2003 Infiniti G35 Coupe Owner's On-Going Review

4th Year Update
(June, 2007 - Year 4)

        No news is good news, right? I’m starting to feel like this is a very-rarely updated blog. I hate blogs. Anyway… car is still great, loving every minute of it. This year the 2008 G35coupe was introduced, and I have to be honest, I don’t like it. Give me 2003-2007 style (I wouldn’t mind more power though!). I still (routinely) stare at my car. The paint STILL sucks. More scratches (including the long driver-side gash I got last year). More rock-chips in the front. After a 1400 mile trip with my homebrew license-plate bracket, I lost my tow-hitch-bumper-cover-plug-thing. Yes that little blue thing that goes in the front of my bumper. I was pissed. I went to the dealer and (of course) they had them. $13 for a BLACK (unpainted) cover. I’d have to spend another $30 or so to get it color matched (at a paint shop). WTF? I decided to just leave it black. Looks cool…kinda like there’s a camera in there or something. See the image below.

On to the useful information. Around February I noticed my tires were starting to wear quite quickly. I didn’t mind it too much. A few weeks later the road-noise in the cabin got unbearably loud. It is hard to explain how loud it was; impossible to talk in the car and the music was clear only on high-volume. Around May 15^th, I decided to take off my wheels and take a look. Turns out the tires are wearing out on the inside edge…on all four tires. I found that odd. I first thought it could have been bad balancing (road noise) but after seeing all FOUR tires were wearing on the inside edge I went to the dealer for an alignment. Turns out my Toe was WAY off, like off the charts off. It was crazy. Some other stuff was off too so they “fixed” it. So $130 later my alignment is fixed. Road noise is still there, but that’s due to the uneven wear already on my tires. It sucks but the noise is already getting lower. I’ve had these wheels for a year and I’m disappointed this happened so quickly. I don’t know why this happened, and I can’t figure out why everything was fine for 9 months up to about February or so. Could it have been the 1400 mile trip? I doubt it. Whatever it was, it pissed me off.

The paint sucks. I got lazy the last few months and decided to just pay $9 to get my car washed. First few times everything was great. Car was pretty clean (as clean as an automated car was can do). Then I went to the same place for the 3^rd time. Everything looked good until I drove the car the next day. The sun was shining onto the paint, and right on my hood I had 3 long, visible scratches. Turns out the washers/dryers in the car wash tunnel weren’t as “clean” as they thought. Now I have permanent scratches on my hood that are visible from about 2 feet away. Awesome. I decided I’m not going to hand-wax my car anymore. I still go back to that car wash simply because there’s no point in being anal anymore about the paint (all the scratches made me give up and stop caring).

That’s it for now. Power still kicks ass. ~230RWHP is just fine for now.

 

3rd Year Update
(June, 2006 - Year 3)

Uh…I skipped the update this year so I can’t remember what I wanted to note. I did get some 18” Motegi Touge wheels. 18x10 (245x40x18) in front, 18x11 (275x40x18) in rear. Bronze looks great with blue. I wish they were a little bit more “gold” but that’s ok.
Oh, I got an Ionic Dynamics ( http://www.ionicdynamics.com/ ) grille. It looks GREAT and fits perfect.
The owner of Ionic Dynamics is great, price is great, quality is great; I'm very happy. Visit his site, shop around, you won't be disappointed!

2nd Year Update
(March 9th, 2005 - Year 2)

        So far mostly everything is good. Feelings from last year remain. No major problems except a repair (factory replacement) of right rear outter CV joint and hub assembly. Yikes. That cost the factory around ~$403 so thanks to the warranty. On about 18.5k miles right now, still love driving this car. Have the same "this car looks good" every time I look at it, can't walk away without looking back, or enter the garage without looking at the car. Paint still sucks, got two awesomely fantastic scratches that are visible from about 5 feet away and closer. Oh well. Falling more in love with the rear of this car, the tail lights are awesome, i'm SO glad I didn't get a spoiler...they just look out of place for some reason. A tint would be good for this car though. From what I can see this Caribbean Blue color is no longer available from Infiniti, but even when it was available not many people got it. I have seen a total of maybe 4 CB coupes in my city, everything else is either gray or black, one red one too. So my car stands out pretty damn well. I'd like some more blingified wheels though...these stock ones are plain. I was thinking of getting these polished (blingify and lighten them up in one step) but that just feels cheesy. Oh well.
        I still get shit for having a CLOTH LUXURY CAR. Leather does NOT make a luxury car, people...you can get leather in a Hyundai...get over it. Also the AUTOMATIC is another thing I get shit for...who gives a fuck? My automatic can kick your 5-spd's ass. Heh. The 6mt coupe's are a hair faster than the 5AT. So if you beat me, good for you, you'd probably beat the 6MT too..so don't get all hard because I drive an automatic. My 14.3 in the 1/4mile is just fine with me. I sound like a whiney bitch now. But I tend to shrug off the comments. People usually shut up when they hear my engine roar followed by my exhaust pipes...
        Power is still awesome, coming from a FWD 190hp car to this is like getting supercharged, so thats fun fun fun. I'm getting around ~230rwhp out of this car (considering adverstised crank HP is 280) so I'm pretty happy. Handling is mostly good, I'd like a slightly stiffer ride (it's pretty stiff already but leans alot). I mean, its a sports coupe but there's alot of corner lean in.
        Overall I'm still happy with this car. I'd love to start modifying it (with some new wheels or intake/exhaust or something) but just don't have the funds for that. But then again, for a $29.6k sticker car, this car has plenty go-fast stuff in it already. I love this car.

1st Year Update

(June 2004 - Year 1)