Cars.com's Kelsey Mays takes a look at the 2008 Infiniti G35. It competes with the Acura TL and BMW 3 Series.
Transcript
(grunge instrumental music) Hi, I'm Kelsey Mays for cars.com, and this is the 2008 Infiniti, G35 Sedan. Now the G35 was actually redesigned for 2007, but in the past year, some of its competitors have really improved.
So we're going to see how this car stacks up. Now in this video I'm gonna take you through some of the G's standing attributes. Check out our other video to see how it drives. And the G really looks the part of a premium sedan, and it kind of embraces the fact that it's from Japan. There's very little straight lines or angles. There's a lot more curves going on here. Joe Torre will definitely return to the New York Yankees before you see L-shaped headlights like this on an Audi or BMW. There's a lot of chrome going on around the window sills here, and the beltLine kind of rises gently as it goes toward the trunk. We actually think the taillights here are one of the best executed among Infinity's lineup. Our test cars is a G35s that's a sportier addition. That means it has 18 inch wheels and a little bit of lower body work. Like most cars in its class, the G35 is a pretty small trunk. In fact, it's a little bit smaller than the trunk in a Ford Focus, which is a pretty small car. There's also a pretty high lift over for luggage. And part of the space here is blocked by a CD changer Inside there's really no holding back the G35's snug cabin. I'm about six feet tall, and I have the seat all the way lowered to its lowest position with the center. With the sunroof you can see there's not a whole lot of headroom left over. And the cockpit is very purposeful. It's got a little more life to it than the BMW 3 Series inside, but there's not as high of a luxury quotient here as say, the new Cadillac CTS or even an Acura TL It's a very sparse approach to things. The seats are kind of tough and uncompromising. They're meant to hold you in place on a winding road. The seat heaters take a little bit of time to do their thing. And the cup holders are basically these little recessions here behind them. One nice thing is that they're pretty low, actually. So if you put a travel mug in here, it's not going to interfere that much with your shifting. We're big fans of this navigation system, some of the graphics we've seen better graphics in other cars, but as far as usability goes, it's pretty hard to beat. It starts with a backup camera here, actually it shows tracks of where your bumpers kind of line up to. That's pretty common. What's less common is that as you move the steering wheel and turn the car, the silhouette of where your car is going to go actually changes as well to kind of show you where you're gonna go. Unfortunately, you do have to pay for the navigation system to get the backup camera. Some cars these days are offering a standalone and less expensive backup camera. Navigation system itself has a touchscreen interface, but what's cool is that there's all these shortcut buttons here, including buttons to zoom in and zoom out and to move directionally along the map itself. Another bonus, when you go to radio stations, it allows you to program AM, FM and XM satellite stations into the same six presets. A lot of other cars, much more expensive ones, don't allow that. The backseat is equally snug. I'm kind of maxed out on headroom right here. If I were driving, that's where I'd have the driver's seat. And as you can see, my knees are just about touching it. There is no folding back seat. A lot of sports vans don't have one. There is a small center pass through for skis, and that might fit one set of skis. So the G35 is definitely a premium car. It's not as luxurious say as the new CTS, but it definitely feels more inviting than a three series or even the Mercedes C class. What sets it apart is value. You get automatic climate control, leather power seats, all standard for a car that costs around $32,000. For that sort of equipment, you're going to have to go to one of the low-end 3 Series of C-Class models, and those really have a lot more show than go. So if you're in the market for one of those, make sure you check out one of these first. <v Narrator>For additional information on this car or any other, go to cars.com and our blog, Kicking Tires.
