in regards to the sport/normal/eco.
I will quote some review article "infiniti takes eco mode seriously" - very true. I'm 95% in normal mode nowadays. rarely put it in sport and don't use eco at all. I spent maybe 2 months driving in eco, and i strongly encourage it. It really taught me the "sweet spots" of car behavior. I admit it is a weird feeling when the gas pedal is fighting back but the drive becomes mellow and restrained. After returning back to normal i realized i drive the car softer, and really know when to push it if needs to be. i can't really say that i saw a drastic gas mileage difference in eco vs normal, and just don't use it anymore. Sport mode is fun, but not needed 99% of the time, unless you want to "play". Totally agree with 7th vs 5th gear
and if on a highway, and need an extra quick push, I just drop it in manual, since it defaults to 5th, but that's rare. That's my take on the whole eco/normal/sport. Sport really opens it up via higher shifting points, but foremost, to me it's a comfortable cruiser.
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
so here is a summary of how I arrived to M. I knew that for my next car i wanted a "boat", i.e. i wanted a large sedan. Given that I was not considering new cars and wanted a luxury one, the choice is somewhat limited. cars considered: A6, 5 series, gs350, E-class, Jag XJ, M37/56. At this point I started looking at review articles comparing the cars. Honestly, XJ dropped off pretty quickly due to history of the brand and relative perception of reliability. NOTE: Any statements I make in regards to reliability, maintenance, etc. are my personal opinions or experiences. I know people that owned XJs and were extremely happy, but for my decision making on the cars, it was my perception of the brands and conclusions I made based on reviews etc.
Back to the search. A6, 5 series, GS350 and M. I started looking in 2015, based on that year I wanted a "newer" body style, which pushed the A6 to 2012+ and GS350 2013+. I don't remember much about BWM and E class in regards to what the situation was with refreshes so no comment here. There are quite a few articles comparing luxury cars of that class, and they were very helpful. Also the usnews car reviews were great, looked at consumer reports as well. Between the 5 cars, I don't think there is a "bad" choice. From a reliability perspective, I think Japs will lead, but I don't think any of them are awful. If anything A6 is very highly ranked in many tests that compare 2012/2013 models.
Going back to my wants: I knew the style of car, now come the options. I wanted everything I could get in all of them. The issue I found (BMW is prime example) is that things come a la carte, and it's pain to siphon through all the listings to find what you want. To give you an example, I knew I wanted an upgraded sound system, 4/5 brands make it an option in any trim, with Infiniti, it's part of the package, makes is simple to search:). I knew I wanted sportier seats, similar situation, and that's the big things, left aside are things like lane departure etc.
I think it's easier to move forward if I talk about each car.
E-class: drove it, liked it, nothing to cry home about. It was a comfortable drive, E350 was smooth and decent power but that was it to me. I had no hesitations in regards to reliability, to me maintenance was the issue. My mother owned an MB, each trip to the dealer was "fun" with their "scheduled A, B, C, D" services. As I do like to bring my car to a dealer for minor things (oil changes mostly), long term costs would've been higher IMHO. Knowing that it's a MB, if anything breaks, it will be expensive as well. So really, the combination of bored drive and potential long term costs, kinda removed it from the run-in. E550 would've been my choice though - but there goes MPGs
5-Series: LOVED IT. I'll be honest with you, I loved the way 5 Series felt - like a tank. In all fairness, 528 was underpowered for me, 535 was nice. The drive felt exactly what I wanted, drove the 550 once and it was a monster
. Now the complications. We are still dealing with a car that is high maintenance. BMW makes performance sedans, you want it to perform - maintain it!!! It's true about any car, but I find it with BMWs to be a must. And there are things that you should do on those cars regularly that you wouldn't do to a camry, even the service manual call for those items to be replaced. I can't say that it scared me though, it's worth it. The thing that made it a pain are all the "options" I did not want the basic seats, contour seats are amazing... but good luck looking for one, another needle in a haystack, also the price. By the time you find it, you are 10k over the regular price of a "basic" 5. I did seriously consider 535 diesel, but it was too new (i think it came out in 2013).
A6: my dad had/has 2013. Have a lot of experience with that car. the 3.0 is an amazing engine (and easily tunable
:)) Finding a Prestige with B&O sound system wasn't too much of a chore, it was the seats. The basic seats in an A6 are ok, I would've been searching for the one with sport seats option. Dad had a few quirks with the car, nothing major, few things done under warranty, but mostly because my dad had one, I wanted something different, even though it pretty much tops the performance aspect when we are talking about 6 cylinder versions of cars in question. Did look at an S4 manual, great car, but with all the bells and whistles was in high 30s/low 40s due to a refresh years I was looking at. Financially it didn't make sense to me. With more choices, read lesser price, might've been the one, although on a smaller size.
GS350: drove the gas and hybrid versions. Hybrid has the CVT, and since my wife already had an RX450h, was used to the feeling, but just doesn't "feel" fast. Could've easily gone with a gas only, stellar reliability history the issue was the year. 2013 was the new model year, hybrids were impossible to find and regular GS, most where basic and only a few out there due to "age" of the model, driving the price a bit up due to limited supply. Only rarely did I see mark levinson sound system.
This brings us to M: I actually never drove the hybrid nor considered it, only the M37 and M56. To me M56 was a tad front heavy. M37 is totally fine power wise (not an A6 though
). M35h came into the picture because of how highly ranked it was by usnews reports. It was really the web research that lead me to this as an option. I'm pretty sure I didn't know they even existed, and let's be honest, "Guinness record holder" (although already dethroned by q50 hybrid) grabs your attention doesn't it? I found a q50 hybrid and that car was FUN. I knew it was faster, lighter and smaller then M35h, so M35h looked like a decent choice that I should consider. Q50 hybrid did have a "weird" disconnected feeling in the steering wheel (electric steering i believe). Nothing to really complain about, but need to get used to it.
I found out about m35h only through searching for cars in it's class. I was intrigued by "performance" hybrid vs a conventional one. I started looking at other hybrids and heavily ended up comparing m35h and gs450h. This is where it gets interesting. Things like "best used car sound systems" highlight the M (the bose). Things like "aftermarket warranty" brought infiniti to the top as well.
Warranty: 3 local dealers would not budge from a list price of 3k+ for the Elite protection with 100$ deductible. Through Infiniti forums found out about another dealer that will work with you via email, couple of emails and i had quotes of 2100 for cars under 20k and something like 2300 for cars under 30k mileage.
Through out the search I had excel spreadsheets setup for "cost of gas" and initial investment. basically I priced out all the cars on average, added expected MPG vs miles driven and cost of gas at different time points (3-6 years). Looked at some basic maintenance costs, but not in depth.
At the end of it, I was between 2 cars: GS450h and M35h. Both pretty rare, but M35h was topping the list. Aside from the fact that initial cost was lower, I had 2012/2013 to pick from (wanted to stay away from 2011) vs only 2013 for GS, I had an opportunity to buy the Elite protection no matter where I bought the car, and I still to this day like the body lines on it. What lexus had going for it, was newer tech (i.e. GPS, interior looked more modern), but M is good too. I guess percieved reliability was on par to me, maybe Lexus was higher. As far as maintnance costs, I'm actually pleasantly surprised that lexus is fair (given wife's RX450h)
I put a nationwide search via cargurus, became an expert of how to figure out from pictures if the car has tech and deluxe packages
, and ~6 months later had the car. There was one close call at month 2 (white on white 2013) but the dealer wanted a bit much for it (in my book). Ended up finding the car in Charlotte NC at a "big box" dealer, had it transferred to Raleigh and flew down to get it. Note: that was the first time I actually drove the M35h
Before I flew down, I was able to get history of the car from a local dealer, I knew the car sat in a showroom for 2-3 years and had only 3k miles on it before somebody bought it in Arizona (might have the wrong state, it's been too long). That person had it for 1-2 years (can't remember) and the car had 18900 miles when I got it. For whatever reason the hybrid battery was replaced at 2k miles as well as 12V battery. I attribute it to the car sitting in the showroom. But that's it as far as repairs go. I think there was 1 recall for something since I had it. I had to replace a tire sensor, but that's because the selling dealer broke it when replacing tires and duct taped it to the rim...
Regrets: about the car - none. Just a note about car seraches... When I was looking at the car in Raleigh, they had a Panamera hybrid parked right next to it. I've never considered a Porsche, thinking it was price prohibitive, however, what they wanted for it was not "a lot more" and the car had 40k miles on it. I guess I wasn't too diligent on comparable hybrids. Have I known that I could find a Panamera in mid 30s, I might've considered it:) but that would require a whole new set of research to compare Panamera vs M35h
Which at the time, and possibly today, M35h would've still won.
I had the luxury of time to do this, I didn't "need" a car, I just wanted a car, the GTI I had at the time had 80k miles on it and was in spectacular condition.
Thanks for your interest in my crazy search.