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I just leased a new G37 Journey with the "Premium" and "Performance Tire and Wheel" packages.

I am concerned about the transmission. I am not a car enthusiast but the G37 does not feel like a 3.7-liter 328-hp car to me. My previous car was a 2004 Acura TL.

When compared to the 2004 Acura TL, I found the G37 relatively slow to accelerate as if the car has to overcome some kind of resistance when I push on the accelerator.

I also found that the G37 does not keep the momentum as well as the Acura TL when I release the accelerator pedal. I am not knowledgeable about cars but it appears to me as if the transmission downshifts enough to hold the car from keeping its momentum —particularly around 20 mph.

I first drove it on "D" mode and yesterday I switched to "DS" mode. The acceleration improved on "DS" mode but in both modes the car has a noticeably more pronounced deacceleration around 20 mph that feels as if the transmission is holding the car from keeping its momentum. I tried another G37 and had a similar experience.

Is this a typical behavior for a G37? Am I facing "break-in" period or adaptive transmission control issues? The car had 13 miles when I took it from the dealer and now has 125 miles.

I would appreciate your comments.

SilverTL05

i have little over 1111 miles and mine does the same.
I come from 05 TL so I hear your pain.

cvt

drive a manual...you will have no issues.

TJ_coupe

from what I understand, your car is downshifting, like if it were a stick, I think this is supose to improve transminsion life by not letting the tranny freespin when you let off the throttle.. Plus it gives the feel of being more like a sports car. I kinda like it.


I could be wrong. I dont know for sure

Graphite

Thank you for your reply. It allays my fears that there might be something wrong with the car.

I fell in love with the TL when it came-out in 2004 but I was less than enthusiastic when I saw what Acura did with it in 2009. The result: I switched to Infiniti.

KnoxvilleG37

Just so you don't get slammed on here....it's spelled "Infiniti".

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Corrected!

08g37

this is very normal what your feeling at 20 mph the tranny does downshift which does slow the car down. its the same with the coupes and the 5at. your acura is no way even close to the g37 when comes to accelerating from any speed so dont what your talking about ther.

kyo7878

i felt the same when i first got the car, but now @ about 300 miles the down shifts have become quite smooth & acceleration is simply amazing!
the jerky sensation from decelerating only occurs occasionally now.

CarAddict

Congrats. for the new ride and welcome to the family!

What you are experiencing above is 100% normal is a usual characteristic of a sports car. You simply can not compare this car to the TL, even though TL is one of the sportiest front wheel drive cars out there.

Here is why the car is behaving the way you described:

"I found the G37 relatively slow to accelerate as if the car has to overcome some kind of resistance when I push on the accelerator."

That's the traction control kicking in. Otherwise your rear wheels would just spin since so much power is going to the wheels. To make sure this is actually what you are experiencing, try turning off the traction control by pressing the VDC (Vehicle Dynamic Control) switch, which is to the left of the steering wheel and then start from standstill (make sure you turn it back on after the experience).

"I also found that the G37 does not keep the momentum as well as the Acura TL when I release the accelerator pedal. I am not knowledgeable about cars but it appears to me as if the transmission downshifts enough to hold the car from keeping its momentum —particularly around 20 mph."

Again, this is a sports car! The car is downshifting automatically so that when you hit the gas, you have the most power you can get (since the RPM increases faster in lower gears). This is due to the fact that this engine has the most power between the 3.5K to 5.5K RPM.

"I first drove it on "D" mode and yesterday I switched to "DS" mode. The acceleration improved on "DS" mode but in both modes the car has a noticeably more pronounced decceleration around 20 mph that feels as if the transmission is holding the car from keeping its momentum."

When you are in DS mode, the computer assumes you plan to do some spirited driving, so it downshifts more aggresively (you will feel the lack of momentum when you decelerate as well as the sudden jump in the RPM due to the downshifting). And if you noticed, every time a downshift is done, the RPM jumps to above 3K RPM (depending on the speed and the gear you were one before you started hitting the brake, as well as the rate at which you are decelerating). And all of the above are typical behaviour of a manual transmission car.

So I suggest you get out and drive your car more often and get to know it a bit better and basically bond. And do let us know what you think about the car once you did that!

Cheers!

G37beijing

I picked up my G37 4dr Journey (7A) a month ago in Beijing and now have about 1,600 miles on it. Since day one, I noticed some bogging (kind of front-to-back shimmy) at around 36mph (58kph). The bogging is similar to what one would experience when driving a 5-speed at low RPM and higher gears. As long as the speed is kept at 36mph or so, the bogging is persistent. I noticed that the RMP is kind of low at around 1,100 at this speed.

This is not noticeable when accelerating with constant throttle from 0-60mph. But slowing down from higher speed to 36mph causes obvious oscillation. Transmission hesitation is obvious when accelerating from around 36mph.

I'd appreciate comments from G37 owners having similar problems.<!-- google_ad_section_end --> <!-- / message -->

Supermac34

I would like to point out that I have experienced this as well. I did, however, notice that after the car is broken in a bit (about 1000 miles for me) it has really smoothed out.

You can still feel the downshifts, but they are not nearly as dramatic as they were.

joey_v

The biggest difference between a manual and an automatic car is when you let off the gas... the manual is easily placed into a truly neutral position where it can glide or as the first poster said - have "momentum" while an automatic car (especially one which is configured for sport) will never be in a true neutral state and may even downshift given a particular speed.... causing this sensation of a "lack of momentum" as the first poster complained about.

There are 2 things working against the poster here...

1. He has an automatic transmission.
2. He has a poor understanding of the mechanics of the car, the tranny, the regular D vs DS mode.

Your TL has more "momentum" in between stepping on the gas because it was less focused on power and more on ease of the ride. Also, the fact that you feel the TL had more accelerating power because of some resistance intrinsic to the G37 sedan is purely subjective and is likely due to the slightly poor response time of the auto due to the need and down shift prior to really engaging a hard acceleration.

And how do you know exactly what a 328hp car would really feel like?

Herkypilot

I would also like to add that there is a trade-off going on here - the auto makers quest for good gas mileage vs. lots of power. Gas over the last year and a half went up considerably as we all know and Nissan was paying attention. If you mate up a 7 speed tranny with this motor, the shift pattern with normal driving is going to keep a low RPM as much as possible to lower fuel consumption. I've noticed that cruising around up to hwy speeds the RPM's stay below 2K most of the time unless I step on it. I agree there is a slight lag until the tranny downshifts. After that - forget-a-bout-it! It's difficult to keep it below 4K for break-in! I'm still below 300 miles and I expect the smoothness to improve as the car breaks in.

Herkypilot

G37RacerX

Torque maybe, but more horsepower is achieved at 6 and 7K than anywhere between 3.5K to 5.5K RPM.

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