I was so close to buying a TL before my G. They actually have torque steer in that price range? Wow, thats bad.

Edit: spelling

 

though I am a real nissan/infiniti nut, i do love honda/acura too. They make a great car as well. The acura TL i have always loved as it has great styling and a really nice interior as well. The G on the other to me is such a sick car to me. I honestly cant get over what they did with these 07's. I rave about this car like its my child who just made the honor role lol. It's funny because i seen someone mentioning something about the leather. I just sold my friend an pre owned 04 acura TL about 3 months back. Dont get me wrong his car is hot. But he was telling me like 3 weeks after that he found out his car has coach leather in it ( wow ) lol. When i first picked up my 07 S he got in the car, had nothing but good things to say about it, but when of the first things he asked me is...what kind of leather does this car have, mine has coach. LMFA0!

 

For me, the Acura TL was one of the top contenders against my G35. I was about to buy the Acura TL. In fact, I had already negotiated a price with the Acura salesman and made an appointment to see him. An hour before the appointment, I decided I should go to the Infiniti dealer across the street to try the G35. I immediately fell in love with the car. It's funny. I was getting into the G35 for the 2nd time to make sure I liked it, and the Acura salesman was outside the Acura building across the street. I felt somewhat guilty at that point. When I wasn't in viewing range of the Acura dealership, I left a voice mail with my Acura salesman saying I won't be making my appointment. Anyway, there's a number of reasons I liked the G35 over the TL. IMO, the G35 had better bang for the buck. But the most important aspect for me was that I got the AWD G35x. AWD wasn't even an option for the Acura. I really did like the Acura, since I have a fondness for Honda - I owned a 1992 Honda Accord many years ago, and it was very reliable - I never had any problems with it. But, this time around, the G35 won.

To answer your questions:

1. I didn't notice anything significantly different between the two, but then again, I didn't sit around long enough to over-analyze the differences in leather.

2. Yes, I think the G35 is a little tighter. I came from a Volvo, which had a lot more room. It felt tight the first couple of days, but after that, it no longer does, and now I think the car is very comfortable, and I really like the seats. It takes some time to fine tune the car seat's adjustments. There's plenty of degrees of freedom with regards to adjusting the car seats, and it takes time to optimize their adjustments. But now that they are optimized, I think the seats are great (and so does my wife when she sits in the passenger seat).

3. I didn't notice any "less refinement" of any sort.

4. I don't agree that Acura is necessarilly more prestigious. The Infiniti is I believe less common, which helps it seem more "exotic" (not sure if that is the correct term, but there is something nice about having a car that isn't very common - for example, a BMW 300 series is so common now that it doesn't seem that special as compared to a rarer car like the G35).

Also, when I was thinking of the TL, a couple of people asked "isn't that just the same as a Honda Accord?". That's not true, but it is a perception that some people have. Not that there's anything wrong with an Accord, but for the higher price, folks would want more than just an Accord (not that the TL is an Accord, but that's what some people mistakenly think). Acura owners find it very insulting if you ask them if their car is just a souped up Accord.

EDIT: one more thing. I can't comment on the actual service between Acuran and Infiniti. I never owned an Acura, and I still have yet to bring my car to Infiniti for service (although I've scheduled my first service, and since I live about an hour away, they are letting me borrow a loaner car the night before the service and I can return it the day of the service or even the day after if I want). It seems that Infiniti service departments tend to be closed on Saturdays, while Acura servce departments tend to be opened on Saturdays. Maybe with loaner cars, it's not as important, though being able to go in for service on Saturdays would have been nice.

 

Wow, they must've given you some really good deal you can't pass up!! Btw, CONGRATS! I hope you love your G every minute, every mile, and every corner!