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Showing posts with label Infiniti. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Infiniti. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

30 Minutes With: The 2017 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400

May 31, 2017 0
Front 3/4 view of 2017 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400
The 2017 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400.
Publisher's note:  Normally, the cars you read about here at TireKicker are loaned to us by the press fleets of the various manufacturers for several days.  Seven is typical.  Occasionally, we'll get a longer period of time, and sometimes it'll only be three or four days.  Our "30 Minutes With" series are cars that we spent half an hour behind the wheel of during the just-concluded Western Automotive Journalists Media Days in Monterey, California.

Day one of Media Days is a driving program, with journalists taking cars from the staging area at Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca via Laureles Grade.  Once there, you swap cars with another journalist for the drive back, and then swap cars again once back at the Quail. Apart from an hour's lunch, this is your day from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Each run is about half an hour, and driving 10 to 12 cars back-to-back-to-back gives you interesting points of reference about the next one.

My tenth and final car of the day was a sleeper...The 2017 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400.



Map of Quail Lodge to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca via Laureles Grade
Quail Lodge to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca via Laureles Grade (courtesy Google Maps).
Laureles Grade is about five and a half miles of non-stop twists and turns between Carmel Valley Road and CA 68, and thus perfect for a pack of automotive journalists and some high-grade machinery.

Rear 3/4 view of 2017 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400
2017 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400.
To look at it, you might think this was just a garden-variety Q60 (they start at $38,950 for a model with a 208-horsepower turbo four) with some aggressive looking wheels and black accents in the right places, but no....this is a very special Q60.   The Red Sport 400 is the top-of-the-line, with a 400-horsepower twin-turbo 3-liter six.  Available in RWD ($51,300) and AWD models ($53,300).
Based on a lack of badging, I'll assume the one I drove was RWD.

If you don't think 16 horsepower shy of doubling a Q60's horsepower makes a huge difference in performance, it's time to go back to Physics 101.  The Red Sport 400 is the ultimate expression of what Infiniti's been doing for as long as I've been TireKicking professionally (20 years this fall, nine of them with this website)...building a reasonably-priced alternative to BMW that goes about things in a completely different way from the Bavarians without compromising the ultimate goals of performance.

Interior view of 2017 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400
2017 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400 interior.
Part of that difference is the interior environs.  The Infiniti Q60 is a much lighter, airier space than a BMW 4-Series. The controls at first feel perhaps a bit too light to be connected to a true sporting machine.  But as your foot connects to the throttle, your hands to the wheel and your posterior to the twists and turns of Laureles Grade, you begin to realize that the lightness reduces fatigue without reducing control...that you could do some serious long runs in this car.

Yes, BMW's M4 has 44 more horsepower, but it's $66,400 without options (and good luck finding one like that at your local...or any...dealer).  This is $51,300.  You could go with a 440i, and come in under $50,000 (again without options), but you're now working with 80 fewer horsepower than the Q60 Red Sport packs.

I had the good fortune of getting back to Quail Lodge to find out that the other cars had been spoken for.  That meant I was able to stay in the Q60 and take it back to the Monterey Tides hotel near Sand City...an extra half-hour in late afternoon traffic that gave me the chance to see how well this performance car handled a daily grind.  I couldn't have asked for a better car to drive back.

And that's the end of our "30 Minutes With" series for 2016.  In eleven months, it's back to Monterey for WAJ Media Days 2018.  Can't wait.
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Thursday, November 24, 2016

What's In A Name? The 2016 Infiniti Q50 2.0t Premium

November 24, 2016 0
Front view of 2016 Infiniti Q50 2.0t Premium
The 2016 Infiniti Q50 2.0t Premium.
About three years ago, Infiniti, under a leader who had just arrived from Audi and would within months depart for Cadillac, changed its naming convention.  The vehicles were largely unchanged, but none had the same name.  What had been for many years the G37 series of sedans became the Q50.

It is hard to tell whether the name change had any effect on sales, good or bad, as Infiniti, contrary to the original plan 25 years ago to match Lexus step for step, has always been just big enough not to be considered a truly niche player.  The Infiniti Q50 is Infiniti's best-seller, but it is the 109th best-selling vehicle in the U.S. so far this year, with a shade under 35,000 sold.  Infiniti might, but probably won't, sell 40,000 G50s by December 31st.



Side view of 2016 Infiniti Q50 2.0t Premium
2016 Infiniti Q50 2.0t Premium.
And that is a shame, because the Infiniti Q50 is what it was when it was the G37---the best alternative to a BMW 3-series you can buy.   In the Q50, Infiniti has the definitive small Japanese sport sedan, delivering most of the handling and performance characteristics of a 3-series, with greater interior comfort and a lower price.

Our test vehicle was the 2.0t Premium.  The base price is $37,650 and for that, you get a 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine that delivers 208 horsepower, mated to a seven-speed automatic transmission.  That is a combination that results in strong acceleration and solid fuel economy---an EPA-estimated 23 city/31 highway.

Also standard: Independent front and rear suspension, 17-inch aluminum alloy wheels, all-season run-flat tired, automatic LED headlights, LED fog lights, daytime running lights, turn signals and rear brake lights, 8-way power front seats, dual-zone automatic climate control, Kacchu aluminum interior trim, power heated outside mirrors with integrated turn signals, a tilt-and-telescope steering wheel, an auto-dimming inside mirror, rear view monitor, a 14-speaker Bose premium audio system, two USB ports, SiriusXM Satellite radio and cruise control

Interior view of 2016 Infiniti Q50 2.0t Premium
2016 Infiniti Q50 2.0t Premium interior.
Our test vehicle had just one option package---Premium Touch Plus.  It adds navigation and voice recognition, adaptive shift control, SiriusXM Traffic, heated front seats and a heated steering wheel, memory seats and steering wheel, driver lumbar support, auto-dimming exterior mirrors and a 60/40 split-fold rear seat with center armrest pass-through for $2,150.

With $905 destination charges, the as-tested price was $40,705.  If you are thinking about a BMW 3-series but are more interested in the car you will drive for the next few years than the emblem on the hood, the Infiniti Q50 is something you should strongly consider.
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