well i've been meaning to write this for about a week now after having crossed the 10,000 mile mark, but now that it is my car's one year anniversary, i can delay no longer.

on nov 2, 2005, i went to frontier infiniti to take delivery of my 2006 OB g35 sedan. up to that point, i had spent a considerable amount of time shopping around, looking at the acura TL/RL, lexus IS350, and others. after spending some time on this site and several hours test driving the g35 sedan, i excitedly arrived at my decision and purchased the car several months before i intended to. i got the '06 for $200 and change over invoice back in october and figured it was a great deal.

fast forward 12 months, 10,160 miles and i've learned a lot about this car. cleararmour (aka clearbra) has proved very valuable. i had it installed at the dealership and within the first week or two i had tint put on the car as well. both have help up extremely well and i get lots of compliments on the tint.

i'll try to detail some of my experiences with different aspects of ownership and the car during my first year. i'll also provide a breakdown of my costs as well.

required expenses
$100 - 3x oil changes (2 at the dealer @ 2k & 5.5k , 1 at zcargarage @ 9k)
$20 - tire rotation (@ 9k)
------------------------------------------------------
$120

I didn't buy into the 7500 mile service idea... that alone would have more than doubled my required expenses.

Of course, spending as much time as I do on this board, I got a bit of the mod bug so I've detailed my optional expenses below.

optional expenses
$800 - ClearArmour (comes with warranty to repaint damaged panel)
$220 - Tint
$25 - clear corners
$100 - PAC AAI-NIS2 iPod unit
$60 - Blitzsafe UII
Free - ProClip iPod Mount (Gift)
$70 - aluminum pedals (still uninstalled)
$25 - right hand battery cover (still uninstalled)
$50 - stillen grounding kit (still uninstalled)
$20 - nissan oem wheel locks (still uninstalled)
$50 - 350z oem unrevised springs
$240 - stillen sway bars
$120 - springs + sways install cost
$320 - hks muffler
$35 - muffler install parts (brackets, hanger, bolts)
$40 - muffler install cost
$230 - escort x50 8500 (red)
$20 dyno run (220whp, 210tq @ 5k miles)
-------------------------------------------------
$2425

I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first so I can end on a positive note.

Major Problems
Absolutely zero engine problems. I checked oil consumption at the 5.5k oil change and was down about 1/3 quart. Breathed a sigh of relief but I'm still trying to pay attention to that.

When I was doing my iPod install work, I had to disconnect the battery. After finishing everything up, I had the check engine light come on. I was a bit worried about it, but it went away and never came back. Verified there were no problems at the last dealer oil change.

No interior cabin failures. All buttons and switches work. All lights are functional. No problems with the Nav system or premium options (homelink, seat memory) either.

Annoyances
In the first 2-3 months of ownership, my car was probably at the dealer 4-5 times getting various rattles fixed. The most annoying ones came from the clock finisher area and the console between the shifter and the storage area between the seats. I also had some front windshield ticking issues. None of these were major problems, but I wanted to get them fixed early given all the issues I had read on here about rattles.

Turning on the A/C causes a major audible change as well as noticeable vibration in the car. I remember that it caused some issues with the brake pedal feel that I took into the dealer but they "couldn't reproduce it" since I thought it was initially a problem with the pads or rotors. It's still something that bothers me, since I don't understand why the brake pedal feel should be affected by the A/C being on. Are the brake and A/C lines next to each other in the engine bay?

The paint from nissan is terrible. The first night out driving the car, I got a chip in my driver's side DOOR from some errant rock. Frustrated me to no end and I still haven't fixed it (it's really tiny).

Bluetooth connectivity has acted funny a couple of times. If I'm in conversation when I turn on my car, it has switched over 98 out of the ~100 times that has been the case. The other two times, I can't get the bluetooth connection going (even if I cycle power on the phone) so I have to shut down and restart the car. Only bugged me once when I was driving around in SF and had to pull over. The quality of the mic for Bluetooth needs to be improved, significantly. I can only hope there will be a TSB for this or we figure out if the '07 has a better mic and migrate that over to the '06.

Recently, the compression rod problem has popped up for me. Probably starting around 6-7k miles. It's a major annoyance because it sounds the front suspension has a major problem. I'm taking it in next week to have it looked at (and hopefully replaced/fixed).

I will never buy a black car again. I love my car when it's clean, but that's about .5% of the time I've owned it. The same day of a wash it's already showing dust. I've been **** about getting it cleaned (only detailers have touched my car) and I've dropped a good $400-500 in my year of ownership on car washes, waxes and a full zaino treatment. Sad thing is, I didn't get DG only because my last car was silverish. I don't regret OB, I just realize it would have been less of a hassle with other colors.

Favorite Things
I have a few favorite things I still love about this car. The retracting nav is not only a cool kitschy feature, it's very handy. I like having it out of the way when I just want to drive. That said, the '06 nav looks great and has come in handy on many many occasions. I love the size of the screen and the maps. I do wish it were a touchscreen at times because it would save me all the joystick action. A friend of mine works for VW/Audi doing UI research for their nav systems and she was taking pictures and notes from my car so clearly Nissan is doing something right.

The driving experience is still very enjoyable. A year later I thought I might be tired of it or that it might not be as fun, but that's just not the case. Just yesterday I was getting on the gas while cruising around town and enjoyed that torquey feeling off the line. The stock muffler had a nice note but I particularly enjoy the HKS muffler. I recommend all sedan owners consider it if you're looking for an aftermarket sound. It's affordable, won't lean your A/F out and sounds great. Unless you're going FI, I'm not sure there's much more benefit to a TD setup.

The handling of the sedan is great in my opinion. I've been through the twisties with G coupes and 350Z's and was able to hang with them fairly easily (stock sport wheels/tires and before my sways). I think it could be improved with a set of coilovers but the expense of the investment isn't worth the return for me because I don't go out and do twisties or autocrosses regularly. I like the tight controlled steering and the road feel. I still compare it to the IS I took out while shopping and realize I'm not old enough to want that floaty feeling. Maybe when I'm in my 40's

Lastly, the car is damn seckzy. I love the way the car looks. I think the '07 isn't really a step forward. I would like to take the '07 interior amenities and the '06 exterior together. Regardless, I can deal and will not kiss away thousands in taxes to trade up.

I plan to hang on to this car for quite a while. I'd like to leave the engine relatively untouched until I clear the 4yr/60k warranty. Sometime around then I may crave a new car, in which case I'll probably send it down to VRT to get it uberpimped with a built JWT TT setup.

That's all for now, I may update this as time goes on, hopefully with some pics from my new XTi

 

Thanks for the very detailed write-up on your G35! This will certainly help out new G owners like myself remain informed about this awesome luxury sport sedan

 

nice review!!! and cool list. The only thing I saw was $220 for tint I sure hope it was gold coated lol

 

great write up!!

 

I enjoyed the detail in your review.Nice read.
Oh! I'm 44 and I don't want that "floaty feel" of the IS either.You can get the same feel in a Crown Victoria for a lot less.So maybe in your senior years..

 

Thanks The tint was actually comparatively cheap. i drove a long way to get this installer to do it for me because he came very highly recommended. i know some parts of the country have cheap tint installs (like $100) i wish that were the case around here

i got great deals on basically everything else besides the tint and ClearArmour

 

Great review.I too am having issues with compression rods.Hope I can get it fixed .One dealer I 've went to twice has tried to use the mods I have as an excuse.

 

if i get crap about my sways i'm going to be pissed. the problem started before i got the sways put on. and regardless, stillen + nissan have a relationship. many dealers offer their parts. shouldn't affect the warranty.

 

I doubt it will effect the warranty.At the dealership I went to(Elk Grove Infiniti) they sell Stillen stuff.The service tech told the service manager that he didn't think there was enough grease on the stock swaybar bushings and that was causing the squeak,since it is an aftermarket swaybar they wanted to charge me to grease it,didn't cost much, and it eliminated one of the possibilities, but the noise was back that night.I told them about the tsb on compression rods but the manager said that was just the 03's with that problem.I think it's a matter of finding a mod friendly dealer to address the issues.