Next car
 

It looks like the Porsche is gonna sell this week. So looking for a little help on next car choice. Wife drives a Lexus GX470. I'm 40 with three boys who are all active in ice hockey and lacrosse. I'm considering leasing any of the following Infiniti G35 coupe and sedan, Acura TL-S, BMW 335 sedan, and for some reason the Toyota FJ cruiser appeals to me. All thoughts or opinions welcome.

The new Acura RL is nice. Have you thought about that?

JB
I just got rid of my wife's G35x and although it was a nice car, my wife found the steering to be a bit "heavy". The RL has some nice gadgets it just depends what you want and how much you want to spend. The new 335i coupe is a blast to drive with the manual transmission. The TL is nice but at the end of the day I'd keep thinking I paid a pretty hefty premium to drive a up-scale Accord. With hockey gear to haul around I'm not sure you are going to get away with a coupe.

When I look at the list of cars you want I get the sense you don't have a clue what you want. I say this from experience so I wish you well. If the deal falls through on you car PM me since I am still looking for my next p-car.

What do you want to spend and are you going to buy or lease?

My taste in cars is like my taste in music all over the place. :jumper: Looking to lease retail of car would max around 50k. I have to look at the trunk in the G35 coupe. I actually used to get my hockey bag in the trunk of the p-car.

JB

if you're leasing the selling price could prove to be immaterial unless you will buy the car at the end of the lease. I just leased my son a $32,000 blazer for $210 per month. A G35 with the same sticker might run you twice that.

If you're not locked into a particular car you can get a sense of the incentives that are floating around on edmunds.com. Certain manufacturers will use extremley low interest rates or high residuals to drive down the lease payment.

It's sometimes easier to start with a lease payment you are comfortable with and work from there.

Another site that sometimes can prove interesting if you're set on leasing is swapalease.com. You can find people that are tryiing to get out of thier cars and can often get short-term leases with incentives. You have to be careful however since many of the people that post there have lease payments that are not competitive with today's market.

Of those choices, I'd defitely go with the new BMW. The G35 is uninspiring, the Acura is amazingly dependable but not that sporting....

The BMW all wheel drive 3 series are very nice, in my opinion.

Do the TL's still have tranny problems?

Not since the '04 redesign (current gen).

I drove a BMW 335 coupe at a BMW driving event comparing with a G35 coupe. Previously drove the 3 Series sedan comparison against the G35 sedan. The BMW's were way more sporty. The G35's were powerful and nice cars. They are aimed more for ride comfort than handling. Depends what you want.

I know a couple of guys who have Acura TL's and think that they are great. I doubt that they were referring to handling, of course, but they love their cars.

BMW 335i has 300Bhp twin turbo engine and is as fast as an M3, which rivals the P. Nuff said!

I'm always on the lookout for such events. When and where was it?

BMW Driving Event
 

It was in September in Houston. They travel around the country. The programs are called the BMW Ultimate Driving Experience. I get invitations in the mail. I think I got on their list because of zip code and magazine subscriptions, but I really don't know. They have a website, but they seem to be finished for the year:

http://www.bmwusa.com/bmwexperience/...dPrograms/UDE/

They put on a fine program. The programs have convinced me that BMW really does built a fine car. Maybe I can convince my wife to buy one when she is finally convinced she no longer needs an SUV for kid hauling.

I'm leaning towards the 335 sedan with a stick, sedan seats 5 coupe only 4.