gavriil

Infiniti Bags I35 - - Source: The Car Connection


Nissan's upscale Infiniti division is doing away with the I35 sedan, a rebadged version of the last Nissan Maxima. The front-drive vehicle has essentially been replaced by the G35 sport sedan; Infiniti's products are now rear- or all-wheel-driven. Reuters reports the best sales year for the outgoing model was 2000, when Infiniti moved 39,532 I30s before an increase in displacement changed the vehicle's name to I35.

titan

May it rest in peace.

Time For Sleeep

I suppose... I never thought it was that cool to begin with though.

1SICKLEX

Infiniti= 75% chance your car will eventually be discontinued. Another pathetic attempt at a luxury car. Another reason re-sale and the name Infiniti evokes feelings of pancakes, juicy fruit bubble gum for 25 cents and hot eskimo piss.....

Crazy Bimmer

I would tend to agree, but their products seemed to have a turn around and each car is becoming more badass.

M45=winner
g35= winner
and im sure the updated q45 will be hot too.

03TL-S

And these feelings are only felt by you since your way of thinking is very closed minded and biased. In the near future, when car mags and reviewers praise infiniti for their new car models and they say nothing good about lexus, just imagine me laughing straight at you. :P That day should be coming soon when the M45 comes out and when the world sees the gs300/430 (aka nissan maxima, previous gen. gs look-alike) Yet another bland and boring car produced by lexus

1SICKLEX

Anyone would be an idiot to argue those facts. The G35/FX and new M35/45 are great new products. The QX56 is a POS but selling well which Infiniti needs.

BRING THE GT-R!!!

Crazy Bimmer

Shit yea i forgot about the FX, those bitches are selling like crazy. I see them everywhere now.
Also dont forget how quick Infiniti updated their G35 product to keep it ahead of the game. I respect them for not falling behind.

1SICKLEX

I guess you Nissan fans have been waiting 15 years to finally get some fucking recognition. Lol. Magazines will always say good things about Lexus, I will admit they will like the new Infinitis since they are sportier stock and have a better chance to finish ahead. Fine.

03TL-S

Someones getting a little fired up. :P And i'm not just a nissan fan...I'm a fan of all cars and im not biased towards any one brand. Car mags just say the usual oh lexus...nice luxurious interior. But that IS all. They will never have the performance and styling department down until they actually grow some balls and design something meant for people under 40

1SICKLEX

Yes, I've seen a few, they seem though like there is more since they are very original looking.
The G35 series is one of the hottest cars to come out of Japan. Bar-None. Now let me go school this TL-S dude.

1SICKLEX

I am like you then. I like all cars. I am also a realist. So here goes;
Cars like Lexus you dolt. The IS beat the 3 and others for 1st place in Road and Track. The IS is considered a favorite by magazines, EVEN if it's underpowered.
The GS is a ten best winner multiple times, car of the year winner etc etc. Won Motor Trend. car of the year. Was picked as best SPORTS sedan for 50k. Simply adored by the motoring press.
Yes, Lexus is more luxury over sport with the rest of their products.
And as I have learned, stock doesn't mean shit when you mod cars.

Styling as no balls. Maybe the LS. But the IS has balls for being so fucking radical with those 4 rear lights and German proportioned styling. Handsome car.
The GS looks like no other sedan until the knock-off NIssans came (maxima, Altima).
THe original SC
The SC 430, may be ugly but daring in design
So is the ugly ass ES 330, ugly but daring.

The IS has the LOWEST AGE BUYER of it's class. 30. Ever see those prune drinking depend having, didn't save enough for retirement 60 year olds in G35s? I do.

Not sure why we are arguing. Infiniti is now making a come-up. For people to forget 15 years of :gheywave: is ridiculous.
Just look up re-sale outside the G35.

03TL-S

Stock doesnt mean anything huh? At least infiniti or acura doesnt have to be modded to the extreme just to get decent handling or power. The only way to make an IS300 fast is to turbo it, which can cost 10k+ dollars. Maybe the IS300 was a 'handsome' car at first but it got old very quickly. As of right now, you can get an is300 for 24-25k just cuz it doesnt sell well. Also, I'm pretty sure the tsx has the lowest age buyer in its class. And hey..the tsx is faster too. And its only 4 cylinder! :P

Oh and for the record, the current maxima or altima look nothing like the current GS. I believe it was toyota/lexus that copied the current styling of the altima and maxima and incorporated it into the upcoming GS300/430

Also, i dont think the sc430 is ugly. I think its a fine looking car and it actually has some speed to it.

1SICKLEX

Okay, so we agree to disagree 03Tl-S? Cool. Nice discussion.

heyitsme

This was a long time coming, although there was a possibility of the nissan teana being an Iseries. I dunno, always thought the I was a nice car, you could get one for the price of the a maxima gle, maybe 27k, but it had the service and nicer looks.

Crazy Bimmer

Seems like all these companies finally realizing that people dont want FWD cars. Even the unthinkable acura went AWD!

Zoot

I still want FWD cars!

Crazy Bimmer

For?

titan

I disagree. There's still a ton of FWD cars being sold that I see on the street all over the place. The ES330,TL,TSX,A4,A6(some, withouth Quattro). I also see alot of Maximas and GrandPrixs in my area. So, I think there's a place for FWD. Everyone doesn't want to push their cars to the limit... just us.

Zoot

I won't buy a RWD car again and there aren't enough AWD sedans...and most of them are german and i don't buy german cars...plus i think FWD is good enough for my needs



I think the I35 was perfect competition agains the previous TL

03TL-S

Although i have rear wheel drive right now, i actually still enjoy and prefer driving a fwd car. I feel more in control of the car. With rwd, my rear is more likely to kick out if i acclerate too much when turning...

Crazy Bimmer

What type of RWD car do you have? DSC on my old 330 would prevent it to break loose easily. I didnt think it was that easy to with it on.

F23A4

I only beg to differ with you regarding the SC430. It's a definite step back from the SC400.

F23A4

No offense 1sicklex but, I walked into DiFeo Lexus' showroom and determined that it had to be the most testosterone-free auto dealership I EVER set foot in. The place almost made the neighboring Volvo dealership seem butch.

Nice cars (in very general) but, NOTHING there is marketed towards men between the ages of 25-45y/o.

Peace.

TSX69

So I have wondered for years why the Infiniti I35 was discontinued & a search turned up this thread. Was it discontinued for low sales? Its best year apparently was about 3,000/month. Did they axe it bc they only wanted RWD cars?

I have been baffled bc the formula of rebadging a FWD car has been very successful for the other Japanese brands: Honda Accord-Acura TL & Toyota Camry-ES350/300 ... so I wonder why it did not work out for Infiniti ... also interesting that it was based off of the Maxima & not the Altima.

So does anyone think that it was a mistake to kill the model? Infiniti still sells less than Acura ... roughly 10,000/month. An I35 could have given a few thousand more if they were interested in sales. If image was the problem, does 1 FWD rebadged model really hurt? Again, the TL & ES350 are big sellers ...


On a side note: I was not around when this thread was started & I see that some posters have not changed 1 bit in 4 years.

agranado

If they brought it back, where in the lineup would they put it? The current maxima is quite expensive and quite badass.. it already looks like an infiniti from the inside already.. and the price difference between a Maxima and a G35/7 sedan just a couple thousands.

Mistake to kill the model? Dont think so - Infiniti has exploded over the past couple years, since the early 2000's to be exact. (around the time they killed this car off.. coincidence? who knows.) Mistake to bring it back at this point? I think so.

titan

I guess it's all in the eyes of the beholder. Like the ES350 is for Lexus, the I30/35 was Infiniti's best selling model, and profitable because it was made from a plain vanilla people mover. Same goes for the TL. Infiniti took the gamble because it wanted to be seen as the "Japanese" BMW, making serious sports sedans and coupes. Creating an all RWD based lineup was critical to that mission. The G35 was introduced to huge aclaim, seen as a serious comeptitor to the 3-Series. The second gen M (the first was just a stop gap place holder) is seen as a serious competitor to the 5-Series. IMO, what's critical moving forward to Infiniti's future is a real flagship to rival the 7-Series and S-Class, and then a 6-Series competitior or even the rumored CLS fighter. Anyway, that's my .

Ken1997TL

The Maxima has always been more upscale than the Accord and slots in perfectly. No need for an I35 in terms of branding (the I30/I35 was a very nice car though)

Mokos23

Infiniti needs to bring a G25 with a small V6 for people who want an Infiniti that will get 30 mpg highway.

Ken1997TL

Infiniti could do that now with their current lineup. No need for changing the motors, just change the gear ratios

biker

^ but the combined mileage would still suck. Infiniti needs something smaller and more efficient. They are just as bad as Caddy in that their smallest vehicle is around 3500lbs with a 300HP engine.

Whiskers

The 2008 G35 and the 2009 Maxima is basically the same car (Maxima is larger and has the CVT engine, FWD)....You can get the G35 cheaper then the Maxima though...

Sclass88

I always liked the I35... Very classy looking car

bgsm1th

My wife had an I30t for 4 years (we just sold it two weeks ago), that thing was a champ and the retail held well. Especially when considering it was a discontinued model.
Plenty of power (as long as you're not drag racing) yet classy enough for picking up clients or valet-ing at a nice restaurant.

We spent less than $2k in maintenance in that 4 years...not bad.

JediMindTricks

no, i don't think it was a mistake because the G has been extremely successful, and the M has been a winner as well.

i guess the I would fit in somewhere between the two in size and maybe closer to the G in pricing. i did like the car a lot as i've always liked the maximas.

but i'd hope that infiniti's priorities right now is reintroducing the Q, a 4 cylinder G ( ) and no more CUVs ( ) before bringing back the I.

and as for the maxima's pricing, it's a brand new model, and i'd imagine the $ will go down a lot in the next few months like the altimas.

bgsm1th

They only have two, and the FX is the best in that segment.
(but I'm bias)

JediMindTricks

i know. but there were articles that said they wanted to make more.

civic4982

I think the issue was more of Renault helping Nissan and Infiniti dig themselves out of the hole they were in and trimming down the line-up really helped that bottom line.

sipark

G35 and Maxima are basically the same? Wtf?

Whiskers

The interior is identical...