Hands-On Review by Clarendon Hills Infiniti

jmallet74 said:

Lol I just signed up to share this with you. I made this video.

I have a bunch of great photos.

Sorry I couldn't make a better review. I know I could have but we were really under the gun timewise. There's basically two guys going around the region showing the Q50 to all the dealers and providing training to the sales staff. We had a Q50 party at our dealership and the next morning the Infiniti guys were nice enough to join us for a quick video session. We only had about 2 hours before Paul had to run off and enjoy his weekend. I will be making a new video when we get an actual model on hand to have for ourselves, but yea... it will be a little late.

Anyways... I have a bunch of really crappy ride-along videos that we shot, just kind of going wild in the Q50. Do you guys want me to upload those?

Click to expand...

jmallet74 said:

Lol I just signed up to share this with you. I made this video.

I have a bunch of great photos.

Sorry I couldn't make a better review. I know I could have but we were really under the gun timewise. There's basically two guys going around the region showing the Q50 to all the dealers and providing training to the sales staff. We had a Q50 party at our dealership and the next morning the Infiniti guys were nice enough to join us for a quick video session. We only had about 2 hours before Paul had to run off and enjoy his weekend. I will be making a new video when we get an actual model on hand to have for ourselves, but yea... it will be a little late.

Anyways... I have a bunch of really crappy ride-along videos that we shot, just kind of going wild in the Q50. Do you guys want me to upload those?

Click to expand...

jmallet74 said:

Lol I just signed up to share this with you. I made this video.

I have a bunch of great photos.

Sorry I couldn't make a better review. I know I could have but we were really under the gun timewise. There's basically two guys going around the region showing the Q50 to all the dealers and providing training to the sales staff. We had a Q50 party at our dealership and the next morning the Infiniti guys were nice enough to join us for a quick video session. We only had about 2 hours before Paul had to run off and enjoy his weekend. I will be making a new video when we get an actual model on hand to have for ourselves, but yea... it will be a little late.

Anyways... I have a bunch of really crappy ride-along videos that we shot, just kind of going wild in the Q50. Do you guys want me to upload those?

Click to expand...

jmallet74 said:

Lol I just signed up to share this with you. I made this video.

I have a bunch of great photos.

Sorry I couldn't make a better review. I know I could have but we were really under the gun timewise. There's basically two guys going around the region showing the Q50 to all the dealers and providing training to the sales staff. We had a Q50 party at our dealership and the next morning the Infiniti guys were nice enough to join us for a quick video session. We only had about 2 hours before Paul had to run off and enjoy his weekend. I will be making a new video when we get an actual model on hand to have for ourselves, but yea... it will be a little late.

Anyways... I have a bunch of really crappy ride-along videos that we shot, just kind of going wild in the Q50. Do you guys want me to upload those?

Click to expand...

jmallet74 said:

I can give you a quick little review of my 2 hour test drive in the Q50.

I do work for Infiniti of Clarendon Hills, but seriously, I'm not biased. I'm a Toyota guy, my mom works for Lexus and I've always thought they were sweet cars.

But I fell in love with the Q50. I've never really been too excited about Infiniti. I liked the G35 but no more than the Z, and the G37 looks a little soft. Anyways, Paul, from the video, is a product specialist from an outside marketing company, and they trained him to show this car off. We filmed a little 0-60 clip, between 5-6 seconds according to the video playback. I was in the backseat fighting the Gs, it literally hurt my body. It was so fun though.

The handling and braking was incredible. We were cutting hard corners in a high-end neighborhood that had a nice little S-curve. It was fun, and the control and acceleration was a thrill. He set the steering response setting to how he liked it and we took a few runs through the curves on different settings.

It has a great sound to it, very similar to the G35 instead of the G37.

The most impressive part was the Infiniti Safety Shield. I was freaking out while Paul, or should I say the Q50, was driving us back to the dealership. No hands, no feet, just letting the car take over with Collision Prevention, dynamic cruise control, lane keep assist. I couldn't believe he had the balls to risk his and my safety in a pre-production model. It worked great. He was telling me that the dynamic cruise control picks up two cars in front of you instead of just one. And as he said that, on a 6-lane highway, two cars cut in front of us and came to a stop. Q50 brought us to a safe stop, he didn't even flinch and I was just awestruck. I'm sure you're familiar with the technology, but it was just crazy being a part of it.

The interior as you can see is much nicer than the G. The dual screen set up takes it past the M too, and the trim just looks more updated than anything Infiniti has done. The Lexus GS has a nice interior that's a little more "luxurious." The Q50 is almost as plush, but it's way more tech-friendly. The seats were really interesting. Very light. Not quite as comfortable as the M, pretty similar style to the G-coupe, but much more accomodating.

In person, we set a G37 sedan next to a Q50 and the Q50 just made it look bad. LED head lights, tails, and fog lights were a huge improvement. You have to get the Q50 in the sport trim, it's just so much cooler. It's bigger than the G as you know, and getting really close to the M, especially inside. The hourglass grille is a great look and it should show up on all new Infinitis ahead. The wheels are the nicest wheels I've ever seen from Infiniti, I don't think anything on the market really compares to those.

Our pre-production model did not have any apps, it basically just ran Navigation. We played with the interface on the iPad app which I'm not allowed to share. I played with Pandora and iHeartRadio. Infiniti plans on releasing more apps, hopefully Google Music and Spotify will show up. The system integrates with facebook and google calendars. I didn't get to experience this first-hand, but to me, this is going to be a really cool feature if it works as I imagine- You schedule an event on your phone/computer, set the location and time. As the event approaches, your phone gives you a heads up "hey, you need to leave in 15 minutes, your estimated travel time is 35 minutes due to traffic." You get in your Q50 and it's already set on the destination and route. You don't have to fight the voice recognition software, and you don't have to type on a screen. Just go. I didn't play around with the facebook app, but I'm sure it's as fun as scrolling through your facebook timeline always is.

I'm really excited about having the Q50. It will sell better than G37. We only get to release our entry-level sedan redesign once every 4-5 years and I really think Infiniti nailed it.

The only thing I was disappointed about was that under the hood it looks exactly like a G37.

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MonteZ said:

I agree jmallet74's assessment, the only thing I disagree with after seeing it in person Sewell is about the taillights. Those bright circular dual LED's that have been on the G since 05 look much better and you know you are behind a G just by that, the new one's just did not impress with the lights on.

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afrosheen said:

The problem with the round lights is that one, they've been on the model for so long they're tired, and two, so many other cars have adopted them or some version of them they are diluted. This has even happened to the M's tail lights. I see them on all kinds of cheap cars now, the twin (() design is on everything from Buick to Kia.


The new lights are beautiful and match the nautilus design of the front lights, and are distinctive enough that from behind, you will know exactly what you are looking at. By that same token, when they first hit the road, alot of drivers will see them and say, what the **** is that? Also, thank god they didn't go the Dodge Charger route. Every time I see them I think a UFO has landed lol.

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