I recently traded a 99 328i sedan with sport on an 05 G35 sedan 6mt and thus far prefer the ride / handling of the G35 to my BMW. The BMW seats are much better IMO.

 

i wrote up a disspointing review some of you may have read after driving the 06 325 and 330i for the first time. i keep reading what a great sedan it is and i thought i would go back and drive them again. well, i didnt bother with the 325 with sport--it really dissapointed me, and almost pissed me off the last time with the seat and the dead pedal.

the previous time i drove a 330i without the sport pkg. well, the car i drove about 3 weeks ago was still there, but i wanted to drive a sport. the 330i i drove this time was pretty impresive. the feel is great. hell, it is super low to the ground--or so it feels. its is a lot lower then the G. kind of hard, well harder to get in and out of the 330i then the G, but that is the least concern for sport drivers. i was impressed this time around, but the price and reliability is still my biggest deterrant. comprobaly equipped the 330i is about 5k more sticker...even more when factoring in the deal or lack there of. if the 2 cars were comparabley priced, it would be a much harder decision for me, but they arn't.

one think i do like over the G is the gas milage. with the price of gas now...the BMW is a nice deal. lower 30's for highway diving. teh real world #'s people are saying they get over at e90post.com are quite nice for a car with that performance.



i still want to put the 19'' coupe wheels on the sedan. are the coupe tires as bad as the sedans?

i know nothing about tires. so i cant really comment one way or another about the tires some have complained about. what makes them bad? what do you look for in a good tire?

 

Some GREAT tires are the Michelin PS2 or just the PS. The 2004 G35 coupe comes with PS and the tires stick like glue. My roommate has Bridgestone S03 and it also sticks like glue.

 

How do seats help the handling, again?

The coupe and the sedan share the same suspension except for springs I believe and so I'm wondering, just how much better the coupe handles over the sedan..care to enlighten?

The 99 3 series had the best steering ratio and "feel" of any year supposedly, and then at some point after that, i thought they changed to be more slow and comfortable. That's a tough car to beat for the way it feels in a curve.

 

so with that it would be fair to say that if i can get both the wheels and tires off the coupe for the sedan, i would be good to go?

what is the average life of those bad boys?

 

Tires, tires, tires. I can't stress this enough. The single most important thing to your car's handling is tires. The Turanza series is a pure crap tire. My 03 has the Turanza EL42s.......the same freaking tires that came on my father's 04 Sienna!!! I can't wait till these things wear out. They're at 28K and they've still got a lot of tread left. Even with a bit more camber in the back thanks to my coupe springs (.6 drop front, .8" drop rear), they won't die

 

True, true, true. Let's put it this way - tires are super expensive here in Canada because of tons on enviro levies/ taxes / fees so I swapped to Hankook K104's (even those set me back almost $1400) and they made a HUGE difference. Yeah even the Han-Kooks. Granted I did change wheel size and offset at the same time but for just plain stick-it-ability it was definitely a move up. Those Turanza's are ****e! Hit the offramp and feel the moment that sidewall flex's and your a$$ moves over. Shameful OEM tire given the quality of the rest of the ride. What a waste of a car to hook it up with those.

Get new tires and then work from there.

 

I believe the coupes are also lower and have a lower center of gravity. The staggered setup of the coupe also contributes to the handling difference. The coupes also come with much better tires. I too find that my coupe easily outhandles any loaner i've had. I'm sure you can make the sedan handle as well as the coupe but stock, the coupe handles better.

 

The coupe has a staggered setup so I don't know how it would affect the vdc on the sedans since they are not staggered from the factory. I think you can get around 20k off the tires because they are summer tires with a soft compound. If you want longer tire life and better traction in the wet, the Pilot Sports All-Seasons are also great.

 

Dave just becase there is tread does't mean the tire isn't worn out. My EL's have tread but are decidedly worn out anyway. I'm debating taking them through another winter. Since I drive very little in winter, I'm thinking of waiting and enjoying my tread even if it means driving on worn tires, but I'm a cheap *****.

 

I know I'm gonna get flamed for this, but I don't believe that the coupe *necessarily* handles better than the sedan, stock. The sedan with sports suspension uses the exact same suspension as the coupe, at least in 03-04; the springs have the same compression rates, but the coupes are shorter.

That .5"(roughly) drop reduces suspension travel a bit by loweing the center of gravity, but it's really not much of difference. The only way you will ever notice the handling benefits from such a short drop(assuming the other suspension attributes are the same, and they are), is if you drive 10/10ths. I do that at the autox, but never on public roads. I mean, be honest.

DaveB is correct. To use the old addage, "It's the tires, stupid." At our first autox, my times we better than the wife's in the 9 second rage. NINE seconds. That's huge. I have an 05 6MT, sport suspension, vsld, and the goodyears on my 18's. The wife has the stock 04 suspension(non sport), no vsld, and the crappy EL42 Turanzas on the stock 17's. If the other variables were equal(spring rates, shocks, and the vsld), my times would still have been better by at least 5 seconds. Those turanzas by themselves sucked down a good 5 or 6 seconds.

I know the above information is not scientific; we did not drive each others' cars. But I'm sure if she gets in my car, after she's used to it, she'll outdrive me.

I cannot understand why Infiniti would put those POS tires on it's hottest selling vehicle, stock. That's just ludicrous. I mean, it's a direct competitor to the IS, A4, Merc C, and the bimmer 3. If someone goes for a few test drives back-to-back-to-back, I could see why someone thinks another vehicle has the better handling; the g's just simply not showing it's potential on those tires.

Making the mistake the first time is bad enough. Not correcting the mistake is the true crime.

 

Choo got that right Mang.

 

I agree and Motor Trend supports your statement. The coupe does indeed handle a bit better than the G35 sedan with the Sport Package and Z-rated Goodyear rubber. I remember the 2003 MT Car of the Year issue had both the times/numbers for the coupe and sedan. The coupe went the the slalom about 2mph faster which is pretty significant. Now if that sedan would have been running the Turanzas, I'm sure the coupe would have beat the sedan by a solid 4+mph. I attribute the better handling in the coupe to it's larger optional 18" wheel package with W-rated rubber, slight wheel stagger, and slightly lowered stance.

I've got the coupe springs on my 03 with the sports package and Turanzas The handling has improved and oddly the ride is better. My rear gap is barely a finger too!!! All I need is some good W-rated A/S rubber to complete this setup. I can't wait to get some real tires on this thing. As much as it pains me to still have the Turanzas, I can't bring myself to replace a tire that still has 70% of it's life left.

 

Dam 70% life left with 25k+ miles. That's amazing.

 

I don't know how this sedan question got hijacked with coupe answers, but here's a link to a recent review I did from the BMW Driving Experience event which pitted the 2006 330 sedan against the 2005 G35 sedan https://g35driver.com/forums/buying-selling-leasing-discussion/57231-autocrossed-2006-bmw-330-vs-2005-g35.html.

I have a 2004 sedan with Sport Tuned Suspension, and I ended up replacing the springs and dampers with Tein, new A-Arm, and new rims and tires to achieve the handling I wanted (rock solid, no body lean in turns, etc.). You can see my review at https://g35driver.com/forums/reviews/35796-review-tein-basics-350evo-arms-spc-camber-kit.html.

In stock form, the BMW does out handle the G35, but it's also $10,000 more car so it's not an apples to apples comparison.