Glad I'm not alone in feeling this way! Can we get anymore picky! We got all of the things everyone DOESN'T like, now can we discuss what is appealing about the car? I mean I think the pics I posted were pretty sick, yet there's only a couple of positive remarks? .... don't get it.

 

Love the interior!

 

I was behind one on Saturday, heading to the dog park. We live about 2 blocks up the road from Nissan/Infiniti of America Headquarters, in Franklin, Tennessee. I can only assume it is a Nissan employee doing a long term test with the car, as she had a carseat in the back.

The car was the same slate gray as the one above, it was a Q50 AWD Sport Hybrid (I'm assuming a blue S means Sport Hybrid). Wife and I really wanted to take a picture, but neither of us had our cell phones on us at the time...

 

It seems that wheel gap is huge because it is an AWD model. On a positive note, I did notice the sport AWD version now has Akebono brakes.

 

Build it online infinitiusa.com.

 

I am a huge fan! My 12xs lease is up October 2014 and I fully plan on jumping into a hybrid sport awd.

And while I agree about the badging and the cupholders, neither of those things will stop me from leasing a new one. I'm also stoked about the akebono brakes on this one! (since they are conspicuously absent on my car)

For me, the test dive will be the deciding factor. I'm a bit worried about the Mercedes tuned (tuned or designed?) Chassis.
As far as badging goes, I removed everything but the Infiniti emblems from mine.

This time I'll just have a little bit more work ahead of me.

 

I was all about putting Ake's on my AWD LE, until I really hammered hard on the stock brakes.

The stock setup doesnt leave too much to be desired, IMHO. I suppose the Ake's would be better if you AutoX, but for a daily driver Im not sure its worth the upgrade (obviously if they come with the car so be it).

They do look a lot nicer! but Id rather put the $$$ towards stuff that improves performance first.

 

Well, I assume that I'll like the power train, because outside of hybrid, it looks to be the same and I like mine plenty. I like MOST of the interior but the console is a little busy and the cup holders annoy me. I mostly like the rear styling, but the front seems a little over done. I like the fact that they have a performance oriented hybrid model, but I don't think I'll be buying one so that's irrelevant. The colors I've seen look nice

Like I said earlier, I don't "hate" it, but I do see some things that concern me. Ultimately it will come down to how all the pieces I've seen translate into the overall package when it hits the streets. I don't like it ENOUGH to tempt me out of my '37 at the moment, but in a couple of years and a few upgrades, it might be enough to tempt me back in. Will also depend on what the "other guys" are doing at the time. I'm super curious as to what Nissan has in store for the Maxima now that the Altima has it beat in virtually every meaningful category. Make it AWD and put over 300 HP in it and things could get pretty ugly from a marketing perspective... Or maybe no more Maxima ?

 

The new IS 250 report is out, not so good, where's the Q50's?

 

Heard any words on FI for '14? All I've heard from the dealer were rumors so far.

 

Reviews SHOULD be out sometime next week... They just wrapped up the first driving event this week. Heres what one guy JUST reported on his test drive:

Hello Q50 enthusiasts. I had a chance to attend a ride and drive comparing the Q50, Audi A4 and BMW 328 on an auto-cross course.

The cars tested:
Infiniti Q50 AWD 3.7 Sport

Audi A4 Quatro with Prestige Pkg, S Pkg, Titronic Quatro MSRP: $52K

BMW 328 AWD Sport, Tech Pkg, Driver Asst, Premium Pkg, Lighting & Dynamic Handling Pkg MSRP: $52K

The course consisted of a straight away, hard right, evasive maneuver, hard left, s curve, hard right and a chicane.

We first drove the Q50 then the Audi and then the BMW.

There was a radar set up to measure speed at the end of the straight. The Audi was the slowest at 48 mph. Then the BMW at 52. The fastest was the Q50 at 58 mph.

The most sluggish handling was the A4 which handles like a Chevy Impala in the hard turns and MUCH more steering effort through the evasive and chicane maneuvers. The turbo lag hurt responsiveness coming out of the turns.

The BMW starts off really slow due to the 4 cylinder until the turbos kick in then it takes off nicely. But surprisingly, it too seemed to have a mind of its own during hard braking and turning. Braking was good but the car really didn't want to turn as readily as I expected.

The best (by far) was the Q50. The handling and braking was very balanced and even in the hands of an amature, it handled and felt more in control than the others...by a wide margin.

We then got to drive the Hybrid AWD on a road course. This thing is a rocket! 0-60 in less than 5 seconds! Handling and braking was on par with the gas version despite the extra 300 pounds it carries due to the hybrid system. Accelleration was instantainous no lag waiting for the power.

The takeaway was, Infiniti is no longer lagging behind the benchmark handling and ride of the 3 series. The new Q50 exceeds BMW in every category. The other was, Infiniti while still offering purchase options under $45K well equipped, will not shy away from and can command comparable pricing to the best Europe has to offer when it comes to performance, interior quality and technology. Oh, and the new Bose stereo is amazing! MUCH better than anything before.

IMO, once the auto media folks start testing the Q50 and comparing it to the BMW, there will be a new "ultimate driving machine" and it won't be built in Germany.

 

That's fantastic, but something tells me that the usual auto journalists will find a way to compare it with more expensive models and a few well placed advertising dollars will lead to the BMW inexplicably winning the comparisons regardless.

Sorry, but I've read this book too many times to not just be a "little" cynical

 

Sounds pretty exciting, especially the hybrids' performance, look forward to the official reviews. Curious if the AWD sport they tested actually had some good tires, if not, then those runs are even more impressive.

 

If you ever read the C/D comparo, you knew the G25/G37 is the best of this group in handling, power was where G25 fall short or it could have won.

This is hardly surprising as it would be the same result had a G37 replaced Q50. They are the same car under different skins after all. More interesting test would only be if they put a G37 in the mix...

 

^ yeah, what a joke that comparo was. the idea was to test the entry level of each car at a similar price point ($35k), with the smaller engines. the problem was that the G37 compares at the same price point (often much less too!) of the 328 or A4 2.0T. so the G25 was $5000-$15000 less than the competitors. there was no need to test it, the G37 should have been selected. even the comparo discusses that, IIRC.

price point was the primary factor in that comparo. i.e., if someone had $35k to spend what is the best of the entry level performance sedan group? the G25 was $36k, while all the others ranged from $40k (C250) to $51k (328). that's right, the 328 had $15k of options on it. an apples and oranges comparo, quite rediculous indeed.


here's a link to the comparo:

2012 BMW 328i vs. 2012 Audi A4 2.0T, 2012 Infiniti G25, 2012 Mercedes-Benz C250 Sport, 2012 Volvo S60 T6 AWD - Comparison Tests - Car and Driver


sorry for the off-topic rant, although as we all know the Q50 is the same as the G37 from a dynamic point of view - for now at least.