So I had my car in for service and got the base 05 model with the sport suspension to drive for about 5 days as they could not finish everything in time and had to keep the car over the weekend.

Engine
Runs smoother than the 03.5, maybe it had only 4k miles vs 30k on mine. Sound is also different, mine kind of sound like turbo or diesel engine when you rev up but 05 has more of deeper sound and less louder. Anyone noticed that difference?


Performance
05 acceleration is more controlled and linear on the whole rev range (more balanced torque). On 03.5 I usually notice the torque converter kicks in as you accelerate and then you feel the torque on your back this is not the case in 05, you really cannot notice that much push on your back when you pull on it. Maybe this is because of the Torque difference. Even though I did not feel the torque as much on the 05 I still felt that it was no way slower than 03.5. Before you know it you were cruising around 80mph. I for some reason felt more in control with 05 vs 03.5 when driving at cruising speed though. better suspension?

Interior
Its a toss up. I think overall there are improvements. I like the steering controls they even light up now that is very good. Mid section control panel is ok and I like the turn ***** for temp and volume.The temp readout are of the 03.5 is better.

Over all I enjoyed the car and think aesthetically they have made some improvements, performance wise 03.5 engine seems to pull harder but both seem to be equally fast.

My 2cents.

 

Nice review - to the point, fair and balanced.

 

The interior between the 03 and the 05 is a toss up? Gotta disagree with that assessment.

 

Me too, but if that's what he thinks he's entitled to his opinion. There's no accounting for taste. Lots of guys here think the sedan is ugly, I think it has great lines...

 

I definitely agree with you on this, having owned both an '04 and an '05!

 

Well I just got back from a drive, and MAN oh MAN!!!! I've gotta say my 05 6mt hauls A**! One quick revmatched downshift is all it takes and I'm flying like a bat out of hell. I am feeling so many G forces that I can barely manuver. I love the transmission on the G (it's just designed to be driven in a sporty way, hence don't expect the clutch to last too long

I love love love love LOVE my 05 6mt sedan. This has GOT to be the quickest car I've been in.

Once again, I am OVERLY satisfied - this is an amazing improvement up from what I used to drive (1993 2WD toyota pickup w/ 150hp & 150 ft/lbs torque.

And also..

I feel like a bat out of hell in this thing, evey time I check the speedo I'm flying - just give me a pair of wings and I'll fly!

 

Restrain yourself, or you'll be authoring a "I gotta damn ticket" thread.

 

take it easy tiger

 

I also had an 05 for a weekend and can say that the interior is only slightly better.. You'll notice the owners of the 05 say it's better and we 03-04 say otherwise - no coincidence, I'm sure. There are some nice things about the 05 for sure like the leather wrapped handles and the additional piece of chrome across the dash length, but the new controls are more altima like. I do like that the 05 removed the trapezoiz shaped bin cover for the hvac window that was a hunk of cheap plastic and huge in 03.

I like that the 03's interior is more distinguished from other cars in the nissan lineup. Also, lets face it. The dash has way too many contours and lines and 3 different materials on one dash - for all years. I also like the premium package for 03 which makes the center console all colored stainless. Rather than the 03, which has real stainless inserts on a big piece of rubberized orange peel plastic. Pick your medicine, this is no 04 audi A4 or new 3 series. The radio display for all years is quite disappointing with the tiny orange display. I guess we all expect big screens now used for the NAV and other controls.

I will always appreciate the original car for what it is and was. While becoming a dinasour, it's got the charachter and rude industrialness I was looking for as a 350Z alternative and was the antithesis of the 03 BMW 3 series, which was getting old to me. I would never buy a newer G when there are better cars out there now and THE M45 BABY! I may get flack but in 03 it was the king - in 05 it is not. Back then it sure was fun getting all the looks and attention but now there seem to be hundreds of G sedans everywhere. I bet sales did get better with the improved 05 as it softened some of the industrial edge it had in 03-04. I will keep my 03.5 for 10 years and will be tempted again and again to buy something else, but there is just no way I'll ever be as excited about a car as I was when deciding to buy this thing. It is what I wanted and what I'll have for years to come.

 

I feel the same way about the coupe. It was nice to have it when it first came out. The newer models are still excellent, but they haven't inspired me to go buy one. Perhaps in 07 or 08... Sometimes the 03-04 owners get heat from the 05 owners because of their having available the so called "improvements" No doub't it would be nice to have some of those in the 03-04, but nothing beats the experience of pulling up to a stop light and having people look at you like what the heck is that. All of the 05/06 owners will now have only a year or so before they have to start worrying about a completely new model. At least we 03 owners have got our moneys worth over a period of 4 years of enjoying the latest design.

 

Exactamondo. The 06's have some cool stuff and the 05er's will then not be so high on life anymore if they pin thier car happiness on having what the other guys don't have - which should be rare - whose actually like that??! It's great to be the latest and greatest but you can only throw those stones for about a year. The GTR will make most 06/07 coupe owners cry if they have to have the latest greatest. As would the new 3 coupe or the IS350 or some others that aren't here yet. Vehicles get old fast it's just something I had to accept years ago. I still keep them for 10 years if possible and they are crap at the end but it's the 10's of thousands I'll have in the bank that make it worthwhile. It still runs like beeatch and sure handles well - that's what I bought it for!

 

I think that there are two key interior upgrades on the '05 that no one has mentioned:

1. Rosewood trim (like the M45 and way better than the fake metal in the earlier cars).

2. Leather covering the shifting paths -- who wants to look down and see where the shifter is traveling -- gives more of a standard feel to the automatic and is smaller and less clunky.

 

I kinda got lost at the end of this mini-rant, but I can tell you this: I could have purchased an '03 G35. Didn't. Could have bought an '03.5. Pass. Same with the '04. Only when the '05 came did the urge to buy the car finally overwhelm me, and there was exactly one reason why. The interior improvments.

Take it for what it's worth (which is exactly zero, really), but my wife and I thought the old interior with its myriad plasticky bits (particularly the galling "titanium" center console) would've looked cheap in a third-generation Altima, a car that hardly distinguished itself in interior design and materials. In short, we felt it a horrific study in cost-cutting in a $35K entry-level sports-luxury sedan. The interior and only the interior kept us away for two full model years.

YMMV. Just our experience. And since we couldn't care less what we have compared to what those "other guys" you mentioned above might have, we'll be happy campers for years to come as long as the clutch doesn't implode, the brass syncros don't wear themselves to nubs and the VQ35 doesn't gulp oil by the gallon.

 

So now the argument has migrated from, "well the 03s are just as fast anyway," to "well, we were the first ones to buy these cars ... we are the pioneers and our cars are superior!"

That is interesting to me, because I haven't bought into this 03/04 vs the 05 rivalry that people like to debate. Sounds suspiciously like the auto vs manual debate that constantly flares up where only one side can be right and anybody who disagrees must be an idiot.

For my part, I agree that the 05s is basically the same exact car with just a few subtle differences that add up to a nice minor freshening. I didn't buy an 05 because it's better or faster or because I'm ashamed of the 03s. I bought it because I was ready to buy a G in 05, and they just happened to update the car a bit.

And also, I didn't want my brake pads wearing out every 10K miles on my 17" wheels ....

 

Orange peel? The '05 console isn't orange peel, it's the same "leather like" texture on the dash, far superior to the easy to scuff plastic on the '03-'04 console, and as far as being "rubberized", not, it's padded, big difference, and it's not "stainless" inserts, it's brushed aluminum, far nicer than the painted on looking titanium on the '03-'04, as well as the door handles, they are also brushed aluminum on the '05, not titanium looking plastic.

I share this thought, I wasn't ashamed of my '04, the brakes were actually my main reason to trade, the updates made it even nicer.