This past week I had the pleasure of renting an Infinity Q50 with the 2.0 turbocharged 4 cylinder (rear wheel drive) with 2800 miles since new! Interesting car, not sure it's worth $40K, but interesting for sure.
I found the car very comfortable and easy to understand. The leather seats were easy to adjust to my liking, and the "fit" was great. The "sport" settings on steering and performance were enough to keep me entertained. The ride was taught, firm and well damped. I drive the same roads in NJ/NY with all of my rental cars and this car handled the quality pavement (hahaha) of the NorthEast and NYC with ease. Even with spirited driving. None of the typical GM faults of suspension topping out harshly and/or the car getting out of shape. It simply worked properly.
As for outright cornering power, I found it excellent, period. The tires had 41-42 PSI so they were a touch higher than spec, but I like that too. Steering feel was interesting and just a bit odd.
The engine is a 4 cylinder, (Mercedes based I think) , direct injection, turbocharged thing. It sounds and acts like a 4 cyl. The power is adequate, as is the response, with just a hint of lag, with sufficient, but not copious levels of low and mid range torque.
However, the 208HP direct injection/turbo engine sounds and feels exactly like a European Mercedes taxicab diesel or VW diesel at typical cruise RPM of about 1900. It makes a not unpleasant, but unrefined, little growl and has that characteristic BrBrBrBrBrBr noise. Very unlike the typical port injected Japanese 4 cylinders of yesterday. While it has a good torque curve and rev's out nicely, it's simply down on power (or pull) where it counts, in the midrange. To make the car "go" requires 3 downshifts and 5000+ RPM. I'd guess the car will do 0-60 in 7 real-world seconds. As it's not particularly fast off the line.
Strangely, both Ford and GM do a far better job with their 4 cylinder turbo's. As both make far more midrange torque and 80-100 more HP. An Ecoboost Escape, for example, has a more refined engine, with a good bit more "pull" on tap.
Even so, the Q50 was quite a pleasure to drive, and I'm fairly sure a simple "tune" would wake up that little engine.
MPG was another downside. I saw 19MPG in city driving and 25 highway. Even when I set the cruise control and reset the MPG, it's numbers were never much over 30. So, it would take a very cautious driver and below traffic speeds to achieve 30 highway MPG in this car.
I found the car very comfortable and easy to understand. The leather seats were easy to adjust to my liking, and the "fit" was great. The "sport" settings on steering and performance were enough to keep me entertained. The ride was taught, firm and well damped. I drive the same roads in NJ/NY with all of my rental cars and this car handled the quality pavement (hahaha) of the NorthEast and NYC with ease. Even with spirited driving. None of the typical GM faults of suspension topping out harshly and/or the car getting out of shape. It simply worked properly.
As for outright cornering power, I found it excellent, period. The tires had 41-42 PSI so they were a touch higher than spec, but I like that too. Steering feel was interesting and just a bit odd.
The engine is a 4 cylinder, (Mercedes based I think) , direct injection, turbocharged thing. It sounds and acts like a 4 cyl. The power is adequate, as is the response, with just a hint of lag, with sufficient, but not copious levels of low and mid range torque.
However, the 208HP direct injection/turbo engine sounds and feels exactly like a European Mercedes taxicab diesel or VW diesel at typical cruise RPM of about 1900. It makes a not unpleasant, but unrefined, little growl and has that characteristic BrBrBrBrBrBr noise. Very unlike the typical port injected Japanese 4 cylinders of yesterday. While it has a good torque curve and rev's out nicely, it's simply down on power (or pull) where it counts, in the midrange. To make the car "go" requires 3 downshifts and 5000+ RPM. I'd guess the car will do 0-60 in 7 real-world seconds. As it's not particularly fast off the line.
Strangely, both Ford and GM do a far better job with their 4 cylinder turbo's. As both make far more midrange torque and 80-100 more HP. An Ecoboost Escape, for example, has a more refined engine, with a good bit more "pull" on tap.
Even so, the Q50 was quite a pleasure to drive, and I'm fairly sure a simple "tune" would wake up that little engine.
MPG was another downside. I saw 19MPG in city driving and 25 highway. Even when I set the cruise control and reset the MPG, it's numbers were never much over 30. So, it would take a very cautious driver and below traffic speeds to achieve 30 highway MPG in this car.
