My G37, with 22.5k miles on the ODO and less than 1k on the ODO since buying it is already acting up.

Started my car this morning. It was admittedly cold out (-10*F), but the car sounded awful. The motor sounded like utter crap, none of the buttons in the car had any feedback, the transmission had no feedback selecting gears, and the shifts while driving were extremely rough. After letting it warm up for a few minutes I drove it, and after ~10 mins of driving it felt fine.

Parked at work, went in for a bit, then came out to drive my car about 30 mins later. I get in and all of a sudden I have an airbag light flashing at me as well as a "service engine soon" light. My car will now not go above ~5 mph when in gear. No idea what's wrong. I called Infiniti's 24 hour road side assistance number and my anticipated wait time to talk to someone is... 4 hours. Nice.

I hate to be "that guy", but my god damn Honda Civic handled cold weather better than this. For a car that was touted as a "40 thousand dollar luxury car" when I was buying it, I'm frankly unimpressed.

 

Maybe that's why the previous guy traded it? A lemon perhaps. Most cars I've had were not too happy starting at -10 F. None of the subsystems were happy either.

 

It's unfortunate your car is in limp mode now, but there are plenty of northern G owners that have had zero issues with their car. The car idles roughly when it is cold, that's a fact, and the transmission takes a little while to warm up too. Your experiences seem to be far from the norm when it comes to the car in that kind of climate, I wouldn't be so quick to blame the entire service line.

 

It seems like the cold is wreaking havoc on your G.

At the very least I would bring it in and have it checked out. If you discover anything major that wasn't mentioned to you when you purchased it, you may be able to take some legal action

Nick C.

 

Just be glad it went into limp mode instead of something much worse. Every single car manufacturer has had an issue of some sort at some time but that doesn't mean the line up is bad.

I would call a tow truck and have them bill the road side assitance company that the dealer you purchased from is using. You can tell them it was an emergency.

 

Honda/Acura pretty much lost me for life with the transmission debacle from 2000-2003.

Yeah, the G went into limp mode, but at least you didnt lose all forward gears in the middle of a funeral procession.

Starting the very preliminary search for a replacement for our 10 yr old Acura TL. As much as it pains me to say, I refuse to buy another Honda/Acura product. I think they are probably some of the best value and vehicles out there right now, but I just cant risk being burned again. I can only imagine what would have happened if my wife was driving her car when the transmission died....at least I was driving and knew it was coming before it was completely gone (granted, it went from "fine" to "oh crap I cant go anywhere" in all of 2 miles)

 

I had the same problem with my shifting this morning. It was right around 10-13ºF and I noticed the shifts were odd

After the engine warmed up everything was fine

 

Yes, I'm sure Infiniti as a whole is a nice line up,but frankly, this car performs like **** when it's cold out, and it's inexcusable. I just have higher expectations when my 20k Honda civic handled the weather better than a premium car like this. Even when the car is working, I've noticed how rough it rides before it warms up. It's definitely shaking my faith in this car lasting.

 

I hope you're not starting your car and just driving off.....

I start my car and let it run for about 4-5 minutes even before I start driving in the morning. When I begin driving, I take it very easy until the trans and diff fluid gets up to operating temperature.

Your civic runs better because a) it's a 4-cylinder and it warms up quicker, b) because it's FWD, your trans fluid warms up quickly being close to the engine, and c) those motors are built to be turned on and driven. The VQ37 is a performance motor and needs time to build oil pressure and warm up. Don't expect it to perform right off a cold start. I think you're jumping to conclusions a bit too quickly...

Also, keep in mind that it's -10 out... that car needs to warm up.

 

"It's a performance motor and needs time to warm up" is honestly such a cop out excuse. This is a mass production sedan, not a full-fledged, niche market sports car. My civic was an Si and had the "performance" motor in it as well, still drove fine cold. When you go up in vehicles you don't expect to go down in performance, even just cold starting. Just my $0.02.

 

Is the car at the dealers yet?
It's obvious that your G shouldn't run this way. Hopefully it's a quick and easy fix.
8 years on the G35/37 forums and I haven't read of anyone's car going into limp mode due to -10F temperatures so it's not common. Best of luck. Let us know what the issue was.

 

^ say what? where are you getting this info from? what does being a 4-cylinder have to do with warming up quicker versus a 6-cylinder? and what does Nissan do that doesn't allow their engines to be "turned on and driven"?

none of your 3 points makes any sense. please do not steer the OP in the wrong direction. if you can show some documented data supporting your statements, i'll stand corrected. until then, the OP should (and probably already has) ignore your comments.

OP - as others have mentioned above, your G sounds like it is not 100% healthy. have it checked out. you are under warranty so any driveability issues will be sorted out by the dealer. use the roadside assistance to tow you in to a dealer if necessary. countless G owner on here live in cold climates and have not experienced cold driving problems as you have described.

 

Yea, this sounds like a specific issue with the vehicle. Sucks that you have to go thru this. Also, I don't 100% agree with the whole "needing to warm up" theory. Now obviously you shouldn't get in first thing in the morning, start it up and floor it but I have read a lot of documentation saying that warming a vehicle up is a myth outside of actually warming up the inside temp for comfort. I think the theory comes from older vehicles. I grew up having to run outside and start up my Mom's car in the morning but I am pretty confident that this is not a necessity at all.

Here are some links BTW:

Should You Warm Up Your Car in Winter - Warming Up Car - The Daily Green

6 car care myths and mistakes - Myth: Wait, it's still warming up (3) - CNNMoney.com

 

I think the purpose of "warming up the car" is to get the oil to operating temperature, so it will flow more easily and lubricate as it is supposed to. Similarly, some of the exhaust components function better when they are hot (catalytic converters) and benefit from being "warmed up."

 

I hear ya, I am not saying that there are not benefits to letting it warm up. I am just pointing out that some people observe this as a rule when in fact it doesn't do all that much. Now -10 degrees may be a different story but I still don't think you should have had the issues you had simply because of that temperature. I have ran my car for about 5 minutes first thing in the morning before heading to work. I do it so that I am not freezing for the first 5 minutes of my drive, lol. It just feels so much better getting into a warm car.