We were down in Florida for a family event and needed a rental. I like to rent cars of varying types to keep the rental reviews interesting and different, and my wife accommodates me. We rented a "Luxury" tier vehicle through Budget, which was stated to be a Chrysler 300 or similar.
We ended up with a 2019 Infiniti Q50 3.0t AWD.
In summary, it was nicer than our normal rental, but did not make a compelling argument for ownership if I was looking at this market segment.
Styling wise it is similar to many other mid to full size sedans these day.
It is clearly in Infiniti's flavor thereof. But, while some auto makers fave very distinctive styling, I would say this one blends in more.
The car was pretty quiet with relatively little road noise intrusion. No particularly exciting exhaust note or induction noise to be had either.
Handling was rather twitchy with an overly quick and light rack and steering wheel feel. I would have liked significantly more steering wheel weight or resistance. The steering wheel lacked both weight and any feel for the front tires. (Could be a fault of the tires, maybe? Unlikely, probably the power steering configuration.) This meant that it was easy to give too much steering input which made navigation of in lane obstacles and lane changes a little more dramatic than I would have hoped.
This is something I could probably adjust to with more time in the car. Changing between normal and sport suspension modes did nothing to resolve this. Steering was always definitively vague.
During out trip we did 189.3 miles consuming 7.768 gallons of premium gas. Our calculated fuel economy was 24.4 MPG.
In terms of engine modes this car was nice in that Eco, Normal, and Sport modes each had distinctly different characteristics. Eco very much reduced the amount of fuel given and greatly reduced acceleration rate for the sake of economy. Sport held revs and let you use more of the power band, much more likely to make it to peak horse power. Normal split the two. Economic if light on throttle and giving full shove if asked.
Transmission was fine, no complaints. Because of the broad range of torque (more below) it often did not need to downshift for passing, but this was fine.
Trunk space is respectable. Here are two carry-on bags side by side with a significant amount of space to spare.
With this car I finally understood what it meant to be the prototypical "BMW / Audi Asshole". Passing is too easy, you are in no way working for any reward. It is merely slightly dipping your toes further into the accelerator and yet more traffic is left behind.
It is less about intentionality and more so that it is effortless to do so.
The engine is the Nissan / Infiniti VR30DDTT (TT being twin turbo).
The defining characteristic of this car is the torque. 300 HP (224 kW;
304 PS) @ 6400 RPM and 295 lb⋅ft (400 N⋅m) of torque from 1600 RPM
through 5200 RPM.
Merely depressing your foot slightly provides meaningful increase in power such that passing requires very little effort at all. This is how many modern single and dual turbo engines behave. Basically, you have torque on demand.
Interior styling is decent. The dash does a good job blending into the center console.
The front seats lacked heating (yes, car is in Florida), cooling, or bolster support. As a base I would expect heating and bolster adjustment, in addition to the normal lumbar support, at this price point.
The back seats had a respectable amount of headroom despite the coupe like shape. And there was an acceptable amount of legroom, though nothing particularly luxurious.
Rear vents, but it did not appear that there was three zone climate control. Also no heated rear seats. These are things I would hope that would be in a luxury sedan at the price point this car likely commands.
The dashboard is dated compared to modern TFT outfits and the more configurable screens. I imagine this will change on the next generation of Q50, if it does not this car will likely be woefully behind its market segment.
The center console had two screens, one on top of the other. The top one had controls in the center console and was slow to respond. The bottom one was a fairly responsive touch screen.
I chose to use one of the performance meter screens on the bottom with fuel economy information on the top.
Also, having dual zone climate control is always nice in our rental cars.
So, not sure if this is an Infiniti problem necessarily, or more of a rental car issue, but the chrome plastic piece used on the vent positioning tab fell off on first touch.
The wheels and tires were fine, though the wheel have a few too many / too wide of spokes for my liking and look busy. I am also a little surprised at the enormous wheel gap on a luxury car.
As always, questions and comments welcome.
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