I had to drive from Atlanta to Athens today (that's Georgia, not Greece!) and what a great day for a road trip. Sunny skies and temperatures near 70 made this the perfect day for a 300-mile loop in my G37S. I needed to go to Athens to scout some bicycle routes for a ride that I am organizing in 2009. Anyway, the car was great and even though it sat and idled while I figured out some of the routes, it still got 23.5 MPG (averaging 40 MPH) for the day. On the initial all-highway trip, it even got as high as 26.5, so that 7-speed transmission must be helping the gas mileage a little. As I only have 700 miles on the car, I'm hoping the mileage will get even better as the car gets older.

I left at 7AM and got home around 5PM. Some observations on the trip:
--It's hard to keep the car under 75. It lives for speed. There were speed traps at various places during the day, but I fortunately saw them in time as I don't have a radar detector.
--XM radio is the best invention since cable TV. I listened to the Underground Garage station for the entire trip and never once changed the channel or lost the signal.
--The new sport suspension is pretty stiff, but the sports seats were very comfy all day. The quicker steering ratio on the Sport is very responsive.
--The car is very quiet. No wind noise and you only hear the engine when you give it some gas. The Potenza tires are quiet on asphalt, but they do transmit more road noise on concrete surfaces.
--The sunroof is very loud at highway speeds. I'll either get a roof deflector or just use it in town.
--I'm still getting used to the key fob as I always want to pull it out as I approach the car. Bad habits are hard to break. But it's great to be able to just stick it in your pocket and leave it there.
--The navi system worked pretty good. After you test out Acura's navi, the Infiniti navi is a disappointment, but my last car didn't have navi at all, so this is better than what I had. The navi is the only disappointing thing about the car. I think I would like the '07 model software version better, but at least I have iPod interface, which I don't use as much because of the XM radio.

I have attached some beauty shots that I took of the car in action. I got lucky on the train shot! Enjoy!

 

pics 1&4 remind me of some trips to Winder... Sweet ride man.

 

Funny you mention that, I have had 5 TL's since 04 latest is 08 Type-S and have 3 times almost jumped to G35 and the Navi was the deal breaker every time! I will likekly jump to a G37 Sedan in March if the numbers work, may make one last atrempt at an early G37 at Nalley tomorrow ( 12/31 ) to see how eager they may be, but the Atlanta dealers have not been very phased by month end or year end, I think they have accepted their sales suck and will not take much loss on cars and woudl rather sit on some inventory than make and great deals.

 

I have an 05 TL with navi and I love the Acura navi. Its so simple to use in my oppinion. I test drove the G37 and played with the Infiniti Navi a little bit and it didn't seem that bad. What are the draw backs with the Infiniti navi system comming from the Acura?

 

The Acura screen is bigger and clearer. Acura voice commands is leaps ahead of Infiniti. Acura you can keep interrupting the prompts and tell it the next entry, Infiniti you either go to Expert mode and better know the exact prompts or you have to wait for the prompt to finish reading before saying next entry. Acura has more choices on the main menus, Infiniti you have to go select the top 5 choices or soemthing like that. When driving even with vocie prompts Infiniti will only give you a list of 5 entries, not ability to say NEXT, Acura will list entries then allow you to manually or say NEXT to see next items in list. Acura system is FULLY functional whle drives, Infiniti is severely limited while car is in motion. Infiniti does have 3D view and a few other cosmetic thinsg that are nice, but if I were rating the systems I woudl give Acura a 8-9 out of 10 and Infiniti like a 6, and if you look at the 09 Acura TL Navi with the hi RES screen and HD based system with even better voice command the Acura woudl get like a 9.5 out of 10! Only thing it lacks is 3D view and a more modern look to the mapping such as buildings like the Genesis and such.

 

^ +1 -- IMO, G35/G37 Navi looks "cool", but lacks some of the functionality that the '08 TL Navi has. The '09 TL Navi, on the other hand, is clearly leaps ahead in the game.

 

I don't remember where I read about this, but it had something to do with the regulations that Infiniti/Nissan follows (or comes under)...and apparently, Honda/Acura does not.

 

that could have something to do with the fact that Acuras are made in the USA and the infiniti is a true import. I'm sure there are diffent import regulations...

 

Not really..because the TSX navi functions almost identical as the TL one, and TSX is built in Japan.

 

Nice pics