Infiniti G35 Sedan...ahh i want one

Our Accord went into the shop just to get a little touch up on the paint on the bumper so the dealer let us borrow a car for the day. It just happened to be an Infiniti G35. So my review won't be soooo in depth on every button and long term experiences with the car but more of what you see and how it drives.

Exterior
I've always liked the looks of this car, it looks a lot better in coupe form but all cars do. But the sedan still looks very good and it one of my favorite looking sport sedans. This car had 18" rims which really made the car look nice. The looks of a car is always from how you think about it and my opinion of it is that the car looks nice and attracts some attention but not enough that it seems like you are showing off.

Interior
When I read 2004 reviews about the Infiniti G35 they have always said it has the worst interior in it's class. But having been in BMW's, Acura's TL, and Audi's A4, it is about the same. The interior quality may have gone up in 2005 but either way the leather was very nice and there wasn't any really cheap plastic used.
The center display is a nice way to see the temperature and how the climate control is set and the nice addition of an analog clock makes it look kind of fancy. The buttons didn't take long to get use to and I could easily switch through stations through the steering wheel and on the normal center console. What I really didn't like was the position of the seat position buttons. They were a lot easier being on top and very easy to see and reach but it made that area look too filled with buttons and really would have been better if they were on the bottom side of the seat like most cars. This was a lot more convenient but it kind of ruined the look of the cockpit. Guages were easy to read and visibility was pretty good throughout the car. I didn't sit in the rear seats but cars like these they aren't meant to be sat in for a long time and it didn't seem like there was a lot of rear legroom but the seats were deep.
The seats were very comfortable for the driver and overall the interior is very nice.

Engine
This was the best part, the 3.5L V6 producing 280 horsepower is more than enough to easily squeal the tires everytime you hit the gas. When turning it on, it gives off that beautiful exhuast note but when idling it is very quiet. Put your foot down and hear that deep V6 scream. The car loves to rev and can easily reach the redline. Since it was a rental I was driving it very hard. Redlining it wherever I was going. When hearing that exhuast note, it makes you keep on wanting to floor it just so you can hear it. Only gripe about the engine isn't the performance, but ALL the plastic they put over it under the hood. It looks so weird now that EVERYTHING is covered in plastic. But as long as it's fast it's fine. 0-60 in 6.2 seconds for the rear drive automatic. I sure thought that it was less than 6.2 seconds.

Handling
Since the car is rear wheel drive, front wheels don't get tortured by having to steer and transfer the power onto the road which makes the steering a lot better. And you also don't lose power in the middle of a turn because the front tires are trying to cope with the power and the steering. I thought the steering wheel was a little too light and it didn't take any effort at all to turn. Some people may like that but I want to feel like i'm actually making the turn. That's just me but it may be different for you.
But when going at high speed, the car is very stable and easy to control. I was going 80 on a very narrow road...I wont' say what the speed limit was but let's just say I was going double. The car felt very stable and you really have no idea that it's going that fast.

Ride Quality/Noise levels
The ride was very smooth for having a pretty stiff suspension because it is a sport sedan. Went over bumps and potholes very nicely. The noise levels were also very low. But it knows when to let that noise in when you floor the pedal. Very little tire and wind noise so you know they put enough sound deadening material and the aerodynamics are pretty good.

Transmission
This car had the 5 speed auto and one thing I didn't like about it was the "manual" shifting. It didn't react quick enough but when it finally changed gears it did a good job of rev matching. I'm not a fan of the auto/manual transmissions. It's either be lazy and drive auto and have quick, smooth shifts or drive a manual. The auto/manual trasmissions are just for posers.

Cons
I couldn't find the buttons for changing the position of the side mirrors. I looked everywhere and couldn't find them.

Sound system isn't that great for being a "luxury" sport sedan. It was kind of scratchy and you would expect more from a car at this price.

This car is hard to drive economically because it revs soooo easily but when you buy this type of car, do you really care? The car has 18 city/25 highway, not very good at all.


OVerall, if I had the money to buy a car in this class, it would definitely be my first choice. The overall experience is great and it is a luxury sedan when you want it to be.

If there is anything more I should talk about please leave a comment.