2004 Infiniti G35X w/ Aero Kit

[byalegend]

A few months after putting a TON of money and time into my mom's 2002 Nissan Altima 3.5SE to make it a safe and reliable car again, it was totaled by a guy in a van who abruptly changed lanes without signaling. The damage was limited to the right-front knuckle, ABS sensor, fender, headlight, small corner of the hood, grille frame, and bumper cover, but the shop to which it was towed assessed the repair at $4800 to start. The headlight alone was $800

Side note: We could have bought the car back for $400 and repaired it for about $1500, leaving a good chunk of insurance money (I found a hole-in-the-wall shop that does excellent paint work and would have painted and blended the front end for around $1100 after I replaced the panels), but we ultimately would have had to dismiss the claim and come out of pocket to avoid a salvage title. In Washington state, the law states that if a salvage-branded car is 6+ years old, it currently has to have been worth at least $7880 retail before an accident in order for it to be repaired and be branded "rebuilt". The Altima was worth about $4500. Smh.

Pics - not that bad at all. It still eats at me that we had to let it go after all the work we did to it.









So, we started looking at Honda/Acura, Nissan Altima or Maxima (figured we could easily address any issues now that I know them fairly well), and Toyota for around $5K, but there is frankly a lot of garbage out there in that price range. We decided to go up in budget to $7K and settled on the G35X sedan because of the all-wheel drive option.

We purchased this 2004 G35X for $6750 from an older gentleman who is the original owner. It has some scratches on the bumper covers and wheels, and I can barely see that the clear coat on the spoiler is starting to fade (yes, I'm picky), but the car is in excellent mechanical condition with about 103K miles and a clean Carfax. I used my bluetooth scan tool to do a few simple checks before and after the test drive (looked for trouble codes, checked fuel trims, and verified a consistent idle). Everything looked good.

The original owner just put $3K+ into the suspension and steering rack, and the fluids look clear. The sheet metal body panels are undamaged, with the exception of one small ding on the driver's side. Also, it came with a factory body color-matched Aero kit, including a non-standard front bumper cover, which I didn't notice until I compared it to other 2004 G35s that have black rocker panels.

Driving the car, I didn't realize how much power even these older G35s possess. The interior is a little cheap, but it seems like a fun car to drive. My mom, who's close to 70 years old, offered to trade for the RL, but I declined. Tempting. I might look for one next year that needs some mechanical or minor body work and I can get cheap then possibly sell the RL















The engine cover was removed in this picture.



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[sam o nela]

Great engine, great chassis. I agree about the interior and it is the sole reason I never got into one of those. Especially the interior volume, specifically the back seat....but great cars...a plus that they were available with a manual tranny too...well in rwd version.

Nice pick up man

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[byalegend]

Originally Posted by sam o nela

Great engine, great chassis. I agree about the interior and it is the sole reason I never got into one of those. Especially the interior volume, specifically the back seat....but great cars...a plus that they were available with a manual tranny too...well in rwd version.

Nice pick up man

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Thanks. The 5-year-older interior in the RL puts the G35's to shame. I've read that the '05+ models received some interior upgrades, so I might consider one of those. I loved the sound of the VQ engine in the Altima, and this one seems a bit more throaty. My mom is very happy with the car, so I'm happy

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[byalegend]

I cleaned the seats in the G35 this weekend. Man, I love this Aero Cosmetics leather cleaner. I also used a Colourlock brush that I purchased on Amazon. The brush's bristles had just the right stiffness to clean the leather without scratching it.

BEFORE pics:













AFTER pics. I didn't get as many pics of the seats as I wanted before my mom left, but they turned out pretty good. Just like when I did the RL's seats, the original color is much lighter than we expected:







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