pelucidor

I haven't defected yet, but I am making backup plans just in case I don't like the RX-8 as much as I expect to, or the monthly lease cost is more than I want to pay...

At Freshalloy there is a dealership that adds a tremendous amount of news and help to the G35 forum - Grubbs Infiniti in Dallas. They are selling G35 Sedans at VPP prices to anyone who heard of them at Freshalloy - this means $500 above invoice, no haggling needed. (Not on Coupe though.)

I made the mistake of asking how much Grubbs charges for shipping to Houston. They said free shipping to anywhere in Texas and the surrounding states and $600 or less to anywhere else in the USA. I made the bigger mistake of saying that obviously the VPP pricing only applies to the current 2003.5 model and not the new 2004 models due in September. Not so - Danny at Grubbs said VPP pricing for the new models too. BTW he is a breath of fresh air in the world of car dealerships - honest and to the point, didn't even try to sell me paint protection.

At this point I am very intrigued - I built the following car:

G35 Sedan with Leather and 6 speed manual transmission
Premium Package: sunroof, memory seats, homelink, auto-dimming mirrors, HIDs, auto up/down windows all round, 6-CD BOSE etc
Navigation Package: DVD for whole USA with birds-eye 3D view
Aero Package: underbody diffusers + wing to give 0.26Cd and zero lift front/back
Sport Package: upgraded suspension, wheels and tires (included free with the 6 speed manual transmission)
COLOR: Diamond Graphite (like titanium) which is new for 2004 and my favourite G35 color (available on '03 Coupe)
INTERIOR: Graphite (black) leather interior.

The current MSRP for this car is $35,395 and the invoice is $31,941 so my VPP price will be $32,441 which is less than my RX-8 at MSRP with vastly more equipment. Of course the '04 prices have not been released but shouldn't increase too much as there are minimal changes (heated seats as standard, new colors). Nothing has been said about improved interior plastics but I am still hoping for this area to be improved.

Best of all leasing on this spec of car is currently around $500 per month with nothing down and 15,000 miles per year on a 39 month lease. Including taxes! Which is less than I am paying for my IS300... I have a feeling that the lease price on the RX-8 will be higher than this for similar miles per year (worse residuals, worse money factor probably).

Anyway I put down a $500 refundable deposit to have my car built for end September delivery - my order has to go in by end of June to get the car in late September. I mentioned that I may have to back out of this deal for various reasons and again Danny said no problem, he can easily sell this car if I don't want it.

Finally on Friday in Houston (after putting down the deposit on a 6MT without ever having driven one) I test drove a G35 Sedan 5AT and a 6MT back-to-back to see how I liked the two vehicles - report to follow soon (one of them was so much better than the other - guess which one)...

Hercules

I drove the sedan and wasn't very impressed though, I did like the G35C a lot.

RXhusker

Went down yesterday to place an order for an '04 Volvo XC90 -- no not for me!:D -- for my wife! I have been waiting way too long for the RX to be wooed by something else. My wife is well aware of my RX-8 obsession but she is not a "car" person and really hadn't paid too much attention to the whole ordeal.

Interestingly the Infiniti dealer is right next to the Volvo dealer so I showed her the G35C and told her it was the probably the primary competitor for the RX-8. She laughed at me and said "if the RX-8 is that ugly then you had better cancel your order right now." She had never seen a G35 before and her first impression was "there is something wrong with the design of that car. It looks fat -- like a bloated whale". It was interesting for me to hear her impressions since she had no pre-conceived notions of the car. She thought that it looked like it should be about 2 feet shorter in the back. I then told her that it was really a stretched 350Z and she said that made sense -- it looks like they had a design idea and then messed it up. She was also unimpressed with the rear seats -- especially the way the roofline created minimal headroom and the rear deck glass actually goes over the rear passenger area. She said no way would our kids be allowed to ride back there (remember she is a Volvo driver). I had to reassure her that the RX-8 was a totally different design.

I thought her impressions were so funny I would post them :D

My thoughts are -- if you like the G35 -- great! If you like the RX-8 -- great! The RX-8 may be a compromise vehicle in some regards -- but the compromises are all things that are a perfect fit for me :D

ibfubar2000

so here we go again. another person comparing a car they have test drove to an rx8 that they have NOT test drove. how can someone judge a car and say they do not like it when they have not given the rx8 a test drive or probably never even seen it in person. i do not understand how someone can make a fair decision when the rx8 isnt even out yet. your just going on what you read (the magazine reveiws were all written based on pre-production cars, the reviews of people here are all fromother people who read articles, except for the people in japan who owns one and none of them are complaing about the car and saying they wish they never bought it). why not what a week when the rx8 comes out and give it a fair chance,and decide for YOURSELF before you go decide that you do not want it??

moogle

Oh you read my mind.

pelucidor

Odd. I don't see any comparison with an RX-8 (or even test drive experiences) in my post.

I KNOW the RX-8 is two weeks away. I AM waiting for that test drive, else I would have got something else a long time ago like many others. I am one of the biggest defenders of the RX-8 (e.g. see my comments in the Best Motoring S2000/G35C/WRX video thread) and have many times suggested to people to wait for a drive in a US production car before unfairly comparing it to other vehicles...

However in case something goes unexpectedly wrong with my RX-8 experience (you know - like a backup plan) I am placing a refundable deposit on another car that is fairly good too. And I have to do it NOW before my RX-8 test drive in order to have the backup vehicle in the right time frame. I am also pointing out that the G35 Sedan can be had quite cheaply very fully loaded in some places, and I hope the RX-8 is equally well priced.

Hope that clarifies the intent of my post. Read the first sentence again: "I haven't defected yet, but I am making backup plans just in case I don't like the RX-8 as much as I expect to, or the monthly lease cost is more than I want to pay..."

RXhusker

Let's not jump on pelucidor! I think he is smart for doing some contingency planning. Believe me if I hadn't gone to the Detroit auto show to see (and sit in) the RX-8 in person and if I hadn't been a former RX owner (that smooth power is addictive) -- I would be a little apprehensive right now myself. My contingency plan was a plane ticket to Detroit -- that was enough satisfaction to cancel my Volvo S60R order and begin the long and frustrating wait for the RX.

Puppy1

I fully plan on test driving the G35c, S2000 and TSX a day or two before I take delivery. I want to have those driving experiences fresh in my mind when I test drive my 8. That way I know for sure I am making th right choice for ME.

pelucidor

I really wanted the G35 Coupe to be my backup car, but my wife said it had to have 4 doors for baby Athena hence the (much less pretty) sedan.

Did you test the auto or the 6MT when you checked out the sedan? There is a BIG subjective difference IMO (review to follow when I have time). Interestingly enough I asked my wife if she would be OK with a manual transmission on this car and she said 'why bother - it's just a sedan and not a sports car like the RX-8'. She loves the styling of the RX-8 and will actually be joining me for the test drive (something she has never done before).

Hercules

I drove the auto and was thoroughly impressed though I admit, when I drove the 350Z the biggest complaint I had was the notchiness of the gearbox.. it was pretty bad. Also, the 350Z seemed much more unruly on the road than did the G35C.

Haze

I test drove the G35 sedan, and I was quite impressed with it for a sedan. I am, however, predisposed to like it as I have been driving a Nissan Maxima for ten years now, and I LOVE that car. It has been a avery reliable and wonderful sedan in a time in my life that cheap to run has been oh so very important. However, the time has come to have some fun . . . real fun, and the G35 really was just another sedan.

In testing it though the ONLY thing that I considered a real negative, other than it's fundemental docility, was its on-center steering twitchiness. If you are really considering one, I would try to talk them into a highway test drive. At highway speeds that could turn pretty irritating if the car really does not have a progressive steering box. You will end up constantly correcting the steering and the wheel will pick up every little change with the 2.7 turns lock to lock. Who knows, maybe it's fine, but it is something that got me to thinking.

-H

pelucidor

During my test drives I got the auto up to 80mph and the 6MT over 100mph on an empty (smooth) two lane road - loved the steering feel, not twitchy at all. Took my hands off the wheel at 80 and accelerated gently - no deviation from the straight ahead. Yes the 5AT sedan was fast but docile, but the 6MT with sport suspension... :D :D :D

deks

I also test drove the g35 sedan w/ 6mt (they wouldn't allow test drives of the coupe). It's probably my backup too, if for whatever reason the 8 doesn't work out. It was very nice, and very impressive.

My current problem with this backup plan is that I like the coupe a lot, but the sedan does nothing for me visually. It just lacks that visual excitement, which isn't everything - driving excitement is more important - but I'm looking for an aesthetic thing too for this car. My other car is a WRX wagon, so it's got the driving excitement already without the visual side. But the coupe needs just a bit more headroom in back, and getting back there isn't that easy, particularly to put a baby in a car seat. So emotionally I'd want the coupe, but practically the sedan is better, and I'd have a hard time reconciling the two.

Thus, hopefully the 8 works out

pelucidor

My feelings exactly.

bwayout

Here are some of my thoughts on the subject, maybe you can talk your wife into getting the coupe after all if the RX-8 is not the car for you (Oh, as a side note, my wife also likes the looks of the RX-8 over the G35 coupe too). I know I'd be miserable driving around in a car I wasn't crazy about ...

Sorry to those loyalist on the forum, but I might also be one of those who might consider the G35 coupe (not sedan - IMHO it looks to much like a Passat and we already have one [OK, sure it's much nicer than a Passat, but still I want something a little more sporty with more style...] ) if (and that's a big if ... ) I'm not happy about the RX-8's ride or storage space, or lack of spare tire and most importantly the funtional ability to carry around in the back seat, 2 young children in their car seats!



So far, my only experience was sitting in 2 RX-8's at the Dallas Mazda Rev-it-up event, earlier this year. I know that these were pre-production, so I am waiting to test drive one around plus I also plan to rent one (if at all possible) as soon as I can for a weekend road trip experience ... before I make up my mind

:D

But back to the G35 Coupe a friend at work get one last December and last week, his wife gave birth to their daughter, their first. So'm sure I'll hear first hand about his personal experiences in using his back seat to take around their baby and his wife's thoughts about the lack of having 4 doors ...

Now back to the RX-8. Personally, when I went to the "Mazda Rev It Up" event in Dallas and finally got to sit in the RX-8 ... I walked away with mixed feeling about the back seat for grow-ups. Sure, going in was easy with the back doors - much better on the passenger side due to the fact that the front seat folds forward while it slides away from the back seat for ease of entry (I wish that the driver side did too!) But I had a very difficult time getting out of both of the back seats (for me, my first thoughts in the RX-8 was that it was almost equivalent to getting out of the back seat from a 2-door Acura RSX or G35 coupe - which I've done on more than a few times), my feet inside the RX-8 kept on getting caught under the bottom of the front seats and undoing the plastic molding --- hope it will be better made on the actual production models ... and anyway, I'm only 5' 8" but when I adjusted the front seat for my legs and got into the back seat, there wasn't much room there for me to sit there or even for my 5 year old daughter's legs - but my daughter didn't care (that day) because she loved it in the back and can't wait for me to bring one home, because of all of the (hid-a-way cup holders, map/book and pass-through) storage compartments in the back for her to use for her sippy cup, toys and books!

My wife looked at me and said " I know you want this as your next car, but this is not the spacious 4-door family car that you've been telling me all about." She's right, I was expecting a little more room in the cabin area that the RX-Evolve was suppose to offer and from all of the glowing praise that Road&Track's Sam Mitani has written about the RX-8 in the past ... like: "The amount of space at the rear seats is particularly noteworthy. These are real seats for real people, not merely an extra compartment for your luggage." I was expecting better.

Well, I don't agree with Sam and found it very very snug, and yes it does have more headroom than the G35 coupe, but the G35 offers more legroom ... and that is very important to me, because I want to use the back seats - especially for my 2 children and their carseats (my guess is that having the extra 2-door would be helpful in getting those 2 carseats in and out from the back -but I don't want them to be so close to the front seats, always kicking the backs of the front seats (like kids usually do).

Road&Track's Douglas Kott's recent 2004 RX-8 review hits closer to home for me: "With either RX-8, the novelty here (besides the rotary engine) is that you can take three friends along on your sport-car experience... provided two of them are children, or small to adverage-size adults ... in reasonable comfort..."

Plus, I'm also unsure of the RX-8's trunk size (8 cubic feet) with no spare tire (only a emergency tire repair kit) --- My friend at work has the G35 coupe and it does have a spare tire and is about the same size as the RX-8's with out one ... but I'm one of those who, on the rare occasion, needs to carry around a lot of big (family) stuff (or my personal items like my big old 200 watt Fender Bandmaster Amp, portable keyboard or my smaller in size advertising/art portfolio case - 30" X 42" X 6").

I was really hoping that I'd be able to use the RX-8 to take the family on (little and long) fun road trips. I guess that all waits to be seen ... until I really get to test drive one.

If Mazda is really listening, I very early on bought into the 1999 Mazda RX-Evolve concept idea of a 4-door sports car for those people (with families) that don't want to drive a SUV or station wagons ... But after sitting inside the RX-8, and reading the special series Road&Track Mazda RX-8 supplement that I picked up from the "Mazda Rev It Up" event --- I now realize that the RX-Evolve had a more spacious and longer cabin built more around inside sedan-like proportions than the current RX-8 does ... sadly discovering that the concept between the RX-8 and the RX-Evolve are considered completely different at Mazda - making the RX-8 more of a tight sports car (that's not truly appropriate for family use IMHO when compared to the original idea of the RX-Evolve ... ) I can only hope that when the RX-7 comes back, the RX-8 will evolve into more of the original "functional family" RX-Evolve sports car ideal (I can wait a few more years)!

Back to comparing the plus and minus of the G35 coupe, my friend's only complaint about his G35 coupe, is that when it rains and he happens to have to drive through a fast-food place and since there is no rain gutters on his car by the windows, all the rain water pours inside from the roof top ... and gets his interior soaked.

An other thing I like about the G35 coupe is the instrument dash is also attached to the ajustable steering wheel column (same on the 350Z)... reminds me of my fondly missed old 1990 probe - it also had the same feature.

All in all, I can't wait to drive the RX-8!

For me to it is so much more about the feel behind the wheel!

I have never driven a rotary before, so right now it's an idea that is purely a novelty --- until I actually drive one and become a convert!

:D

Plus I truly like the looks of the RX-8 - I just wish it was designed as a fastback and a hatchback ...



Hey, if I don't like the RX-8 and there's nothing else around that I like ... and if I don't care about having more room - the Mini is also up there at the top of my list too!

:p

TJRX8

Drove all of these a few months ago:

G35C Auto
350Z Auto and 6MT
G35 Sedan Auto

G35C 6MT (last weekend)!

The G35C 6MT was my favorite by far. Lot's of reasons but mainly the feel, power, handling, shifting, driveability and looks. I didn't like the look of the gauges and some of the other interior parts. I also I didn't like that the seat felt like it was high and I had it all the way down. It felt more like a sedan than a "sporty" car.

The G35C MT is my back-up car at this point. Plenty around for MSRP or less, no need to order.

pelucidor

It's not that bad for me - I like most views of the sedan except the stacked headlights. The coupe has a better front and is much more agressive. I would rate them as follows for exterior styling:
Car - Marks Out of 10
G35S - 6
330i - 7
IS300-7
G35C - 8
RX8 - 9
Any Ferrari - 10

I can live with the average overall looks of the G35 sedan and enjoy it's functionality and fun-to-drive aspects (in 6MT). Of course the first choice RX-8 gives a little less functionality and hopefully a lot more style and fun.

TJRX8: Any G35 model you custom order from June 7 onwards is a 2004 model. I like the fact that I can get an '04 sedan for $3000 below MSRP in a my favourite color (DG) which is not available in '03. Also beware that the Coupe prices will probably be going up significantly for '04 (without any new features), so I would recommend anyone wanting a Coupe to haggle on an '03 soon (after the RX-8 test drive next week of course). BTW the Sedan 6MT is about as fast as the Coupe 6MT in a straight line but not in corners (same 280 hp engine according to dynos, same transmission and gearing, less weight).

IIIseries

LOL....I like your wife. She clearly knows more about car design than my wife, since she unfortunately owns a G35 coupe.