I had chance to test drive 2007 BMW 335i vs. 2007 G35S sedan back to back,30min each, went ~90 mph on each. here are some of my observations. Both 5AT.

Both interia with wood look nice, about the same in my minds.

Both handling seems similar, I like the new G's steering wheel better.
It's beefier than BMW & prior Gs. <p> BMW steering wheel is too skiny for my
taste but could be changed with an after market custom steering wheel.
Also seems overally sensitive to raod feel, may be I am more used to the G.

Suspension hard to tell a difference.<p>


Shifting: Both Car are new & shifting are both less smooth than my
Grounding wired 05G. But the bMW is a bit smoother than the G,
the 07 G still need a set of grounding grear for better shifting<p>

Accelaration;

The 07G is noiticably stronger than my 05G,
The BMW is noticiably faster than the 07G.

Given that the 07G is rated 26 hp more than my 05G,
The BMW feels about another 25-30hp more althopugh
it's rated only 300hp.

Pedal Response: The G responed slower at lower speeds,
until WOT. The BMW responed more linear.

Overall, The BMW is stronger of the two. Also no turbo lags at all.
With Equal money, I'll go with BMW, but the car I tested stickered at
45K, That's ~12K mopre then the G.

With the dual intake, dual exhaust & Projector upgrades on 07G, the G is stil selling about the same price as 05 G, So I would go with the 07G & save the
12K in real life. The 07G is a steal!

Although it's nice to have projectors, the new chrome in the headlight looks plasticish compared to my 05, which I upgraded to Projectors. I like my headlight better. But the 07 headlight is much better than 05 without projector upgrade.

just my 2 cents.

 

Thanks for the review.

I bet the main reason the BMW feels faster is because of all the low end torque from the little turbos. It has 300 ft-lbs from ~1300-5000rpm or something like that. That is awesome, it's like my Stillen.

 

Looks like it may even have more than that:


BMW's turbocharged 335i is rated by the manufacturer at 300 HP and 300 lb-ft of torque at the crankshaft, which seemed a bit low to us considering the 255 HP rating of its naturally-aspirated brethren. Sure, the turbo system was designed to maximize the usable powerband instead of creating moonshot-like peak power, but a mere 17% bump in the power ratings just didn't compute.

Investigating the matter further, Automobile Magazine strapped down a 335i to a Dynojet chassis dyno. Such a device measures power at the rear wheels, and translation into crankshaft numbers requires that one account for drivetrain losses. Taking into account the loss of 15% or thereabouts that we'd expect to see from a Dynojet run (don't get hung up trying to determine a precise "loss" number, because there is much more to it than just an estimation of friction), something in the neighborhood of 255 HP would be expected at the rear wheels from 300 HP at the crank - but that wasn't the case. The 335i instead laid down 276 HP, as well as spinning the rollers with 300 lb-ft of torque as measured at the rear wheels. That's about 37% healthier than the 330i.

So, what's up? Yes, the new SAE J1349 dyno standard is supposed to eliminate this sort of rating tomfoolery, but it's only accurate under one specified set of conditions. Dynometers, such as the Dynojet, attempt to correct the results back to a set of conditions, but they're slightly different than those used for J1349. That likely accounts for only a few percentage points of difference, though. More likely is that the Bimmer's engine management system, rather than simply establishing a limit for boost, is constantly attempting to maximize airflow while controlling detonation. Such a system cannot easily be corrected, and putting such a vehicle on a dyno under optimum conditions (usually with particularly cool ambient air temps) can yield results well in excess of the manufacturer's ratings, and this likely explains why the measured torque peak is disproportionate to the horsepower peak.

All this power - accessible at nearly any engine speed, judging by the broad torque curve - gives the 335i performance that nearly rivals that of the previous-gen M3, with the quarter-mile disappearing in 13.6 seconds and with a trap speed of 104 MPH. That sort of performance puts it in the running as Sleeper of the Year.

 

Thanks for the write up! Any feedback on the exhaust note for '07 G? I heard it's not that much better than '05??

Thanks

 

So the non-turbo G35 suffers from turbo lag like issues at lower speeds, but the turbo BMW does not suffer any turbo lag at all.



Damn you BMW...LOL

 

The 07G35s (The sports model) I tested is noticiably louder than 05, maybe they were talking about non sport model?

The G35s is lauder tha the BMW as well.

Here is my Loudness meter of 1 to 5 with my
estimation of WOT dbs (Not exact, just my estimation, the actural dbs may not be accurate, but my relative ranking should be the same).

1=05G Sedan ~78dbs (Weak)
5=Stillen Gen 1 on 05 ~98 dbs (Too loud)
4=Stillen Gen 2 on 05 ~95dbs (Stilll loud)
3.5=My Car. 05 Stillen Gen 2, muffled W-twin CC-Insert. ~90dbs (Perfect!)
2=07 G Sedan Sport ~83dbs (good, any louder will have problem selling to the mass market)
1.5= 07 BMW 3351 ~80dbs (OK, but could use a few more dbs to show off the twin turbo)

 

That's funny, Kind of like that. The G would show no response to partially
depressed pedal to a point & then kick in strongly. It's non linear somehow. But my 05 with Grounding gear the pedal response feels much more linear. However, several reasons may be at play here:

1, After berak-in, the response will be more linear? The test car has only 36 miles
2, Grounding gear on my car helped?
3, Stillen Cat back makde more noise & so the rersponse feels more instant?
4, My car ECU adapted to my lead feet & gave more response as part of the adaptive ECU learning programming?
5, All of the above?

 

I have always prefered the original headlight design than the new one. The original design gave the G35 it's incredible good looks...IMO.

And is one of the main reasons why I got the 06 instead of the 07.....

 

Surprised to see this here rather than in the 2007 forum. They'd no doubt appreciate this info over there.

I haven't driven the first-gen G35 in a while, but to my ear the sound of the engine in the new one is considerably more refined, with less of a roar to it.

But maybe my memory is just off.