My wife and I test drove a 2005 G35 6MT a few days and we are sold. The car is freaking amazing. The problem is that we are a year away from being able to buy one (Credit card debt, and want to put 15,000 - 20,000 down).

The problem is that the 6MT are rare as I far as I can tell, and the drop dead date to order one is March or April according to a guy at Grubbs. He also said that the 2006 is going to be totally redesigned. I love the 2005 sedan and I worry greatly that the 2006 wont look as good, and I have problem believing that a 6MT will be available in January '06.

Shouldn't have taken that trip to Paris on the credit card I guess.

Maybe I will be able to find one used with low mileage around the time we are ready to buy.

F---ing sucks about the redesign.

 

I have heard that 2007 is redesign time. However, Infinti is doing a great deal to make their line have a strong family resemblence. The new M35 and M45 look very much like the G35. I personally think there will be plenty of low mileage G's around when you are ready. Just look around now and see how plentiful the supply of 2003 and 2004 pre-owned are. I don't have an MT but let me tell you, The AT is still pretty amazing and I can eat, talk on the cell, drink coffee or whatever cause the AT rocks!

 

I too just test drove an 05. Unfortunately, they didn't have an MT. They said I would have to order one. $1000 down by Feb 3rd and they could get it built and delivered in 90 -120 day exactly as I want. They key is that the base MT is $31,200 plus any options. If you want a used MT you'll still be paying around $26K or $27K with 15-30K miles. Spend $50 a month more and go for the new one. 298HP sounds more fun than 260HP with someone elses miles. My 2cents. I am going to order mine in Feb.

 

I don't think I would worry too much about a 2006 redesign. With the changes they made for 2005 I can't imagine Infiniti would do a total redesign one year later. Sounds like the sales guy didn't want you to leave the lot without a new G.

The hardest thing to do is test drive a G35....and then not buy it. I'm selling a Pathfinder (actually just sold today!), a Miata and using my annual bonus for a nice down payment on a 2003.5 or 2004 G35. I'm thinking June will be the month I get my new (to me) G.

 

No worries man. Set yourself up for a possible purchase at the end of 2005 (Oct-Dec). That way you find your 6mt and also have the leverage to get the 05 model closer to invoice and also there's usually manufacturer to dealer incentives that you wouldn't typically know about. Use edmunds.com

Good luck.

 

That guy is just trying to scare you into buying one... there is no way there going to do a redesign in 2006. Car models run a min of 4 years before redesign... I wouldn't doubt if the G35 goes to 2008 before a redesign. As long as sales stay strong they will keep the same body style, when sales start to slip then they'll bring in a new design...

 

"That guy is just trying to scare you into buying one... "

Agreed. And he's trying to do it by using one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Wait till your ready, the car will be there.

 

In hindsight I realize my first post was little misleading. I test drove a G35 at a dealer in the Bay Area with no intention of buying, and then called Grubbs a few days later to find out about ordering and the VPP pricing through Fresh Alloy, so the guy at Grubbs didn't have as much to gain by lying to me as the dealer with whom I test drove would have. And I have heard that Grubbs has a pretty good reputation, though all I have to go on is hearsay.

However, salespeople are just that.... they want to sell cars today not a year from now.

But we shall see... I may be able to work something out to order one the last possible day they will take orders for 2005s, if I have heard by that time that a complete redesign is in the offing.

I gather no one else has heard of this?

 

Gashweir, Just curious why would you want to put soo much money down on your car? I guess other than the obvious of lower payments. I mean why put so much down if you can get a low interest rate? If you can get a rate of 2.9 or something I would finance the money and stick the cash into something the will return higher than 2.9. Get my drift?

 

Yeah, you have a point. I'll have to think about that. My wife and I have a TDSP account (Tax Deferred Savings Plan) which puts money into various mutual funds, and it ain't doin so hot return wise right now. If I can find something that will give me a better return than what my loan rate will be I may very well put less down.

Thats a good point, thanks for the advice.

 

You can never keep up w/ the redesign's, unless you're loaded. Just take care of you vehicle, and you'll enjoy it.

 

I haven't heard ANYTHING about a 2006 redesign. They just changed the front end for 2005 and freshened up the rest of the car too. Most of those salespeople are full of crap. If you can move up your purchase date a little, say to this November, there should be plenty of 6MT's left on the dealer lots and they will be wanting to get rid of them by then. You should also be willing to travel and negotiate with several dealers to get the best deal. That is the strategy I used to get my '04 Coupe 6MT- fully loaded and out the door (including Florida's 6% tax) for $36,800, and it happened to be set up exactly the way I would have ordered one.

 

Gashweir, Thats the problem people make. Past performance does not guarantee future performance. You can't chase performance you need to manage risk and be diversified. Because if one sector is doing bad another sector is mostly like doing good. Get my drift? And one last thing, don't sell just because its going down. Many people turn unrealized losses into realized losses. If you purchase a fund and its value goes down, it only goes down on paper. Give it some time to rebound. My suggestion is give it a year, pay down your debt. Then see what Infiniti does. You may endup likeing the 06 model and decide to buy that. And if you don't like the 06 then look around at dealerships for an 05' 6mt. If you can't find any look for a used 05' 6mt. Personally I prefer used vehicles, let the original owner take the depreciation hit. I know that the G35s don't depreciate much, but there still is some depreciation there.

 

totaly with you on that...cent percent true

 

Agreed. My wife and I contribute a set amount of pre tax income aside every month into various mutual funds and accounts, so it is fairly diversified already. I wasn't really intending to get into a in-depth financial discussion but what the heck.

Some of the funds have done well the last couple of years, more have done poorly, but we sticking to the strategy we worked in the beginning which was an appropriate mix of high, low, and medium risk funds based upon our age, early thirties. We have not started second guessing ourselves and moved any money around as we have confidence in the success of our strategy over the long term. The question for us is whether the overall performance of the TDSP accounts will yield more than what we are paying in interest on the credit card debt (about half the balance is at 2.9% and about half is about 3.9%) and what interest rate we can get on car loan.

We are going to talk to the bank on Saturday and find out from them what interest loan we could qualify for now with credit debt, and if the rate would be much lower, if any, if we had zero credit card debt. Once we have some solid numbers we will reevaluate and decide what to do: whether over the next 9 - 12 months we would be better served by increasing the money going into the TDSP, paying off the credit card debt, saving for a down payment, or some combination of the three.

What I still want to find out if there is an optimal percent to put down on a new car with dealer financing in order to get the best price on a new car. I have heard that you can negotiate a better deal on a new car if you dealer finance and I am curious if or how much that price is influenced by what percentage of the car is being financed. I would imagine there is some optimal percentage from the dealer's point of view where they get enough money down that they don't think you are a risk of default or whatever, and yet still make enough money over the life of the loan that they are willing to be more flexible over the initial buying price. What this optimal ration of $down/$financed is what I would like to find out.

Anyone have any ideas/suggestions/experience with this question?