consultant1027

I'm about to spring for a used 09 G37X. The things I'm reading here about the 7AT frankly scares me. I saw one owner that sold his G37X at 9K miles because he hated the 7AT so much. I'm wondering if there is much consensus on the following:

1) Is there any clear indication the issues are more common/pronounced on certain years or models (09 vs 10, AWD vs RWD) It is obvious some owners here, although the minority, have not noticed the issues or at consider them to be very significant.

2) Does putting the transmission in DS mode mitigate the problems and if so, has anyone compared gas mileage between driving the car in D mode and very conservatively in DS mode?

3) Is the shifting software not adaptive on these car and if so, could the problems be more pronounced with drivers with certain driving styles. If this is possible, my guess would be it is more pronounced with more aggressive drivers - ya, all you stop and go lead footers in California. Kidding. LOL. But I know one thing is that car forums for specific models have an overwhelming majority of owners that are more performance oriented. Your average Joe, old man conservative driver is not your typical poster here. If the software is adaptive, has anyone tried pulling the ECU fuses to reset the software and see if that make a difference. This would also confirm why people aren't noticing the issues on test drives and in the first few thousand miles of owning the car.

3b) How many people here can honestly say they drive like an old man all the time and still have the problems?

4) There seems to be some posts indicating there was a software update and people alluding to it making things worse? Could the update seemingly making things worse just be the car re-learning your driving style (assuming it is adaptive?) For those that did get the update did things improve over time or stay the same? Is the consensus to avoid the update and was it available on all 09-10 G37s?

5) I would assume full manual shifting mode (via paddles or shifter) completely eliminates these issues since you are in control of gear selection - but sort of defeats the purpose of driving an AT.

6) If the problem is widespread with all types of driving styles, both years and all trims, then I would highly suggest that someone volunteer to find the best contact information for Infiniti USA so that everyone can write a letter to their dealer service department and CC it to the appropriate contact at Infiniti USA. You should at least get a statement that either they are aware of the problem and working on it, will look into the problem and get back to you, or have investigated the problem and determined there is no issue and what everyone is experiencing is normal due to.....

D_Nyholm

iTrader: (2)

I've only had my car for 1000 miles, but I have noticed clunky shifts when I am driving around conservatively and also when i get on it. It seems to be the shift into 4th where i'll get a knock or clunk noise.

Boomer-Bob

iTrader: (1)

~12,000 on my '09 Sedan. I have driven many cars over the past years, corporate, performance, rental, owned. The 7AT is in my experiance, a very nice trans. However, in D-rive it acts like there is a rubber band between the gas peddle and the engine, probably for gas mileage. DS or Manual seem to cure that. If you don't order an "S" I'd suggest to install a set of paddles. (They can be purchased from Riverside Infiniti for ~$250.00.)
I'm very impressed by this car.

P.S. I am an old man.

blnewt

iTrader: (13)

Pretty much this ^
We had an 07 5AT and now have an 09 7AT, and I really liked the 5AT since it always seemed to be in the right gear at the right time and power was quickly available. At first the 7AT seemed pretty clunky & indecisive, but has improved as time went on (and I've also adapted my driving style along the way). I really wish they'd have kept everything about the 5AT and just added a real high 6th gear strictly for an overdive high mpg highway cruising, but the 7AT is pretty decent once you get some seat time w/ it. Not a deal breaker at all for me, but the crappy paint is

sniper27

iTrader: (2)

it's worse in stop and go traffic. the shifts are real jerky and the throttle lag gets annoying in traffic.

jb606

+1
That is where most of the "clunky" shifts happen to me. It's bad when I can drive a manual smoother then an AT. Oh well that's what I get for wanting AWD.

Note to Infiniti: Offer a G with a MTX and AWD and I'll be first in line!

Zoomdog

I have 25K miles on my '09 and I'm of the opinion that the transmission adapts to your driving style, although it takes a while to do it. I suspect that many new G37 owners drive aggressively with their new toy (as I did) and the trans will tend to keep you in a lower gear with higher RPMs to stay in the power band. There are lots of posts here that complain about rough downshifts when braking, but I think the tranny is just anticipating the next aggressive throttle input.
I've really mellowed my driving style (speeding tickets do that to you) and my trans has mellowed as well. It no longer holds a gear in higher RPMs but seems to shift quickly to 5-6-7 (for better gas mileage, I guess). The downside to your tranny adapting to granny mode is there can be a lag when the tranny is a couple of gears too high in some situations. If you find the trans is not reacting quick enough you can always tip the shifter over to DS mode, which immediately jumps from granny shifts to "game on".

consultant1027

I wondered if anyone has tried to do as objective of a test as possible between gas mileage with a) full auto, b) DS mode, c) manual shifting. The trick obviously is to keep the type of driving and style consistent. I wonder how much of a difference there is.

cvroom

overall i think the trans is good but could be better. facts are that it does need a quicker response to downshift when you give it gas and it does have some kind of flare issue (well known issue... search 7at flare). i agree something shoudl be done about that or maybe there is some logical explanation (maybe the vvel is has something to do with it)

our G has 6k miles on it now. I am 50/50 mixture of conservative and aggressive while driving . My wife is very conservative with it. She usually takes the car to work but for the last 2 weeks she has not and i have been the only one driving it . lately i have not noticed the trans doing anything herky jerky. maybe this is do to that fact that i have been driving it lately and it has adapted?? before that it i would notice harsh shifts here and there. i dont know but i think it has something to do with it.

IMO these issues with the 7at are minor and their is no reason it should stop you from buying the G.

consultant1027

I don't think any AT is going to be perfect since they can't read your mind. Although I've heard from other performance-oriented car enthusiasts I know that the Lexus/Toyota AT is pretty damn good. Acura/Honda ain't too bad either but neither of them have a 7-speed last time I checked. That's the problem right there is with such a tight gearing ratio you are going to get more gear changes than on a 5-speed.

Apparently there was a software update release last summer I think addressing a harsh downshift or something or other. A poster who had the update installed said it helped but didn't turn it into a totally different behaving AT all together, of course, who would expect that? Yet I saw a post on another thread that they though the update made it worse! The thing is these updates can take a while as they have to be approved by the DOT supposedly or some other government agency.

I'm beginning to see a pattern though but need more responses to see if it pans out. All the 'no issues' votes are from drivers describing themselves as conservative (what I call 'old man' style Then we have cvroom saying the car didn't seem to have issues with shifting as much after his wife drove it. So my guess is maybe when it adapted to your wife (assuming she is a conservative style driver) that 'smoothed' things out a bit? The question is, how many miles or shifts typically does the adaption take? This might not be the cast considering a complaint is that the car doesn't downshift quick enough. It would seem this would get worse adapting to a more conservative driver?

sniper27

iTrader: (2)

it's the other way around for me. i live in L.A. and in traffic constantly, so I don't really get a chance to drive aggressively. it seems the G doesn't like stop and go traffic and conversative driving. that's where it gets a little fuzzy. when i do get the chance to punch it, it's perfect.

so far, the best auto i've driven is the Audi DSG. granted, it's a dual clutch tranny, but that thing is so smooth, you wouldn't know where the shift points were unless you were looking at your tach. upshifts are near instantaneous and downshifts are seemless also.

use2vw

iTrader: (2)

Simple...GET a 6sp manual. I've had 4000 miles in a '10 37X wondering if this 7AT is broken - since it drives so bad. Wrong gear wrong time, herky jerky shifts at 3-4, clunks, delays...If I'm in DS manual mode all the time I might as well be rowing a manual all along...love the car but 7AT is my biggest regret.

jb9573

4500 miles on our G37S and really like the 7AT. Rev match downshifts are very nice and usually smooth. They're also pretty quick. Upshifts are very quick. They're not quite as quick and jarring as a BMW 335, but they still keep the motor in the power band from one gear to the next. It's a pretty good trade-off in my mind to a manual if you're spouse is unwilling to drive a manual transmission car or you don't have the disposition to do so on a daily basis yourself.

That said, D mode is pretty bad in that the transmission doesn't seem to guess what you're wanting to do very readily. But if you put it in Sport, it seems to get rid of that indecisiveness pretty well.

I have no regrets. D is good for gas mileage and staying in high gear. Sport corrects the previously mentioned warts that D has. And the paddles allow you to banzai around, feeling like you know what you're doing (up and down the gears) regardless of skill level.

But then again, being the "old man" referenced above (not that I putter around in the least), I have the insight to realize nothing's perfect and with most good things you get in something, there's likely a concession you have to make. Overall, the concessions are minor...you just have to know which mode to be in.

SteveVN

I'm wondering how much previous rides impact the varying perspectives here?

Until a month ago when I got my G37S, I was driving a modded '95 Trans Am with 6-spd and 4.10 rear end. (Talk about torque!) In comparison, I find the 7AT in DS mode to be great. Love the blip and engine braking on deceleration and the up shift points vary just right based on how much I have my foot into the throttle. No, it's not a manual, and I am disappointed in the shift lever delay, but for daily driving in traffic the 7AT works for me.

maxfinity

I've had me 2010 g37 for about 3 mths and it now has 4600 miles on it. When I first got the car i thought something was wrong with the transmission because of how jerky it was but now that it has adapted to my drivng style(or vice versa) the transmission is alot better. I used to hate the engine braking as well but after 4600 miles thats also alot better. Just takes a little time for the tranny to adjust. Definitely not a deal breaker but as someone mentioned above, the paint is.