Test Drive: G35 gets your heart pumping

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Infiniti, Nissan's NSANY luxury brand, said when it was launched in 1989 that "a personal and rewarding driving experience is more important than the car alone."

Who knew it would take more than a decade to learn what that meant?

Who, indeed, knew that it came to mean a car that could wow you into transcending its foibles and flaws? Such as the 2003 G35, and now the '07 G35, with fewer foibles and flaws, more transcendence.

G35. The car with near-BMW panache, the one that accounts for one-third of the brand's U.S. sales. Because it flat goes. Did then, does now.

Along narrow roads snaking tightly up and down hills around here, the G35 could maintain, ah, brisk momentum without straying from its own traffic lane.

Remarkably, that was in the all-wheel-drive version, the G35x. AWD cars, spurred hard, often have trouble keeping their front ends from drifting. Not the G35x. The AWD, in fact, seemed to stabilize the G and help it power around with confidence. Sure, there was that exciting moment involving wet leaves across the road. But a rear-drive model wouldn't have handled it better, perhaps worse. G's AWD system can shift up to 50% of power to either end, as conditions dictate.

There was an irritant, though: the windshield pillars. Angled steeply back, they bisect the line of vision when you crank your head around to look where you're going during sharp corners. Makes it hard to properly align the car through the corners and to clearly see oncoming traffic. They also can partly obscure pedestrians on the periphery in normal driving.

On the other hand, the engine and automatic transmission are a heavenly mating. Full-throttle brings only unbroken acceleration, barely punctuated by what seem more like illusions than actual pauses for the gearbox to shift. Hard-throttle downshifts take an instant to register in the gearbox's digital brain. But when they do, they snap-to.

The interior, previously a weak spot, is sufficiently improved. Especially the center stack of controls, including an easy-to-read screen for navigation maps and other, more useful information.

The G is tight inside, same as before. Rear legroom is 2 or 3 inches shy of comfortable. And the front seat sits so close to the door panel that only thin fingers can probe between to reach the adjustment controls on the side of the seat.

Accessories are meant to show Infiniti is as technically hip as any:

•Intelligent cruise control. It's an option that starts braking if you get too close to the car ahead.

•Ram-air intake. Tubes funnel air into the engine, faster and denser as the car goes faster. Adds three horsepower at 60 mph, Infiniti claims.

•AFS. Stands for Adaptive Front lighting System, an option that's supposed to tailor the lighting pattern for the circumstances, keying on steering and car speed.

•4WAS. It means four-wheel active steering. The front steering ratio varies according to vehicle speed. And starting at 25 mph, an electronic system turns the rears up to 1 degree the same direction as the fronts to improve response.

Judging from a day driving around here and a week around home in suburban Virginia, you don't need the fancy stuff to be satisfied. The midlevel, AWD version is more than sufficient, thank you.

Stiff suspension on the Sport model will be too firm for some. And it seems unnecessary because the non-Sport models hardly are wallow-wonders in corners.

Sport and the other rear-drive models can work the traction control to death, invoking the electronic wheelspin limiter on even modest starts.

The AWD, on the other hand, spreads the power according to traction needs and minimizes the intrusion of the electronic limiters.

A well-equipped Sport was $38,600. That included leather, power and memory everything, hoo-hah stereo, Bluetooth linkup, bun warmers, navigation and plenty more you probably don't even want, let alone need. Attractive price for what you get.

Yes, the car's too tight inside for many folks. The interior execution still isn't on par with the rest of the machine, though it's good enough.

True, G35 doesn't have the baked-in prestige of Lexus or some German nameplates. But if that's your concern, the G's not for you in the first place.

No, the G proves that — what was that Infiniti line? — "a personal and rewarding driving experience is more important than the car alone."

2007 Infiniti G35

•What is it:Update of the brand's small, four-door sedan, available with rear-wheel drive (rwd) or all-wheel drive (awd). New chassis, similar to what's used on the larger Infiniti M; mostly new engine. Manufactured at Tochigi, Japan.

•How soon? On sale since Oct. 26. Coupe version comes in August as an '08, with bigger engine.

•How much? G35 base model starts at $32,150 including $700 destination charge. G35 Journey starts at $32,950. G35 Sport with manual transmission is $32,950. Sport with automatic is $34,150. G35x awd starts at $34,650.

Expect to pay close to full window-sticker price, according to edmunds.com car-shopping site. Oh, maybe several hundred less than sticker, says carsdirect.com. Well, somewhere between those two, says kbb.com.

•How many? Infiniti, of course, won't say, in order to prevent the Evil Media from laughing and pointing if the forecast is way off, but selling at a rate of about 60,000 annually, well more than the 43,000 typical of the previous model.

•Who'll buy? Married men: 55%. Age: 30-49. Median annual household income: $85,000 to $150,000.

•What's the drivetrain? 3.5-liter V-6 rated 306 horsepower at 6,800 rpm, 268 pounds-feet of torque at 5,200 rpm; five-speed automatic with manual-shift mode and downshift rev-matching function. Six-speed manual transmission available on Sport model only. Traction control is standard; Sport also has viscous limited-slip differential.

Awd system defaults to rwd, can shift 50% of power to the front. Can be locked into 50/50 split for snow, other slippery surfaces.

•What's the safety gear? Expected bags, belts plus front-seat side-impact bags and front and rear head-curtain bags; anti-lock brakes; stability control.

•What's the rest? Leather upholstery; climate control; power steering, brakes, windows, locks, mirrors, seats; AM/FM/CD/MP3 stereo with MP3 input jack; cruise control; remote-control locks; trip computer; front fog lights.

•What's the pledge? Basic warranty: four years or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first. Powertrain: six/70,000. Corrosion: seven/unlimited.

•How good? Too new to have a track record. Infiniti as a brand is No. 8 of 36 in Consumer Reports magazine's latest list of predicted reliability, up an eye-opening 20 spots from a year ago. CR says Infiniti's best model is the M45, from which the new G is derived.

J.D. Power and Associates' 2006 Initial Quality Study also puts Infiniti at No. 8. The '07 IQS is due June 6. Power's 2006 Vehicle Dependability Study puts Infiniti at No. 10. The '07 study is due this summer.

•How big? Between BMW 3-series and 5-series sedans. G35 is 187 inches long, 69.8 inches wide, 57.2 inches tall (rwd) or 57.8 inches tall (awd) on a 112.2-inch wheelbase. Weights range from 3,497 pounds to 3,704 pounds, depending on model and equipment. Rated to carry from 1,084 to 1,161 pounds of people, cargo depending on model and equipment.

Passenger space is listed as 99 cubic feet (96.5 cubic feet with sunroof). Trunk is listed as 13.5 cubic feet.

Turning circle diameter is listed as 35.4 feet (rwd) or 36.1 feet (awd), curb-to-curb.

•How thirsty? All versions are rated 19 mpg in town. Highway ratings range from 25 to 27 mpg, depending on model. Combined-driving ratings are 21 or 22, depending on model. Under more-realistic federal ratings that go into effect starting with 2008 models, G35 would be rated 17 in town, 23 to 25 on the highway, 19 or 20 in combined driving.

Trip computer in rwd Sport with automatic transmission showed 15.2 mpg in 120 miles of heavy-foot suburban use. Trip computer in awd with automatic showed 16.2 mpg in 60 miles of hard running on twisty, hilly two-lane roads.

Tank holds 20 gallons. Premium fuel is recommended. Regular is OK but trims power about 3%, Infiniti says.

•Overall:Hard to resist.