....the AREA is all rubber vs a Summer tire which may be 80% rubber vs an A/S tire which wil be 75-73% rubber vs a snow tire which may be 65-68% rubber.
See the actual area vs the actual rubber area....the more the voids the greater the pressure on each segment of rubber.
I currently drive a 5 spd BMW 323i sedan w/ 17" rims and Pirelli all seasons on it. Its a rear wheel drive as are virtually all sports or sporty cars. My wife drives a rwd 1999 maxima. They're both crappy in the snow . Of course they are. Without good snow tires no rwd is going to be any good in the snow. This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Certainly a sports coupe with 18' rims and high perf. summer tires is going to slide around. Even none physicists like me can figure that out.
Freeflier really should have expected what he got. This probably wasn't his first winter in Pittsburgh.
To put it simply you don't go out in a snowstorm in loafers. You put boots on. a car is no different.
I suspect freeflier will bite the bullet and get rims and tires. I am surprised the dealers were not up front. Both dealerships I've approached told me I will have to buy snows and gave me a a not very good price on them.I didn't need them to tell me that( 40 winters, 24 driving in them blah blah blah).
The reality is that you bought this car because of what it can do in the summer. if you push it in the winter you'll end up in a ditch with or without snow tires. You also bought it because on an emotional level you had to have it and could afford it ( ie a lot less than a porsche and rear seats for the kids).
I've read all the complaints about this car on the boards- snow, cheap interior, brakes, even clutch wear problems. I'm still buying it.
Reality is , those guys in the kias and civics would rather be fishtailing in the g35. I have to agree with DAS. Live with your decision , get snows or buy an SUV.
This is NOT a problem...just do not throw away that locking clip that comes with the seat. Just trying to save lives and hopefully this will help someone. AND...I do speak from a very knowledgeable perspective.
These also make putting your car seat in a rental car that is newer go quick too.
If you don't have a LATCH capable seat/car I also will put in a plug for a "Mighty Tite" Available at WalMart etc... It is a ratchet clip that tightens the belt way tighter than you ever could.
Here is the web address for Infiniti's own carseat guide as well.
http://www.infiniti.com/m/pdf/child_safety_FX45.pdf
The G35 Sedan's rear seatbelts will switch to a locking ratchet mode if you pull them all the way out and release. Then the locking clip is not needed. Many cars do this.
I recommend one of those non-skid car seat protector pads that goes between the car seat and your leather seats to prevent indentations and rips in the leather.