When it comes to luxury sedans Infiniti have positioned themselves very well against the competition with the Q50. Its closest rival is perhaps the Mercedes C43 and design wise there is something about the Q50’s shape that is reminiscent of the Maserati Ghibli.
Likeness aside this is a unique automobile and there’s also a few spec options within the Q50 range. Our tester is the Red Sport so it packs a 3-litre V6 twin turbo petrol engine with 298 kw of power. There’s no official data on how quick the Q50 reaches 100km but after some digging, I discovered that in testing it clocked 100km in just 4.5-4.6 secs. Now that’s fast.
It’s a 7 speed auto with rear wheel drive offering multiple drive modes and as Infiniti states she’s fierce but also refined so let’s go over some of my favourite features. The details unique to the Red Sport over the base Q50 (since the 2018 release) include the red brake calipers and the black rear boot spoiler.
Jump inside and the interior styling also steps up a notch with red contrast stitching and a diamond quilted design in the leather seats. The minute I sat behind the wheel the comfort of the seats really stood out to me and I can assure you long drives in the Q50 are beautifully comfortable. Of course, the front seats are heated and you have two integrated displays. The top one is the navigation with a touch screen below to enter all the car settings and for integrating your blue tooth devices etc.
In terms of safety, it’s awarded the highest Ancap rating with 5 stars packing plenty of safety tech like blind spot alert, lane departure and front collision warnings with emergency forward breaking. Sound wise you’re set with a very nice 16-speaker Bose performance system with simulated surround sound and noise compensation. Most importantly, when it comes to first driving this car if you didn’t know what was under the hood you’d be impressed with the ride anyway. It’s smooth, quiet and very comfortable… Everything feels luxury and then you discover the 6 drive modes.
Eco is there for those conservative types however you need not worry; despite being a V6 it’s actually great on the fuel consumption. There’s also a Snow mode, which may be necessary for some, but not the case for most of us in Australia. Standard is the optimal mode for general driving but when you want to really feel this car’s full potential you drive it in the Sport or Sport Plus mode. You feel a distinct shift in the power responsiveness, steering and the suspension firms up… basically, put your foot down and you’re off in true performance style.
