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Infinity cars?

NorthernRedneck

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
I'd never really looked at them before as I'm not a car guy. My second oldest son is looking for his first car. We came across a 2005 infinity g35x. It's in good shape and has decent mileage and appears to be a comfortable mid sized car. Being awd should have benefits up here in the winter.

It's got a 3.5l v6 automatic. Anyone here have any experience with them?


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It is an upscale Nissan, so basically you have modified Nissan electronics and modified Nissan drivetrain with a nicer interior package. I had a co-worker who had one and she loved it.
 
Don't know how old your son is but that's a really peppy car for a first time driver. He'll need to go easy on the gas pedal.
I was thinking of giving my son my BMW 530i for his first car. It's way too powerful for a young driver. Gave him a Camry instead.
 
He's been driving the old grand am I rebuilt last year. It's alright but he wants his own. He's very cautious behind the wheel and appears to be a good driver so far. Hey, I taught him. Lol.

I figured with our Canadian winters, an awd would be an alright choice.
 
AWD would be a huge plus.
Even cautious kids will play with power when it's available.
Insurance might be more for a sporty car like that and when things go wrong it will cost more for parts and to have it repaired if you can't do the job.
Infinities are nice. I do not have have any experience with them when they are 15+ years old.
 
I was doing some research on parts availability and price as I've heard they can be more costly. Not bad. I can rebuild the whole front end brakes bushings balls joints control arms the whole thing for under $500. Parts seem to be available and it doesn't matter what brand of vehicle. Brakes are brakes. Suspension parts are all similar. I'm teaching my boys to maintain their own vehicles. We can work on them together. So I don't mind helping them out with an older beater for their first vehicle.
 
The infinity is stillas serious contender but the guy works out the of town and can't shoot it until next week. In the meantime, we went to look at a 2005 audi a4 quattro awd. Nice car and fully loaded. I'm tempted to pick it up myself.

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bczoom said:
We've had a few Audi's (all A6's). Awesome vehicles to drive but...
They, like most German cars (Audi, Mercedes, BMW) are finicky about being maintained and will most likely tap into your wallet a lot deeper than a Japanese car.
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My son who lives in the UK is the German car fancier. He had an Audi A4, which my granddaughter now drives but doesn't pay for. His present "stable" consists of 3 BMWs. He enjoys driving them but his comment was exactly the same as yours, "They are expensive to maintain and if you ever need anything repaired or replaced you better break out the platinum card".
 
We've had several Audi, Mercedes and BMW's over the years. We're down to 1 BMW that I was going to sell but decided to just keep it at our vacation home.
Don't get me wrong, the German cars are awesome to drive compared to most and offer many smiles per gallon. A lot more so than most of their American or Japanese counterparts.
I will say that a lot of the upscale Japanese mfgr's (Lexus, Infiniti and Acura) are pretty damn fun as well. Like my BMW, our Lexus as an insurance up-charge due to it's horsepower-to-weight ration.
 
had an Audi 100 Quattro - 250,000 miles before the electrical system went wonky at 23 years.
ran tip-top when I donated it - no leaks, etc. - but it needed tires, clutch, rotors&brakes. more than the value.
had I bought the 200Q (turbo) I could have sold it for more money that original cost! those are apparently rally collector items.

I would gladly have bought another, but Audi stopped selling stick shift in USA - a stick and full time 4 wheel drive is an awesome driver.

very few issues with the car until the electrical blew up. all German cars are prone to electrical issues - German standards permit no direct switching in the cabin - so everything has a relay. when it goes, it's a nightmare - no sane repair routine but to replace, test, replace the next . . . gets very expensive, and usually the new parts over stress the old parts and within a month or two it's back to the replace/test/next! routine.
 
Quick update, we ended up missing out on the infinity. The audi also sold so we kept looking sending car ads back and forth to each other for the past few weeks. The other day, a 2003 Toyota camry came up for sale for a good price. It needs a bit of work but there's no guessing on what exactly it needs as they had brought it to a shop for a pre safety inspection and provided a list. Il basically needs a y pipe in the exhaust system replaced, one rear wheel bearing and some stabilizer bars on the rear suspension. And a couple other minor things. But overall not bad for $1400. My son didn't want to spend much and wants to learn how to do the repairs himself. It even comes with a complete set of winter and summer tires.

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I have one of those (2003 Camry). Definitely a solid, reliable car with the exceptions of what you noted (exhaust system is weak as well as the rear suspension, although your issues were different components compared to mine).

You didn't mention the mileage but for $1400, I'd say you got a great deal. Mine got caught in a flood. Insurance adjuster took one look at the year and the depth the water got inside the car and said they're going to total it. They gave us $5800 for it. We bought it back for under $800, and spent $1000 tearing out the interior, replacing the air bag modules that got flooded under the seats and doing anything else it needed. It's back on the road and doing just fine.
 
We've been ordering parts and getting ready to bring it for a safety check. We had a list of everything needed for safety from the previous owner so no surprises. One item was the headlights which were fogged. I picked up a $16 restoration kit and went to work. All it is is 2000 grit sandpaper for wetsanding and a bottle of polish.


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That came out nice. I've used Novus plastic polish (it's for scratch removal on your ATV) but I think I'll try the 2000 grit first.
 
This was always something that I wanted to try anyways. I never tried wet sanding anything but was curious how to do it. The 2000 grit paper I used attached to a sanding block with velcro making it simple. I just kept a steady flow of water on it as I sanded then dried it and used the polish that came in the kit. It turned out great.
 
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Despite being generally well built with few issues, I heard Toyota had recalled all the 2003 Camry's.

It seems none of the owners would trade them in for new ones.
 
The only recall I can find for the 2003 Camry is a side airbag not deploying fast enough. It was posted in 2004 so I'm guessing mine is taken care of.
 
I've got a 2000 Camry with the four cly engine, auto trans.
It had 185k mi when I bought it for $3500 six months ago.
It needed a realignment, and I tinted the windows. $400.
AC didn't blow cold and that cost $800 to fix.
Also had a bullet wound in the back pax door, got it fixed.
(No blood stains inside, so ...)
Got a hidden kill-switch installed ... be aware that these years of that model are stolen A LOT. Easy to hot-wire, and the parts are worth bank. It only cost me $100 to have a hidden kill switch installed.
Altogether, I'm in it for about $4800, maybe $5k. Five years ago I'd of paid half of that ... but, those were the good old days.

I've owned it now for about six months. Love it. Fun to drive, very maneuverable, outstanding fuel economy, and not a bad looking car.
Nothing bad to say about it.
 
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