By the fall of 1995, Bobbi was looking to replace her Honda Accord. She had wanted something a little bit sportier, but it had to be reliable and easy to live with. We were engaged by this time and knew whatever we bought would likely be a family car. This time, buying a car was easier as we had a family connection through Bobbi’s uncle at the Infiniti dealership he worked at in New Jersey. He knew that we liked Infinitis and, as service manager, always had loaners that were sold after a certain time. His knowledge of which ones had the lowest mileage and when they would be sold was how she ended up buying a 1994 Infiniti G20 –our first luxury car.
We didn’t start out looking at the Infiniti G20. We began our search looking at a Honda Accord EX at a dealer. The 1995 Honda Accord was the second year of the 5th generation Accord. The EX trim was fully loaded with sunroof, power windows, power locks, and a CD player. I remember it being blue, and it had the dealer markup sticker with a “Market Adjusted” price. Accords were very popular in the metro area, and people were willing to pay for them. We then looked at the Mercury Mystique, Dodge Stratus, and Mazda 626. All were nice but not really “sporty”. Bobbi had mentioned this to her uncle, and he asked if she was in a hurry to buy a car. She said no, and so he said he had a bunch of service loaners that would be sold soon. If she could wait, he could sell her one. We went off and test drove a G20 at a dealer in DC, and really liked it, so she agreed. The only thing was that we were limited on color choice. He had a white one, a gold one, and two black ones. She said gold would be easier to keep clean.
In November, we made the drive to visit her aunt and uncle. They had moved to Stroudsburg, PA, and so we drove from Stroudsburg to the dealer where Gary worked in Summit, New Jersey. The gold G20 had been prepped and was waiting for us. They accepted the Accord as trade, papers were signed, and we headed back to Gary’s house for dinner. It was the easiest transaction we’d ever done. The drive back to DC was great as we were able to listen to CDs and cassettes (she had the optional cassette player installed for books on tape). Although it had been a loaner, it only had 8,600 miles on it, so it felt like a brand new car.
The G20 was Infiniti’s entry level car. It was sold in Europe as the Nissan Primera where it competed in touring car races. In fact, the Ford Mondeo/Contour/Mystique were benchmarked against the Primera for handling and our G20 handled quite nicely. The engine was the same engine found in the Nissan Sentra SE-R and, when paired with a stickshift, was quite entertaining to drive. Our G20, as most G20s sold in the US, was an automatic. It was still nice to drive and performance was fine for everyday commuting, trips, and weekend fun.
Our G20 was nicely equipped with leather, power windows, power door locks, a moonroof, remote keyless entry, and the aforementioned CD player. The exterior was that gold color that was so popular in Japanese luxury cars in the 1990s, and the interior was a lighter beige/tan with the dashboard in a contrasting brown. To me, it looked rich and that feeling was further enhanced by the carpet and floor mats in the car. That car had the nicest carpet out of any car that we’ve owned. It had a deep pile and always looked nice, even when it needed vacuuming. The floor mats had the Infiniti logo and the back floor mat ran the whole length of the back seat. Furthermore, the Infiniti key was a work of art. I truly wish I had a photo of the key as it was unlike any other key we ever had.
The Infiniti fell into the normal pattern of commuting back and forth to Bobbi’s school and then us going out on weekend adventures. We had moved in together before the wedding as Bobbi’s roommate moved out, and my lease was up. We had street parking and were able to park our cars together since there was a wooded hillside across the street. We didn’t have to compete for parking in the neighborhood.
The G20 was the perfect complement to my Jetta; if friends joined us, we usually took Bobbi’s car when we went out. It was great on trips as you could fit an overnight bag in the trunk. We made countless trips to Pittsburgh to see both sets of parents and would carry us on our pre-baby trip before our daughter was born. We went down to Williamsburg, up to New York City, Philadelphia, the beach, and the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV.
Working at The Washington Times, we would take qualifying clients on trips, and in August of 1998, we drove to The Greenbrier. If you ever have the opportunity to go, I highly recommend it. It is one of the oldest resorts in the US, dating back to the 1770s. It is a luxurious hotel with golf, spa treatments, and amazing food. It also has a bunker that Congress would have retreated to in the event of a nuclear war. The bunker location was exposed by a reporter from The Washington Post in 1992 and had to be decommissioned since it was no longer top secret. The locals always knew something was there, as it was hidden under an addition to the hotel. Too much dirt was removed during excavation for just a hotel wing. You can tour the bunker today, and it’s not a luxury retreat, as the furniture and quarters were like military barracks.
Living in Alexandria, VA, was great for a couple, but we wanted to buy our first house, and started house hunting. We had planned on building a house in a neighborhood we had found, and that house would include a two-car garage. However, we picked a house that would not fit on the lot with a two-car garage, so our realtor swung into action. Gordon found us a newly built spec home that was at the right price. We drove the Infiniti to the closing and signed the papers. When everything was signed, the builder slid the keys across the table. There were two keys, and they looked like normal keys that you could get anywhere. Bobbi and I looked at each other, and we both said that our Infiniti key had more substance than our house key. We still laugh about that to this day.
Living in the house meant a longer commute for Bobbi. She didn’t mind as she could listen to books on tape. My commute took me into northwest DC, and I would sometimes take the G20 if she was home for the day. We were ready to start a family, and so we did. After Emily was born, we put the car seat in, and the G20 became the family car until we took our first trip to Pittsburgh. If you read about my Jetta, you would know that the G20 trunk was too small to fit in all the stuff we believed we needed– we decided to buy something larger for our family of three. The Jetta was traded in on a bigger family vehicle, and I took over driving the G20.
I had grown tired of driving a stickshift in DC traffic, and the G20 was the perfect commuter car for me. My drive was longer, about 30 miles, and the car was the perfect size for DC traffic. It got reasonable gas mileage and had all the things I wanted in my car. Life was good. Bobbi had become a stay-at-home mom, and my career was progressing nicely. I had been promoted at The Washington Times with generous raises. We were able to save money, and we knew we were ready for another child. Bobbi’s first pregnancy had been so easy: no morning sickness, no blood pressure issues, nothing. It was textbook, and we figured the second one would be easy. Except, it wasn’t. Pregnancy number two was somewhat challenging. Although there was no morning sickness, Bobbi had to go on restricted activity. My mother-in-law was a tremendous help in coming down and staying with us for a week in November. Shortly after, both her parents came down for Christmas and spent some time with us. The doctors finally agreed to end her restricted activity on January 30, 2003, as things were fine.
Unfortunately, on February 3, 2003, Bobbi called me at work in tears. Her father had a heart attack and died. He was 61, and it was a shock. We went to Pittsburgh for the funeral. When we returned, she went to the doctor, and her blood pressure was high. That March, and for the remainder of the pregnancy, Bobbi would have to go to her doctor three times a week for blood pressure monitoring. We would switch cars; she took the G20, and I would meet her at the doctor’s office with her car and Emily. From there, I would go to work. The doctors were concerned enough that they decided to induce labor on May 28.
I made all my plans at work regarding meetings and time off. It was all arranged perfectly. On May 21, Bobbi was driving to the doctor in the G20. She went to reach for her cell phone to call me, as she had a feeling that they were going to deliver the baby that day, when she sideswiped a guardrail. The damage was minor; the car was drivable, but her blood pressure was through the roof. The doctors decided to induce labor that day, which I found out when I arrived to switch cars with her. I called my boss, and she simply said, “We’ve got this covered. We’ll see you when we see you.” Katie was born later that day, two weeks premature.
I should have gotten the fender repaired, but I was afraid the insurance company would have totaled the car. It had 150,000 miles and was nine years old. I only used it for commuting, but things started breaking down mechanically. First, it needed an alternator. Then it needed an oil leak fixed, which was followed by other issues. The last six months of ownership saw the ABS pump fail and a transmission leak. I took it to a garage, but the cost to repair was more than the value of the car. It had been a great car, but my mechanic said to me, “It’s time to let it go.” I was ready for a new car, and so the search started. To its credit, it never left us stranded, and I still consider it one of the nicest cars we’ve owned. Its replacement and how that became my favorite car will be in two weeks. Next week, it’s all about the family car.
Note: Opening G20 image courtesy of CC Cohort, by Foden Alpha. Our G20’s bumpers never looked like that.
Related CC reading:
2002 Infiniti G20 – That Infinity Badge Is Going To Cost You
I had one of these. Unfortunately having obtained it as an eight year old used car, mine was particularly unreliable. When something wasn’t broken on it, these were really great cars.
That was one thing we noticed as it aged. In hindsight, I wonder if a Lexus would have aged better. Still, it was a great car.
I had a G20 (a 93.5 model, the transition year of the first gen) and it is everything you said, mine was a manual which really woke it up and made for an excellent driver’s car, there’s a COAL for it around here somewhere…
And you are correct, that all-metal sculptured key is still by far the best looking and feeling car key I’ve ever had or seen. It makes every other key look positively plebian.
I found this photo of an Infiniti G20 key blank online. Does this look like yours?
Actually, I found this photo online. It looked like this. It was metal, and Infiniti was spelled out on the key. It had some heft to it.
Yeah that was what it looked like on mine.
That’s a Cadillac logo on the key that Staxman posted.
I remember how impossibly small a car of this size got once you went beyond a single kid.
I also remember how nice it felt in a luxuriously appointed car, even after it got older. This was just about perfect for your family’s use!
Having desired, then owned, an SE-R, I was also a fan of the G20. If I remember correctly, the Primera/G20 split the difference between the B13 Sentra and the Stanza/Altima. I’m not entirely sure where it fits size-wise, since the Altima was smaller than the Camry and Accord (Nissan took a two-pronged approach to the competition with the Stanza/Altima and Maxima until the 2002 Altima).
Was the house in Ashburn? My wife and I went house “dreaming” at an open house there when we lived in Arlington around this timeframe. Very lovely neighborhood, but there are a lot of lovely neighborhoods like that in Northern Virginia. We still miss it.
No. We moved to Southern Maryland. My wife worked in Prince Georges County and my office was on the east side of the city so Ashburn was too far. Also her brother lived in Maryland so we were closer to him.
My mother had a 1999 G20, the second generation one. A much better looking car, in my opinion. It wasn’t quite the BMW 3-series competitor Infiniti wanted you to believe it was. The SR20DE 2.0-liter from the Sentra SE-R was pretty blunted by the G20’s additional weight and automatic trans. But it was nice enough inside, with a moonroof, heated seats, Bose audio, and autfomatic climate control. My mother’s served her very well until one day when she was delivering for Meals on Wheels during a snow squall. She slid, struck a culvert, and turned the car upside down. A good Samaritan called me and told me he found her hanging upside down from her seat belts, trying to figure out how to operate her cell phone to call me. RIP, Infiniti G20, to be replaced by a New Beetle. The New Beetle scratched my mom’s itch for something quirky but it was much less reliable.
I was driven home in one of these. My family had two back-to-back, and they both rusted through before the drivetrain wore out, though we lived in Eastern Europe where the roads were more salt than asphalt during winter.
I was too young to remember ours, so it’s nice to read up on someone else’s experiences with one 🙂
Had a 1994 G20 for 19 years with only about 120k miles. Even at the end I thought the car had great styling. Aged very well. Took it to the dealer every 3 months for service — loved the Infiniti experience. About the time I started commuting and started to think about something a bit bigger and heavier had similar problems the author mentioned. Nice story.
We bought a 1996 G20 from a coworker; it was the first “kid’s car” in the family. It had 93,000 miles at purchase and about 160,000 when we sold it several years later. All four of our children learned to drive a manual on this car, and the original clutch never needed replacement. It was fairly peppy, handled well, had very comfortable front seats, and a trunk that was surprisingly large for the size of the car.
Overall, it was a great, reliable car. We liked it enough to buy a 1999 as the second of our eventual four kid cars; it performed similarly well. A further advantage was that the manual gearboxes prevented the kid’s friends from borrowing them in the college years!