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"Rear drive and lovin' it" is the G35's motto. Power oversteer, slashing-quick steering, fearless brakes, six big holes under the hood, and six gears in your right hand.
We've been yakking good things about the G35 since Infiniti pulled the sheets off it in 2002. Draped over a 112.2-inch suspension bridge of a wheelbase is a tidy shape marked by clipped overhangs and quad afterburner taillights. Share this good taste with friends. The cabin has so much space to spare that the back bench has adjustable seatback rake. At 15 cubic feet, the G35's trunk ties the Saab's for largest, and the lid has an obvious release button below the left taillamp. Many of these cars have no release button or one hidden where dirt collects.
At 3520 pounds, the G35 ranks among the lightest here. At $34,760 as tested (without navigation), the G35 trades with the cheapest here. It also runs with the faster crowd, the 3.5-liter VQ V-6 now good for 298 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. Launch at a lazy 3500 rpm, and it'll do 5.9-second sprints to 60 mph and 70-to-0 stops in 169 feet. We've ranted before on the comical confusion of textures and colors in the G35's cockpit. No idea goes wasted, including the one to make the gauge graduations orange and the redline marker a pale shadow all but impossible to see. One idea that strikes us as genius quality: hitching the instrument pod to the steering column so they move as a unit. Nobody complained of obscured vision.
Although it flits up mountain roads with stability and quick reflexes, the G35 doesn't punish you for your fun with a brittle ride. The car did demonstrate some of its coarseness for which we have criticized it in the past, including elevated road noise in the cabin, chatter in the steering column over bumps, and an unpleasant graunching of return springs each time the clutch was pressed. The stability control was prone to fire a brake caliper or two even when the car was well within its slip limits
