In December I helped a friend buy a new car. We test drove four cars: The BMW 328i Coupe, Infiniti G35 coupe, Acura TSX, and Lexus IS250.
By our evaluation, the G35 ranked 3rd out of 4. (The Acura was last) Admittedly performance was not the primary consideration, but each of these cars is supposed to provide a moderate amount of performance and "fun factor" within a luxury framework. The G35 might offer the best "bang for the buck" performance-wise, but it fell down in other areas.
For example, the Lexus blew everything else away in build quality; even the BMW. Combine that with the Toyota reputation for reliability, and my friend ended up buying an IS250. Now, if you were to choose an IS350 instead, I think you would have a much nicer package than the G35. It\'s a newer car, and the technology level is amazing.
All this assumes you actually care about the luxury feature set, such as heated seats, dual zone climate control, power everything, full leather interior, etc. If you DON\'T care about that stuff (and I don\'t care about most of it) then you could save a lot of money by dropping down to a Honda / Nissan / Mitsubishi / Subaru level product.
