Hi all.

I'm originally from the UK, moved to New York and got married, after all of the immigration stuff (yeah, I stole an American woman and an American job, sorry about that...) I was able to take my NY Driver License road test and for the last 5 months, I've been driving a 2001 Ford Focus and driving an Automatic has been driving me crazy.

The best car I had in the UK was a Peugeot 205 GTi and the last was a Hyundai Coupe (Tiburon over here). I really did want an S13 when I was looking for that last car, just nothing came up that wasn't battle scarred in my price range.

While I was waiting to get my chance to get a US license, I was renting cars. I tried the Mustang, Camaro and Challenger and the big engine/RWD appealed to me, would've preferred to drive Manual versions, but that's all they rent.

A friend has an 01 Camaro Z28, and he let me take it for a spin and I immediately started looking for Camaros (passed my test but hadn't gotten the Focus back on the road), I found one which was low mileage but an 01, Chase wouldn't finance it.

I didn't really think too much of the G35, or Infiniti as a whole, I saw people posting pictures of their cars and saw a G20 (a Primera where I'm from, ok mate...). Then I saw a G35 Coupe posted and started researching, it matches my criteria completely:

• Rear Wheel Drive
• Big engine (for me, I'm used to a 2 litre being normal!)
• Manual 6 speed transmission
• Nice looking, modern interior
• Rear seats and a decent trunk

Anyway, I saw a car that I had my heart set on, 2005 G35 Coupe, $15,000 with 83,000miles, Manual, Navigation, Red exterior with Black interior, mostly stock but debadged. I put in an application for credit and was going to go there today to look at it, but it had sold.

In a way I didn't mind. I spent last night reading this site and seeing how bad the nav seems to be and how much work it is to install a double din head unit or even just to get A2DP Bluetooth in there.

I just saw an ad for a 2004, $7,000, Manual, Red with Black, completely stock but with 103,000 miles. It's half the price! I wouldn't mind putting in a load of work to install a decent head unit and sound system if I'm spending less on the car itself, but 103,000 miles? Should I look at it and see whether it's worth getting? At 103,000, should I just wait a while longer?

 

7K for 103K miles. Check the Carfax and make sure there are no accidents and/or flood damage. That seems a lil low for that yr, transmission and mileage. If that is legit I wld jump on it.

 

Really? That's great! It just seems a lot to me, but I guess just because 100k is a big number...

Anything I should look at with the clutch feel/gear shift if I go test it?

 

This manual transmission is notorious for being a stiff, hard, b!tch. It takes some getting used to compared to most other MTs. We have a lot of info on the forum about this topic so I would recommend going through all the sub topics and reaeing the STICKYs to learn as much as possible about what to expect.

 

Nice, well that'll help if I start thinking "the gears are tough, maybe something's wrong with this thing!".

I'm looking forward to the prospect of actually having control over a car again! Then when the wife needs to have a car we might get a sedan or FX35...

 

why not get a G35 sedan to begin with? If you're looking to mod, sedans look very nice.

 

Because I want to have the Coupe for me

 

Trying to convince my fiance to get a G37 sedan instead of an A4 as her next car.

 

Audis are pretty nice. My dad had an older convertible, then an S-class Merc but felt too old in it and now has a newer Audi A4 convertible...

I always liked the original Quattro and the Avants, for some strange reason.

The idea will be that I get my wife the Sedan when the time's right to have kids or when she finishes her masters degree. Hopefully we'll be able to get an automatic G35X for a decent price, making sure it's newer than the Coupe, and we'll have a nice car for her to drive all the time and we can drive up to Vermont in.

If I get this coupe though, would it be better to get some winter tyres and wheels for it (we're in Long Island/Queens).