I'm going hopefully in a day or two to look at 2 G35's. After doing a bit of research and combing thru the ads to find manual tranny cars I finally found 2 relatively close to home. I was wondering if any of you guys had any info about what to look for or known problems with the cars to keep in mind. The first is a 2004 54K miles coupe silver/tan Brembo brakes. The second is 2005 57K miles coupe white/tan no Brembo. They are both priced at $16,900. What do you guys think? I'm leaning toward the silver one b/c of the brakes and it has the 5 spoke wheels I like. Honestly though, assuming there isn't anything wrong with either, I'll get whichever I can get the best deal on. Are these cars high maintenance? I'm going from an old Honda that has 250K miles on it that hasn't required much attention so I don't want to go from an oil change only kinda car to something that has quirks. Any information would be appreciated!

 

id go with the one with brembos on it. but white is a sexy color on a g. but non the less go with the brembos its worth it specially with them being the same price. i also went from a honda you will definately enjoy the switch. maintenance really isnt much more than what the honda would be.

 

I do lean towards the silver b/c of the brakes and I like the wheels better. I looked at the pic again; they aren't 5 spoke they just aren't the dbl spoke. However, I of course *want* wheels of my own and the gunmetal color I'm fond of will look better on the silver one. The white one is very clean though.... My roommate found the lakeshore color in an auto with cream interior... Wish I could find that one in a manual! We'll see what happens when I go to look at the cars... I'm a girl so we'll see if they try to d*ck me around about it. I was looking at 350z's and somewhat encountered that prob. The guy just had is WAY over priced (like I can get a G35 in better condition with less miles CHEAPER). That's fine though... the G35 fits the bill better of what I was looking for in a car, anyway!

 

05 has an updated interior
18 more hp on paper
New wheels
Oil Consumption

 

Well the 2005 is going to have more HP, and you can always add the brakes and rims to the 2005. But you could also just mod the 04 for the extra HP

 

Brakes are some big $$;and dont let the wheels effect your decision if you're getting aftermarket ones anyway. If you want to brembos go for the 04. The car still handles great without them. The extra hp in the 05 doesn't make a real big difference because you lose some torque. Deciding factors should prolly just be brakes for the 04 or updated interior for the 05. And of course whichever color you like better. Look around at pics on the forum and see which color catches your eye

 

I'm leaning towards the 04. What does the 05 interior have or look like that the 04 doesn't? The only diff I see in the pics is that the 05 has the 2 tone with the black dash and console and the 04 is complete tan. I'll have to go back and look more closely though... Brakes would be expensive to add and considering the cars are the same price and that I can get the Brembos with a few less miles on the 04 that is kinda pushing me that way. As far as colors are concerned I haven't really seen a color that I don't like. I could deal with any.

 

I was also choosing between the 04 and 05, but went with the 04 because of the brembos and the lack of a possible oil consumption issue even though the interior is a tad nicer on the 05. iirc it was mainly just the centre stack being redone along with the little clock ontop of the dash.
Here is the 04 & 05

 

I kinda like the look of the old dash, actually. And the thought of having to check my gas and fill up my oil doesn't sound so hot. I'm going to look at the silver 04 tomorrow morning. They guys sounds really nice and hopefully will be easy to deal with! I'll make sure to join the picture clique if I get it!! I'm already trying to decide what the first upgrade I will do to it is... Time to do some research for pricing on things!

 

I currently drive an 05 g35 while my oldest brother has an 03.. the biggest difference is the speedometer and then there is all the switchs in the center console..

If your makin a decision based on brakes than in this case its not much of a diff.. i know u naturally think that brembo brakes must be better because they are a name brand.. it was actually proven that the 04 brembo brakes perform similar to the stock 05 and up brakes.. ur not goin to see much of a diff

But if u really wanna be sure just test drive both of them and see the difference in braking.. never can be too sure

 

They both have limited slip diff right? I test drove a 350 w/o lsd and wow, that sucked. Honestly, I've not driven many rear wheel drive cars and if you don't have lsd and you step on the gas then it is definitely possible to have wheel hop in the back of the car!

 

You need to actually sit in the car and test drive both. Don't let our opinions sway yours. I had a good friend that had an 03', I sat in it and was not impressed at all. I also own a 2K SE MAX, and felt that the leather in my car was nicer that in his. Also, the brakes in the newer models are perfectly fine, unless you're going to track the car.

 

Yes they both have vlsd's

The thing that bugs me on the 03-04's is that the tach and spedo are on the "wrong" side

 

I had never noticed that before, and now that you have pointed it out, it actually really bothers me

 

I know right? Why did they do that