jaydubb

Oh no, not another one, right? LOL!

OK. So my current daily is a modded 2002 Nissan Maxima SE 6-speed. Its OK but not having V8 torque makes it a pain in the butt to drive around town. As soon as you change speed by 10mph in traffic, you have to down-shift. I know its not a real issue in a V8 car but Im not sure if I wanna DD a manual car anymore. Im getting a little old (42).

CTS-V: I like the CTS-V but the rear end issues scare me. I dont think I can drive it gently enough to make it live. Im a former automotive tech so working on it wont be an issue.

G8 GT: I like the car but Im afraid of the DoD and the 6L80. Ive always had bad luck with automatics but I hear the 6L80 is pretty stout. I guess the rears arent too bad in them.

G8 GXP: If I bought one, it would have to be a manual. But the price... Im not looking to spend over 20K. Sure it has nice brakes, an LS3 and nice wheels but Im not sure if its worth it. Im pretty sure I can do the standard DoD delete, intake, headers, exhaust and tune and smoke a GXP (without upgrading the cam). Then if I wanna get REAL dumb, Maggie...

Im almost pretty much sold on the G8 GT. Can I get some input from anyone?

Thanks!

Blackpanther99

iTrader: (8)

Nothing wrong with the GT unless you are the kind of person that gets bored quick of driving a automatic vehicle. Yes the 6L80e is a strong tranny, thats the good side.

Either one of the G8s would be a great choice imo.

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

I'd personally go LS2 V simply because I'd like to row my own gears and the GXP is hard to find and comparatively pricey. G8 GT would be yawnsville for me.

justin455

For under 20k you're either with the G8 GT or the CTS-V. The GXPs are still 30k+.

I would say the vast majority of all CTS-Vs have had the upgraded rears installed under warranty, so I wouldn't worry about it. The downside I see (and I'm not a V1 fan so I'm not sure if it's even as big a deal as I fear) is that the wheels are 6lug. This could make it hard to find nice after market wheels at a good price. Though the stock ones look good enough.

I'm an auto guy though, so my choice would be the G8 GT. I hope you want a red car or a black car though, because for under $20k you're digging through a lot in order to find under 50-60k miles. You might have to get higher mileage or sacrifice options like getting the 18in wheels instead of the nicer 19s or getting a color other than the red or black that 80% of them are.
The 6L80e is a solid trans as said, but it supposedly has a TON of torque management. A tune really wakes these cars up. If it was me, I would intake, exhaust, tune and call it done.

itsslow98

iTrader: (18)

I beat on my 05 cts-v everytime I drove it and yes it hopped a lot but I never broke an axle or diff in 35k miles. Id say save yourself a few bucks and grab an 04-05 with the gen 3-4 diff already installed.

I also like the g8 but auto only is a killer as well as the lifter issues Ive heard about. 9qt oil changes are expensive also if you put a lot of miles on the car.