My EX35 Impressions after two weeks

[Marconelly]

It's been two weeks with our new 2010 EX, and I'm happy to say it's good all around so far. I honestly believe this is the best car I've ever driven, (not that I drove too many), and even one of the best I ever sat in, which would include a lot, lot more.

As I mentioned here some time ago, I am especially impressed with everything in the interior, and now that I actually drove it a fair bit, I am equally as impressed with how it handles, accelerates and with ride in general. If someone was to put me in this car blindfolded and could somehow hide the fact that the drivers position is elevated, I'd never in a thousand years guess that I'm driving an suv-type of vehicle. The kick from the acceleration in the DS shifter mode is something that can put goosebumps on your hands, and worried look on your co-driver's face, which happened to both me and my wife with people who were with us in the car at some point The way the body roll is handled in curves is pretty outstanding as well.

Back to interior, I haven't seen such nice fit and finish and material quality in even more expensive cars. Really, the combination of materials, craftsmanship and design of the wheat color interior has such nice feel and coherency to it, that it really seems like it should be in something a lot more expensive (like Bentley/Maserati expensive) than this car is. It's really the car where you can sit after a long day at work, and just feel all that stress melting away. For the kind of work days I have, something like this is invaluable, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Before I begin to sound too much like a TV commercial, I do have a few small problems:

- There is some faint but audible ticking/creaking sound coming from the front right side of the car that only happens sometimes, and usually when I drive over small bumps on the road, but sometimes it continues on flat road, and even when the car is going realy slow. However, it stops the moment the car comes to full stop. The best I can describe how it sounds is if maybe something wasn't glued perfectly, so the glue is coming apart and then back. I'm more worried that it could be static coming from the electricity though, as that part of the car is where the battery is located :\ I have never noticed this when I'm driving at night btw, only during the day, which is weird, but maybe it lends some credence that it could be something not fully glued and it only starts creaking because of temperature difference from the sun during winter time? Is this something dealer service people would be willing to look into if I complain? I may be crazy but this sound may be even getting a bit louder as time goes on.

- The gas and brake pedals are not on the same level. Brake pedal is a bit more protruded and closer to your foot. This is not as much problem for me as it is for my wife, who complained that she can hit the brake pedal from the underside as she tries to reach for it, and then has to quickly move and reposition her foot to actually step on a brake, so she has to be more mindful when reaching for brake. As for me, my foot also can rub the brake pedal when moving from gas from time to time, but I have larger feet so it's not much of an issue. I'm guessing this is just how car is constructed, and nothing can possibly be done about this if I complain to dealer?

- With the regular 6 speaker setup that we have, rear speakers are practically worthless. If I leave the front/rear sound balance in the middle, I can clearly hear rear speakers making that nasty buzzing sound every time there's any stronger bass in the song. In fact, if I turn the sound balance all the way to the back, I can see just how weak and bad those rear speakers really are. There's a humongous difference in quality of sound between them and front speakers, and since they do that ugly buzzing, I have just set the balance so that almost all the sound is coming from the front (I think I left one notch for the rear ones) I don't miss the sound from the back one bit. It didn't contribute to sound imaging at all, it only contributed to making bass sound like crap. Now I'm very happy with the way everything sounds, but I'm actually worried that the rear speakers might just be busted? Is it really normal for them to sound so bad?

And as a last thing, not really a complaint, but it was puzzling to me why they decided to leave the "welcoming light" set to off as a factory standard. I think that's one of the coolest little features of this car, and was very happy to find that it exists when I was reading the manual - I enabled it immediately through some convoluted engine start/button press sequence. If anyone is wondering, what this does is it lights up the side mirror and interior lights, as you get close to the car. Yes, it doesn't do anything useful but it's pretty cool to have your car 'welcome' you like that :P
Modified by Marconelly at 12:24 PM 2/25/2010

[JCL622]

It's been two weeks with our new 2010 EX, and I'm happy to say it's good all around so far. I honestly believe this is the best car I've ever driven, (not that I drove too many), and even one of the best I ever sat in, which would include a lot, lot more.

As I mentioned here some time ago, I am especially impressed with everything in the interior, and now that I actually drove it a fair bit, I am equally as impressed with how it handles, accelerates and with ride in general. If someone was to put me in this car blindfolded and could somehow hide the fact that the drivers position is elevated, I'd never in a thousand years guess that I'm driving an suv-type of vehicle. The kick from the acceleration in the DS shifter mode is something that can put goosebumps on your hands, and worried look on your co-driver's face, which happened to both me and my wife with people who were with us in the car at some point The way the body roll is handled in curves is pretty outstanding as well.

Back to interior, I haven't seen such nice fit and finish and material quality in ever more expensive cars. Really, the combination of materials, craftsmanship and design of the wheat color interior has such nice feel and coherency to it, that it really seems like it should be in something a lot more expensive (like Bentley/Maserati expensive) than this car is. It's really the car where you can sit after a long day at work, and just feel all that stress melting away. For the kind of work days I have, something like this is invaluable, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Before I begin to sound too much like a TV commercial, I do have a few small problems:

- There is some faint but audible ticking/creaking sound coming from the front right side of the car that only happens sometimes, and usually when I drive over small bumps on the road, but sometimes it continues on flat road, and even when the car is going realy slow. However, it stops the moment the car comes to full stop. The best I can describe how it sounds is if maybe something wasn't glued perfectly, so the glue is coming apart and then back. I'm more worried that it could be static coming from the electricity though, as that part of the car is where the battery is located :\ I have never noticed this when I'm driving at night btw, only during the day, which is weird, but maybe it lends some credence that it could be something not fully glued and it only starts creaking because of temperature difference from the sun during winter time? Is this something dealer service people would be willing to look into if I complain? I may be crazy but this sound may be even getting a bit louder as time goes on.

- The gas and brake pedals are not on the same level. Brake pedal is a bit more protruded and closer to your foot. This is not as much problem for me as it is for my wife, who complained that she can hit the brake pedal from the underside as she tries to reach for it, and then has to quickly move and reposition her foot to actually step on a brake, so she has to be more mindful when reaching for brake. As for me, my foot also can rub the brake pedal when moving from gas from time to time, but I have larger feet so it's not much of an issue. I'm guessing this is just how car is constructed, and nothing can possibly be done about this if I complain to dealer?

- With the regular 6 speaker setup that we have, rear speakers are practically worthless. If I leave the front/rear sound balance in the middle, I can clearly hear rear speakers making that nasty buzzing sound every time there's any stronger bass in the song. In fact, if I turn the sound balance all the way to the back, I can see just how weak and bad those rear speakers really are. There's a humongous difference in quality of sound between them and front speakers, and since they do that ugly buzzing, I have just set the balance so that almost all the sound is coming from the front (I think I left one notch for the rear ones) I don't miss the sound from the back one bit. It didn't contribute to sound imaging at all, it only contributed to making bass sound like crap. Now I'm very happy with the way everything sounds, but I'm actually worried that the rear speakers might just be busted? Is it really normal for them to sound so bad?

And as a last thing, not really a complaint, but it was puzzling to me why they decided to leave the "welcoming light" set to off as a factory standard. I think that's one of the coolest little features of this car, and was very happy to find that it exists when I was reading the manual - I enabled it immediately through some convoluted engine start/button press sequence. If anyone is wondering, what this does is it lights up the side mirror and interior lights, as you get close to the car. Yes, it doesn't do anything useful but it's pretty cool to have your car 'welcome' you like that :P

glad you enjoy it

i agree, the interior is very nice, though it's really just that it's fitted very nicely together, the materials could be a bit nicer, but then we're just ASKING For the car to be more expensive at that point.

i dont have any experience with the none bose set up so i can't really comment, tho for those WITH bose prem sound, i have to admit the low end frequency seems to be lacking a lot, and the mids are like on roids in this car.

just a quick FYI, the welcome lighting is set to turn off after i think 12 days of inactivity? or something like that, it's so save battery energy on the fob and in the car since for welcome lighting to work, the car has to be "on" enough to receive the signal from the car. would rather have to manually turn it on the first time around than have a dead car right? hehe

welcome to the forums!

[Marconelly]

I'm also happy to report that the 2010 model pretty much definitely comes upholstered in the "Luxe Elite" package leather as a standard. All the leather details outlined in that package which someone posted in another thread are indeed there. All but the dash meter cover leather which comes only with premium package.

i dont have any experience with the none bose set up so i can't really comment, tho for those WITH bose prem sound, i have to admit the low end frequency seems to be lacking a lot, and the mids are like on roids in this car.

Yeah, that sounds like typical Bose sound. Never was a big fan of it to be honest. I'm happy with the regular sound now that I figured how much better it becomes when I disable the rear speakers. Should be set like that by default if you ask me, and I'll point that out to the sales person if I don't forget.

Quote »would rather have to manually turn it on the first time around than have a dead car right? hehe[/quote]Ah yes - that makes perfect sense. Still, I think it's something dealers could have enabled before selling it, it's a very eye catching little feature. I actually even asked about it, and the sales person thought such feature doesn't exists, despite I remembered seeing it on the website. I just figured I misunderstood what that does, and was very happy to see it being there.

What do you think about the brake and gas pedals level? Is it normal to be like that on this car, is it something that can be adjusted somehow?
Modified by Marconelly at 12:21 PM 2/25/2010

[Marconelly]

Could this service bulletin issue be the tapping/crackling sound that I'm hearing? I tried switching the climate control off completely but the sound was still there - then again if it's some resin residue jumping around, it wouldn't matter much if it's on or off.

http://www.infiniti-techinfo.c...lyear=

In any case, thanks to this forum I have something to present to service guys, so that I won't sound like a crazy person when I explain them what I'm hearing.

[JCL622]

it's worth asking them since they are now at your every whim since you bought them a car. (or as long as you maintain the warranty lol)

with regards to the brakes, i really like them, they're not squishy at all, though long periods of aggressive driving and i do feel them slack a bit, i may swap out the brake lines to stainless steel to see if that improves it

with regards to gas mileage, this is the first car that ever broke the big two-oh for me in terms of MPG, so although i'm not getting some crazy figures like others (26?) i am avging about 19-22MPG; vs the 9-12 i was getting in the TL, or the 11-15 in the 335

i'm still not used to the higher roll that these cars have since it is high up and not slammed to the ground. But on the upside i can actually see in traffic now so that's a great plus.

with regards to the brake + gas pedal level/angulation - if i wear wide toed shoes i do brush the brake pedal sometimes, but nothing to be of worry, just something to be aware of.

I wear alot of different types of converse and sperry's and they are fine, though my feet arent huge either (12)

i can see why they might be of issue if it were a woman in pumps or heels but otherwise it's not too bad. (the best i think is still acura's drive by wire pedal, it sits flush and goes down instead of a lever that pushes diagonally down. the most comfort position ever for my foot

[hdfreak]

Anyone find it odd that the window lock button also keeps the driver from rolling up/down the passenger and rear windows?

First car I've ever had that is this way..

Brian

[Marconelly]

Anyone find it odd that the window lock button also keeps the driver from rolling up/down the passenger and rear windows?

This is true, I just tried it. Odd, I agree, but can't say I care either way.