I was thinking, why would they advertise 280 and 298 if it wasn't different? There has to be something fishy about those tests. And, search is your friend? Not always here.............. Why do you have to be so condescending anyway?

We can all agree that the 2005 models are not really faster. If they are it is negligible. We know you still prefer your 05's b/c this and that and that is ok. But let us face it we (2003/2004ers) are not as screwed when the 2005s came out as the G20 owners were when the G35 came out. You feel me? There will never be as huge a jump between any future updates as there was b/t 2002 and 2003--whether that is a minor freshening up or a total new model.
Was there a G20driver.com forum--umm, no.
My point--we have nice cars, now go outside and enjoy.
http://autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?rd...y&cardist=1863

http://www.nctd.com/review-intro.cfm...0&ReviewID=510

Dave, I think he was referring to your assumption that the only thing changed on the 05 was the exhaust sound (which btw is not true). Fact is, the 04 6MT has more low-end torque and the 05 6MT has more high-end horsepower. You don't accomplish that by only altering the exhaust note.

Yes actually I do think they were biased then. I think that the 03 G35’s were not better than the last generation 330i’s. That is why I bought an 02 330i in 03 instead of the G35. Now the new 05 G35 is a different story. I just traded my 02 Bimmer for the 05 G35 because I think they have made the improvements that push it past the Bimmer and you just can’t argue with the price. I think the magazines go into these tests with a preconceived notion of who is going to win. When they tested the 03 G35 it was brand new and it was hot. The BMW had been around for at least a year. I think it won because that is what they thought the readers would want to hear. Now with the new BMW’s those are all new so they just expect it to be the best. Hopefully one of the magazines will actually look at the two cars and say there is no way to justify spending 10K extra on the new 330i! Price does matter! The older test was also between automatics. I don’t think the 330i automatic is any good. I love my new 05 Slushbox G35 though! Was the new test done with automatics or manual transmissions? Maybe that is why the times are so slow?

In Desert Day Dynoing Article - Sport Z Magazine, Summer 2005 - we documented the dynojet performance of two pure stock G35 AT Sedans, an 03.5 and an 05. The 03.5 had 23.6k miles and the 05 had 1,258 miles on their respective clocks. In this particluar case the 05 made more horsepower and torque under the curve.

I haven't seen the article, but I assume (and it will likely be the death of me) that because it was 5AT that they had the base 17" wheels like I have on mine..

Dunno 'fer sure.

The answer to your question was in the very first post of the thread... Now highlighted for your convenience.

I agree that the performance improvements are debatable between the 03 and the 05 G35’s. However, there is one thing that kept me from buying the 03. That stupid little box on the trunk! Once they took that away I was interested in the G35 again. And now that they have revised the front and rear designs I could not resist.

Going by what DaveB said in the first post, we're talking about a test regarding 5ATs.

I think performance gains or lack of performance gains should be referred to those cars and the 6MTs left in another thread.

The question of performance numbers here has nothing to do with 298/260, but rather 260/260 (rated) vs 280/270 (rated).

Does anyone agree with that? (at least?)

I agree with that, and if the '05 5AT really did 0-60 in 5.8 as said above, that is certainly an improvement over the 6.2 recorded in the previous MT test against the BMW and Cadillac.

Sorry the whole title did not show so I wasn’t sure if they had used an automatic 330i or not. I wouldn’t put it past some of the magazines to throw an auto G35 up against a manual 330i to get the prices closer together. I see now that at least motor trend is above this tactic.

No sweat - just trying to keep things on the level as this topic interests me. There are usually strong feelings when the comparison of the 05 is made to the previous model years.

Pretty soon the 06s will be here and we can all compare ourselves to them - LOL.

I just heard that the 06’s will have the rear active steer and Bluetooth. Man I almost wish I had waited now! Although I don’t think you will be able to get an 06 any where near invoice for quite awhile. I would expect the rear active steer to bring the G35 closer to the handling of the 330i. I bet the 06 G35 will spank the 330i in every category and that will be a better comparison since both models will be an 06 then. I think they both will have to watch out for the Lexus IS350. That motor is a monster! 300+ HP!

I think he was talking about the 05 AT not the 6mt. The 6mt has internals changed in the engine from pistons, rods, crank, etc.

You could have purchased an 03.5--No doggie door trunk.