The other thing you need to remember is that 2004 and newer models have not had feathering issues completely resolved (jury still out on 05s) and there is no TSB for them. If you were to buy a 2004 there would still be a chance of feathering there too. At least with the 2003s, Nissan will fix your car and replace your tires for free. Any solutions applied to newer models would also be applied to the 03. Plus I'm not entirely convinced it's not the tires. If I do have a problem with feathering, I'll probably get less expensive tires, knowing I'll be swapping them out more quickly. I have a 5AT with 17s so I can get Kumho ECSTA ASX or Avon Tech M550 A/S, both of which are all season tires for around $100 per tire through TireRack. The 18s on my 300M cost over $200 a tire, so if I can go 20-30,000 miles on two sets of front tires, I figure my tire costs are about the same as my other car.