Hey guys, I work in a dealership as a collision estimator. My dealership sells almost all high end brands including BMW, Porsche, Audi, Acura, Maserati, Bentley, Lexus, Volvo and of course Infiniti.

From time to time we get cars sent down to us from the dealership, for custom work. These cars are either used as demos or placed on the showroom floor to create interest in a vehicle. Well yesterday to my surprise we received a black 05' 6MT G35 .coupe from Infiniti service. The first thing I noticed about the car was the primed, raised hood. I new almost immediately what had been done to it. My GM gives me the keys and says take a look at that G we need to write an estimate to paint and align the hood.

First thing I did was pop the hood, just as I suspected was a Stillen supercharger freshly installed by Infiniti service. First things first, or course I drove it. You definitely feel a rush of power beginning @ about 3500-4k. It did put me back into the seat. I did not drive it a great distance just around the lot. I think the kit comes with an exhaust which was also installed. It's quite a bit louder than stock, otherwise I did not notice any drivability issues. The car started like normal and idled smoothly.

The install and supecharger themselves are really nothing to write home about. It comes with an intercooler the size of a radiator coolant expansion tank. I looks nowhere near as pretty as stock. At the same time the kit doesn't look cheesy by any means.

Now for the biggest drawback, the hood it comes with is TERRIBLE! The fit/finish is absolutely on par with some the cheap imitation crash replacement parts we see. It doesn't align properly to the fenders or front bumper no matter how you try to adjust it. We charged service over $850 just to get the hood to look presentable. I also made them understand that it would NOT by any means be perfect either. My painter spent the better half of a day and 1/2 cleaning up the lines, surface imperfections and reaming out the prop rod hole (the rod would not even go into the hole)

When it's done (hopefully tomorrow) I will post some pix. I will probably road test it when it's done just to see how it goes. I am in RI and think the service department may start doing more of these. If you are interested email me and try to get you some more info.

Anthony

 

Which dealer?

 

Inskip

 

Sorry to say this but...
If anyone ever brought my car to you for body work,
please please please DO NOT DRIVE MY CAR!

 

Drive it? He's going to race it!

 

Cut him a little slack. After all it was a dealers car (and he works for the dealership) it wasn't a customers car YET. I'm pretty sure that if most of us were in his shoes and our boss threw us the keys we'd take it for a spin, no?

 

If I found out a collision estimator took my car for a spin I would be pissed. There is no reason for him to be driving the car. Not to mention if the supercharger was just installed, it needs to be broken in properly. It's nice to know that some guy from the dealership took it for a WOT run before you even got the car.

 

Not too sure about that. I broke my S/C in with 27 dyno runs and it's running like a champ.

 

Neff...i was going to say the same thing, I only put 100 miles on my Vortech after I did about 12 runs to dyno tune it, LoL. Mine as well is running like a champ. Don't they beat on the cars at the test track in Japan which is why you get a piece of paper stating that there are 11 miles on your car?

 

antideisel Ipurchased my cuope there last november its an 05 6mt I would love to talk with you asap i live in warwick on the kneck for some reason i cannot pm call me 527 2141

 

you need 5 posts before you can send a PM. You're only one away! What's the color of your G?

 

Thank you Ivory Pearl gs alone nevermind ivory are very rare in RI for some reaso I get alot of stares w the pro 1 exhaust

 

You don't even deserve a reply sh@thead. I drive everything from $125,000 Bentleys to $454,000 Mercedes McLarens where I work. It is perfectly normal for us to road test vehicles before and after repairs. Sad to say but Infiniti is probably the lowliest brand we sell.

Oh and I got news for you. Your car was beat on before you bought it. Cars are beat on from the minute they arrive at port until the time they are picked up by their owner. People drive them like they are loaner cars. That's just the way it is.

On another note: I have had customers who own high end performance cars to make sure I put their car through the paces when done. Think about it when you perform $25,000 worth of repairs to a brand new 911 turbo, you need to make sure the customer is not going to have any issues pushing the car along as it was meant to be.

Driving these vehicle's is one of the perks of this job. Sounds like to me you are more than a little jealous.

Anthony

 

well said anthony.

 

Everyone deserves a reply boss, that's why this is a forum! Everyone can speak their mind. I don't really care what kind of cars your dealership services, I'd still be pissed if a collision estimator went tearing around in my car. You're supposed to FIX THE BODY, not go around joy riding. If the driver asks you to test it out (which I don't know why they would), then by all means have at it; however, if the driver doesn't ask you too, you have no business joy riding.

I know how cars are treated before the owner picks it up, but that has nothing to do with this post.

And trust me, I'm not jealous of anyone who works in a body shop, don't flatter yourself! I'm sure you'll make a lot of friends on this forum calling people names for speaking their opinions. This isn't high school, grow up.