I love the new G sedan (not too crazy about the new G coupe). In this day and age of 6 speed and 7 speed autos, I'm truly befuddled as to why Infiniti couldn't add another gear to the auto tranny as well. Maybe they're working on one right now (a derivative of the GTR transmission would be real nice), but why wait till AFTER the car has been released? Why not do both at the same time?

I know that I shouldn't gripe over such a minute detail, but I truly feel Infiniti has a lot of room for improvement in this area.

 

It's not all that terrrible.. The AT used is tried and true and can hold up well to the power. It's not a new un-proven unit that can't handle the torque.
They could have changed the gear ratios and given the car higher gears.. but with the high redline and power band, the tranny works well with engine. BMW does the same thing, they cruise at high rpm's to keep it near the power band at all times. This is a DOHC engine which is designed for high revs. It's part of the experience...

 

R&D, Innovation and change cost money. they can't improve EVERYTHING on the car in one year because you have to have a budget. even if you have a fully working tested 7-speed tranny that happens NOT to cost even a penny more to manufacture. the fact that you just are swapping a 5-speed for 7-speed cost MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars in testing, new service tech training, refiting floor plates, updating manuals and documentation, new build line proceedures, new performance testing and redesigning the electronics in the system, custom designed tranny mounts, legal paperwork, administrative costs.... I could list out probably another 200 or more changes that would have to take place all of which cost LOTS of money. And change cost is exponential, making five $100.00 changes doesn't cost $500.00 it costs thousands because each change impacts all the previous ones.

it's not a chop shop, you don't just throw a 351 in Jaguar XJ6 and say- ALL DONE!

It's amazing how much change they were able to fit into the new model. each year there is a budget in order to keep price point where they wanted it. They did as much as they could with the budget they had. new year, yeah they may have a few more million, but do you want to blow the whole budget on a 7-speed tranny, or make a dozen more refinements and up the HP another 20 ponies and accomplish much more that's appealing to the masses. I'm sure a 6th or 7th gear is on the list of to-do's, and after the 07 was released it's probably toward the top of the priority list, but give it a year or two. it can't all happen at once.

Personally I'd rather see some more refinement in variable seat heaters, relocating the review mirror to the ceiling and off the window, better designed SOW and more integration i.e. TPS into the system and the center gauge cluster is sync'd with the whole system, Dual-pane glass, intelligent seating that when you shut off the car it doesn't crush the legs of the person behind you or destroy a box, climate control seating, 2 new paint choices, an all weather trunk mat, the sonar lane guidance system, and I could keep going with these smaller improvements.

I didn't expect any of the above in the 2007, but I might choose some of that over a 7-speed AT. and it always comes down to having to choose, they can't do it all unless your willing to pay 48K for a G.

 

He we are complaining about only 5 gears in the automatic.. My first car was a 61 Nova. It had a cast iron 2 speed powerglide auto. Then I had a 60 Chevy Biscayne with a 3 speed manual on the column. Good stuff..
Mercedes has a 7 speed auto in their flagship.. It also has major problems with it..
Sometimes less is still more.

 

THREE ON THE TREE!

 

Thats right! Four on the floor was for the rich kids...