Infiniti Q50

Watch out world: here comes the Infiniti Q50!  Infiniti isn’t the world’s best known marque, but if there was any justice, it should be. Infiniti is to Nissan what Lexus is to Toyota.  So if you love the sportier sort of Nissan but want a bit of luxury and class, then you’ll love the new Infiniti Q50. This smooth sedan is certainly ready to please.

For a start off, the Infiniti Q50 looks the way a luxury car ought to: headlights with a bit of character, touches of chrome here and there, a hint of muscle, clean lines and that lovely front grille. The bonnet and nose is probably the most striking exterior feature of the Infiniti Q50 – that crease that sculpts the bonnet and flows into the front grille has just the right combination of curves and straight features to make it very aesthetically pleasing with a slight hint of the organic – and is superbly aerodynamic. The palette that the design team at Infiniti have put together for the Infiniti Q50 has seven shades: black, white, two greys, a dark greyish-blue called Hagane Blue (hagane is a Japanese term for a type of steel, as used for Samurai swords), a red and a bronze.

Infiniti Q50 Interior

The interior of the Infiniti Q50 is equally as well appointed. The seats come in three shades of leather (stone (light grey), graphite (dark grey) and wheat (beige-cream)) and the dash comes with aluminium trim as standard. The dashboard is nicely laid out, with the leather-wrapped steering wheel (which has intelligent cruise control) and the pair of colour display screens in the centre taking pride of place.  The analogue dials are easy to read and have another information screen between them (like the Around View Monitor in the S Premium package).

Currently in Australia, the Infiniti Q50 2.2d automatic is the only type available, apart from the Hybrid, which is in a class of its own. As well as the basic line, you can also get the S line and the S Premium, which add a few bonus features in there. In the S, you get a Bose sound system, Direct Adaptive Steering with customisable steering ratio, Active Lane Control, the sport designed front fascia, sports aluminium pedals, a 10-way power driver’s seat with adjustable lumbar support and thigh extension, magnesium-modified paddle gear shifters and an electric sunroof with sliding sunshade. The S Premium has all that plus a whole heap of other driving aids such as Intelligent Cruise Control, Forward Collision Avoidance, Forward Emergency Braking, Predicted Forward Collision Warning, Distance Control Assist, Lane Departure Prevention, Blind Spot Warning and Blind Spot Intervention, High Beam Assist, Back-up Collision Intervention and a few other things such as 19-inch alloy wheels.

D is for Diesel, of course, and that’s what powers the Infiniti Q50.  Nissan has done great diesel engines for a long time, and if the same technology has been put into the Infiniti Q50, it’s going to be a good one. What you’ll find under that oh-so-elegant bonnet is a 2.2-litre direct injected turbodiesel unit with all the trimmings (Continuously Variable Valve Timing Control System, DOHC and Variable Valve Event and Lift). This powerplant is capable of wringing out 125 kW of power in the 3200–4200 range and 400 Nm of torque at 5200 (a fairly high number of revs for the torque to peak at for a diesel).  This comes coupled to the rear wheel drive via a seven-speed automatic transmission with adaptive shift control and downshift rev matching function. Cleverly, the driver-adaptive learning function on the auto transmission can pick your driving style and change accordingly. However, you can put the Drive Mode selector to good use and tell the Infiniti Q50 directly whether you want Standard, Eco, Sport, Snow or Eco mode.

One of the curiosities in the Infiniti Q50 is the handbrake. You would think that a handbrake would be operated by hand, but instead, it’s operated by foot (well, I suppose you have room for an extra pedal in an auto).  This is one of many interesting goodies that you’ll find in the Infiniti Q50. You’ll also find entry/exit assist for the driver’s seat and steering wheel, Infiniti’s InTuition that allows you to customise the digital environment, door mounted step lights (perfect for when you need lights low down after you’ve dropped things) and lots of other handy features, like the remote keyless entry and push-button ignition. The double colour screen info system is practically a smartphone in a car, which allows you to do things with social media, heaps of apps and other online bits on one screen and have the navigation up on the other. Please, people – Facebook and Google are not a smart idea when you’re driving. If you think texting while driving is bad, Facebook Candy Crush and Angry Birds are much, much worse! You don’t want the millions of safety features in the Infiniti Q50 to come into play; these include lots of airbags, a slide-away brake pedal (so a mangled pedal is less likely to chew your foot), pretensioned force limited seatbelts and the reinforced passenger compartment. You might, however, find some of the active safety features such as the traction control and vehicle dynamic control, the hill start assist and the ABS brakes with EBD.

Naturally, the Infiniti Q50 has all the things that you’d expect to find in a luxury sedan, such as Bluetooth preparation with voice recognition, UBS/iPod input jacks, power sockets, bottle holders, dual-zone climate control, fully adjustable and heated seats, front and back parking sensors, lots of storage space, auto up/down power windows, lots of lights with a welcome feature, electrically adjustable heated exterior mirrors, rain sensing windshield wipers – you name it!

The current model series includes:

• Infiniti Q50
• Infiniti Q50 S
• Infiniti Q50 S Premium

For any more information on the Infiniti Q50, or for that matter any other new car, contact one of our friendly consultants on 1300 303 181. If you’d like some fleet discount pricing (yes even for private buyers!), we can submit vehicle quotes requests out to our national network of Infiniti dealers and come back with pricing within 24 hours. Private Fleet – car buying made easy!