Hey all. I'm new here. My wife and I are looking to replace her 2005.5 Audi A4. She's more interested in safety and comfort than performance, but I'm as interested in performance as anything. The G35 looks perfect for both of us. A good daily driver for her, and a hella fun car for me to drive on weekends. (I drive an Audi A3 3.2Q, and love it, but the G35 really surprised us when we test drove one last weekend.)

The only questions now are, will we get AWD, and will we get the rear spoiler. AWD around here (northern California, Bay Area) is not for snow, but for handling on wet and mountainous roads. Since the A3 and A4 are otherwise FWD cars without AWD, the AWD option on those cars helps reduce understeer. Obviously that's not an issue with the G35, since it's RWD normally, but I wonder if AWD will be worth getting for handling in rain and when pushing it through the mountains here. Downside is that AWD adds about 200 lbs. of weight. We'll be test driving an AWD next weekend I think.

Besides all that, anything else I should think about when ordering a new G35 sedan? Anything big that some of you wished you'd gotten, or that you are glad to have gotten on your cars? Any major problem areas over the long-haul?

 

My '07 Sport is well equipped, just no Tech, go for it, I love this car, best G I've owned, and now the rearview camera is included in the Nav for '08. I give the car a big thumbs up! I don't know how it compares to an Audi sonce I've never driven one.

 

If you are coming from an Audi you will be pleasantly surprised by the overall reliability of a G35.
If you are concerned about the handling in wet roads the first thing you have to look at is tires. For Sport models that are RWD they have summer tires standard. They are great on dry surfaces and Okay on rain but once it gets down to 40/45 degrees the tires get hard and don’t grip very well. And if you add rain into the low temperature the sport summer tires are horrible. So if you go with the RWD sport model you would have to get the tires swapped out. If you have all season tires you should get great traction in wet conditions. If you do floor it in the middle of the corner when it is wet the car will oversteer no matter what tires you have (any RWD with 300+ HP will), but that is much better than a FWD car that understeers and will basically plow straight ahead until you slow down and the tires regain grip. My guess is that your wife won’t floor it in the middle of the corner and encounter this.
With a G35x or G35xS (AWD with the larger 18” wheels and a couple other things) it is going to make it much more difficult to oversteer. That might be great for your wife but as I mentioned above she probably will never run into that situation if she drives like my wife does. The problem is you loosed some of the fun that you get with the RWD when you are pushing the car hard and you start feeling that edge of where the car oversteers. I grew up driving on icy roads in a RWD car so I am very comfortable with oversteer and don’t want the extra weight of AWD.
If you think I am crazy about liking oversteer once in a while, then I would go after the G35xS (It just started showing up on lots in the last month). It gives you a good blend of both grip and performance and comes standard with all season tires.

 

the infiniti cannot match the audi on the finish of the interior, but audi has had that trophy for years now so we all know that. handling could be argued by both sides because the differences will be miniscule. however, the performance aspect is another story, the g35 will tear a new one in pretty much any audi except for the s and rs series. when you're behind the wheel, the car gives you so much feel, it's hard to lose control even if you want to. as for driving in the rain, i don't plan on changing my tires and even when i hydroplane i'm not worried in this car.

 

oh and from what i've seen for the safety aspect, there have been a lot of unfortunate accidents for our fellow g-members...but it seems like none of the members were severely injured. hope you don't get into an accident, but from what i've seen these cars can take any kind of beating you give it. especially, when you punch the throttle

 

Frontal Offset crash tests are good on G.

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/rating.aspx?id=751

 

I disagree, I dont think the Audi interiors on the A4s are all that nice.

 

The 2008 G35 that we tested has a much nicer interior than our Audi A4. Not until you get into an S4 (at least) do you get seats as nice as those in the G35, even without the sport option on the G. And the sport seats in the G are probably as nice as the RS4 seats, but we're talking about $25K difference in car price here too, so the G has it over the Audi in spades on this count. As far as interior electronics, the Audi can't hold a candle to the G nav system and iPod integration. Don't laugh, but we looked at a Cadillac CTS last weekend too, and it's electronics are comparable in many ways to the G35 and beat the pants off of the 2005.5 A4. I was very impressed with the interior of the G35, especially for the price of the car.

As for handling, power, performance, and tires, yes, thanks for all your comments. For the record, I too hate FWD cars, which is why I don't own one. Both of our Audis are AWD, and I even changed out the AWD controller on my A3 to give it more rear bias and reduce the understeer even further. I also grew up driving on snow and ice, but nowadays I really like a neutral bias to the car. I'm not sure I want the 200 lbs that comes with the AWD though, and it might be fun to have one RWD car in the garage. I have to give this a little more thought.

The G35 is impressive. I'm pretty sure we'll be placing an order for one next weekend.

 

Go for the G35S. With Goodyear F1 allseasons, the G has been rock solid in rain on twisty roads.

My wife and I love this car. The power, handling and solid feel offer much more than the Audi. Forget about the AWD advantage in the rain, especially if you have the all seasons and experience with RWD.

 

The best of luck with the purchase, let us know how you make out.

 

I just want to be the one to warn you, expect to be buying more gas the for then audi A3, and don't be too surprised when you find out, the milage is about the same when you wife drives it, and when you push it hard on the weekends. you will be looking at an average of 21 mpg don't surprised to average 19mpg, and 17 when having fun. You audi, is going to be close 30 miles per gallon.

Just like the laws of gravity, performance and fuel comsumption go hand in hand.


The fuel consumption doesn't bother me, I think the car does great on fuel, I have an f150, half cost of that truck, despite the premium.

But this car does have V8 performance, and on some days V8 appitate as well. 19mpg is not dificult for an V8.

 

She will probably prefer the Journey model more than a Sport model.... but yeah....



GO FOR IT!!!!!!!

 

Seriously... you should have already pulled the trigger! Bang for the buck, this new G cannot be beaten.

 

Another recommendation for the g35. I'd also recommend test driving a sport with 4-wheel active steer back-to-back with one without. You'll likely make the same decision I did.

With the 4-wheel active steer the car is much more nimble both a low and high speeds, but doesn't develop any twitchy behaviors. It really comes into its own in the twisties though. You'll love it in CA.

My girlfriend also thought it improved the overall ride of the car.

Seriously, try it!

 

Thanks for the tips. Yes, I realize there will be a difference in mileage between the G35 and the A4, however the G35 will get about the same mileage as my A3. (Our A4 has the 2.0T engine, while our A3 has the 3.2 R32 V6 engine).