Video: 2018 Infiniti Q50 Review

Now, I can distinctly remember this being one of two cars that I would have sold one of my then young and valuable kidneys for. Fast forward 15 years, my kidneys aren't in as good a shape, and neither is the G35, which is now known as the Q50 after Infiniti changed up their naming conventions a few years ago. Now, we're here at our main studio in Chicago with a 3.0T Sport version of the Q50, and for better or worse, this is the exact same version of the car that I had out in California for a week. However, here, this one has all-wheel drive for the Chicago winter, whereas mine was rear-wheel drive, because in California, we still don't know what winter is. Now, Infiniti offers three different powertrain options on the Q50. The base engine is a turbocharged two liter four cylinder, and at the very top, you have a 400 horsepower V6 found at the Red Sport model. Now the 3.0T Sport splits the difference between those two, it actually has the same engine as a Red Sport, just not tuned up for as much horsepower. This engine makes 300 horsepower and 295 pounds through the torque, and it's a twin turbo charged three liter V6. Now, I can say with certainty that the engine is actually my favorite part of how the Q50 performs, because the rest of the car falls flat. Now, the first thing that bothered me about the Q50's performance was its handling, and if you look at the Q50's option sheet in this configuration, you see all these intensely worded options, things like active trace control, dynamic digital suspension, rack electronic power steering. These aren't necessarily a bad thing, these kinds of technology and driver aids, in a good car, could actually enhance the driving experience. However, the Q50 is not a good car. The dynamic digital suspension doesn't do a good job of keeping it flat in corners, the steering, you feel disconnected, it feels like these are all just layers that get in the way of you actually enjoying driving the car. Now, also hindering performance is the Q50's transmission, and there's only one transmission often across the whole Q50 lineup, and that's a seven speed automatic. Now, if you leave the automatic to its own devices, it's laggy, it's not very fun, there's a noticeable delay between hitting the accelerator and that actually translating into forward motion. The reason that I know I like the engine so much, is because this version comes with paddle shifters, so when I was able to choose my own gears, the engine revved quickly, it revved happily, and acceleration was good for a car in this class, but with the automatic doing its own thing, got a little lost. Now, for a luxury sedan, interior materials and quality are kind of a mixed bag for the Q50. You have real leather and some comfortable front seats that I like, but also on the dashboard, you get hard plastics with some fake stitching, and just general overall materials aren't really up to par for this class. Now, what bothers me the most actually about the Q50's interior is their multimedia system, which comes with this two screen setup that we see here. Now, Taylor Swift said that two is better than one, but in this case, that's not really true. The Q50 isn't alone in having a two screen setup, competitors like the TLX do as well, but that one does a much better job of actually utilizing the functionality of the two screens more than the Q50 does. Now, the top screen is limited to navigation, voice commands, Bluetooth, phone calls, and as a display for the Around View Monitor system that this car is also equipped with. However, controlling the top screen can be kinda difficult, you actually can't really reach it from the driver's seat here without leaning forward, and using the knob is complicated. To move the map around it takes some time, and it's very unclear as to what the different buttons around here do. The bottom of screen is better, it's higher resolution, but it comes seated in this glossy black panel, and when I was driving, I noticed that a sunlight caught it at the wrong angle, it actually shine directly into your eyes while you are driving. Another downside to the system, is that it doesn't even offer Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, and those are two technologies that would actually really improve the multimedia system, because if it's not very good, you can just use those systems instead. But without those as an option, you're stuck with the multimedia system that like much of the handling, falls flat. Now, like much of the rest of the class, the Q50 doesn't really have a lot of backseat room. I'm 5'11, which is actually the average height of an American male, and with the seat setup where I would drive, there's not much leg room, it's not great for a longer trip, but for short trips, it'd be okay. But there's actually pretty good headroom, and I feel like the cabinet's pretty roomy on the top side, which is kind of nice actually. Couple of things about the backseat area, there are no charging options, so there's no 12 volt ports, no USB ports, so if you're gonna charge something, you're gonna have to get someone up front to lend you a cord. Second problem with the backseat is there's a really big seat hump in the middle here, which makes the middle seat pretty much unusable, so putting three adults back here isn't really feasible for anything more than a few minutes. Now, my final issue with the Q50 is it's packaging. This car that we're looking at here tickers for just over $52,000, and for that amount of money, you actually do get a few important safety features such as Automatic Ford Emergency Braking, an Around View Monitor, and blind spot warnings. However, this car is missing two features that we like, which do help reduce driver fatigue, and those would be adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist. Now, if you wanna add those to the Q50, you're gonna have to add another $2,700 options package. However, if you wanna add that package, you have to include four other packages, two cosmetic options, for a total of almost $12,000 in options, just to get those last two safety features, and that is disconcerting when you consider that those two come standard on a Toyota that costs under $20,000. Now, if it feels like I'm being a little bit harsh to the Q50, it's because I am, and that's because it competes in a very crowded, very competitive segment. Ultimately, what the Q50 lacks is a compelling reason to buy one. In this segment, it falls short on performance to cars like the Alfa Romeo Giulia and the Cadillac ATS. On luxury, it doesn't match up with the Mercedes-Benz C-Class or the winner of our last luxury sedan challenge, the Audi A4, and as we've talked about, it really doesn't hold up on value either. What the Q50 needs is not a refresh like it got for 2018, it needs a full redesign to be competitive once more in this class.