Just got my new 07 G35x - wow!

[rg_g35x]

I picked up my 2007 G35x on Saturday, very excited about it. I got Ivory Pearl, with the Stone (grey) interior, and all the options (Premium, Nav, Tech.), and automatic trans. I've had so many black/dark cars, particularly black/dark interiors that I was looking for a change in color, so I went with this color setup. My wife had the nerve to call it a 'girlie' color... I like the Garnet Ember, but just couldn't hook up with one here that had all the options I wanted, and was too impatient to wait.

I'd been lurking in this forum before I bought the car and picked up quite a bit of useful information - thanks to all of you!

I traded up from a 2005 Altima SE-R - nice car, but getting to be a pain with city driving and a manual trans, and tons of torque steer, and living in Vancouver, Canada (lots of rain), having no TCS makes it very difficult to get away from a light quickly in the wet without lighting up the tires. My G35 is an automatic (I'm sure I'll get some thumbs down for this, but of the 12 cars I've owned, all but 2 - a 69 Mustang and an 88 Bonneville - have been standard trans, so, again, time for a change.)

I'd love to list all the things I like/love about my new G, but that would be a long list and bore all of you, so I'll just list the short list of things I'm not totally excited about:

1. Supersensitive throttle tip-in. It seems extremely difficult to start off from a stop smoothly - either I'm crawling or gassing it. I would normally assume that this is just me getting used to the car (and an auto trans), but I read a few posts of others experiencing this. I'd love to hear from others on this subject.

2. Tires - The Goodyear RS-A tires seem to get a lot of bad mouthing - I haven't had a chance to really 'test' them out, since I'm trying (hard) to keep things mild during the break-in period. Once I'm through that I'll try them out and get a feel for them. They are most certainly better riding and quieter than either the 18" potenza S-03 or 18" Avon 550 a/s tires I had on my Altima - potholes and road irregularities were punishing. I've seen the sticky posting on tires in this forum, which has been very helpful. Since I still have the Avon 550 18" tires from my Altima (put the S-03's back on to trade it in - they were pretty much worn out), I was thinking about buying 18" rims and mounting the Avon tires to them. I'm curious what people's opinion is on the difference in ride quality/noise between the stock 17" w/Goodyear RS-A tires and 18" wheels and my Avon 550 (225/45ZR18) tires. I would like the best handling (particularly wet handling, since we get a lot of rain here) that I can get without trading off too much of the ride - I don't want a punishing ride in exchange for a little better handling/braking.

Thanks so much. I'll post pictures as soon as I've had a chance to take some.

[zozoka1212]

welcome to nico

congats

looking forward to see some pics, Eh zozoka

[soul_hfk]

welcome

[joe603]

When I had a loaner for warranty work, they gave me an 07 sedan. Yes, the throttle is very firm; my coupe isn't like that. Perhaps they can adjust the stiffness a little...no reason a wire throttle has to be like that. However, I did get used to it after a few days of driving.

The tires will last you 15-20k miles, depending on your driving habits. I'm going with Toyo's...we'll see if they're any better.

[G_whizz]

Welcome to NICO!!

Get some pics up in the Members Rides area. Oh and look for at some pics in here of G's in the same colour of yours that are a lil done up. I'm sure she'll change her mind!

[elwesso]

I share the same sentiments as you about the throttle. Its very annoying, its very hard to not have neck snapping throttle response. Ive found it helps to start in 2nd gear if you want to do that.... maybe theres a fix for it.

If you're concerned about ride quality and noise the Goodyear RSA's are gonna be fine... Of course, I assume if you mention ride quality and noise that you have no mention for traction, because of course no one would expect everything from a tire! If such a thing existed that wasnt really expensive Id be a millionare.

I totally understand why they put them on the car from the factory. They ride great, theyre quiet, and theyll last through the warranty period, and have good enough traction in dry, rain and snow that they can market them anywhere.

[700 Dragon]

I just got a G35S and i love mine too!! How do you like the all wheel? I live in Minnesota, But i did not want all wheel. I wanted the 18 inch wheels. Does the X hurt the performance at all? Does anyone no of any performance options that I can add?

[rg_g35x]

I just got a G35S and i love mine too!! How do you like the all wheel? I live in Minnesota, But i did not want all wheel. I wanted the 18 inch wheels. Does the X hurt the performance at all? Does anyone no of any performance options that I can add?

I like the AWD - we get a lot of rain here, and taking off from a light (briskly) is no problem, whereas my Altima was always a struggle, unless I went slow, but who wants to do that! We rarely get snow here, but when we do, the AWD will be nice. Besides the occasional snow, though, it's nice to trounce somebody in a 'faster' car on wet roads because they just can't get the traction I can with AWD.

I was thinking about putting 18's on (since I already have the tires, I'd just need to buy the wheels), to get a little better traction/handling, but I don't really want to be back to the harsh(ish) ride of my Altima. Anybody out there drove the sedan with 17" back to back with one with 18"? Any real difference in harshness etc.? I guess it's not really an apples to apples comparison to compare a G35 (w/17") to a G35S(w/18") since the suspension is different (firmer in the G35S.)

Being a company lease, I'm not going to do much in the way of mods, but I've seen a lot of people talking about CAI (Cold Air Intake), exhaust systems and spring/suspension upgrades.

[700 Dragon]

I want cold air intakes, but i cant find them yet. I think that the goodyear EMT is a pretty good tire. I really like goodyear tires though. I have potenza and i hate them!!!!! Im not going to get new ones until i need them of course. I live in Minnesota and we get snow! I also have a Trailblazer with 4 wheel drive so i did not want two! I really like my G35S like you i could tell everyone what i like but that would take forever! I dont like the take off either its hard to take off nice! Its either neck snapping or take for ever to go. Other than that i love it!!!

[paulp]

congrats bro, post some pics too

[rg_g35x]

Here's a few pics. Lighting isn't good, maybe I'll get a chance to get some better ones.

[700 Dragon]

Nice pictures i will get some and show!

[soul_hfk]

very nice

[zozoka1212]

niiiiiiccccceee

zozoka

[rydwhite]

Congratulations. You made a great buy. Beautiful car.

[mask0425]

Congrats! Sounds like you made a bunch of right choices as far as options are concerned. I just can't imagine driving this 300+ hp beast with a 2-wheel drive on the crappy RS-A's in a wet climate. They barely have any grip in the dry weather. I think being ranked 15 out 21 is actually rather generous. And those are not even Ultra High Performance tires...

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/...=HPAS

Should probably look here for better choices:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/...=true

Other than harshness, how do you like the Avon's?

What do you think of the nav and bluetooth so far? Anyone knows how this nav compares to original one in 2003?

My almost 1-month long rental of '07 sedan will probably end tomorrow. Conveniently enough, it rained hard today (first time in months). Felt like I was driving on slicks, lol.

PS: here is my interepretation of your wife's comment re color (after being married for almost 10 yrs): SHE WANTS YOUR CAR!!!

[rg_g35x]

Other than harshness, how do you like the Avon's?

What do you think of the nav and bluetooth so far? Anyone knows how this nav compares to original one in 2003?

My almost 1-month long rental of '07 sedan will probably end tomorrow. Conveniently enough, it rained hard today (first time in months). Felt like I was driving on slicks, lol.

PS: here is my interepretation of your wife's comment re color (after being married for almost 10 yrs): SHE WANTS YOUR CAR!!!

My Altima came with Potenza S-03's. They were fantastic in the dry, but the wet traction was only acceptable, until then started to wear, then the wet traction just got worse. The Avons were very good, wet and dry traction - only a little worse dry traction, but more than made up with the wet traction - even pretty good in snow. Noise wasn't too bad, but somewhat harsh on nasty potholed roads, but I don't think that was the tire, more a combination of low profile and the firm suspension setup of the Altima SE-R. I'm considering buying 18" wheels and mounting the Avons on them on the G.

It's very stable in the rain - I can nail the throttle and it just goes - I do miss the 'hooliganism' of the Altima sometimes, but overall I'm much happier with the sure-footedness of the G35X. I'm sure it's .3 to .5 second slower to 60 in the dry than the G35S, but in the wet I'm pretty sure it would take it easily, so it's a good tradeoff for me.

I found the Nav very good - I took my dad for a drive to pick up some CF cards (for MP3's for the CF card slot) and I set the nav to fastest route, and it was almost bang on with his 'practiced' fastest route - avoiding some areas etc. The bluetooth is great - it paired with my phone very easily etc. The only problem is my phone, a lot of the bluetooth functions are disabled - for instance I couldn't download the phone list from my phone, I had to re-enter it all in the car. Sound quality is quite good - a few people I talked to said they couldn't tell the difference.

Yeah, I've been married 19 years (I'm only 38 - do the math) - you're bang on - she wants the car...

I'm really loving the car - still the only thing that annoys me is the throttle tip-in is abrupt - it makes it hard to smoothly accelerate moderately. It seems happiest when you give it lots of throttle, but I don't want to be screaming away from every stop light...I wonder if there's a TSB/firmware update to fix it.

[BigWill]

Very sweet Rick... gonna get the 'Mod Bug'?I love the redesign of the interior for the '07 model.

[rg_g35x]

Very sweet Rick... gonna get the 'Mod Bug'?I love the redesign of the interior for the '07 model.

The car is a company lease, so I don't think there's too much I can get away with - I don't want to put money into the car if I'm giving it back in 4 years.

I wouldn't mind some advice on 'bolt-ons' - things that I can do that I can take with me when I return the car after the lease (that is if I don't buy it out at the end of the lease - if I'm still in love with the car.) Wheels/tires are an obvious one - what about CAI etc?

Not to dis anybody with a pre-07 G35, but I think the 07 is a huge step up in quality, fit and appearance - take this with a grain of salt, since I haven't owned a G35 previously, just seen/ridden in them before. Although, when they do the next refresh (probably another 4 years or so), the new model will likely leapfrog this one as well.

I really do love all the toys, though. Putting MP3's on a Compact Flash and playing them, or put a CD in and it rips it to the built-in hard drive, so I can play back later. I've ripped 25 CD's so far, and I'm not even 20% full. The backup camera is useful sometimes too.

[Bobby23]

welcome and congrads

[champagneG35]

First off congrats and welcome, nice lookin ride

Just my 2 cents on my evaluation of the 07 sedan I just had for 3 days in a row from two different dealerships ruling out a fluke with one specific vehicle. I own an 03 coupe with the brembos and sport suspension, nav, etc. Now the loaners didn't have the navigation or the camera (didn't even know about a camera option ) so I can't comment on improvements with the new system. What I can state from talking to the service manager (Jack) just BSing and my own experiences is the 07 sedan with 17" wheels has more road noise than my 03 coupe which has 18" wheels FWIW, but according to Jack the 06 sedan also with 17" wheels is quieter than both. I didn't like the air vent design in the 07 I felt it was way too hard to get the vents to blow in the direction I wanted. I like the design of my coupes vents much better. I did like the added cd feature that reads the name of the songs on most cds. I also liked the gauges, especially the color, better in the new sedan. Headlights seem a tad brighter, not dramatically brighter like I half expected though. Oh and the seat adjustment being completely automatic unlike mine which leaves the seat back portion manual was really nice too, made it much easier to get that perfect adjustment vs. the notchy click adjustment you're left with in the older models. The other thing I liked is for an automatic they gave it a nice tiptronic shift mode which no one mentioned and I figured out by accident. I'm a standard transmission guy, I don't like autos due to the lack of control and to me shifting while driving just makes it more fun and not as boring, however that option made it fun giving back rpm control while also having the option to be lazy...very cool feature . Something interesting though with the auto and this supposed more hp I couldn't get it to burn the tires even with vdc off and using the tiptronic like I can with my lesser hp coupe, maybe that's because of the torque advantage I have with an '03 I'm not sure. One last thing is although I liked the key-less push button start which took away the problem of forgetting the keys in your pocket completely, I was only able to get it to go to the on position without starting or stopping once, and was never able to hit the acc mode which is sometimes nice when you want to listen to the music without starting the car. There might be some special tap dance you need to do with the button but I couldn't figure it out

Now with the throttle response in the 07 I have to agree with what I've read in this thread. Not impressed with the choice of whiplash or granny starts. Knowing that the new G has the AWD leads me to believe that this might partly be due to that function and perhaps it has a slight factory installed stall converter that launches it at a slightly higher rpm when the pedal is pushed harder. Another possibility which I'm not sure of in the new G but know was true of the old is the transition between 2WD and AWD. If the new sedan is still making that split second transition between the two driving modes depending on how hard the throttle is pushed then that too might explain the sudden jolt. If it's full time AWD it shouldn't have the lag though one would think anyway. I definitely agree there needs to be an adjustment in this area!
Modified by champagneG35 at 2:13 PM 4/22/2007

[rg_g35x]

ChampagneG35:

The road noise might be the tires - I hear a lot of not great things about those Goodyear RS-A tires. I find mine very quiet, though. Quieter, but Definately not as precise as my Altima was with 18" and lower profile Avon S550 or the Potenza S-03's, also way less tramlining, much more comfortable ride.

Also, the transmission does 'rev matching downshifts', so when it downshifts, it automatically revs the engine up to the RPM's to match the lower gear - very nice, like heel-toe downshifting with a manual, but automatic (easy.) I'm also a manual trans guy - only 2 autos in the 12 cars I've owned, plus 1 auto in the 6 cars my wife has had). I do like the 'tiptronic' as it gets me somewhat closer to the control you have with a manual, but very easy to go into lazy mode and let it do the work, particularly in daily downtown/rush hour traffic.

Another nice feature is the seat/wheel/mirror position being linked to one of 2 presets, that are also linked to each of the 'intelligent keys'. So, when my wife gets in with her key it automatically adjusts to her settings, when I get in, it uses mine.

With breaking out the tires, did you drive a RWD or AWD? I would think the RWD would break out the tires no problem with the VDC off, but the AWD would have a tough time, since it gets so much more traction. I haven't experimented with my AWD (wet or dry) yet, since I'm attempting to take it easy during the break in period.

To get ACC, just press the on button without pressing the brake. PRessing again (without the brake) puts it in ON mode, without starting the engine, then pressing again puts in in lock (off).

[champagneG35]

LOL... I see. Good now I know for next time. Oh and I'm not sure on the AWD vs 2WD version, I'm not sure there's a choice for 07 is there ? They were both 07 sedans from 2 different dealerships and both acted the same so if there is a choice I'd imagine it's whichever one they most commonly choose for loaner cars.

[rg_g35x]

In Canada, for 07, there's the G35 (base RWD), G35X (AWD) and the G35S (sport, RWD). I think in the US it's the G35, G35 Journey, G35X and G35 Sport, but I'm not certain of the lineup.

[700 Dragon]

How do you put pictures in here! Please help i want to put some pics in, but i dont know how! I guess im stupid!

[rg_g35x]

How do you put pictures in here! Please help i want to put some pics in, but i dont know how! I guess im stupid!

I went to http://www.tinypic.com, you post your pic there, and then you can copy the code for the link off their site, then paste it into your post. There's some other sites I've seen mentioned here.

To the moderators - I might have missed it, but is there a sticky post or something explaining how to post pics? If not, it would probably be useful, since I struggled with it a little at first too.

[rg_g35x]

So, driving home tonight (in my <2 week old 07 G35x) and the guy in front of my runs over a piece of thin plywood or panelling and kicks it up into my car - hits the front, the pass fender and the pass door (how it managed to hit all 3, I don't know). Scratches, and black rub marks all over. Man was I pissed. I managed to buff out the black rub marks, but the scratches are going to take more - with the Ivory Pearl paint, I'm not sure I can get them out without it being noticable.

[zozoka1212]

Oh man,

I feel your pain. That hurts the most when the car is 1-2 weeks old. Maybe if you take it in the shop the pros can do it.

zozoka

[champagneG35]

That sucks!

Out here they use a mobile paint guy to do their work, and if they aren't paying for it then you call him and he comes to you and does the work onsite. Maybe they have something similar out where you are ?