Solara or Acura TL?

[fotodad]

And if you are looking for luxury and prestige, Lexus sounds much better than Acura, since Acura status is more as a near luxury brand.

I agree. I feel the Lexus brand offers much more prestige and luxury than Acura or Infiniti. Speaking of Infiniti, personally I'd stay away from Nissan/Infiniti. I owned a Nissan 350Z before trading it in on my Solara. I was not impressed with the build quality. Lots of plastic, lots of rattles, lots of mechanical problems. And not just with my car. After visiting my350Z.com and G35driver (?), I found many owners were dissatisfied. I am convinced Toyota and Lexus are the premiere car manyfacturers in the world with Honda and Acura close behind. I've heard good things about BMW, but I've never owned one so I can't speak from experience. German cars are just so damn expensive and don't seem to be much better than Lexus and Acura.

[slingshot]

[If you have the money for the TL and you want a sedan, you may consider Lexus ES330 (the same engine and tranny as V6 Solara). Even having just 225hp on paper (vs 270hp in TL), Toyota's 3.3l has more torque (esp in the low end) and is more refined.
And if you are looking for luxury and prestige, Lexus sounds much better than Acura, since Acura status is more as a near luxury brand.

It all depends what he wants in a car. Yes, the ES330 is refined, luxurious, and quiet, but if he wants to also have great handling then the TL beats it out. The ES330 has soft shocks and is meant to be a luxo tourer not a handler at all. The TL tries to be both and succeeds from the reviews so far. Both cars must be test driven to compare. It does though sound more prestigious to say you have a Lexus....

[Jackass-Jeff]

Fotodad,

The quality of Infinity vehicles are ridiculously better than that of Nissans. I thought the last gen Max was semi ghetto, and my friend got a I30 (Inifinti Maxima) and the build quality was ridiculously better =]

[Guest]

I think Nissan/Infiniti tend to be a little quirky . . high horsepower and good handling, but always second best in terms of their interiors.

Honda/Acura and Toyota/Lexus both keep their value better, with Honda a little better these days because they don't give as many rebates.

Honda cars tend to be sportier, Toyotas a little more luxurious.

I have a 99 Honda Accord Coupe EX now and can't get that excited about replacing it with a Solara, even though I think it is a great car. Will just wait a bit longer until the timing is right . ..

[slingshot]

The Infiniti G35 Coupe though has very high resale value and was rated best at that for coupes. Remember that before 2003, Infiniti cars were selling badly. Infiniti came up with a bunch of all new car designs none of which were based on Nissan's models and they are starting to get big sales and ultimately higher resale values. The interiors though like you said are not totally up to par.

[Prophet]

Little bit of a tangent on the G35...I know 5 people with 2003 G35's, three co-workers and two relatives and only 1 is happy with that car.

2 complaints of right pulling, complaints with interior integrity across the board, 1 replaced transmission after 8k miles and two who had water leaks into the trunk which took multiple trips to repair in both cases to name just the major complaints I recall.

I understand that you'll find disatisfied customers of any car..even Lexus if you look hard enough though you'll have to look real hard for them....I'm sure there are many happy G35 owners, and I'm not trying to slam the car or Infiniti for that matter...But from what I hear speaking to my cousin and uncle who own the G35, the buzz on this car from owners doesn't even come close to what the mags say about it.

I'm not saying it's not a good car..but I'm not so sure it's 32K good.

[cdssolara]

And if you are looking for luxury and prestige, Lexus sounds much better than Acura, since Acura status is more as a near luxury brand.

I agree. I feel the Lexus brand offers much more prestige and luxury than Acura or Infiniti. Speaking of Infiniti, personally I'd stay away from Nissan/Infiniti. I owned a Nissan 350Z before trading it in on my Solara. I was not impressed with the build quality. Lots of plastic, lots of rattles, lots of mechanical problems. And not just with my car. After visiting my350Z.com and G35driver (?), I found many owners were dissatisfied. I am convinced Toyota and Lexus are the premiere car manyfacturers in the world with Honda and Acura close behind. I've heard good things about BMW, but I've never owned one so I can't speak from experience. German cars are just so damn expensive and don't seem to be much better than Lexus and Acura.

It's really all about what your priorities are in a car. Toyota/Lexus has established a certain brand identity, centered around solid build quality and dependability. Luxury is also part of the equation; obviously more so with Lexus. If those are your priorities, then Toyota/Lexus is for you. If driving excitement is your priority, then you're probably going to be looking elsewhere.

Nissan/Infinit was going downhill fast until the last few years, when they decided to focus on performance. I'll grant that their interiors aren't the greatest, but their performance features are forcing the other car makers (Japanese, especially) to really sit up and take notice. I wouldn't have considered them 3 years ago, but when it came time to buy a sedan early last year, I opted for the G35. I was interested in a certain amount of luxury, but mostly I wanted a car that was really fun to drive. After having the car for almost a year, I absolutely love it. Good power, fantastic handling balance, firm ride without being stiff, and interesting styling (although not for everybody). I also love the reclining rear seats!Given the performance features, I am willing to live with the relatively cheap interior materials. So, as I said, it's all a matter of preference. I would never consider an ES300. Nice car, but too much of a cruiser for me, with much too soft of a suspension.

I also spend a lot of time on the G35 forums, and I don't see where you get the idea that a lot of people are not happy with them. Just like any other forum, people are quick to point out the problems with their cars. They rave about their cars at least as much as people on this forum do about theirs.

[impactX]

Either TL with performance package (Brembo calipers + LSD) or get a G35 coupe.

[TRD4EVR]

Scion tC Sport Coupe on sale sometime in June w/Scion Pure Pricing. Available TRD S/C sometime this year, and later can be factory installed on the tC. Not a V6 though but w/o S/C, it's priced under 20K. Not as big as the TL and Sol though.