Infiniti Q45 Luxury
Good points: engine, price, customer service, headlights, seats
Needs improvement: gas mileage, dash controls, handling, cargo area
Silver, large, and implanted with a powerful 340 horsepower V8, Infiniti's Q45 is a bit of a luxury car bargain at $60,000 (US). But, you get what you pay for, and this "bare bones" Infiniti offered only one thing in abundance and that was acceleration. It just wanted to go quickly. Of course, the downside was a real thirst for premium fuel. We were hard pressed to get 20 mpg and in town and that mark could fall to 16 mpg with ease. In other words, if you want to move 4000 pounds of car in well under seven seconds be prepared to pay at the pump.
Mom's view
I was quite comfortable in this Infiniti. The seats were nice and the ride bordered lived up to its luxury label. Our test vehicle had a lot of miles on it and we are glad to report that after 12,000 plus miles of heavy use the car was still quite solid.
It was readily observed that this car loved to ignore the posted speed limit. It wasn't sneaky fast, such as the supercharged Jaguar which smothers your senses, but more bludgeonly fast. In other words, you have the hammer and you are well aware of the power. The weak spot was the transmission, which had a hick-up or two, but other than that you pretty much were only limited in how swiftly you wanted to go by the fuel remaining in its 21-gallon tank. Coincidentally, despite this less than ecological friendly gas mileage, Infiniti has placed a little leaf on their small, indash monitor. The leaf turns green if you are not accelerating and is drained of its color the faster you travel. Although it was interesting, this is a large, energetic vehicle and driving is not a computer game. I see no benefit for this attractive nuisance.
I liked the a full-size spare, puddle lights under the outside mirrors, and adjustable rear seat head restraints, but most of all the large number of useful standard features made an impact of my value system. You get plenty of safety equipment such as control dual front airbags, front side airbags, curtain side airbags, front-seat active head restraints, antilock brakes, antiskid system, and a tire-pressure monitor.