The only thing i like from 2005 sedan is the tiptronic gear change. It downshifts very fast and at the same time revmatches on every gear.
But that's ONLY thing that i like from 2005's. But we have to wait and see how the manuals are.

 

bsgoren, I would agree with some but not all of your assessments. I had a G35x loaner for several days.

The G35x felt faster out of the hole, but more sluggish when punching it at cruising speed. I realize we are not comparing apples to apples here, though. Some or all of this may be due to the all wheel drive.

The seating issue with the top mounted seat controls has not improved at all. I was still suffering from pain and numbness/tingling in my right leg and foot on any trip of over 40 min. The upper part of the seat is more bolstered than before which is nice, though.

I do think the aluminum console is nicer than the faux titanium painted plastic. I also like the new heated seat controls and their positioning better. I have the graphite/with wood interior which I like better than either of the silver console interiors, old or new.

I do not like the new instrument cluster...it is too busy and makes it much harder to tell exactly how fast you are travelling. I much prefer the original. The analog clock looks nice at night (backlit in orange), but looks out of place in daytime driving. Generally, it is a poor idea to place analog and digital readouts in such close proximity, and this shows up much more in the daytime lighting.

The power tilt and telescope steering wheel feature is exceptionally nice on the '05. I do NOT like the orange stitching on the new steering wheels though. No, the G35x didn't have the orange stitching, but another car I sat inside of did, and it looks bush league to me.

It is very nice that they have lighted the steering wheel mounted stereo and cruise controls, but in doing so they now feel very flimsy and cheap due to using plastic controls rather than metal like in my '03.

You are dead-on about the brakes. Squishier but less grabby at the end of a stop. I seriously doubt they will stop the '05 as quickly as my '03 does, but I wouldn't miss the grabbieness of my brakes much either.

The intelligent key is a nice gimmick, but would be much nicer if you only needed to press a button for ignition. You still have to turn it like you would with a key, and it is not a particularly ergonomic switch, or motion, as executed in the '05 sedan.

It is very nice that the 04.5 model and later 5A/T's automatically drop down to first gear upon stopping. It should have been that way from the start.

Finally, I do not like the exterior changes at all. I much prefer the 03/04 exterior both front and rear. I was judging only from pictures before, but at the dealership I had the opportunity to see several different colors of '04 and '05 side by side, and also a three day period to observe my '05 loaner from many different angles. I absolutely prefer the 04's from every angle, especially dead-on front and any view that highlights the tail lights. YMMV.

 

GeeSpot -

I agree with several of your points. I forgot to mention the telescopic steering wheel...it should have been std. on the earlier versions. I also neglected to mention the new, cheaper steering wheel controls. Like you said, although they are now lighted for nightime driving, they definitely are cheaper in feel and how they act in motion (I thought the new ones were also metal, but just hollow or something; maybe they are plastic)...they actually "squeaked" a bit in my brand new '05 loanner car (it only had 350 mi. on it). I noticed how cheap they felt immediately compared to mine b/c I always use mine in my car; I thought that it was just pitiful that Infiniti replaced the nice, quality metal controls for cheaper ones. I also agree with you about the slight exterior styling changes, except for the new reverse lights...I got a set of '05 reverse lights for $60 and replaced mine with the new ones...they look great with my brake lights, imo.

I do disagree with you about the Intelligent Key system; we have it on our '03 FX35 and it's a great feature and not at all unintuitive. I don't feel like I need a "start" button to start the car, but cranking it over just as I normally would without fumbling for the keys and having to insert the key are great. In our FX35, I just leave my keys in my pocket and away we go...the RF transmitter gets us in the car and allows me to start it...wish I had it on my G35, but it's just a convenience (except for the fact it won't allow you to lock your keys in the car which is a nice safety feature ) ; it's not the end of the world without it either.

 

bsgoren, I did not mean to imply that I don't like the keyless feature..... it is quite nice. I really like it a lot, especially not having to take the fob out to lock or unlock the doors. I just feel that with a small amount of tweaking it could be improved considerably. It seems to me that you have to turn the switch farther than it takes with my keyed start switch. This may possibly be due to less leverage without the key, but that was how it felt to me. The switch also felt a little clunky in my hands. I think Infiniti could have improved the feel of it significantly. If Infiniti wants to join the ranks of lexus, they will need to work on the small details as well as the larger ones. : )

The steering wheel controls are definitely plastic. Nothing wrong with that in and of itsself. But they used a very thin, light, cheap feeling plastic. I noticed the poor feel of it the very first time I adjusted the volume on the stereo. It has a very vague, loose, flimsy feel to it that could be improved upon greatly. A great car for the most part, but still room for improvement.