I just registered and wanted to say hi. My wife's Solara just got hit the other day and I am considering replacing it with a G35. I want the sedan but she prefers the coupe. I have driven the 04 sedan and was quite impressed and I like having 4 doors. I should add that my daily driver is a 96 Impala SS and I also have a garage queen, an 02 Corvette Z06. Someone on a corvette forum provided me with a link to this forum and I have been trying to read as much as possible to learn as much as possible. I am planning on going to our local dealer on Monday to check out their inventory of 04's and 05's. Any tips you can provide will be much appreciated. I know each year has its pros and cons (04's have the Brembo brakes, big plus), but anything else I should be aware of?

Again, thanks for any advice you can offer!

Aloha from Hawaii,
Bill

 

Allllllllooooooooohhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaa !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111

get the 05

 

Aloha bro, welcome aboard.

Sorry to hear of the 'bent' Solara. Hope no-one was hurt.

I say go for the '05 too. You won't get much of a discount on an '04.

 

Thanks...the saleman told me over the phone they are willing to knock off 3k from msrp on the 04's, of course I dont believe anything until I see it in writing. I am leaning towards the 05 though.

I was hoping for more replies but I guess everyone is hung over from New Year's Eve...

 

whoa.... wife wants coupe and u want a sedan... wow... i always thot its the reverse!!! hahaha.

Ed

 

I know it does sound strange. But I have a 02 Z06 for my fun car and I want the 4 doors on the G35 for everday use.

Bill

 

Welcome WWK888.

I recently went through the same process your going through now, so I'll share with you my thought process.

a.
Coupe - I don't think anyone will argue that the coupe looks better than the sedan. But, like you, I finally decided that I can't live without the backseat/accesibility of the sedan (i.e. I'm a Realtor part-time and I have little kids). I also found that there isn't a noticeable performance difference between the two. Lastly, it's extremely difficult to bully delaers off the sticker price because they are simply so popular.

So it came down to the sedan, 05 or 04

b.
05 Sedan
Nice little exterior and interior cosmetic changes that would easily be noticed by a G enthusiast, but I doubt anyone else would see them. It also has more hp and comes with cooler wheels (these look better in person).

The best deal they'd make me here in SoCal on one of these is $500 above invoice with standard financing of about 4.9 percent for 5 years.

One nice thing here is that you can buy the exact color/equip combo you want.

c.
04 Sedan
Not as nice as the 05 for the reasons noted above, but definitely by only a small margin. Your also kind of stuck with what's in stock (which may be an issue since your out in HI with only one dealer in town).

However, you can get one of these for about $1000 UNDER invoice. You also get the killer Infiniti financing which is only 1.9% (4 yr) or 2.9% (5 yr).

So in the end, I figured there was about a $2500 delta (when you include the finance charges) between the 04 and 05, which was enough to keep me in the 04 camp.

In the end, I ended up with a Twilight Blue/Willow model with only the sport package (that's all I wanted) for only $27, 800.

Since the car Blue Books for more than this, it was a deal I couldn't walk away from.

To say you'll be extremely happy with either car would be a mild understatement.

These are simply one of the best cars on the road (except for the dipstick, which is a horrible design).

Hope this helps.

 

Thank you for taking the time to respond. Your post really sums it up and you make some very valid points. I figured the dealers would go below invoice on the 04's but I will have to wait and see tomorrow. The one thing I have in my favor is we really dont need a car at this point so we can walk away and make them come to us if they really want to deal. My understanding is they have quite a few cars in inventory so we will see how much they are willing to deal.

Thanks again for your response, I really appreciate the imput.

Aloha,
Bill

 

They also gave me about 1k more for my trade than I was expecting to receive.

The exact response from the salesman:

"This time a year, your better off taking it in the rear on a trade and selling a car than you are not selling a car at all"

I believe the 'Infiniti sales event' commercials you see on tv include the $3500 rebate and 2.9% financing (or maybe this is a regional thing).

They told me (after I purchased the car) that Infiniti met its sales goal with this initiative and is considering removing it in the upcoming week because 'rebates' like this kill the resale value of their cars.