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What I tried: A6, 530i, GS and M35. My last two cars were a 528 and 530 but I hate the Bangle designs and unreliability of my last 530. I liked the A6 but it seemed underpowered and didn't make financial sense, besides, along for a test drive my 16 year old son told the salesman that dad "would never figure out the nav". The GS was too mellow and gave the impression of a small trunk and back seat. The M seemed the most Bimmer-like and price wise allowed me to get the extra tech that was much more in the other cars.
My choice: Once I decided on the M I struggled between the Sport and standard M35 (So. Cal. we don't need an "X"). Since I spend up to four hours each day in the car and on good to awful roads the "Sport" lost. Contrary to some posts here, I find the ride less noisy than the 530. With the terrific stereo who can hear the tires!
Shopping and dealing: showroom salesmen were a waste of time. I knew more about the car from following this site than they after their "extensive" training. I used Edmund's for internet responses and bought from the first guy to call, Jeff Bounds at Infiniti Santa Monica (about $2,500 off). To be expected, at delivery the tires were over inflated.
Learning to drive it: I'm just getting the hang of the tech which requires actually reading the manual over and over for a tech-challenged 55 year old. My 14 year old video game addict son was a big help. The location of the screen is great for heads-up driving. Voice commands are less than predictable and I speak with a very standard Western English. "v" doesn't usually register and "California" reads as Illinois.
Bluetooth: Motorola Cingular V551 worked great after a third read of the manual. A few quirks but download is fine.
Misc.: mileage - 18 town, 25 highway. Cruises great at high speed with no wheel wobble. There is high glare on the display even with tint. I'd given up on music radio and only listened to talk but XM had renewed my love for Jazz and Classical music. I don't know much about audio but the Bose is the better than anything I've had. The front end looks too good to wreck with a license plate, may chance a ticket. Haven't noticed many looks or had many enquiries here in car jaded in L.A.
Any owners notice low pressure in windshield washers?
Sorry to ramble on, hope it helps someone.
I wonder how long it will take for a $500 over invoice deal to be made. My guess is the slow July-August time frame.
I had made a deal for $3k off--but the salesman was confused. After doing all the numbers with him on the phone--including sales price, residual and money factor, I came up with a $630 monthy lease.
When I went in to finalize, the selling price of the car mysteriously was up $650. Also money factor was higher--as was residual.
Whatever was said was water under the bridge--and I offered $1500 over invoice for a Diamond/Graphite M35x w Journey and Tech.
The deal was refused. Even if I agreed to the price, they could not assure me when the car would come in--as it is the "holy grail" of colors and accesories.
I will wait until things cool down a bit as supply meets demand. It should take about six months after the cars introduction--plus August is a very slow month.
DL
Money Factor: .00208=4.99%
Residual: 61%
1% or about $500 over invoice is an unheard of deal at this time. Care to share your dealer?
The fastest 0-60 time for the M45 so far is 5.3s.
74% for 24 months 15k or 12k miles (can't remember which)
63% for 36 months 15k miles.
They first said that they would accept VPP pricing for "Business Associates", but when I went to see them, they said NO, only for Nissan/Infiniti employees. They said they could do $1000 off MSRP. I will probably will go and talk to the Sales Manager tomorrow and see what he has to say. I am looking for a M35x with Journey and Navigation system, splash guards and maybe satellite radio.
It is weird, they also said that they do not order cars. They check the port of entrance (NJ in this case) to see if the car I want is coming. That is their "ordering" process. I live in Rochester, NY and there is only one dealership in my area. I could go to Buffalo or Syracuse also, but definetly prefer staying local. What do you guys think of all this???
BTW - I did test drove the car and it was awesome. As somebody said before, I knew more about the car than the sales person, but she was very nice at least. I will let you know how negotiations go. If/when they do VPP pricing I could save about $3500 which will help offset the trade-in loss I would have to take.
Thanks,
dxCoqui
Last month the money factor was 0.00173 for 36 months and 0.00175 for 39/42 months - this is with a one month security deposit. Without the security deposit the rates increase to 0.0188 and 0.00190.
Edmunds has an excellent leasing forum - the moderator has all the latest deals.
Thanks!
I could be wrong, as I have not yet read the manuel in my first 16 days of ownership. Too busy driving.
I am not suggesting that you immediately scrap your new tires (unless you want to, of course) -- but I switched to Falken Azenis ST115's in the size noted above and the car became almost completely devoid of tire noise.
FWIW.
The Tech sound system is "second only" to an Acura DVD-Audio sound system I had the pleasure of test driving late last year.
On the other hand, my wife's new X3 with the upgraded sound and Sirius radio is very nice too -- but unlike the M, the BMW is pure stereo -- NOT surround sound.
The M is (with DTS or DVD-Audio) a surround system and with well produced discs will provide more depth than stereo. The fact that there is very little DVD-Audio available and the fact that there are some superior stereo CD's does tend to make me somewhat more concerned about how the system sounds with "plain old stereo."
My neighbor got a new HDTV and he is not too happy with it when it displays SDTV (90%+ of the content that he watches) -- sure it looks great in HDTV, but he rarely gets to take advantage of it in that mode. So SDTV looks only fair (washed out -- plasma, you know). Likewise, I was interested in the sound of the M's audio system with a stereo CD. I took Brian Wilson's Smile for that task and the DVD-Audio of Fourplay for the full-on surround. The M Tech sound system is "up there" with the best I've heard.
Another good test or two is Santana's Abraxas in DTS and Diana Krall in stereo.
Sirius channel 16 (the Vault) has Pink Floyd and other 70 - 80's "progressive rock" groups, including Yes, Cream, etc -- they sound great on the X3's stereo only set up -- I assume they will translate nicely to the M's system too. Time will tell.
Thats why I refuse to give up my "outdated" CRT rear-pro Hitachi. Much better color and the black level mops the floor with any 720p or even 1080p digital display I've tried (and I've tried quite a few). Plus, it can actually handle horrible analog NTSC broadcast.
Mark, in my experience, having surround is ALWAYS better. While there are plenty of stereophiles who would argue (a steadily declining number though) at home I listen to my old fashioned stereo CDs in DPL-II music or one of the Parasound's DSP modes. 5 is better than 2.
Anyway, surround sound is, I agree (almost) always better. Some of the early stuff is surround for the sake of surround and it adds nothing to the music. The Inifiniti sound system with both of the reference discs I brought with me is, as noted, darn near the best I've ever heard. And, as part of the technology package, it is (all things considered and considering the competition) a good value.
My primary problem with some of these in car systems (especially if they are from Bose) is they can be boomy if not tuned properly -- and it seems the boominess is put there to "impress" for the test drive rather than for the long haul.
But, with the M system, that is mainly an adjustment issue and therefore a NIT.
The thought just occurred to me. The only Sport models I've seen have had either the graphite or the stone interior. The graphite has the stone inlay that trims the seams of the seats. I didn't notice what color it is in the stone interior. Does anybody know what color the inlay is on the bourbon interior?
I imagine that would be quite icky if it's stone. Black (graphite) would look cool, though. IIRC, someone here has a Sport with bourbon interior. What color is your seat trim?
When the Hitachi's guns kick the bucket I'm sure my next set will be some sort of digital display, and I'm also sure that those sets will be better than whats currently available by leaps and bounds (and much cheaper as well). But for now, CRT is king.
I agree about the over-boosted bass (and sometimes boosted treble) in many car stereos. Its the same classic trick that is used in most of the big chain stores to try and sell one speaker set or receiver over another. If its louder, it must be better right?
For the time being, I will, I suppose be quite pleased with the surround sound in the new M35X.
Now that my wife has her new car, I am already missing sat radio -- I love the Vault on Sirius.
Some folks have been pretty negative on Sirius, I can only be positive -- and I cannot be personally negative on XM.
The good news is for the time being Infiniti offers both!
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?section_id=1&article_id=321&page_number=1
The future trend seems to be the dual disks that are cd on one side and dvd video and dvd audio on the other side. The new Bruce Springsteen "Devils and Dust" is a sample of that. I went into a couple of Best Buys looking for DVD Audio disks and found a limited selection. The dual disks are found mixed among the CDs in that music section.
2) Does the NAV system only show maps in the "birds eye view" (which looks like it is about a 45 degree 3D view of the map), or can you see it in the more traditional overhead view?
3) When I look at the Zenrin Web site, it says that the only city it knows about in NH is Nashua. I take that to mean that it won't give turn-by-turn voice prompts for other towns, but what I don't know is whether or not street level maps will even display for other towns. Can anyone that has the NAV system please confirm/deny whether street level maps show for towns that aren't on Zenrin's "detailed towns" page (http://www.zenrin.com/navsoft/dvdDetail.asp)? It seems like their list of known towns is really poor - if it is as bad as it looks, I can't believe that the NAV system is worthwhile, esp. considering that the map is only updated once a year.
4) Does anyone know if the NAV manual is available as a PDF anywhere? I already have the owners manual and service manual, but I'd love to read the NAV manual as well.
Thanks!
I was at a dealer a few days ago, and they said that the price increase for the M was 1%. Has anyone heard anything different, or been able to find anything online?
Anybody know how fast the M35 is 0-60?
Can't find a road test on the M35 only the M45
Thanks,
CK
Many navigation functions are available via voice input while driving. Some of the levels of "points of interest" aren't but destination by street, phone number, address book are.
2) Does the NAV system only show maps in the "birds eye view" (which looks like it is about a 45 degree 3D view of the map), or can you see it in the more traditional overhead view?
Traditional "plan view" is available as well as split screen in either "bird view" or "plan view".
Can anyone that has the NAV system please confirm/deny whether street level maps show for towns that aren't on Zenrin's "detailed towns" page
Obviously I can't confirm the detail of street level for all towns that aren't listed but I have found that most of the smaller towns in my area (Nebraska) do show street level detail. Those areas in Omaha that do not provide turn-by-turn "guidance" do still show up on the map.
The one interesting thing that I have found is that while there have been some enhancements to this system as compared to the one I have in my G35 Coupe, it seems that there are more instances where route guidance ends before you reach your termination point. At this point the system says look at the map to figure out the last few steps. This seems odd to me since the M45 has newer data. I'm not sure but I don't think that Infiniti has changed NAV manufacturers.
Can you set way points?
Yes, you can set way points.
Sometimes this is called throttle blipping.
I don't know about the other symptoms other than to comment "tip lag" by any other name is still a lag.
Off the line lag, even in a tip, is rare.
The M35 should be able to run to 60 in the mid to low 6s.
Thank you very much for the answers! That helps a lot.
G35 Coupe $200
M35/M45 $200
FX35/FX45 $150
Q45 $200
QX56 $350
Regards,
DL
What is that, like, almost a $20,000 depreciation hit in two years??
I know the manual transmission was available on the 2005s, but I haven't seen any reports of how well the transmission works. Insights would be much appreciated.