Letters to Infiniti executive management like VP of Marketing work better. Other than poor brake functional life, the car's a blast and worth the money. I came to it form an M3 so a good comparison.

Letters to the senior level corporate mgmt are fine, but they are "internal" and the most pressure is brought to bear when a concern goes "public" because the company does not want bad press tarnishing all the kudos it has received.

Optimal strategy, write letters to Infiniti and copy them to the car magazines.

Dreams garnet fire/graphite leather 6MT 2003.5 premium/aero/winter

as for the problems you listed:

the CD player is not a problem as long as you dont use cd-rs with labels.

That's not entirely correct. Labels will cause problems, and the player doesn't "officially" support anything other than "Compact Disc Digital Audio" - store-bought music CD's.

I have only ever put store-bought music CD's in my player, and I'm on my 4th player, having had 3 jams. To be fair, as mentioned above, you hear a disproportionate number of complaints on forums, as people that are happy don't bother to say much. My understanding is that the jamming problem is fairly common, and many cars have to have the player replaced, but not that many have it as a recurring problem. My bad luck, I guess.


2003.5 G35 Sedan Desert Platinum/Graphite Premium/Sport/Aero/Nav/Winter

I have 26,000km on my G35 with none of those problems. The cost difference to those other vehicles (in Canada) is huge.

Sideburns, buy what you like but understand the other cars on your list have at least the same or more problems- Audi in particular. Forums are a great place to share opions and gripes but tend to give a microcosm view of the cars. Go for what you like rather than forum opinions. ( I would really pass on a CVT though)

<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by jcv on 08/14/03 05:33 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

The Audi is a nice car, but the CVT is problematic, especially in stop-n-go traffic. I've read that it can grab and surge forward on you unexpectedly at low crawling speeds. It didn't feel as sporty to me as some of the others, either.

The 330i and G35 were the only cars that really put a smile on my face when I test drove them. In addition to the A4 3.0 CVT, I also tried a Cadillac CTS, Volvo S60 T5, and an Acura TL Type S.

I've driven Accords for a decade, and the TL was just.. blah. An Accord in luxury clothing. Nothing too terribly exciting about it.

The Cadillac was nice, but the engine lacked punch. That should change next year, as they're replacing the 3.2L V6 with a 3.6L V6 that makes G35-level power.

The Volvo was surprisingly quick and agile, but still paled in comparison to the BMW and Infiniti.

In the end, what made my final choice may not be important to you. I have a growing family, and wanted the bigger of the two cars. A 5-series is out of my budget, so I went with the G35. If the Caddy had that 3.6L engine, it may have had a chance, and if Volvo's "R" cars had been available, I might have leaned that way. BMW didn't have the Performance Package out at the time I made my decision, either.

The choices get better all the time, but you can't wait for tomorrow forever.

2003.5 G35 Sedan Desert Platinum/Graphite Premium/Sport/Aero/Nav/Winter

Wish I could be as upbeat as the rest of the folks in this forum. I have had problem after problem with my G35. I have had it a year and a month and already have close to 10 (yes, TEN) service orders from problems (CD player braking twice, rattles, recalls, cruise control going out, all dash lights going out, etc.). I honestly think it wouldn't be this many if the service department at my Inifiniti dealer were better, though. I think they could have fixed several of the recalls at once, rather than having me report each one individually. So don't buy one in Austin. The engine, however, I am quite pleased with! :-)

if you think the g35 has some problems, wait until you step into a beemer. great car, many problems, poor reliability, expensive upkeep and repair.