2004 G35 Coupe 6-Speed Manual - Beautiful Machine

Author's Rating:

Pros: Superb handling, exhaust note, price, build quality, appearance

Cons: No seat memory, long clutch travel, performance tires are useless in winter

Handling And Control:

The Bottom Line: 
Looking at the usual German cars for a high performance luxury automobile for around $50,000 - do yourself a favor and add this to your test drive list.

Author's Review
Intro:

I'm a car buff of sorts and I had been lumbering around in an SUV for 6 years, way overdue for a change. I decided to look for a fast fun car. I needed 4 seats, rear seats to haul my kids around if needed. I looked at Audi S4, BMW M3 and Mercedes C32 and CLK320 as usual suspects in the mid luxury market - but anything priced out like I wanted it was near $50,000. So then I went to check out the G35 Coupe 6speed MT (6MT). OH MY. When I walked in the showroom my jaw dropped. The sheer fit/finish and visceral beauty of the coupe is breath taking. I optioned mine out with the 6MT, 4 piece aero package, just decided I didn't need to spend $2,000 on a GPS system. The 6speed manual also is packaged with Brembo brakes which are extremely strong and stop the car with tenacity. The downside is, the brakes wear out faster, I only have 6500 miles on it but I've heard the pads go around 20,000 miles or so.
The Price$$
The price was $39,000 with all taxes and and stuff in. About $11,000 less than the nearest comparable German automobile. I was sold. Ordered a twilight blue coupe in Oct 03, picked it up in Jan 04.

Interior details
The G35 coupe is a 2 plus 2 seater with nicely appointed soft supportive leather bucket seats upfront and smaller seats in the back. The aggressive rake of the rear window makes anyone with a frame larger than 5'10" bang their heads up against the ceiling if seated in the back. It's perfect for little kids. Speaking of kids - if you have children that still use infant or toddler car seats, this car is ready with the anchor system and part of Infiniti's "Snugfit" program which lists out which exact car seats have been tested with this car. That was a big help for me, because I have 2 little kids.
The dash is no-nonsense business like. Clear gauges, easy to read details are abound. The only complaint I have is with amount of "titanium" looking plastic in the car. This is clearly a personal taste but I would expect either real graphite/metal or wood trim in a car of this calibre. I took this matter into my own hands and had a custom wood kit installed to cover up a lot of the faux metal looking plastic that covers the center console.
The shifter is wonderfully short, throws are a little notchy, but force you to be alert and in sync with the car. The clutch is VERY unforgiving in my opinion with alot of pedal travel which I found odd for such a luxurious "sports" car. But after about 2 weeks, you get used to the clutch. Because such mental attention is needed between clutch and gear, I have yet to grind a gear, which I have done in the past on other manual transmission vehicles that had easier clutches. This car won't let you get sloppy.
Exterior
The fit and finish on the outside is perfect. I optioned for the 4 piece aero kit which includes the front lip spoiler, underbody air diffusers, rear wing and side trim. The aero kit does make the car look very aggressive over a plain vanilla G35 coupe. The 18" rims and Michelin Sport tires are great in all but winter weather. Their traction in anything more than rain is about as good as strapping on 4 snowboards and trying to navigate. I had to buy a set of separate rims with snow tires to make it usable in the winter of Upstate NY. The rims for winter are 17" ASA which are one of few 17" rims that clear the Brembo calipers (if you have a 6MT). Make sure you get your dealer to qualify your rims before you buy them. Bridgestone Blizzak LM22s were my tire of choice for the winter and they help up great. The tires are staggered, which means the fronts are different size than the rear tires. That makes tire rotation difficult, and even more so with these because they're unidirectional as well. So rotation if you bother to do it, is a complex process.

Brake dust on the front wheels is a constant problem due to the Brembo brakes, I spend alot of time keeping them clean.
Performance
The G loves to move fast! With the six speed, I like to get the revs above 4,000 rpm and then the 3.5L V6 really starts to cook. This is a big V6 engine with a wonderfully flat torque curve in nearly all 6 gears. You can have 3 types of passing, the lazy pass - just floor it in any gear. The aggressive, downshift 1 gear and floor it. The Indy-Car pass, downshift 2 times (if possible) and hold on! The acceleration in this car is awesome from both a stand still or rolling along at 60 mph. From a stand still this car goes 0-60 in the low 5 second range depending on your launch. The traction/stability control system, called VSC, is (thankfully) loose enough to let some tire chirp between launch, 1st to 2nd and 2nd and 3rd. You can also turn it off completely which I would not recommend to do anywhere but a private road or racetrack, not just for your safety, but the safety of others.

Summary
In summary, despite some nuances with brake dust, no seat memory, and a long unforgiving clutch pedal, it's still a dream to drive. I use it as my daily driver to work and I enjoy every mile. The 2005 models are out now and have fixed some of these issues and added even more power (15hp more) which should make it more fun to drive.