CP

Hi,

My sister is replacing her 1986 Honda Accord coupe. Her finalists are the BMW 325 or the Infiniti G35. She's considering a 2-years old CPO in either case.

I know the BMW is more fun to drive (she's not a car person), but I had bad reliability experience with my M5 (mostly electronics and sensors, but very annoying nevertheless). So what do you folks think of the G35, is that a reliable car?

Thanks for the education.

CP

993MAN

CP
I'd help if if I new what a G35 was. Sounds like an addition to the CRC range!
Did you see any G35's on your visit down under?
Good luck, buy an M3 for her.
Cheers

MrRoboto

My sister drives a G35...the only problem she's had with the car is a overly sensitive tire pressure monitoring sensor. The brakes have some character though. They work 100% and work well, but they give a little moan/grunt each morning which can be somewhat odd. Infiniti says it's nothing to worry about but it could be nerve wreaking to some.

agdamis

I assume your sister has a heart beat, in which case buy a BMW.

vjd3

The G35 is a nice car and Infinitis are pretty much bulletproof. For the money, I think it's more car than a 3 series (the Infiniti comes loaded -- xenons, leather, heated seats, killer stereo, etc. -- and it's much more powerful than the 325). Nice exhaust note, too. In my experience, the service experience with Infiniti is top notch. BMW definitely ain't what it used to be.

Having owned an M3 recently, and a couple of Infinitis in the past, I know of what I speak. My M3 was full of rattles and the service department spent a lot of time explaining to me why I was driving a rental Pontiac while my $55k car was in the shop for the fourth time in 30 days (those Mercedes customers got all the nice cars because they got there awfully early!), that 30k miles was an awful lot of miles on a convertible and it was bound to rattle, getting absolutely drenched in the touchless car wash was normal, that it was not unusual for the seats to be unstitching themselves -- that's just wear and tear, why they were mystified why the top would sometimes decide to stop, leaving the clamshell lid sticking up and the top fully down) but replacing this and that would surely cure it (not -- the adviser started to remind me of Bullwinkle ... "This time, for sure!"), why the GPS would sometimes position the car about 100 yards off a given road, the trunk would refuse to latch itself, gas filler door would spring open on its own, the SMG would kick itself into neutral once in a while, etc. etc.

The M3 drove great, but the annoyances were ... well, annoying. The Infiniti J30 I had for about a year, which was 11 years old and had 110k miles, never missed a beat for the 15k I put on it.

Chuck A.

For your sister's needs the G35 is a much better fit. I had an M3 and it was in the shop 23 days in the first 6 months of ownership (same as you, mostly sensors and electronics problems). Add to that the attitude of the two different dealers I worked with, the regional service rep (didn't even want to talk to me) and BMW corporate, I'll stay away from BMW's from now on.

nikdog

Infiniti overall is very dependable, I had a FX35, put nearly 80K on it and just did regular service,they gave me a G35 as a loaner many times and really enjoyed it, resale is pretty good also.

CP

You folks just reminded me of one more issue I had with my BMW ownership- Service. The SAs were absolutely inept. Their solution was: change everything and the car should run fine. It only works if the car is under warranty. Once my car was out of warranty, they tagged me for $280 (min.) diagnostic fee eveytime I went in, and it was like twice a month (at 65k miles, eveything seemed to be breaking ). My wife was so annoyed with the M5, an $80k car, yet taking SOOOO much time and $$$$$$ to even make it run.

We own our cars for many many years, so if my sister buys a BMW, she'd surely face the out-of-warranty irritations, even if it is a CPO car.

With the new 'look', more 'technologies' in these newer BMWs, I'm never buying a BMW again.

Sorry for the rant.

CP

Cactus

i just sold an 04 G35 yesterday with only 15,200 trouble free miles. It is a good long term choice IMHO but i sold mine to get myself into a 993

Molly

I bought a G35 new a while back. What a great car. As a former BMW new-car buyer I compared the 3 with the G and could not find a reason to go with BMW. And the G was 100% bulletproof. They can take what you dish out, and stay crisp and fast as the miles pile on, great handling, excellent power, great stereo, great AC, overall great car. Another testament, I know several guys who can afford BMWs, MB, etc etc and yet they are on their second G35. I may end up with another one too. As for service, I would rank both Lexus and Infiniti service is first class, even slightly better than BMW and MB.

avidtest

If I were choosing between the two, I'd go w/ the G35 100%. Not to mention, the outgoing G35 coupe is a beautiful looking car (so much nicer looking than the 4-door).

I had an E39 supercharged 540i a while back and it was in the shop regularly and not for supercharger/motor related issues, but stupid things like $500 window motors, radiator connection breaking which forced the purchase of an entire radiator since what should have been a $5 part was connected to the radiator, water pump, gremilins in the electronics, and so-on, and my favorite, when the drivers side door handle actually broke off in my hand as if it were made of pot metal. It was beautiful, handled nicely (w/ aftermarket suspension) and drove like a bat-outa-hell (w/ the supercharger), but I'll never buy another bimmer.....well...I would consider an older M3 track car I suppose.

mooty

one of the reason i stayed with porsche is i have two great service dept working their a** off for me on any issues i have had.

i hate bmw as much as i hate audi's.
on a scale of 1-10. if G35 = 5, bmw would be 5.1.
for that little improvement, i rather drive G35, and never have to visit a mechanic.

Wilder

My SO recently sold her G35. She liked it so much, she often comments how she wishes she could have another one (sold it to buy a wagon). She particularly liked the power and reliability. I like German cars.

long_beach_968

I am a fan of Japanese car reliability, but Nissans always seem to disappoint. I rarely encounter a nissan with over 100K that still runs, and they get hoorible gas mileage for what a 6 cylinder should do among other things. My friend's girlfriend's Infiniti I30 has had two alternators replaced in 80K, among other random sensors that have gone bad. I'm sorry to say it, but Nissan gets to share in the spoils from the reputation honda and toyots have made, but Nissans suck from a dependablilty standpoint, and I would be suprised if the G 35 is any better

Edward

I suppose everyone's experience differes greatly. Between my father and one of my brothers, we have had a variety of Nissans since the 80s. No, they are often not quite as mechanically polished or tactilly refined as its Honda or Toyota counterpart, but that's easy to explain: they come in *thousands* of dollars less, new and especially used!

But *never* in these almost three decades (I have always been the family doc, er, wrench) have any of the numerous nissans that have passed through family hands here ever broken down, left anyone stranded, done anything that was unexpected, or otherwise behaved in any way other than a rock-solid vehicle. Regular maintenance, that's it!

Moreover, *every* one of them was sold for upgrade reasons as none was ever ditched due to disappointment (how's that for brand loyalty), and *every* one of them had a minimum 100K miles (and two IIRC with over 150K miles) with no indication that there was anything less than another 100K left in it.

Fast forward to today: brother owns a Pathfindar and dad owns a maxima. Both have over 50K miles and currently running as if new ...I would know .

So while I have no hands-on experience with Infinity, I have no reason to expect anything less than the aforementioned. As always, it pays to do your homework as any maker can make a lemon. But lets face it, for all the super-duper performance stats BMW and MB are touting, they are falling short in reliability in a very big way. Not just me, personally, seeing this, but ask (and read) around ...that service-car loaner is pretty common among these german marques of late.

All IMHO (and modest experience), mind you

Edward