Brought my 05 6 spd in for service and got an 04 G35X loaner. Here are my impressions:

The heating and volume ***** which you push in are not as convenient as the 05 ***** which turn. This car did not have the prem pkg and I could tell the difference in the sound system. Being used to the 05, the differences just stood out made the 04 interior look real stark as loaner did not have the titanium color tint. The 05 is really a big step up interior wise.

I was driving car in auto and bitching to myself about automatics when I realized it had manumatic. I actually liked the manumatic as it gave me a little more control than I thought it would have in changing gears. I liked the fact that it automatically started in 1 at a stop forcing you to upshift the lever to 2 and really held the gears as the revs increased. With a stick you can really save on brakes by downshifting but this effect wasn't as pronounced when I went from 3 to 2 in the manumatic. I could actually have some fun driving the automatic. Bottom line it can't compare to a stick, but it really isn't a bad substitute.

I guess when the snow comes the X really shines.

It is fun to get a loaner car and see the differences.

 

for some reason i am not that big of a fan of the 05 insides. i like the push buttons and i love the automanual shifting in my coupe, the shift time seems to the as if you were sport shifting.

 

Always fun to try the different flavors of the G. Funny how owners of their respective configurations typically love their model or year more than anybody else's ... that's a good thing