2003 Infiniti G35

[NightShift]

I've always liked this car, although mostly for the LED taillights. I saw a 2003 today on the way home from work and the LED taillights are soooooo cooooool. Omg i've never seen hotter taillights lol. Has anyone ever seen one in action? They are bright and there are only like 11 LEDs in each circle. Each one is pretty bright. Are they using luxeons? Heres a closeup G35

And here are the rest of the pictures on the index page:
http://www.infinitihelp.com/Infiniti...os%20Coupe.htm

[yuandrew]

I have seen lots of commercial vehicles (trucks, buses) and some cars that are outfitted with LED taillights. I don't think they use Luxons but they use the High Flux "spider" Leds instead. I have seen these up close on a tractor trailer before. Other car I saw with LED tail lights are ones made by Lincoln and BMW

[iddibhai]

those look like LEDs to me, making that the first known application where both brakes AND turn lamps are LEDs (usually just brakes are LED in the tail cluster) 2003 BMW 330Ci (convertible/coupe only) *sweet* car, with adaptive brake lamps and bi-xenon headlamps (they turn into the curve)

EDIT: cropped picture to save loading time and prevent horizontal scroll

[avusblue]

Funny this thread came up today. My good friend is in the market for an upscale car so he and I went test driving. Among other cars, we drove the Infiniti G35, first and automatic, then a 6 speed manual with the Sport package. Wow, and double wow! Tremendous car. Tons of power and torque, quiet and smooth, rock solid stable handling and ride, great features, knockout styling, nice interior room, reasonable value relative to its competition. My far and away #1 pick of the day.

The also rans: Acura TSX (buzzy engine with all the power at high rpms, too small) Lexus ES300 (beautifully luxurious, but pillowy soft ride and handling), Audi A4 (too small and expensive, but nice car and the Quattro 4WD is very attractive), BMW 3-series (again small, very expensive, very common.)

Ah, the choices of those with the means.

[Saaby]

iddibhai, would you mind resizing that image just a bit [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] thanks!

[iddibhai]

the G35 no doubt has a sweet powerplant, and the biggest thing it has going is the $$$--or lack thereof--relative to the competition. Oddly, the G35 is squared against the 330i; I would consider them different size classes and wouldn't cross shop them. My only peeve with the car (pushed uncle to test one; he really liked but, but during the summer of 02, the only ones availble were almost fully loaded with stuff he didn't want--got a 328) is lack of interior quality materials. heck my 02 camry has nicer switchgear!

[avusblue]

[ QUOTE ]
iddibhai said:
My only peeve with the car . . . is lack of interior quality materials. heck my 02 camry has nicer switchgear!

[/ QUOTE ]

You should go back and look again. They did a running change and introduced "2003.5" models over the winter that have upgraded the interior materials, made HID headlights standard equipment, and made the stock stereo Satellite Radio ready. You can tell them also by a revised look to the trunk lid -- the "INFINITI" letters are spread across the whole trunk instead of jammed into the middle, and the seam where the handle was has been removed. Its a great all around car, I'm a big fan.

[tech]

I believe that Cadillac was the first to use LED's for brakes and turn signals back in 2000:
http://www.autoworld.com/news/Cadillac/2000Deville.htm

This raises an issue that I wanted to see what people thought about:

LED's are safer due to response time, but are LED taillights "better" in the long run when compared to incan. lights?
Here are some issues I was thinking about:

When you get hit you replace 1-2 bulbs, depending on your car. With LED's you will either have to replace 100 LED's, or more likely a module that has many LED's on it.
With bulb burnout, it is less likely you will replace LED's due to lifespan, but you are playing the odds. The more LED's you use, the more likely they will have different life spans. So, it is likely (over time) that you can drive behind a $30k-40k car with one LED out, or two, or twelve.

So, are LED's really worth it in cars?

All this being said, I don't even know how much it costs to replace LED modules or bulbs on one of these fancy cars...bulbs are cheap!


T.

[avusblue]

HID headlights are really the same issue, just on the opposite end of the car. Replacing a cheap, consumable bulb with a very expensive but more permanent asset usually doesn't pay, other than for the styling and prestige benefits. That's why they'll be found only on high-end cars until the cost of the new innovation drops enough for it to be anything other than a "fashion" element that people will pay a premium for.

I would be willing to bet that with LED taillights, the bigger risk factor than burnout, is collision repair. The odds are probably higher that you'll get rearended some point in the car's lifespan and have to replace the assy, than that some number of LEDs would fail.

My $.02,

Dave

[Willmore]

I've got to disagree on the HID headlight issue. Due to their 'never need to be replaced for the normal lifetime of the car' character, they save a lot in maintenance costs. Do you know how much it costs to replace headlights? On most cars, you can't even get at the back of the headlight assembly without taking apart a good deal of stuff that's in the way.

Sure, the *bulb* is cheap, but the task is the issue. The flip side is that they have to design that area to be accessable--with HID, they don't. That gives the designer more options on how to layout components in the engine bay.

LED taillights are very similar. I've already heard comments from freinds in that industry that several brands are going all LED simply due to *space* issues. They can get a few more cubic feet of trunk space by going with the thinner LED tail lights than the deep reflectored incandescent assemblies.

But, back on topic, I don't like the look of the recent crop of Japenese cars--which is sad as they had been going in a direction that I liked, until this year. I hate to break it to them, but they're *not* european sports cars, they're something entirely different and they need to work on developing their *own* identity and quit trying to play 'me too'. Darnit, people, you make fine cars, why do you have to try to emulate others? Don't even get me started on this new crop of not-quite-SUV-but-horribly-styled *things* out there--FX45, etc. Ickey...

[IlluminatingBikr]

NightShift,

The pics you posted are of the G35 Sports Coupe. Check out the G35 (non-sports coupe). More G35 Pics.

I sure like the car too. Sat in one at the dealership a while ago. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Very cool! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[HiPwr]

Nightshift you got my intrest up on this one so im going to find out the scoup on what kind of leds they use and maintanance costs/replacement. Im interested in the optics of the headlights too. http://www.nissannews.com/multimedia...03g35coupe.jpg

Tech tks for link , As of 03 cadi promoting the only passenger vehicles in the world with available Night Vision.
http://www.cadillac.com/cadillacjsp/...sion.html#more

Willmore on developing their *own* identity , I think there all in the same game of who can sell the most moving capsules with expensive breakable trinkets inside, and of course "service"


Saaby I posted links, havent got the hang of pics yet
[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[iddibhai]

toyota landcruiser and lexus lx470 have IR HUD too.

[ QUOTE ]
Willmore said:
I've got to disagree on the HID headlight issue. Due to their 'never need to be replaced for the normal lifetime of the car' character, they save a lot in maintenance costs. Do you know how much it costs to replace headlights? On most cars, you can't even get at the back of the headlight assembly without taking apart a good deal of stuff that's in the way.


[/ QUOTE ]

A good reason NOT to buy import cars - Japanese cars are notorious for expensive parts and cramped engine compartments that are difficult to maintain. In general, domestics are much easier and cheaper to maintain.

Bulb change on my '93 Dodge Spirit and '95 Chrysler LeBaron - 2 minutes flat, or less. Pop the hood, remove the cable harness, unclip the bulb, replace, reclip and reinstall the cable. A factory replacement oxygen sensor for the Spirit was a third of the cost of an aftermarket O2 sensor for a Honda and took 30 minutes to replace without jacking up the car, on Hondas it's inaccessible from the top of the engine compartment.

I hope the HID fad dies out. They're nothing but a hazard and a nuisance to oncoming traffic. Rain + oncoming HIDs = I can't see the lines on the road. And as others mentioned, they are frightfully expensive if you have to replace them, even after a minor collision.

[Willmore]

Don't get too happy about Dodge. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I can't, for the life of me, remember the name of that car, but they had a sedan in the last decade where to change the plugs, you had to take the whole intake tract off. They tried to use off the shelf parts , but it just didn't quite work.

I do miss being able to buy cheap parts *anywhere* for my car, but I've gotten used to it. Buy a motorcycle, you'll quickly break yourself of the expectation of being able to find parts for your vehicle. It doesn't matter what brand it is. You're still not going to find an oil filter for your Harley at Walmart. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Now, if there were a domestic car that was comparable to my bad, bad, import. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]