NEW - WEEK 5

ALSO - WEEK 4 BELOW...

ALSO - WEEK 3 BELOW...

ALSO - WEEK 2 BELOW...

WEEK 1:The moment I was waiting for since mid-December has arrived. I'm driving my new EX and it is a fantastic experience.

I will update you on my findings and feelings about the EX weekly. Don't hesitate to drop in and ask me questions s I will put a trace on this Thread.

Road behavior:Drove all day yesterday. The drive is like a G35 with a little less noise and high heels. The Drive Sport (DS) option is responsive and delivers great results. Manual mo works like a charm. Ilove the Gforce effect.

The lane departure prevention (LDP) delivers as promissed. I tested doted lines as well and it works. I was curious about the inteligent cruise control system and tested it comming back from a 40 mile spin. I will update you soon o my impressions.

The Directional beas work well in cold weather (it was below freezing yesterday). no condensation.

The cockpit:I stayed 3 hours in the car yesterday night (my wife is out of town until Friday) to play with all the electronics. The cockpit lights up like a christmas tree. multi colors in abondance. Some will love it and some will hate it as i is confusing for the on gadget person. It doesn't matter to me as I love it and It's my rig.

The sound system is perfect. 2 subs in the front and 1 in the back. The Bose system delivers great quality sound. tried the Ipod, Flashcard and even copied music from my CDA to the HDD while listening to it. I will post my full comments on the sound system once I compleete voice commands recognition. The XM channels work fine as well. read to play time on both the CDA, MP3 or Flascard is fast. Only negative so far is no HD-DVD AUDIO. So my Beatles LOVE tribute from Cirque du Soleil HD-DVD version isn't recognized. But my Die Hard 4 DVD plays well in park mode with the hand break activated.. So if you're waiting for the spouse or parent and want to play a DVD. Go ahead!. By the way, only the Mplays HD-DVD AUDIO as of now.

SETUP:I am french ( so please dissreguard (hehe) my writing mistakes. Voice recognition for all functions (audio, climate, GPS, phone, etc...) took about 15 minutes... an in français!!!. for the french speaking, the french version of the software is absolutely impeccable. I selected the ongoing training function so we can addapt to each other. Only 1 not so important phone command was impossible to pair with my voice. If this persists, I will inform Zenrin (the makers of this electronic marvel). the voice option is female only but nice and classy. no studding here. All my voice command were recognized first time.

Phone works perfectly and was easy to pair with the system. Ipod connection rocks and is completely takien over by the Infiniti software. Sorry Steve Jobs.

Comfort:Seats are realy comfortable and wrap me just fine. ( I measure 5,10 and way 205lbs and I am very comfortable. Although it's 6 inches less beam than my MDX, I don't feel it as much.

Comfort in the back is a totaly different question. it is not going to score very high with my teenagers as they will feel cramped. my wife will have to sit in the back and my tallest teenager girl in the front. I saw the Infiniti supplied videos on ingress and the japanese girls seemed very small and tiny. No SUMOs were used in the demo. But that is the tradeoff I was willing to accept.

Self Healing Paint:I had a little scratch on the rear bumper. the dealer prep specialist took a heat blower and presto the 1 inch scrath dissapeared!

I will monitor fuel consumption and report my findings in a few weeks.

My EX is Dark Currant Stone with Black Lacquer interior. AWD all equiped except for the headrest coat hanger. Even got the 18 inch tires.

Ciao for now

Modified by michel at 10:08 AM 1/17/2008

WEEK 2:

All is well in the world of Compact Classy Crossovers (triple C). My EX is performing to my expectations. The wife tried it for the first time and found the gaz peddle very responsive. She is lost with all the gadgetery but she likes the voice commands.

I'm dissapointed with the innability to read videos but it doesnt really matter.

I find the steering a little sheering when going at lower speeds (20 to 45 mpr. It's like if the car want's to go left or right all the time. It's like if the front tires were not firmely grounded to the road. So driving with one hand is not ideal. 2 hands make a big difference. besides this instability perception, all is well...

Modified by michel at 3:51 PM 1/22/2008

WEEK 3:

The car has survived week 3 so have I. the wife kicked it up to 90 mph. I didn't know should liked going so fast. She admited loving the EX at that speed. hope she knows what she is doing.

I still have a some minor unexpected loss of control when driving on heavy trafic roads where the pavement is curved by heavy trucks. the car wants to follow the tracks and shears left and right. I don'r believe it's the car, I think it's the tires. Maybe it's the rear wheel to front wheel (90% to 10%) ratio - I don't know.

I will start a thread on this specific topic.

Besides that - it's still honeymoon time.....

WEEK 4:

OK CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE HECK THEY HAD IN MINE WHEN CALCULATING THE SPACE IN THE BACK. I CAN'T EVEN BRING DOWN MY BACK SEATS IF MY DRIVING POSITION IS FAR. SO I HAVE TO ADVANCE MY SEAT CLOSER THEN I NORMALY DO AND THIS IS A LITTLE FRUSTRATING.

THE REAHATCH - I BET IT WILL BE AUTOMTIC NEXT YEAR. A GUY BESIDE ME WITH HIS SEMI EQUIPED CAMRY OPENED HIS KEELESS TRUNK. I WAITED FOR HIM TO LEAVE...

THE DRIVING IS STILL ALL OVER THE PLACE ON ROADS WITH ABNORMAL WEAR AND TEAR. I WILL BE TALKING TO THE DEALER ABOUT IT.

THE SOUND SYSTEM IS GREAT. THE HARD DRIVE (MUSIC BOX) ONLY COPIES cda SO FAR. I CAN'T GET IT TO COPY MP3 AND ANYTHING FROM THE FLASH CARD. I'LL DOUBLE CHECK AGAIN.

THE MIDDLECONSOL BOX IS REALY TOO SMALL AND DIFFICULT TO PLUG THE IPOD. YOU CAN'T EVEN PLUG A 12 COMMON 12 VOLT TO 110 VOLT CONVERTER AND WHAT EVER ELSE AS IT IS TOO SMALL. YOU NEED TO JAM IT IN IF YOU WANT IT TO WORK WITH THE CIGARETTE ONE. THE SHIFTER BLOCKS YOUR ACCESS TO IT AS WELL.

THE AUTOMATIC MIRROR IS NOT VERY PERFORMANT. I REALY THINK YOU SHOULD CONSIDER HAVING YOUR WINDOWS TINTED. I WILL TINT MINE.

HAD TO BRAKE HARD YESTERDAY AND THE CAR BEHAVED VERY WELL.

MY WIFE LEFT A BACK SIDE DOOR OPEN AND THE COMPUTER (LIKE HER VOICE) ASKED HER TO SHUT IT WHEN MOVING GEAR TO DRIVE. PRETTY COOL.

IT'S BEEN SNOWING AND FREEZING QUITE A BIT. THIS CAR IS NOT VERY GOOD ON SLLEPERY FREEZING ROADS. I HAVE A FEELING IT'S NOT THE WEIGHT BUT THE TIRES. I WILL POST A THREAD ON THIS TOPIC.

WEEK 5:

Still having problems with the road handling on heavy traffic daMMAGED ROADS. I had to pass a 10 wheeler today from 70 mph to..... 100! the steering gets realy tight. I likle that. the car seems to stick to the pavement. I like that as well. I felt more in control at 100 then at 70. that is bad news as it will cost me $. ŋot the car washed today and it looked great. I will buy the Zeno wax for the spring. did not see one EX35 yet on the road. were the heck are they?!?

Ciao for now

More next week
Modified by michel at 4:29 PM 2/29/2008

Michel,

Congrats on your new EX35!!! Sweet ride, eh?!

You mention watching video on the nav screen but fail to mention exactly which method you used. I assume you are connecting a portable DVD player to the A/V jacks in the center console?

Or, did you rip the movies to your computer and then put it on the CompactFlash card??

Thanks!

Mark

tried to read video files from flash card even in Park mode and with the emergency brake activated. no video. tried Mpeg and AVI. It seems to read AUDIO only. I wonder if there is a way around this ?

Ciao for now
Modified by michel at 5:52 PM 1/21/2008

I drove the EX35 a couple of weeks ago. You describe it perfectly, surprisingly similar to the G35, just a little higher off the ground.