Well I’ve had the car for about a month, so I have decided to write a small update. The way I came to owning the car was pretty simple. I needed to replace my outgoing daily driver, which was 2005 Acura TSX with around 200k miles, and a lot of issues. I was looking to spend 15k tops, so I posted here, and quite a few of you have suggested G37. After doing a bit of searching, and driving TL Type S for a week (borrowed from a friend), I decided that I wanted to find a G37S Sedan. The regular trim car just wasn’t doing it for me, the wheels and bumpers looked too plain, and Sport model comes with a lot of bells and whistles, so for once I was going to treat myself. I ended up spending a bit more than original budget, financing $18.5k after the trade in, taxes and license costs, but it was very much worth it, because I got exactly what I wanted. What did I get then?
The good: The way the car feels when it drives. When I jumped in it, I felt at home immediately, which is usually a very good sign. The car is smooth, fast, has excellent transmission, and suspension tuning is really nice as well. The car feels pretty neutral in the corners, it’s a real joy to drive. The brakes are excellent, probably as good as my race car, which is pretty funny to me. The sound system is pretty good as well, came with Bose speakers. The seats are superb, comfortable and supportive. The car overall is really clean, no issues at all. When I got the car, it still had a bit of extended warranty on it, so I took it to the Infiniti dealer, and they fixed a leak in the rear of valve cover, replaced power steering pump and changed the moon roof assembly since it was binding up a little bit, absolutely no cost out of my pocket. It’s such a relief to drive a car without any issues, where you’re not nursing any mechanical issues.
The bad: Some of the interior quality is questionable for the price of the car when it was new. There is one piece of chrome trim in the whole interior, and it’s pealing. This is ridiculous for a car with 50k miles and no other interior wear otherwise. I knew coming into this that Nissan / Infiniti cars aren’t exactly known for quality interior, but I didn’t expect this. Due to hard Sport suspension, the interior also has a bit of a rattle somewhere, but it’s not bad really. The automatic lights a bit sensitive, which will turn them on for as much as a rain cloud in the sky in the middle of broad daylight. Final bad is the gas economy. If I’m being very easy on the throttle, I can get 18.5 MPG combined. This is about 4 MPG worse than my old TSX, but considering the fact that I get extra 130 hp in return, it’s a pretty welcome trade. I still managed to get 30 MPG on highway, cruising at about 75 mph.
The ugly: I really wish the car was styled more aggressively, or perhaps with harder lines. For the most part the lines are very soft and feminine, but at least that can be remedied with some factory aero pieces like the front lip and a carbon fiber chin spoiler I found on ebay. The wheels however… there is no getting around the fact that they are not a good looking set of wheels. The rears look ok due to being a wide wheel with good offset, but the fronts are killing the whole look. I may be looking into either powdercoating them black, or replacing them all together to hide the ugly. On top of that the dealership that sold the car, placed some terrible tires on it, totally killing the point of sport package. The car still handles great, however I can only imagine what it will be like, once I install some Max Performance Summer tires on it, like it was meant to have from the factory.
The conclusion: Overall I’m very satisfied with the purchase. The car is rumored by many to be extremely reliable, it feels great to drive, and it’s generally a nice place to be behind the wheel. I kinda wish it was a bit more aggressive looking, but that’s something that could be fixed with a little bit of money. I am not planning to do much to it at all other than cosmetic stuff here and there, and perhaps a set of sport mufflers and Eibach swaybars.
The good: The way the car feels when it drives. When I jumped in it, I felt at home immediately, which is usually a very good sign. The car is smooth, fast, has excellent transmission, and suspension tuning is really nice as well. The car feels pretty neutral in the corners, it’s a real joy to drive. The brakes are excellent, probably as good as my race car, which is pretty funny to me. The sound system is pretty good as well, came with Bose speakers. The seats are superb, comfortable and supportive. The car overall is really clean, no issues at all. When I got the car, it still had a bit of extended warranty on it, so I took it to the Infiniti dealer, and they fixed a leak in the rear of valve cover, replaced power steering pump and changed the moon roof assembly since it was binding up a little bit, absolutely no cost out of my pocket. It’s such a relief to drive a car without any issues, where you’re not nursing any mechanical issues.
The bad: Some of the interior quality is questionable for the price of the car when it was new. There is one piece of chrome trim in the whole interior, and it’s pealing. This is ridiculous for a car with 50k miles and no other interior wear otherwise. I knew coming into this that Nissan / Infiniti cars aren’t exactly known for quality interior, but I didn’t expect this. Due to hard Sport suspension, the interior also has a bit of a rattle somewhere, but it’s not bad really. The automatic lights a bit sensitive, which will turn them on for as much as a rain cloud in the sky in the middle of broad daylight. Final bad is the gas economy. If I’m being very easy on the throttle, I can get 18.5 MPG combined. This is about 4 MPG worse than my old TSX, but considering the fact that I get extra 130 hp in return, it’s a pretty welcome trade. I still managed to get 30 MPG on highway, cruising at about 75 mph.
The ugly: I really wish the car was styled more aggressively, or perhaps with harder lines. For the most part the lines are very soft and feminine, but at least that can be remedied with some factory aero pieces like the front lip and a carbon fiber chin spoiler I found on ebay. The wheels however… there is no getting around the fact that they are not a good looking set of wheels. The rears look ok due to being a wide wheel with good offset, but the fronts are killing the whole look. I may be looking into either powdercoating them black, or replacing them all together to hide the ugly. On top of that the dealership that sold the car, placed some terrible tires on it, totally killing the point of sport package. The car still handles great, however I can only imagine what it will be like, once I install some Max Performance Summer tires on it, like it was meant to have from the factory.
The conclusion: Overall I’m very satisfied with the purchase. The car is rumored by many to be extremely reliable, it feels great to drive, and it’s generally a nice place to be behind the wheel. I kinda wish it was a bit more aggressive looking, but that’s something that could be fixed with a little bit of money. I am not planning to do much to it at all other than cosmetic stuff here and there, and perhaps a set of sport mufflers and Eibach swaybars.
