a well thought out, cogent comparison. when i got rid of the oem conti's and went with new oem ps2's, i couldn't believe how much more quiet they were.
although my wife appreciates an insular ride, she gets the srt-6 and appreciates them as much as i do.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. One thing I forgot to mention....the brakes. I felt comfortable with the brakes on the SRT-6 almost instantly. Very similar to the S2000. Good grip, progressive response, easy to modulate, ABS not too intrusive even when you stand on the pedal. Yes I did. I like to know how the car responds at the limits. There wasn't a lot of drama with the SRT-6.

Contrast those two cars with my wife's 08 G35x. Good grip but not progressive at all. Initial clamping will rock you forward in the seat before it settles in to a more progressive action. That initial grab makes the car hard to control smoothly and annoys the crap out of me. I think this was intentional on the part of Infiniti. It gives the illusion of "whoa, good brakes" to the unwashed masses.

Infiniti did the same thing with throttle tip in. The first few mm of travel make the car leap off the line before the VQHR engine settles into a more predictable throttle response. This no doubt elicits "ooohs and ahhhs" from the average luxury car customer. For me, it's just annoying because it gets in the way of driving the car smoothly. And the sad thing is that the Nissan VQHR engine doesn't need any help to create an illusion of power. It's an excellent engine.

Actually, Chrysler was using this annoying little "trick" on its mainstream offerings back in the late 90's and early part of the last decade. It can make a mediocre power train seem a lot beefier to unsophisticated customers. Just dump gobs of fuel and air in the engine at tip-in and wow "this thing's got power". Uh, no.....what it's got is non-linear throttle response. I was worried they may have done the same thing with the SRT-6.

Contrast this with the S2000 which is nice and progressive. LOL it has to be, the F22C engine peak torque is reached at 5,800 RPM. Or the SRT-6 where the engineers elected to keep the throttle very linear and controllable. That's a good thing in a lightweight car with this much low & midrange torque. This is my first supercharged car. I've had turbos before and the more linear response of the supercharger is a nice surprise. There's absolutely no spike in power from boost arriving at say 4,000 RPM. It's just there all the time and very easy to modulate.

 

First visit to the dealer service dept......

For all of you naysayers (Doc), I noticed the "B" service icon light up in the instrument cluster this week. So, having Good Friday off I called my dealer's service department at about 9:00AM this morning and asked them if they could take care of the "B" service and do a coolant flush today. Because they know me, they said "no problem" bring the car in about 12:30. I picked up 9 quarts of Mobil 1 0W-40 and a Fram Extended Life filter only because they are a small dealer and I wasn't certain they'd have this basically euro-spec oil in stock.

I showed up at 12:30 and as I got out of the car, a tech jumped in and drove it right into a service bay. I told the service manager what the car needed and that I brought my own oil & filter. He said they do have the 0W-40 & filter but they would use my oil & filter, no problem. I spent a few minutes talking about the SRT-6 and other SRT cars as well as some older Mopar muscle cars with a few of the guys there. One guy has an old 440 Cuda. Then I wandered off to the Italian restaurant next door for lunch.

The damage / raking over the coals? $25.74 for the oil change and $119.00 for the cooling system flush and fill for a total of $153.42 including $8.68 tax. Combine 9 quarts of oil for $75 plus $12 for the filter and the maintenance was about $240 altogether. Not bad.

The service manager said their charge for an oil change with their 0W-40 on the SRT-6 is $99. So, virtually the same as buying my own oil. In the future, I'll just use their oil and filter.

I talked through the coolant change and they did in fact drain both the radiator and the "charge cooler". They told me that although the original factory fill was blue colored, the current Chrysler HOAT coolant is Reddish which is consistent with my research.

I was on my way by 2:30, about two hours. The car was delivered back to me spotless inside and out including under the hood. Somehow, I'm not feeling screwed. I'm sticking with my dealer.

 

That's a good story and I find my Chrysler dealer treats me fairly, too. It's just that he is 30 miles away and I have a real good local indie that works on my two Audis and the three Crossies.

 

Hi Goldwing. It helps me a lot. Thanks for it. I will definitely enjoy it.

 

Great find! Glad to see one in such great shape!

First, If you like to drive it hard and have not yet flushed the brake fluid. I suggest Motul 600 for a replacement as it will not boil under hard track conditions. Even if you never get under track like conditions, it's an excellent fluid and gives you an extra piece of mind.

Second, the factory pads and rotors are excellent in their own right, but can fade under hard conditions. I have Porterfield pads and Disc Italia rotors (purchased Cross-drilled and slotted, Cryo-treated before delivery) for the track and they are a step above by a long shot. That being said, I would NOT run the pads on the street for long as they have two drawbacks.

1. They squeal like mad when cold to moderately warm.
2. They wear the rotors HARD. Very abrasive pad. Porterfield does have a R4S pad, which is a low dust street pad. I'll probably go with them when the factory pads are closer to the middle of their life. I've got over 60k on the clock and the front factory pads are still over half there. The rears are not nearly worn at all. Go figure.

Other things to look for is the rust under the weather stripping line at the bottom of the door as well as at the bolts that hold on the rear wing inside the hatch. If you see corrosion, get it tended to quickly. The bolts can be cleaned or replaced and simply re-seal the holes when re-installing the wing. Not to sure about the door rust treatment as I don't have any here in Northern California.

Another place to watch for water damage is actually UNDER the solid foam cores underneath your trunk area floor. You can't see the water without either removing them or cutting through the trough on the right (normally for the first aid kit in Europe). I found that I had to reseal the wiring harness boot coming from the hatch into the body at the body seal point. Black RTV was my savior on that one. No more leaks, even with a garden hose pouring over it for 2 hours!

Your NAV data is WAY out of date, but it is good in a pinch. I suggest looking in the audio/video section for a replacement head unit. Also good article there on utilizing the factory amp in it's true four channel capacity. I did this a few days ago and what a difference with an after market head unit! I use my $99 Garmin as my NAV now. ($89.00 lifetime update for it and I'm set!)

You may notice over time that the Suede will wear, mainly in the driver's seat and seat back. Also, the side bolsters will wear a bit from entry and egress. I will probably have mine re-skinned. I know an upholsterer that will remove the skin and replace sections. Hopefully before the end of summer I can get that done.

Replacing the Intercooler pump is well worth it. I can attest to that.

License Plate Lights may go out on you a lot if you have any rough roads in the area. Monitor them and possibly replace with LED bulbs if it becomes an issue. I had to do this myself about two years ago.

Again, excellent find! And I had a lot of fun chasing and being chased by an S2000 at a track weekend. They are wonderful cars and, as you say, the VTEC is a noteworthy technology.

 

Take your car to a dealer in central IN and you will see why I am a nay sayer...glad you have a good one....hope you like you your 6...from the comments, you may not....lol....

 

Say whut? What makes you think I don't like the car? My commute this morning was 1 hour and 57 minutes to go the awesome distance of 33.5 miles. I didn't have to clutch once. I was lovin that. And the Crossfire was so quiet I could hear the stereo. I'm starting to figure out downshift timing with the transmission and trailing throttle oversteer with the chassis. The power seats allow me to get the thigh support just right, something I couldn't do with the S2000 fore / aft and seat back angle adjustment.

Sorry you don't have a decent dealer service department in the heartland. Here on the coast it doesn't seem all that unusual.

And the car is going back to my dealer Thursday morning. It seems the ***** at Town Fair Tire didn't know what they were doing with the free alignment when I had the new tires installed last week. There's a slight vibration between 50 and 60 mph. It fades to nothing above and below that range but is pretty noticeable in that 10 mph window. I regret it every time I let someone other than my dealer touch my cars. I'm going to have it realigned and have the balance on all four wheels checked.

Town Fair Tire chain stores truly suck. Not only did they screw up the alignment or balance (how hard is it), they nicked one of my front wheels. Not badly but, any defect gives corrosion a place to start. I was pissed. All four wheels were pristine going into that tire change. They offered to have the wheel refinished in a day but after two days the work wasn't done and I took the wheel back and told them I'd have the work done at my convenience and present them the bill. To my surprise, they agreed to pay.

To add to the saga of incompetence at Town Fair Tire, I had brought the service writer out to the car and had him inspect the wheels before they changed the tires so that he could verify that they were perfect.. I then told him I'd hold him accountable for any damage. They still took a divot out of my wheel. I also grabbed the service order before he gave it to the techs and wrote the lug nut torque spec and the tire pressure on it in nice large print. He assured me they always torque to factory spec and check the door plaque for tire pressure. Well, the lug nuts were (over) torqued to who knows what spec and the air pressure in all 4 tires was 40 PSI. Needless to say, from now on, the tires will only come from Tire Rack and my dealer will be the only one who touches the car. Pretty sad when the monkeys at a single purpose tire store can't change a freaking tire properly. They did manage to get the old rubber off and the new tires on the wheels. I guess that counts for something. Not much, but something.

If your dealer is like Town Fair Tire, I feel sorry for you and understand the self defense response.

 

There use to be a lot of shops, privately owned that were a lot like the dealer you described. Those are all but gone. The dealerships here, just get the book out, charge the hours the book states, and throw parts at the problem. They don't diagnose anything anymore. If the computer won't tell them, lets just start replacing parts. Luckily for me, I have my own mechanic. As for my statement, on liking the car. Your post talked about turbo cars, rolling into the throttle,.....I don't find the XF being that type of car at all. It is to a point if you never modify it. It appealed to me for just the opposite. It's quick throttle reponse, and rapid boost make it quick and nimble....but, I like to drag race, not round track...so we look at things a little different. Glad you are enjoying the car. But this old dog, really doesn't care for japanese cars...I'm an old muscle car guy, that has been transformed by this german engineering...making big HP, with less liters...loving it...

 

Reviving this year old thread..great read! Spudracer, that's awesome that you live near Stamford. I grew up a few miles from there and can't wait to finish out my time in TX and move back to the east coast where curvy, tree-lined roads and smooth pavement exist in abundance. The only dealer down here next to the border has messed up my car twice now, so I do all the maintenance myself. I've learned wrenching lessons the hard way several times as a result, but I enjoy the challenge...albeit a bit risky, since it's my daily driver. Hopefully we'll cross paths driving around on the CT roads someday in the near future. Happy driving, and be safe.

 

I don't know how old that post is since I can't see the dates anymore. My dealer has just about replaced every employee since this thread has come out. His grandson is working the Service Writer area now. His presence, and new female Service Mgr has somewhat turned things around. I am still causious. The only thing they have done for me recently was clear an air-bag light...but, I was impressed with the changes they have made. We shall see...