Unfortunately, that wasn't the only complaint about the driveline - everybody grumbled that the G37 was difficult to drive smoothly. To blame are a hyperactive throttle pedal calibration and a numb clutch pedal that grabbed high in the travel but with no positive engagement point. I griped that "with the assault of vibration and harshness reaching your fingertips and ears, you'd think it'd be an easy car to shift, but no. It's as if Infiniti engineers purposely amplified all of the bad feedback and muffled all the sound and feeling that would help the driver interact with the car."
Although most drivers found the G37's seats to be comfortable, our compact production editor, Jen Misaros, complained that the seatbelt's lack of height adjustment "never ceases to be an actual pain in the neck." Other vertically challenged staffers agreed - copy editor Rusty Blackwell found that "a collared shirt is almost a necessity when I drive the G, otherwise I feel like I'm being strangled by the belt." Taller staffers didn't share this problem, complaining instead about a lack of headroom. There were also quite a few comments about how small, high, and shallow the trunk is, but there was not a single bad word uttered about the styling. It's a good thing Blackwell wasn't asphyxiated by the seatbelt, because he lived to suggest that the G37 is "quite possibly the best-looking Japanese car ever built." No one disagreed.
On the open road, the G37's taut suspension provides admirable body control combined with a very comfortable ride, especially impressive considering the large, nineteen-inch wheels. We were all thankful that the laser-guided cruise control could be operated in conventional fixed-speed mode, as it otherwise tended to jam on the brakes abruptly. Drivers, too, had a hard time modulating the grabby brake pedal. The stability control's engagement was also rough, especially when the G37 was trying to avoid getting stuck in the snow, which, even when fitted with four dedicated Bridgestone Blizzak LM25 winter tires, happened more frequently than in other Four Seasons cars.
While none of those shortcomings by itself is egregious, in sum they conspire to reduce the fun-to-drive quotient that makes cars from Infiniti's benchmark, BMW, so easy to live with every day. As a result, the G37 - a dashingly beautiful, stunningly powerful, supremely reliable, and commendably well-built car - was sometimes the last pick when it came time to sign out a car for the night. This was never the case with our last Four Seasons BMW 3-series.
We likely would have much preferred the G37 if we had spent even more money - on an automatic transmission. The two-pedal G doesn't suffer from the dysfunctional clutch/throttle relationship, and the automatic transmission dramatically reduces the amount of engine harshness and vibration that makes it into the cabin. The 2009 G37's newly available, smooth-shifting seven-speed automatic helps make the G37 even quicker than our stick shift model. Also new for 2009 is the all-wheel-drive G37x; with AWD, performance in the snow would have never been brought into question. Of course, switching to an all-wheel-drive, automatic G37x would have cost more money - but then, exercising restraint has never been our strong suit. ...next page >>