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Good news for those of you awaiting the return of the Nissan Z sports car in the form of the 350Z.

That good news is the Infiniti G35 sport sedan and, coming this fall, the G35 sport coupe.

How does a sport sedan’s performance in a week of testing bode well for a much anticipated sports car?

Because the basic architecture and powerplant that move the Nissan/Infiniti sedan will also underpin the 350Z. And if that package can move a 3,500-pound, four-door car the way it does this one, I can’t wait to feel it tweaked and tuned for the sports car.

The G35 sedan, as tested, is on the market now and will be joined by a coupe version in the fall.

The sedan, at a base price of around $28,000, settles very competitively (and probably most powerfully) into a heady field that includes the Audi A4 3.0 Quattro, BMW 330i, Lincoln LS, Lexus IS 300, Cadillac CTS, and Jaguar X-Type. It’s got a base price advantage as high as $10,000 in this group and a horsepower advantage of as much as 50 ponies.

That horsepower is delivered quietly (with a nice exhaust burble) and smoothly from a 24-valve, 3.5-liter, DOHC V-6 that produces 260 horsepower and a hefty 260 lb.-ft. of torque.

There is good news, annoying news, and bad news on the transmission that distributes that power to the rear wheels.

The good news is that the 5-speed, electronically controlled automatic shifts up and down smoothly and, yes, will redline the tachometer if you’re getting into that right pedal heavily. It also has a manual option that gives you a decent bit of self-reliance in your shifts. The annoying part is that to engage the manual option you push the shifter through a notch, away from you and over near the passenger’s seat. That means that the mode in which you would have your hand on the shifter finds the stem a reach away from you while the automatic mode, when you don’t need to touch it, puts the stick close at hand.

The bad news is that there is no truly manual transmission available as yet (reports are there may be a six-speed manual in about a year), and a performance sedan such as this deserves a manual transmission.

That said, this is one quiet, smooth, well-balanced automobile.

The engine sits in a race car-inspired front-midships position, pushing weight toward the rear of the car so that it has a very nice 53-47 front to rear distribution, quite good in a front engine car.

The G35 relies on 4-wheel independent multilink suspension, with coil springs all around, and antiroll bars front and rear, to tune the ride.

The result is a quiet, smooth, almost heavy ride at highway commuter speeds. The heaviness is not a bad trait because, after all, one half of this car’s performance personality is comfortable sedan.

The other half – sportiness – comes from a compromise forced by the weight it carries. Yet, it handles it well. In modest cornering, there is virtually no body roll as the car sits flat and heavy through the curv es. Toss it fast into a sharp curve, however, and it tends to push to the outside of the curve. Easy to contend with by using light touches on what is a light-feel steering wheel, and worth the price of the car’s solidity in other uses.

As for appearance, I find the G35 sportier on the inside than I do its exterior.

Some have called the outside lines aggressive, but I don’t think it’s distinctive or aggressive. It’s got a low nose sliced by a silver slatted grille, sharply raked windshield, rounded, flowing roofline, and high, chopped rear deck.

Lots of cars these days have those lines.

Inside, however, its techno-industrial look is aggressive.

Orange-glow gauges are housed in a moving binnacle directly behind the steering wheel. Move the wheel up or down, and the binnacle goes with them. That means you can’t block out gauges when you move the wheel to its most comfortable position for you. Nice.

Black leather seats (optional) form four buckets in what is tru a 2-plus-2 seating setup. Infiniti does not pretend this is a five-seater. And it is certainly not a 2-plus-2 masquerading as a four-seater in which the rear occupants sit on what is really a luggage ledge.

The four seats are all wide, flat buckets with firm support for the butt and thighs and good bolstering along the legs. However, I’d like to see more pronounced bolsters up the sides and at the shoulders. Their grip is needed in a car that will be driven in a performance mode.

The black leather is set off by a satin-metal finish that encases the center console and, in a great design touch, swoops up along all four interior door grips in long, rising silver lines.

The headroom is good up front, a bit tight in the rear; six-footers will be rubbing up against the headliner.

The glove compartment setup is odd. If you don’t buy the navigation system you get twin glove boxes, one atop the other, both small. If you go for the navigation system, you lose the top box and are left with one small one. Further, the center console box is very shallow. But oddly, the cover over it is deep. This means you can stack objects or stand tall ones, in the lower bin, and the deep cover will close over them. There’s just no guarantee they won’t topple over when you open the top after scampering around driving.

Trunk space is modest, but a through-box entering the rear seats behind the middle arm rest allows for carrying long objects, such as fishing poles or skis.

All in all, this is one tight, fun, useful sedan. If I were shopping in the $28,000-$38,000 range and didn’t have my heart already set on one brand, I’d be sure to

Base price: $28,950

Price as tested: $36,125

Horsepower: 260

Torque: 260 lb.-ft.

Wheelbase: 112.2 inches

Overall length: 186.5 inches

Width: 69.0 inches

Height: 57.7 inches

Curb weight: 3,336 lbs.

Seating: 4 passengers

Fuel economy: 22.1 miles per gallon

Source: Nissan North America, Infiniti division; fuel economy from Globe testing.

Nice touch

The dual controls for seat postions placed on the inside edge of each of the front seats. Easy to reach, easy to use, intuitive after only a few minutes in the car.

Annoyance

The speakers placed in the lower front corners of the rear doors. Kick city.