[Esteban Dido]

I had a chance to drive two models: Hybrid Sport fully loaded and Gasser Premium, here are my thoughts and impressions (comparing this car with the 328i and A4 Quatro)-

Exterior: Better than I expected in term of looks, I saw all colors in the parking lot, except for the Malbec B and Chestnut Bronze. I'd say that Graphite looked for me the most striking one, red is Ok, but the major issue I had is that there is no contrast with the taillights and looks like just one red block
I liked more the looks of the non sport vs the Sports edition, Sports is to aggressive for me, it probably will be an acquired taste after a while

Tires : Much beteer looking the 19" for sure, but too rough of a ride, I'll stay with the 17", I spent 95% of the time inside the car not contemplating the tires

Ratings in looks : Q50 first, BMW second and Audi third (too boxy for me)

Interior
Seats are great, I think are equal or even better than the competition, I like the leather quality, I don't like the fact that you are limited to three colors only
Dashboard: Well , from the aesthetics point of view, not there yet in the same league as the germans, it looks to my like a mix between a Hyundai and Mercedes Benz, too much use of chrome components in general, the dashboard in not leather padded and gives you the feeling of ...plastic...the wood not as good quality of the BMW , Kaachu did not do too much for me, too cold. Layout wise is OK, the upper display would be great if it is tilted towards the driver for better vision and ..closer to the driver since you could use your hands to interact with it.
Messaging in the area between the Speedometer and RPM is good, I like what I saw so far, perhaps my only complain is that they abused the use of vivid colors, it looks a bit of carnival, but the info is there, I wish I could've had more time to assess this better, the Hybrid shows you the use of the battery vs the gas engine so you can know when each one is active
Overall I think the BMW has the best quality interior, Q50 second and Audi Third

Technology Limited use since the update was not there , looks to me that it will be great when they can get the bugs out of this. It may be too overwhelming for some people at first (that are not used to deal with computers regularly, this is a computer on board). The upper display did not bother me as much as other people claimed here, for what is meant to do is Ok for me

Sound System
Here is for me the biggest area of disappointment, let me qualify this assessment, I think is equal or better than the standard BMW and Audi basic system, but, being this Bose system (supposedly tailored for this car)l I was expecting much more, to be fair I am comparing to my 5 series Harman Kardon 600 Watts (upgrade) system that for my ear is all that I want or need, I heard that the B&O is even better but not had a chance to play with that one yet. The Q50 Bose felt to me that was not properly sized and tuned for the car, it felt like there is a lot of power in the speakers, but no finess and quality and fidelity of sound, I am not an expert in this area, just my very untechnical feeling, ...let me put this way, it felt a bit like a ghetto blaster system to me instead of system that you can sit and enjoy a wide range of music (from rock to classic)
I am hopping that this is an issue of tuning and Infinity did not set up the default settings in an optimal setting

The Drive
Well, here is the selling point for this car, both of them are FAST....really FAST..., the Hybrid was noticeable peppy in taking off but, not by a great margin, I drove both units in all kinds of setting and I liked better overall the Hybrid because of the steering and probably the extra weight gives a better grasp to the road (??). Brake pedal felt a bit "loose", hard to explain

Ride comfort..I'll pas on the Sport, overall OK, but, I still think is more fun the BMW 335i, not sure if the 328i would equal the Q50 , need to try one more time in more detail

Would I buy this car?....90% convinced that I will, I need to drive a couple of times back to back with the BMW 328i to make up my mind to be 100%...the audi is not a contender for me right now, the MB 250 is a snail compared with this (however interior the best of them all)

There you go, for those that have not had a chance to drive this beat, I hope this help you in anyway...

Esteban

 

[DavidNJ]

Are you comparing to a 3-series, A4, and C-class or 5-series, A6, and E-class?

 

[afrosheen]

It sounds like he's comparing to just about every luxury car. Expecting a leather-wrapped dash? I don't know of any vehicles in this segment that provide that, maybe a step up in price range to the 60k+ cars gives you that. The M6 was the first one I found via a quick search.

The fact that the car sets these kind of expectations is a plus and a minus. If you look at the price tag, you realize there's a big (and typical Infiniti) bang-for-buck factor. It also is close enough to much more expensive cars that you may feel it is lacking. That's an interesting perception that I hadn't realized before.

Given these impressions, it makes me wonder what they have in store for the Q60 and Q70. Raising the bar this high for the entry-level model leaves alot of room above and below it in the lineup.

 

[BenW]

It sounds like he's comparing to just about every luxury car. Expecting a leather-wrapped dash? I don't know of any vehicles in this segment that provide that, maybe a step up in price range to the 60k+ cars gives you that. The M6 was the first one I found via a quick search.

The fact that the car sets these kind of expectations is a plus and a minus. If you look at the price tag, you realize there's a big (and typical Infiniti) bang-for-buck factor. It also is close enough to much more expensive cars that you may feel it is lacking. That's an interesting perception that I hadn't realized before.

Given these impressions, it makes me wonder what they have in store for the Q60 and Q70. Raising the bar this high for the entry-level model leaves alot of room above and below it in the lineup.

Jag XF has leather dash for 50K, but of course it doesn't go down as low as the Q50 base model.

 

[Esteban Dido]

It sounds like he's comparing to just about every luxury car. Expecting a leather-wrapped dash? I don't know of any vehicles in this segment that provide that, maybe a step up in price range to the 60k+ cars gives you that. The M6 was the first one I found via a quick search.

The fact that the car sets these kind of expectations is a plus and a minus. If you look at the price tag, you realize there's a big (and typical Infiniti) bang-for-buck factor. It also is close enough to much more expensive cars that you may feel it is lacking. That's an interesting perception that I hadn't realized before.

Given these impressions, it makes me wonder what they have in store for the Q60 and Q70. Raising the bar this high for the entry-level model leaves alot of room above and below it in the lineup.

IN the first pargraph of my post I mention that I am comparing the Q50 vs the BMW 328i and the Audi A4 Quatro, why?, because they are about the same price (give and take options). To be more specific, I am comparing with an IBM 328i with Technology Pkg and Nav (Luxury edition) 50K. My take is that Q50 is now in the same league as their German competition, where I believe Q50 has an edge is on the total cost of ownership (parts being cheaper than the German made) and more realiabe in general, on the other hand , the German cars still look nice and keep their shiny paint for a long time, and overall, they age more graciously than the Japanese made, grampier yes (more repairs), but they still look like stallions after 10 or 20 years on the road (not the Japanese). If you are going to keep your car for only 3 years, this shoudl not be concern, but I tend to keep my cars for at least 6 years.

At the end of the day, I think your comment hits the nail in the head, what really matter is what is the best value for your money, a year ago, I would not have considerig buying the G37 vs the BMW 3 series, now I am considering seriously buying the Q50, I think that is what Infinity was trying to accomplish and they are succeding so far....they made me doubt on the ultimate driving machine!!
Cheer

 

[SimpsonTide985]

[email protected] blaster system

Jesus, you guys are something else.

 

[HighNoon]

The Drive
Well, here is the selling point for this car, both of them are FAST....really FAST..., the Hybrid was noticeable peppy in taking off but, not by a great margin...

I'm interested in this part, as my current order is for the gasser but I'm contemplating switching to the hybrid because I love me some peppy take off. Can you expand your thoughts a bit please?

 

[MindcrimeDan]

I'm interested in this part, as my current order is for the gasser but I'm contemplating switching to the hybrid because I love me some peppy take off. Can you expand your thoughts a bit please?

FWIW, as I wrote in my review of my test drive. The hybrid really was fast. The sales guy I was with said he heard from the pro drivers at the Texas speedway event earlier this year as the 0-60 was ~4.8s. I didn't test it myself, but it felt super peppy to me. It was smooth through the gears and didn't have any noticeable "jerkiness" as it accelerated. You should definitely test drive it yourself to be sure it's to your liking, though.

 

[HighNoon]

FWIW, as I wrote in my review of my test drive. The hybrid really was fast. The sales guy I was with said he heard from the pro drivers at the Texas speedway event earlier this year as the 0-60 was ~4.8s. I didn't test it myself, but it felt super peppy to me. It was smooth through the gears and didn't have any noticeable "jerkiness" as it accelerated. You should definitely test drive it yourself to be sure it's to your liking, though.

This is my problem. I can't test drive as I am currently in the Philippines for work. I get back in a few weeks, but by that time I'm afraid it might be too late to change my order. My dealer said if they have to order me a new car it will take up to 90 days, and might fall out of the pre-order pricing window in which you have to take delivery by 10/31.

Thanks for the info!

 

[selzini]

[email protected] blaster system

Jesus, you guys are something else.

Maybe so, but I understand perfectly what he's talking about. Yesterday, I happened to stop at a mall for lunch and a little walking, and in the parking lot was some idiot who thought the whole world needed to here his "boom, boom, boom." It would be my guess that he has no concept of what music should sound like. A system should be able to execute in all areas, not just a booming bass. Esteban, thank you for the comment - and I hope you're wrong about the system. I want it to play all kinds of music(and for Simpson, that does exclude, rap and heavy metal.)

 

[Esteban Dido]

I'm interested in this part, as my current order is for the gasser but I'm contemplating switching to the hybrid because I love me some peppy take off. Can you expand your thoughts a bit please?

I really think that both are fast enough to do pretty much anything you want, unless you are planning to race in this car, if I were you I would stay with the gasser based on what I read from you, my inclination to the Hybrid is mostly on the handling, I think the extra weight , coupled with the sports suspension and the adaptive steering, it really adds up for a better ride overall. Take my input with a grain of salt, I drove thee two cars for about 10 to 15 min each , I am planing to do a lot more driving to make my final decision (the car dealers are gong to hate me at the end)

 

[SimpsonTide985]

Maybe so, but I understand perfectly what he's talking about. Yesterday, I happened to stop at a mall for lunch and a little walking, and in the parking lot was some idiot who thought the whole world needed to here his "boom, boom, boom." It would be my guess that he has no concept of what music should sound like. A system should be able to execute in all areas, not just a booming bass. Esteban, thank you for the comment - and I hope you're wrong about the system. I want it to play all kinds of music(and for Simpson, that does exclude, rap and heavy metal.)

Yeah, I know people like you. I know more than you think about what you mean...

You act like music snobs and you're always so quick to judge and criticize any music that you didn't grow up with.

Don't get me wrong, I used to be the same way!

 

[CarolinaQ50]

".....ghetto blaster system....."

Hmmmmm......

 

[afrosheen]

For those of you who didn't get to experience the 80's first hand, they used to make huge portable tape players with giant speakers, and everyone referred to them as ghetto blasters. It wasn't meant in a derogatory way that I'm aware of, that's just what everybody called them. They were also known as boomboxes.

Boombox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[SimpsonTide985]

When anyone disses rap and/or metal, dems fightin' words I tell ya!!!

 

[CarolinaQ50]

For those of you who didn't get to experience the 80's first hand, they used to make huge portable tape players with giant speakers, and everyone referred to them as ghetto blasters. It wasn't meant in a derogatory way that I'm aware of, that's just what everybody called them. They were also known as boomboxes.

Boombox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I went through a couple of boomboxes in my time, but just knew them as boomboxes. Never heard of ghetto blasters. Also called my Walkman a Walkman, and my Discman a Discman.

 

[NTOwens]

When anyone disses rap and/or metal, dems fightin' words I tell ya!!!

LL Cool J's Radio was the first record I ever bought with my own allowance.... that's right - an actual RECORD.
I was trying to scratch with it on my POS rack system. Tore through some needles!