weekend...
Silver SE 6-speed, cloth interior (beautiful, BTW) basically simple car..no Bose, no leather, no sunroof....18" wheels with 245/45 tires.

Fit, finish obsrvations: grille looks odd...dont like it but does not look too garish on a silver car...on a dark car would look blah. Seats and interior ergonomics much better than Gen5...wheel now tilts and telescopes, seats are much better than the Gen5 seats. Guages look too small for me, but okay. Climate control and radio buttons small and not as intuitive as the Gen 5's panel...these will need some memory -or too much looking- to get used to them. Trunk is very nice -the lid uses the BMW-style parallel bar hinges that dont intrude onto the trunk when you close it. Front rotors MUCH larger..easily 1" bigger, fill out the 18" wheels very well. The car will be awkward to drop becaus the rear wheel gap is very small while the front wheel gap is bigger...kinda unbalanced here...perhaps way to go will be drop front only by 3/4 or so -no more.

The ride...ohh the ride. My veredict: much, MUCH better car than the Gen5, sorry to say. Much better suspension dynamics with the long-needed combination of much tauter damping (not springing, damping) yet much less harshness over small, sharp bumps than the Gen5. Railroad x-sings are fabulous...a muted 'thump-thump' is all u hear/feel. Minimal torque steer, gearbox is buttery smooth. The linkage is notchy -meaning it gives you the physical 'snick-snick' feedback but the synchomesh and actual gear engagement buttery-smooth. The car is eerily quiet...much, MUCH less road noise than the Gen5 -much quieter than mine -even with my quiet tires and brown-breaded to the nines.

Dealer was asking 30k because of a 2k 'dealer market adjustment' (yeah, right) but the car's MSRP was in the low $27k range...this is definitely a lot of car for the money....it's eons better than the Gen5. It also looks better in the flesh than in pictures....I liked it a lot.

On the price....when they finally start discounting them -as Nissan always does, that's why our resale sucks) this car will be a deal in the $24k-25k range -but that will be dependent on if and when Infiniti starts discounting the G35s because a comparable manual xmission G35 sedan (leather only) retails at around $28k so....Nissan will definitely have to discount the Gen6 in months to come.

All in all I was very, very impressed...unfortunately!

Interesting. But the bottom line is still around $5K-$6K more expensive than current, especially since this base 6thGen is pushing $30K. I know if I were to unload the AE anytime soon, I would look elsewhere for something in that pricerange.

discount them, it is a good buy -because it is so much car...if not, it's only a small step to the G35...

yeah until the price drops considerably id take a g35 any day.

The bottom line is NOT $5-6k more, unless you previously owned a GXE.

Gen6's start at $26,950 MSRP not including destination. Considering there is no GXE anymore, and that the Gen6's have a bunch of equipment that's now standard that was optional (on SE's) before, there is hardly any price increase. $500-1000 maybe at the most.

You can get a nicely loaded Gen6 with Bose/Leather/Preferred/HLSD for just over $30k MSRP. Once Nissan starts discounting, that will put the car right back in the mid/upper $20k range just like before. A base SE with no options will easily go for the low/mid-$20k area.

The Elite package is where most of the price difference is at $34k, but that wasn't even available on Gen5's.

The Gen6 does cost substantially more and it's slower than the Gen5 (I don't know how the automatics compare performance-wise). To me it doesn't look as comfortable and useable, almost like it is too nice for me to sit in.

I don't care for the new looks, cost, or performance of the Gen6. But maybe it will grow on me.

Thanks for the objective report! I'm anxious to see on in person.

What's all this talk about discounting them? When do you think this will happen and by how much? 10%?

That is predicated upon them being discounted. All I am saying is if they don't (or if others discount theirs as well), I would certainly look more into a G35 or something else since the price differences are becoming less distinct. When I have a price tag of $30K+, I want the experience of dealers who care, etc. Right now I can kind of play that down with cars going for the $20K's.

People are already getting them for $1-2k off MSRP and the car has barely been out for a week.

Hey we are talking about Nissan right? Hardly a difficult prediction to make regarding discounts, 6 months and people will be paying 1 or 2% over invoice if not invoice or below....

OK, the upshot is that about 2-3 years ago, the Max was a good choice because it was one of the only cars out the with a manual transmission, good V6, decent handling and a good price. Back then, noone had car's like the G35, or even God forbid the TL-S. The Max has gotten more competition to bridge the price gap of Nissan to BMW. As such, considering other cars can be gotten for not much more $$$, any increase in Max pricing makes it less attractive. Styling and service issues aside.

I wonder if nissan is offering the Flake Off Option on the 6th gen??

(you know...after your car is three days old the paint starts to chip and flake off every time you drive it) I think on my GXE this was a special package deal with the plastic wheel covers...

is the TL available with a manual now????

I know the CL is...but the TL??? That will be my next car if so....

atty:

Not yet, I threw that in just as another example of a car that is 'new' to the segment.

The seats might be much better than the 00/01 but the 04 I have been in the seats look and feel very much like the 02/03 seats front seats that is. Their is only a slight difference in the look and feel between them, I'm talking about the cloth seats.

Oh...gotcha. If you ask me...they are stupid to not offer a manual in the TL. IF one has been designed for the CL..converting it to the TL could not be that big of an issue. I love my max...but I think that TL's are of a higher quality.