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Value Rating
Above Average
IntelliChoice Value Rating
The chart above shows the purchase price versus ownership cost for each car from a specific vehicle class. The cars with better than average ownership cost/purchase price correlations are the best values, and these best value cars are represented by the dots below the curve. (i.e. the cars that have a lower ownership cost compared to its purchase price.) Those cars, which are worse than average or poor values, appear above the curve.
One way to view the graph is to draw a vertical line through any purchase price. You may see several dots that fall on this line - each of which is a car with a similar purchase price. However, notice the difference in ownership costs of each car represented by the vertical position of the dot. Two cars with the same purchase price can have thousands of dollars difference in ownership costs. This is what separates "good value" cars from "poor value" cars.
What is a good car value?
A "good car value" is one whose cost to own and operate is less than expected. The lower the cost to own and operate a car compared to what is expected, the better the value of that car.
But how do we know a car's "expected cost"?
For each car in the class, IntelliChoice plots the car's purchase price against the total five-year cost to own and operate it as determined by IntelliChoice research. Each dot on the above chart represents a specific car. Generally, we find that as the purchase price of the car increases, the cost to own and operate that car increases. This is why the dots on the graph tend to rise upward and to the right. This phenomenon also makes intuitive sense - as the purchase price rises, financing costs tend to rise, as do insurance, depreciation, taxes, and most other car ownership costs.
This is an important concept. It's normal for car ownership costs to rise as purchase price rises. Therefore, we can't just establish one "average" ownership cost number for each class, since cars in the class have different purchase prices. (This is why the "Relative" shown on each chart is different for cars in the same car class.)
Using statistical techniques, IntelliChoice "connects the dots" to form a curve that defines, for this car class, the relationship between the car's purchase price and car's ownership costs. This curve is our "expected cost" curve. The curve defines, for any car in the class, the five-year ownership cost that we would expect to see at each possible purchase price. If every car in the class were an average value, then all the dots would fall exactly on the curve. However, it's rare that any dot is exactly on the curve. Some dots are a little higher or lower, and some are a lot higher or lower. The dots that are a little lower are better than average car values, while the dots that are a lot lower are excellent car values (A dot that is a lot lower than the curve has ownership costs much lower than expected for a car of its purchase price). Conversely, a dot a little higher than the curve is a poorer than average car value, while a dot that is much higher than the curve is a poor car value.
Value is a relative term, not an absolute term. It is performing better than the logical expectation.
So is a Mercedes-Benz E320 expensive to own and operate? Certainly in an absolute sense. Most other cars cost less. But, when its cost to own and operate is plotted against cars with comparable invoice prices, the E320 costs less. So the E320 is not expensive to own and operate - it is a good car value. The Mercedes does not have low ownership costs, but it has low ownership costs for its invoice price.
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Review From Motor Trend Magazine
Fleet Update: 2007 Infiniti G35 S
By Scott Mortara
Road trips and praise abound for the G35, which never spends a night in our garage. Everyone loves the redesigned interior; the bolster-mounted seat controls are gone, something that bothered many staffers in the previous generation. One complaint has been voiced, however: The throttle response is too aggressive -- too much input from a stop, and you can give yourself whiplash or even break the tires loose if on wet pavement or over a painted line. Still, with enough seat time, light throttle modulation becomes a snap. MORE MOTOR TREND VOICES: Impressive how forgiving both the suspension and transmission can be in drive if you just plain want to veg out, but is quick to respond when you need a burst of speed or have a set of tight corners to run when flipping to Sport mode. Shocks must be active to adjust so quickly. Throttle gets real touchy at times-sometimes when I don't want it to be and others when I'm hoping it would. Regardless, the whole setup feels much more expensive than a $35K price tag would predict. Sport package is impressive and worth every penny. Paddle shifters are quick and smart, and always make me feel like a better driver than I actually am. Did have trouble with the start/stop button and killing the battery. Pretty sure I didn't turn it all the way off and locked the car up to see a movie. Three hours later, all the lights were still on and it was in some kind of default alarm mode. Result was not enough juice to turn over the engine. Left the battery charger on slow charge over night and registered full. -MARK WILLIAMS In the standard D(rive) mode the tip-in on this G35 S is way too aggressive-in a lipstick-smearing, coffee-spilling, poking-your-eye-out-with-the-mascara sort of way. I found that my front seat passengers glared at me after only a couple of launches. What's unusual about that is it took less than 5 minutes. I've discovered that the G35 prefers the Sport mode for launches (in either auto or manual shift). Ahhhhhh, much better-a smooth launch, sans the jerky and overanxious personality it exhibits in D. Once underway it's an E ticket event suitable for such a sporty sedan. -THOMAS VOEHRINGER Spent four days recently in the G, and I have to say the second-gen is world's better than the first in many ways. First off, the interior is a huge step up. The brushed out accent materials resist the scratching that plagued the old Gs console, and gone is the dated orange lighting. In its place is one of the easiest to use center stacks I've encountered out of the near lux sport sedan crowd. The center dial isn't the maestro like BMW/Audi - but it's more of a complement to help run the functions. Every control is easy to deal with and operate, cool features galore without you having to hunt and peck, very intuitive. Love the gauges and lighting accents as well. Nice work. The driver's seat is super comfy, almost too much so for an S model. It has a lot of interior room, front and back, as well as a nice-sized trunk, definitely one of the most spacious midsize sport sedans going. Like others have noted, I've found the throttle lag before the engine boots to be somewhat annoying, it's kind of herky jerky at the start. Tried the paddles and it seemed to help some but it's still there, although with some practice you could probably get it smoothed out. But once underway, Nissan's 3.5-liter (which is making way for the next-gen 3.7) is without question one of the most bad ass six bangers going and moves the G out with quickness. -MIKE FLOYD | 2007 Infiniti G35 S | | Total mileage | 7,918 | | Average fuel econ | 17.9 mpg | | Unresolved problem areas | None | | Maintenance cost | $118.68 (7.5K service) | | Normal-wear cost | $0 |
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