R&T's Recent Sport Sedan Test: SHOCKING!

Road and Track recently did a thorough test of sport sedans sold in America. Shockingly, they managed to convince me that the 330i is only the SECOND best sport sedan. The G35 was thier pick for #1 and even though I didnt believe it at first, their reasoning makes perfect sense:

Even though the beemer did marginally better overall than the Infinifi, the G35 matched the BMW in 1/4 mile and lateral Gs, and BEAT it in braking and slalom speed. Plus, this was the AUTOMATIC G35! (the 6 spd manual arrives later this year). And for $7700 less, its no wonder the Infiniti made #1 in their testing.

Thoughts?

Too bad every time I drive by an Infiniti lot they are just sitting there collecting dust. Sorry but Infiniti just isn't a proven name brand with proven cars like Honda/Acura or Toyota/Lexus. And please do not go off and try to compare Nissan to either of the formers.

Im quoting a magazine here. These are stat-proven facts, nothing to do with opinion.

BTW, Nissan outsells toyota and honda in Japan (their own domestic market). And as for my opinion, neither acura/honda nor lexus/toyota make a sedan that can touch the G35.

I'm not bashing you, but isn't the American market bigger? The G35 is a splendid car no doubt, but Infiniti will never outsell Acura or Lexus. And sales are the real factor on how much people like a car for the most part.

Half of these cars are brand new. Maybe Infiniti will start outselling lexus and acura once the G35 manual and G35 coupe are introduced.

BTW, nissan also outsells toyota in europe, though I dont know about honda. The camry only sell 1000 units a year there (as opposed to 100,000+ here). And Europe IS a bigger market.

Originally posted by Fliquer
And Europe IS a bigger market.


Europe is also a specific market...
a) japanese cars cost more than comparable european cars due to taxes , customs and other fees
b) we have many "euro-only" models that you don't have neither in japan/us/australia etc. Even if you have them they mostly different , weaker and slower due to some emissions etc crap... Here most of the cheap cars are sold by like fiat , peugeot , citroen , renault , opel , ford (the german ford) and VW... hondas , toyotas and nissans are exceptions... And sport or luxury cars... Ferrari , Lamborghini , Maserati , Pagani , De Tomaso , Porsche , BMW , Mercedes , Jaguar , TVR , Lotus , Bentley , Rolls , Audi , Koenigsegg, McLaren,Bugatti, Aston Martin... do i really have to name more? I could but what's the point , we have all models of those makes in most powerful versions and the cheapest too... So it's somehow different...

ok, back to the point... nissan can compare with toyota and honda (in the rest of the world acura/lexus/infinit don't exist anyways)

nissan has the 280z, the 300zx, the 240sx and the current silvias and skylines to take their technology from. they have an amazing racing background with road cars. why can't nissan/infiniti compare? especially since their new g35 is basically the new skyline...

and we all know that (not my opinion, but that of alot of people here) skylines tend to generally kick ass, at least from what i have read. and don't tell me that it doesn't count, b/c the technology that goes into a skyline is the same technology that goes into the infiniti. just b/c we don't get skylines doesn't mean we don't benefit from their knowledge over there at nissan.

make it a 330xi and you've got my vote

in Europe the most popular two cars are the BMW and the Mercedes. maybe Infinitis are better, but they dont even sell them in any kind of quantity over here

Originally posted by flylwsi
ok, back to the point... nissan can compare with toyota and honda (in the rest of the world acura/lexus/infinit don't exist anyways)

actually, acura is just the american name for honda, we get all the same models as you in Europe, and Lexus are very popular in Europe, especially the UK. As for Infintity, nope they dont exist over here

Its also known as the Nissan Skyline GTS. Maybe you get that car in europe?

nope, the only skylines we get over here r the GTR's, and they arent too common. the official import number for the UK was 100 per year for the R34, altho thousands of them are imported

Originally posted by LiuBei
And sales are the real factor on how much people like a car for the most part.

Hahahahaha... How old are you?

Originally posted by DMC12


Hahahahaha... How old are you?

what is funny about that? its right, if a car is popular then it will sell more than a car that is crap.

btw ne1 got any pictures of the Infinity G35 cos being from Europe ive never seen one?

the price test was kind of skewed. . . the IS300 had nav leather etc. etc. which raised the price quite a bit, R&T is just trying to pick up some more loyal buyers by backing the supposed next big thing. the BMW i dont remember, but they've always been overpriced, so that doesnt suprise me.

They probably put those options on the Lexus so that all the cars would have similar features.

http://www.infiniti.com/m/cma/i/gal/gal_g35_wall07.jpg

Originally posted by Fliquer
They probably put those options on the Lexus so that all the cars would have similar features.

http://www.infiniti.com/m/cma/i/gal/gal_g35_wall07.jpg

thats the thing, i'm almost positive it didn't have those features, which is why i say they were pretty one sided in their final price choice what was it worth, 200 something? i cant remember, and lately i've been using these magazines for kindling :p

Originally posted by Pennzoil GT-R
in Europe the most popular two cars are the BMW and the Mercedes. maybe Infinitis are better, but they dont even sell them in any kind of quantity over here

I cant' agree... maybe in UK , but the rest of Europe isn't that rich and your averege family can't afford a BMW or Mercedes in most countries... Most popular are like fiat , VW , peugeot , citroen , opel , ford or some others (toyota yaris , honda civic etc.)

thats the thing, i'm almost positive it didn't have those features, which is why i say they were pretty one sided in their final price choice what was it worth, 200 something?

Looks like they did put quite a few expensive options on their test Lexus. But the base infiniti is still cheaper than the base lexus, and it had better performance #s, so I guess the result is still fair.

Originally posted by Tom_S8


I cant' agree... maybe in UK , but the rest of Europe isn't that rich and your averege family can't afford a BMW or Mercedes in most countries... Most popular are like fiat , VW , peugeot , citroen , opel , ford or some others (toyota yaris , honda civic etc.)

i agree with you, most cars in the UK aswell as europe r fords, renaults etc. but when i said BMW and Mercedes are most popular, i was meaning out of the cars in the poll