"Car & Driver" ranked our car at 4'th place, below the 330i, A4 and Acura TL-S. My G35 replaced my TL-S Acura so, I know a little bit about it.

"C&D": Big dirty oversteer, overly-eager brakes, manumatic with overlong throws, cabin noise, engine sounds "a little raspy" for its displacement, etc. It's funny how "Motor Trend" called it "car of the year" ahead of the 330i and, yet, "C&D" ranks it 4'th. I mean, Acura is a nice car, I enjoyed it, but I'd pick the G35 over it. Does anybody know about the A4 and the 330i and whether these are indeed over the G35 ? I know the 330i was the king and always the supreme target, but didn't we hit it: faster 0-60, way better stopping distance and even better slalom speed, sexy fresh looks, excellent weight distribution, very good rear-wheel drive platform, awesome engine, etc. What else do THEY want ?!

I know all these reviews have some bias and we're all subjective (as humans !) but would you guys care to comment your thoughts on this ?

 

Car and Driver gave a 'sparkling' review last spring (like everyone else did). Then all of a sudden "oversteer", "touchy brakes", cabin too noisy, "motor noisy" and a bunch more crap that nobody (except BMW) agreed with... That was soooooo strange. HMMMMMMM.(Can you say BS or maybe Payoff.)
I used to like and buy C/D until they came up with that stunt last summer! just my $.02. [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]


<font color=red>Gsedanman</font color=red>

 

Performance and Price wise I think the G35 is a step above the rest, but I still beleive the rest of the cars your mentioned are a step above the G35 in quality. I don't know much about the A4 but I have friends who have the BMW and Acura, and both those are a little more smoother overall then the G35. But the G35 is bigger inside

I'm still waiting for my G35, but i've test driven them several times and each time i did notice some minor road noise and rattles, which the other cars didnt seem to have. But drive a car long enough and they all get rattles and road noise

I think C/D comparison was based on overall package. Personaly I would probably give it a 2nd place finsh to the BMW.

I thought about buying the BMW and the Acura, but the price and lack of room inside kept me away form the BMW. I liked the quality of the Acura and it was pretty quick also, but overall the Acura package is just boring. I wish Honda would go out on the edge a little on styling.

 

Yeh I see your point and it has some merit. And I'm not saying the G is the be all and end all of cars in it's class. My point was that C/D did a complete '180' in their evaluations. Just didn't make much sense to most of us.
Anyway when you get your G you'll see by it's own merits how good or bad it is. You won't need anyone cheering or pooh-poohing to know that those that 'have' are happy and those that 'don't' wish they did. JMHO [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]

<font color=red>Gsedanman</font color=red>

 

If they factor in price, the G35 wins. I bought the G35 due to the fact you get the most bang for the buck, and I can smoke BMWs. All the cars are great, but for what price? True the BMW 330i may be a better car, but not $8,000 better.

 

P.S.

Consumer reports does not recommend any three series BMWs anymore, the reliability has become subpar.

 

For all I know, those are all good cars but there's a big difference between Motor Trend review and the Car and driver one : the price of the car. There's good chances that if the 330i and A4 3.0 were the same price than G35, I would have chosen the A4 or the BMW. I don't know prices in USA but in Canada an Audi A4 3.0 with the same equipment than the G is at least 6 grands (CAN) more expansive. It costs about 15 % more than the G35 and offer comparable feature like confort, fun to drive, power, etc. I didn't hesitate for one second. The G offer me more for my money.

For the acura TL-S, I testdrive one and I hesitated a lot. The G is based on performance but according to me, on the confort side the TL-S is the winner and it's also fun to drive. But the look of the TL is so... ordinary. So I continue to think that I made the right choice.

 

I think that a couple of journalists liked the G better regardless of price, including several from Motor Trend. That said, the G is an absolute bargain at several thousands less than the competition. Reliability is where I believe the Infinitis will be better than the German autos.
In terms of interior material and quality of feel, Audi and BMW just "Do it Better". Not $8 to $15 K better mind you.

 

Only thing I could think is C/D were blown away by the G35 when they first got it, which would explain its high reviews, but after driving it and comparing it two other cars in its class for several months brought there first impressions down a notch to two. Same thing kind of happen with the Altima, when it first came out, everyone gave it high praises, now after a year its being rating in the middle of the pack. I'm just guessing so dont bash me for saying that

That said, I would still buy the G35. Has more power, better looking, more room inside and the money you save you can add some nice rims and mods.

 

Keep in mind that a few issues after that comparo, Car and Driver named the G35 sedan/coupe to their 10Best list. By my book, it stole the spot from the Audi A4 which was on the list for 2002, and failed to make it for 2003.

This kind of redeemed C&D for me, although I know the G35 coupe had a lot to do with their decision.

Anyways, for the price, you can't beat the performance, styling, and luxury of the G35 sedan.

 

It also depends on their priorities. Are they aiming for luxury first or performance first? There is usually a bias one way or the other in those reviews. The BMW is a great all-around car, and deserves the top spot when it gets it. The G35 beats it on performance, but falls a little short in the luxuries, though it is definately bigger than a 3-series (a big point in my buying decision). An Audi A4 or a Volvo S60 do well on the luxury side, but lack in the performance. I don't know how they get the Acura TL up there.. I test drove one, and it felt cheap, and for 260hp, didn't have much get-up-and-go in my opinion, compared to the others. So, performance-wise it's almost a toss-up between the 3 and the G. Luxury-wise, the G gets taken down a few notches.

2003.5 G35 Sedan Desert Platinum/Graphite Premium/Sport/Aero/Nav/Winter

 

From what I know, "C&D" has always been about performance; they always picked the "sport" version of any car when doing comparison, they always picked the "stick-shift" (if available) over the automatic and so on. Given that, I thought that a faster 0-60, a much better stopping distance and even a better slalom speed, which the G35 supposely has over the 330i, would definitely make it a winner (at least in the "C&D" book). The G35 is nicely equiped for its class (luxury-entry), has quite a few nice things (the navigation system is awesome, to name one) and while it may not have the fit and finish the BMW has (I saw the majority of you agreed on that), it definitely compensates for in price (we're talking thousands less). Ah, forgot, cabin space is another big win on our side.

I like BMWs (I always dreamed for an M5 !), I think they're awesome cars, but if we put the numbers together, why would the 330i be ahead of the G35 ?

 

At the end of the day, there's nothing very scientific about the way any of the magazines test and rate cars. Perhaps in this case it wasn't until C/D had all the cars together that the differences became obvious. And the initial excitment of driving a car that matches BMW performance for thousands less might have worn off. For example, I forget how mediocre the quality of the Gs interior is until I look inside the competition. IF the four cars were the same price I'd be driving a BMW...

HTBomb's Magical Hot Wheels

 

If all these cars were the same price then I'm sure many of us would be driving the BMW....although having the legendary skyline is still a plus for many of us who grew up knowing of it.

Red/Canadian