Ok getting ready to buy a 03 coupe 70k miles. Are there vins easily visible on every body piece, ie: fenders, hood, doors, trunk, and quarters? I know its been in a slight rub with a parked car but want to make sure it wasnt bad. Also any real common problems that can be serious i should know about? I have read alot of fs ads with blown motors from oil consumption, is this a problem? and if so is there a easy fix?

 

I hate to be that guy, but please search cause I've seen your questions too many times. From what I've discovered in the years of ownership our VINs are in normal places...windshield, inside door, etc. I never had a problem with oil consumption at all, it does eat gas up pretty bad though...gets a little annoying.

My car is a 2004 with the same mileage...might I just remind you that the car you're looking at is over 7 years old so if you expect it to be perfect you're going to be a very sad buyer. Just a warning...it drives me nuts when people come to look at my car and pick apart EVERY detail. With the accumulated miles it was obviously daily driven, so it won't be perfect.

 

Trust me man ths isnt my first forum. I have used the search button and looked through the first 10 pages with no luck so i posted. Also wanted to ask about the common problems that people have ran into.

 

The only problem our 1st gen G35s came with was poor quality brakes, they stop but my OE pads only lasted 10K miles. Solution is aftermarket pads like the HAWK HPS I'm using. I'm slightly over 21K miles and have 50% left when I checked at my oil change last month. That's my only issue....
Gary

 

Most G35 owners, at some point, end up having a problem with a rear axle clicking when you start to accelerate from a standstill. There is a TSB to cover this if your car is still under the powertrain warranty.... but the factory powertrain warranty is 6-years 70K miles, and you're new car will be out of warranty.

Other common problems are that the front tires wear unevenly on the inside edges... you can put an aftermarket camber kit on the car to help alleviate this.

The paint quality is also terribly deficient, and it chips and scratches very easily... particularly on the front bumper where the majority of the unavoidable daily highway pebbles and other road debris makes contact with the car.

Some people have problems with creaking sunroofs, but you can usually fix it by cleaning the seals and trying to keep them fresh with some sort of rubber protectant/lubricant.

Failure of the power window actuators is also a common problem.

Another common problem that almost everyone has is failure of the in-dash bose 6-disk changer unit due to a problem with the ribbon cable connectors inside the unit that connects the cd-player to the rest of the head-unit. It starts out by the cd-player only playing sound on one side of the car(usually the right), and eventually degenerates to the point where you get almost no sound from your cd-unit.

A few people have had problems with the drivers seat seat breaking on them so that it rocks around like a rocking chair, but it's not a hugely common problem.

Some people also have issues with the interior trunk light flickering or just flat-out not working anymore due to the electrical wiring going to that light being too short and eventually fraying due to rubbing against the metal chassis of the trunk lid after it's been opened/closed a ton of times.


As far as VIN's... all cars have the VIN on a metal badge that exists on the dashboard and is clearly visible from the outside of the car by looking in the windshield just above the weatherstripping on the lower edge of the windshield. It needs to be there so that law enforcement can get your VIN in case they ever find a car with no plates on it and need to identify it without having to break into the vehicle in order to access the VIN identifier on the door jamb.

 

Hawk is good...most things G-related I'd have to say Gary knows much more than me but I heard the Project MU pads are better so I went with them. I've had them installed for a little over and year and I love them.

 

Same here... I love the Project MU brake pads that I have on my Brembo-equipped '04 Coupe.