NYC Driving
Ride quality-pretty good, Im on stock sport 18" wheels. Not too harsh unless the pothole is pretty bad. Considering the size its very comfortable.
Stop N Go- really kills my gas mileage but I dont really care anymore... Nothing worse than stopping at every f'n intersection for a red light... I hate when the transmission is unsure of what gear when barely moving in slow traffic and then it suddenly jerks fwd with the slightest bit of throttle input.
Parking-other ppl parking is my problem. These f'n aholes in NY will always bump up you're car. It's like they wait for impact as there cue to stop. Parking lot forget about it... they swing open there doors and dent you're car up. Most of the time they are driving a beater. I try to keep my car in the driveway as much as possible.
Cabs/Dollar di**s (vans)-I hate them all. they drive with no regard for any1 on the road 24/7.
Amazingly my G is pretty good condition considering all of these obstacles. small dent on the rear quater panel, probably occured in a tight parking lot and a scratch on my rear bumper, parked on the street, came out to find a f'n isuzu rodeo behind my car, undoubtedly the culprit.

^^ thats rough dude... couldnt imagine subjecting my G to that trauma.. Good luck man!!

17" journey wheels (and no drop) are good thing, I'm glad I didn't get the sport package. No problems in intown Atlanta. After 18 months and 14K miles just the usual chips in the front bumper (mostly from roadtrips), no wheel damage (rarely have to parallel park in Atlanta), and no door dings (a narrow car is a good thing -- silver paint helps too). I haven't had my alignment checked yet but I'm not going to bother since I don't care if the Goodyear RS-As wear out faster -- still tracks straight.

Even without a drop the journey front bumper may scrape on curbs and parking blocks, have to be careful since I was used to parking over the curb/bumper in my old '92 Q45 (which is 200" long). Have to be careful opening doors too since some curbs will scrape the bottom of the doors.

Can't wait to get a set of summer tires!

ah man, i am moving to NYC, and debating if i should leave my G home, or take it with me!

I working in Federal Hill, Baltimore MD. Some places are find, some are not around the area. Then comes the HUGE potholes, which is one of the reasons I am on stock height and my 17"s.

I have the sport package and I live in Atlanta and I'm unsure why you're glad you didn't get it. If you mean the 6spd...yeah, it does get annoying in traffic sometimes, but if you're running an auto, I don't see the issue.

And is the G35 really considered narrow?

and not to pick too much, but where in-town do you live where parallel parking is so minimal?

I live between Emory & Va Highlands area..... parking garage at my apt, and at work, very rarely park in downtown/midtown where's there's not a lot or a garage.

I'm mainly glad I didn't get the sport package because I don't like the seats. I like the idea of staggered wheel/tires sizes but not the additional tire replacement cost. I may get a set of sport rims once it's paid for.

It feels a lot more narrow than my old car ('92 Q45).

Ha, I just moved out of midtown and now live in Grant Park.

Ironic parking experiences I guess, because I often find myself parallel parking and if not for the backup camera, I think I would've killed my car by now. The blind spots when just turning my head are enormous...at least I think so.

And I know what you mean about the seats. The hip bolsters or whatever were my biggest turnoff and the reason I didn't look at the Infiniti....at all. Of course, I then found one at what I thought to be an incredible deal and also realized that you could "lower" them quite a bit...hence, I now have a G.

And are the tires really that much more expensive due to staggering?

You can't rotate the sport rims front to rear to even out the tire wear (you can rotate side to side but that requires dismount/remount and tire shops/dealer will charge more for that -- unless you're lucky). Also sport tires are a softer summer tread and will wear out faster than all-season tires.

Replacement cost will vary based on the tires you get, but larger sizes = more $$$ in most cases.

Based on tirerack prices for Bridgestone Potenza RE050A you're looking at $870 for a matching set. I will probably get Yokohama S-drive summer tires for the journey wheels for about $500 per set.

Basically you'll spend at least twice as much on tires over the life of the car..... maybe more.

Yeah, my new tires were close to 900 dollars.

Kind of pricey I guess, but it is what it is.

I live in NYC as well and have found the backup camera to be my saving grace. In my previous car (altima) I would back up just enough to tap the car behind me while parallel parking in tight spaces, usually harmless. However, once in a while I would hit a screw on their license plate and ding my bumper. Now with the backup camera I have remained virtually ding free during my 9 months of ownership.

[QUOTE=ced357;4758309] I would back up just enough to tap the car behind me while parallel parking in tight spaces, usually harmless. [QUOTE]

Yep, you're the reason why New York drivers get a bad name. I'm pretty sure they didn't teach the "bump to know" method in driver's ed.

I know, I know, its terrible. I just never cared about my cars that much, until now that is. I don't utilize that method anymore.

"I just never cared about my cars that much, until now that is"

It wasn't the Altima I was talking about...

Ah, the good old days
No backup camera required


(but seriously, I would rather drive blind)