Disclaimer: Treat this post as my personal experience of owning an Infiniti G35, issues faced, service experience at a dealership and the on going discussion about rental vs own car for long trips.
Since we are on the topic of rental vs owned vehicles for trip. Here is my 2 cents on my recent experience of a 1210 miles trip i did last weekend.
I had booked a Standard size rental for a 4 day trip to LA and Palm Springs from Sacramento. Best deal was - $210 with tax and insurance of rental car.
Another option i had was to take my trusted '05 G35 Sedan with 118k on odo.
I was in 2 minds which one to take. Finally, i thought of taking my own car thinking that $210 saved would go towards fuel and won't lose much on resale as it has already high miles on odo and i will keep it for a year atleast.
The trip was great overall. I averaged around 22 mpg. Most of them were freeway miles and speed in access of posted speed limit. Sorry i won't say how much i did but lets say, it was safe but above posted speed limit.
Before starting on this trip, i did a basic service - oil change, filter change, air filter and cabin filter change and tires rotated.
When i was returning from Palm Springs (105 F
) to LA,
disaster struck. A sudden jerk and all warning lights came on. Service Engine soon, VDC Off and Slip Lights came on. I immediately pulled over, switched it off, checked all fluids and made sure nothing visibly bad has happened.
I sent an email to a friend(Hats off Chid) who was introduced to me by the_trooper (Ravi) asking for some help regarding this issue. As soon as he got my mail, he called me and told me this could be an issue. A that time i was already in Riverside Infi but it was great for Chid to call me offering any assistance i wanted. Thanks man, i owe you one).
Meanwhile, i called local service center hoping for some answer and possibly read the code to see what was wrong. Palm Springs Infiniti service dept was closed on weekends - (What a waste). I called a couple of local repair shop but all were apprehensive about servicing an Infi citing complex workings of engine and not enough resources to work on it.
So i took the big risk (as told later) and drove 60 miles to Riverside Infiniti that had open service dept till 6 pm on a Saturday.
Reached there with time to spare and immediately they got me in. Told me it could be a cam sensor failure and that it could have caused engine failure if the sensors would have decided to cease up thereby leaving me stranded. Luckily it didn't happen.
They ran the code and it was a cam sensor failure on Bank 2. They quoted $340 to fix it. Now while they were at it, i decided to get Spark Plugs changed too. I got a good quote of $323 ($30 less than Sacramento Infi and $20 more than local shops specializing in Infiniti's). So they started working on it and we were given a loaner vehicle and the service guys comes and invites me to their repair shop.
Lo and Behold, another disaster struck. The intake tube was broken and it was being held by a tape. When i got it, i could see a green tape from outside. When these guys removed the cover and other parts to work on sensor, they showed me that the tube was broken and it was sealed with a glue thereby running on lean mixture which could have potentially caused engine failure in near future. So i had them fix and the cost was $175.
But i have to give full credit to their service department. They had it ready it in quoted 1.5 hours. They washed it, cleaned it, changed key fob battery without me telling them. It was a great experience overall and everything was streamlined for me. It was a great experience dealing with Riverside Infiniti. I would say if anybody in LA has any problems with Infi, do give this dealership a try. They are not stealership when it comes to service department ($20 more than a regular shop that goes towards a loaner vehicle is great IMHO).
With this sorted out and me out on the road again. It was good to know that this service would serve me for a good 1 year hopefully not causing any other problems.
Overall, i saved $210 which i used towards gas ($220) but ended up paying $880 for getting the car fixed. If i had rented a car, and such problems came up on their car, it would have been a lot of time lost and don't know what would have happened. The good thing is, this happened in a big city. If it would have been in remote area, it could have been a problem. So a lesson learned. Make sure it is in tip top shape. So while it was a little failure, i take huge pluses from this experience.
Will i do another 1200 mile trip on G35 in near future? - A big resounding YES!
After all this, here are a few positives and negatives of G35 having done around 30k miles since i owned it
Positives:
+ Looks (Even after 10 yrs of similar design, i love how it looks)
+ Interior (Good features, good quality)
+ Comfort (A great long distance car. Very comfortable, good cabin and cargo space, reclining rear seats are awesome)
+ Power (A free revving v6. Very good pulling power from low speeds)
+ Makes the right noise (Great intake n exhaust notes after 2500 rpms)
+ Very stable at high speeds
+ Great fun while cornering.
+ Reliable (Cost $500 in repairs apart from regular preventive maintenance after 120k miles and 8 years)
+ Great driving position and great view from drivers seat.
+ Never bottoms out.
+ No rattles from interior
+ Immense after market potential.
Negatives:
- Road and Wind Noise
- Crappy tires installed by previous owner
- If parts fail, potentially expensive. Paying for premium name.
- Paint gets bad very easily. Need lots of clay to get rid of trappings
- Needs to be a little lower for better looks.
- Well known failure of Bose CD Player - Yep! Mine just went out.
Thank you for reading and sorry for long post.