Boston.com's view

Nissan, a car company that staggered out of the 1990s, has been perhaps the comeback story of this year. Retooled, revamped, redesigned, it is a sleeker, far more stable business, firing on all cylinders. Now, it’s got to get back into the business of building cars. It did a great job giving us the Xterra, an SUV that is what SUVs were in the first place: practical, a bit primitive, affordable.

The sedan lineup is next, and from rubber to roof, it’s in for a complete overhaul as Nissan/Infiniti looks for a sporty edge. If Lexus can be the Mercedes of Japan, the thinking goes at Nissan, then there’s no reason its Infiniti division can’t be the BMW of Japan.

They are starting at the top, with a completely redesigned flagship, the Q45. Here’s a fine car, more than a decade old, that had grown, frankly, far too long in the tooth, strolling into the new millennium even as Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, and others rocketed there.

“We lost our way,” acknowledges Nissan spokesman John Schilling. I don’t know if you remember the ads, but one place they got lost was in the rocks and trees they featured in advertising a few years back: Lots of nature but nary a car in sight. Today, “We’re reinventing ourselves,” Schilling said, with six new rear-wheel drive, performance-oriented cars hitting the streets in the next few years.

They have started with the Q45 in a ground up attack on stodginess. Added lots more power, given it a rakish look, and loaded it with more technological wizardry than you are likely to find anywhere else. Outside, it’s a hunched wedge, from its downsloping hood, back over a steeply raked roof, ending in a chopped trunk. Looking like Gatling Guns up front are seven-lens, high-intensity headlights that, at night, light the road better than any I have seen.

This is a full-size luxury car that, at nearly two tons, needs some serious horsepower not just to move it and its load, but also to clear the sportiness bar that Nissan has set for itself. To this end, the 4.1-liter, 266-horsepower plant of the last generation Q45 (far too weak for the field in which it wanted to frolic) has been replaced with a 4.5-liter, DOHC V-8 with 32 titanium valves (thank you Indy Racing). It produces 340 horsepower and 333 lb.-ft. of torque. The result is a surging, yet wonderfully silent unleashing of power.

The five-speed automatic transmission shifts incredibly smoothly, though I found the manual option a bit reluctant. Downshifts were responsive, but shifting up seemed to leave the transmission hesitating for just a bit as it tried to figure out what I was asking.

Of course, it’s hard to nitpick when you are seated inside a car that wraps you in the elegance of soft leather and birds-eye maple. The front buckets are broad and supportive everywhere and multiadjustable. Same for the rear seats, which are also power-operated with adjustable backrest angles. Rear seat passengers also have their own audio and clima te controls. Legroom is spacious, head room great, and you actually can haul three adults in the rear seat.

The ride is a compromise that falls somewhere between performance stiff (little body roll in corners with nice side-to-side tautness), and highway soft (a gentle back to front rocking while cruising). The suspension features coil springs, struts, control arms and antiroll bar up front; and, in the rear, multilink with coil springs and antiroll bar. ABS and stability control are standard. If I could change anything in its on-the-road feel, I’d make it a little tighter front to rear and live with a few of the jabs that rough roads can toss up occasionally. I’d also like just a bit more direct sense of the steering. That’s not too much to ask of a car that, while aiming for luxury, is also looking for sportiness.

Central to the new Q45 is its voice-controlled audio, climate, and navigation system. With 108 commands you can find radio stations (Radio: seek 107.9 FM); imate: 67 degrees; Navigation: seek . . . and so on.) In later versions, telephone and Internet access will also be a voice-controlled option. “It’s all about safety. It keeps peoples’ hands off the dashboard,” said Schilling.

There have been some complaints by reviewers that the system is complicated and takes time to learn. I’m as electronically challenged as they come, but I’d have no trouble getting this system down after a couple of weeks of ownership. How long does it take many people to get deep into the wonders of any new home computer. Hey, get over it. A very nice touch, as well, is the optional back-up camera that, when the car is in reverse, reveals on the navigation screen what is directly behind you. Once you trust it (and you can), it’s a great thing.

The Infiniti folks are looking to sell 10,000 Q45s with this model and, priced nicely between the low $50,000s and around $60,000, they should have no problem. It’s a solid first step in their efforts to get back a sporting edge.

As Buzz Lightyear would say (sort of) in “Toy Story”: To Infiniti and beyond . . .