A lurker emerges...

[Galle]

Just wanted to say hi. I've been lurking around on here for a little while, reading up what I can. I don't have a G35 yet, but am considering one, as I am looking to upgrade my current car.

I currently have a 2002 New Beetle Turbo S. Love it love it...chipped and a few other small mods, it's a real enjoyable daily-driver at around 200hp on 93 octane. The chip has a program for 104, but I haven't dynoed that yet... Anyway, I'm thinking about something a little more upscale, possibly with four doors. Right now I have a short list of:

VW Passat W8 4Motion. 4.0L eight-cylinder all wheel drive. Tons of toys inside. Very fun to test drive, especially in the six-speed.

G35 Sedan. Again, four doors is what I thought I was looking for...but looking at these is making me reconsider two doors again for the

G35 Coupe. Swank. Like it a lot. Haven't test driven yet, but am going to this weekend.

The main thing holding me still to VW is price...the W8 isn't selling quite as well as VW was hoping, so I can get a pretty decent deal on one...probably around $7K below MSRP, hopefully lower. The G35 seems to be selling just fine on it's own, which I guess means the price pretty much stays where the sticker puts it. This isn't horrible, if it weren't for the fact that the '04s coming in either have no option package, or have everything. I like the nav, and want the nav...but I don't really care about the sound system, and probably wouldn't blow the money to upgrade it if I could just pick and choose my options to that degree. Oh well.

Anyway, I just wanted to put something out there and say w3rd. Any and all first impressions and opinions are more than welcome. What to look for, good things, bad things... I'd post up some pics of the current ride, but I figure I'll leave them out at first to maybe curb most of the usual "stupid ghey Beetle" commentary.

Oh, and John Roper, if you're on here somewhere, now you know where I've disappeared off to...

[rydwhite]

Welcome aboard.

I can't say enough good things about the G35 coupe. I of course am a little biased. The sedan is very nice, but I feel that it lacks some of the style that the coupe has. The Passat is a very nice car especially for the price. If you have the money and are planning on buying something new, i would go with the G coupe. I still feel that it is one of the best deals going. I am pretty sure that the sticker on the 04 G's is rising some. I haven't heard anything in a while about it, but I do remember a few posts several months ago discussing that the price was to go up about 4k. It may already have, I haven't paid much attention yet.

As for the VW Beetle, you got. Not my choice of car, but to each their own I guess. Good luck and enjoy the group. Be sure to check some of the other areas here too.

Ryan

[Galle]

I'm currently being quoted $34K for the W8 Passat.I can get my hands on an '03 sedan with sunroof and the aero package for $31K. The dealership has an '04 sedan with several interior goodies, no areo, no nav, for $34K. They have a whole SLEW of coupes coming in at year's end loaded to the gills, including nav, for $38K. 38 is a bit high for me...but one of the ones they are getting in is black with willow leather in a six speed. Dark with light interior sounds like it could be very pimp.

How long does it take for that willow interior to start turning dirty-looking?

Thanks for the welcome! This place looks like it has a lot of very smart tuners here. Awesome for me, because I HAVE to have something I can tinker with, and I'll need some good brains to pick when I get in over my head!

[PalmerWMD]

Also dont forget to visit Infinti General.We have some nice threads on M45's there.Those retail from 42to 47 and now go for 34 to 39 ( depending on options due to dealers heavily disounting).

An M45 is a LOT faster than a W8 passat and has even more toys and is a true luxury sports sedan.(better warrnty than the Passat too)

Fred..

PS 340hp V8

[AZhitman]

Galle - Email me with your best deal on a coupe and I'll see if I can smack it around...

I have a pearl coupe with willow for WAY under that price...

p.s. The willow interior is not an issue - My Q has the taupe leather and it's still as clean as the day it was bought. Several trade-ins with Willow leather still look great after 30K miles.

[Galle]

Well, shoot. Wish I'd hopped online this weekend, Hitman.

I am now the proud owner of an '03 G35 sedan. Ivory / willow. Six speed. All the premium goodies (no satellite radio or nav, though). Going back later this week and they're going to put on the spoiler and paint the black lower body trim to match the body colour (my consolation prize since I couldn't afford the full aero bodykit added on...oh well).

I almost don't want to know what kind of a deal you could have swung me, Hitman. I've had the car 48 hours now...I don't want buyer's remorse to set in JUST quite yet. Sewell treated me very well, and I must say that I have a whole heckuva lot more car right now for a monthly payment not too different than what I was putting into the VW...

*sheepish grin*I've already put almost 200 miles on the thing. MAN, this is an incredible car...

So long as I'm putting out a novel tonight...a few questions. If I need to repost these as a new thread, just let me know.

-- First things first...I picked up a K&N panel filter. The stock air intake system on this engine looks WORLDS better than the one on my Beetle...good and straight, right from the front of the hood back to the throttle. I like it. VW put such a complicated maze into theirs...but I digress. K&N panel was always kind of a "dark horse" in the VW world, because a lot of late-model engines would have the MAFS fail, sending the engine into limp mode. Some people found that if they cleaned their sensor with alcohol, it would work again for a while, so the jump was made that the oil in K&N filters was becoming airborne and gumming up on the MAFS wires. This was always pretty much speculation, as people with the stock paper filter would have MAFS go out, and others seemed to run K&N for miles and miles with no problems. I had a K&N cone and had no problems. THE QUESTION (finally...)...has this issue reared it's head in the NICO world? Or are we all good to go with the K&N panel?

-- Question 2, stemming off of the paragraph above...how good is the stock intake, really? Any real performance gain from aftermarket ducting / CAIs?

Oh yeah, I pulled the engine cover. Mmm, thick heavy black plastic. Is there anything that holds unwanted engine heat up against the intake manifold more efficiently? VW did this, too. I used to have a small coolant-level and temperature graemlin in the Beetle. It went away once I took out the engine cover and rear engine bay seal.

Sorry in advance if this is all usual newbie drivel. I haven't had time to really do much searching and reading on here yet; not as much as I'd like to anyway. Humour me.

[AZhitman]

Well done.

Check the other thread in this forum about using the 350Z intake on the G.

THEN email me for a price on an stainless, mandrel-bent exhaust for the Gcoupe... WOO HOO!

[PalmerWMD]

Congrats!!!

Thats awesome be sure to post sme pics for members ride.

And take Greg up on his exhaust offer..

Fred...

[maxnix]

K&N is usually considered dirtier than stock air filter. It depends on how long you want your baby to last.

Congratualtions.

[rydwhite]

-- First things first...I picked up a K&N panel filter. The stock air intake system on this engine looks WORLDS better than the one on my Beetle...good and straight, right from the front of the hood back to the throttle. I like it. VW put such a complicated maze into theirs...but I digress. K&N panel was always kind of a "dark horse" in the VW world, because a lot of late-model engines would have the MAFS fail, sending the engine into limp mode. Some people found that if they cleaned their sensor with alcohol, it would work again for a while, so the jump was made that the oil in K&N filters was becoming airborne and gumming up on the MAFS wires. This was always pretty much speculation, as people with the stock paper filter would have MAFS go out, and others seemed to run K&N for miles and miles with no problems. I had a K&N cone and had no problems. THE QUESTION (finally...)...has this issue reared it's head in the NICO world? Or are we all good to go with the K&N panel?

-- Question 2, stemming off of the paragraph above...how good is the stock intake, really? Any real performance gain from aftermarket ducting / CAIs?

Oh yeah, I pulled the engine cover. Mmm, thick heavy black plastic. Is there anything that holds unwanted engine heat up against the intake manifold more efficiently? VW did this, too. I used to have a small coolant-level and temperature graemlin in the Beetle. It went away once I took out the engine cover and rear engine bay seal.

Sorry in advance if this is all usual newbie drivel. I haven't had time to really do much searching and reading on here yet; not as much as I'd like to anyway. Humour me.

No prob with the questions.

The first has been discussed here several times in the past. I can dig around and see if i can find it. But, I think that most people who are going with K&N have washed the oil out of the filter just to make sure that they have no MAF problems. Others on board can probably answer your questions better than I can since I have not yet done anything at all to the car. I am waiting till at least the spring before I do anything.

The second question, I really like the stock intake and I have heard from plenty of others that it is about as good as any stock intake on any car. However, if you go aftermarket, there have been a variety of answers to performance gains with anything. You can problem can a few hp with the injen and others, plus I have noticed on another G that the injen does improve the sound on the car slightly, gives it a hissing sound similar to that of a supercharger.

And the third, I really don't know. Sorry.

Ryan

[szh]

Congratulations!

A short while back, my wife and I test drove a bunch of cars in the $25k to $35k range. Including the 6 cylinder Passat, a 3 series BMW (the 325i wagon), a 5 cylinder Volvo X70, an Audi (forget which model), etc.

The nod easily went to the Infiniti G35. Which is what we were going to get, till my wife saw the M45!

If the price on the M45 had not been so right, we would be driving a G35 - perhaps two of them, since we considered replacing her car too.

Z

[Galle]

RYD - Thanks for the answers! I'm learning slowly.

Z - Swank. I took a LONG look at the M45 when I was at the dealership...that thing was gorgeous! The only thing really keeping me out of it was the lack of a manual option, as far as I could tell. I am a stubborn little five-year-old when it comes to wanting MT cars...and the G35 was just too much fun to drive in manual form. I didn't test-drive an M, might have changed my mind if I had. When the wifey gets her turn for another upgrade, I think she may keep the little Infiniti bug in the back of her mind about that car...