Infiniti squeezed. On the one hand, premium rivals have a fresher range, more competitive models, and sports sedans like this 2021 Q50 Red Sport 400 AWD can no longer rely on power to distinguish it. On the other hand, the main vehicle and more affordable is getting stronger, including the car from the Nissan Infiniti brother himself.
This is a pinch that has claimed QX80, a three-line infiniti SUV is more expensive but less user than the Nissan fleet partner, and the QX50, which gives “acceptable” in the category where “extraordinary” has become a table bet. I suspect the Q50 will be next to give up.
Launched in 2013, and then massaged again in 2016, Q50 no spring chicken. Don’t let me be accused of doing automotive agism, let’s explain: older does not mean worse. Get the right recipe – as G-Class G and Defender shown – and you can slide for decades very interesting.
The problem is, I’m not sure Q50 cooked correctly. At least, it is not enough to make it such an icon that you are willing to see beyond Peccadillo. In short, large machines don’t make a great car.
Don’t get me wrong, Infiniti’s 3.0 liter V6 Twin-Turbo is a fun thing. 400 horsepower and 350 lb-ft torque are more than one equally healthy, even half ahead after infiniti launches it, and it sounds very noble too. Hoarse and susceptible to occasional bark, it is an exhaust that reminds you why – even with clear performance excellence from electrification at this point – EVS has not won enough everyone.
Infiniti pairs it here with the drive all the wheels and 7-speed automatic transmissions. Q50 grasped well, and even though there was a slightly slim through a more aggressive corner it was never to the point where you were afraid of things would be free. It must be adjusted on the side of the company, and bad road surfaces make themselves known in the cabin.
Automatic shifts smoothly, and slimy positively when you with patient around the city. However, it is able to do things that are faster, however in sports and sports + mode may be reluctant to rise. It’s good when you push hard, but it doesn’t make you sound like someone who forgets how to change the gear when you knock 400 horses to play more point-and-squirt.
Because I am an Englishman and it’s been full of anxiety, I think it’s better to take over his own gears, don’t let the people on the track next to me think I just enjoyed the V6 spinning sound at 4,500 rpm when I was sailing at 35 mph or more. The good news is that the manual override here does not have a delay or seems disconnected that some automates suffer, where it can feel like every snap from the paddle must go through the adjudicator panel before Cogs is completely shaken.
The car review I did not come with the most controversial infiniti option, drive-by-wire steering. In theory, this allows for more responsive control and the ability to change performance and more comprehensive feedback according to each drive mode. In fact, every time I have driven infiniti with it, I found it weird and far away: as if you used the gaming console wheel.
Honestly, even the regular steering Q50 still feels somewhat cut off from what happens on the road. Enough, after my first drive, I checked the specifications to make a double-sure adaptive steering immediately not added.
The whole feeling is a little … old school. V6 Infiniti has a lot of torque from get-go, but the underwhelming steering wheel and fotables just don’t make the best of it. A good sports sedan makes you want to drive it, even when you don’t have other reasons than desire. Even in the form of red sports, Q50 does not inspire the lust.
