I wanted to thank all the participants here for the commentary, experience and advice. I just bought an Ivory Pearl (Willow Leather) 6MT G35 Sedan tonight and I couldn't be happier. I should be able to pick it up Wednesday.

I'm trading up from an Acura RSX-S - I got married last year and got tired of cramming the family into the RSX-S. We test drove it home to make sure it fit into the garage. My wife drove it back to the dealer and had a grin on her face the whole way back.

One wierd thing was the clutch/shifter on the 6MT will take some getting used to after I've been driving an Acura for the past 2.5 years. The clutch on the G35 pops out really quickly and I'm used to feathering the clutch on the RSX-S since it doesn't have enough torque to "idle" in 1st. My wife, who usually picks up driving stick in a different car really quickly had trouble with this one. Does this seem common? I'm sure I just have to get used to it - more torque and RWD make it a vastly different car than the Acura. Also, the shifter isn't as precise as the RSX and it vibrated quite a bit - only reason it seemed odd to me is that the RSX-S shifter doesn't vibrate at all.

I could feel the power of the car but didn't want to rev it up too high for break in purposes.

During the test drive there was a wierd "flapping" noise in the rear right of the car. The dealer is going to check it out (we didn't see any weather stripping problems or anything) and have it fixed (obviously before I sign on the bottom line).

I'm looking into the PAC Aux In thingy so I can hook up my iPod - I ripped the Bose stereo out of my RSX-S within 2 months of having my RSX but for aesthetic reasons I'm not going to monkey with the G35's Bose system (although I'm not expecting much).

I'm glad I stumbled on this forum. I'd been envying the G35 for a while and didn't realize they were so "affordable". I was looking at possibly getting a Dodge Magnum (heh) when for grins I checked the price on a G35 and that sealed the deal.

Thanks again for the great information here......

 

Congrats!! I'm glad you made the right decision! [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img] Welcome aboard my 6mt IP sedan brother! [img]/w3timages/icons/wink.gif[/img]










6MT Ivory/Willow>>Nismo OEM Kit>>Premium Package>>XM


"Is simplicity best or simply the easiest"

 

I had a similar hard time transitioning to the manual transmission of my G35 sedan. I too immediately noticed how it had a much smaller engagement "window". The clutch really seems to grab / engage quickly. Funny, I also noticed how much more the shifter seems to vibrate. I was actually going to look into the cause of that just for my own edification. As for the clutch issue, I lowered the engagment point first [which seemed to help me a lot], and just through driving the car more I've gotten more used to it's behavior.

Perhaps when you get the car you can experiment with lowering the engagement point, but this does need to be done carefully. Otherwise, you could end up wearing out the transmission [syncros, etc.].

 

congrats....i know you will love the car as much as we all do. the 6mt takes some getting used to to shift as well as you would like. it took me about 3 months and still on days i don't concentrate the shifting can be erratic. it seems to shift smoothest on the low rpm end and high rpm end. the normal driving range is the toughest for me. i can shift smoothly at 4-6k rpms and under 1500 rpms most of the time.

the 1st to 2nd shift is always a challenge but because of that i've found myself trying for the perfect 1-2 shift and it feeels great when you knock it down.

anyway, congrats again. this car is the best bang for the buck in its class and maybe the next class up as well.

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04 6MT sedan, black/willow