Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Options
Infiniti Q45
This discussion has been closed.
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
Infiniti, on the other hand, dropped the M30 (it was a coupe and convertible which was NEVER replaced in the lineup) and also dropped the J30 (a rear-drive sedan which was also NEVER replaced). Infiniti upset a lot of buyers by doing this.
Give Infiniti sometime and it is catching up. Infiniti just needs to change people's idea on the Infiniti brand.
The '02 Q is one of the best cars currently on the market in its class and when you consider what you are getting for your money it is a lot of car for the dollar, but give it time and you will see. Infiniti should hold the line with the Q to avoid the kind of depreciation that plagued the previous model.
I think Infiniti also needs the bigger truck that Lexus has in the LX470. Granted the Landcruiser (which I will depart with shortly) was a marquee truck to start with so it made sense to re-badge it as a Lexus which made things easy for them. I test drove the LX470 and decided to buy it recently because I continue to need 3 rows of seats and it is the limit in size that my wife will drive plus I got such a great buy on it. By the way it rides like the old LS400 - quiet and very smooth for such a large truck - with a lot more luxury feel than the Landcruiser. Had Infiniti had a big truck I would have went to test it.
Lastly remember that Nissan never had the financial resources that Toyota had at the launch of the luxury brands and Toyota has gotten much stronger since then while Nissan weakened considerably. I think the biggest mistake Nissan could make with Infiniti is to try to compete for the Lexus customer. What they need to do is cut into BMW the way Lexus cut into Mercedes. They want to take away the would-be customer not the existing 7 customer as that is a near impossible task. Lexus LS430 buyers aren't going to run to Infiniti when their leases are up. They will stay put particularly when Lexus raises the bar even higher with the next version of the LS430/500/600 or whatever it becomes with optioned engines.
The G35 which serves as the platform for the Z-car(like the J30 before it) is intended to compete against the 3 series and other compact sport sedans. It will also serve as a replacement for the M30 when the coupe and convertable versions come out. In addition the FX45 represents a radical new direction for Infiniti with large sport sedan qualities, a high HP V8 and the outstanding AWD system from the Skyline.
That it the good news. The bad news for Infiniti is that this new car still seems to be flying below most people's radar.
DonFenn - goodluck to you. I understand your post very well which is why I believe if Lexus or Infiniti captures you as a customer, given their phenomenal reliability, you're not going anywhere else unless you put status (and the other guys are weakening while Lexus is strengthening very fast (and I hope Infiniti does the same) as a number one priority. I almost made that mistake 6 months ago - no chance of it ever happening again. By the way how good is the 300 watt Bose stereo. The ML in the LS430 is the best I've ever heard but admittedly I haven't heard Infiniti's Bose. The ML seems to get better as you play it.
My sister has the exact opposite opinion. The one dealer in Northern Virgia, provides terrible service. She was much happier with her Honda dealer. The stories I have heard from her would make me NEVER own an Infiniti product in her area.
Infact after buying her 2000 Q for cash, she really wants to get rid of it and would never consider Infiniti again. This after I convinced her what a good car it is. All because of the after sale service.
Infiniti will never match the likes of Lexus or MB with just a great product. Their dealers, especially on the East coast from what I've heard, turn off current and potential customers all the time. When you only have 1 dealer within 50 miles, you have little choice but go elsewhere. That is a shame, as I said I have no such problem and like their whole line.
I believe that the back seat room in the new Q is much improved over the previous version and is competitive with the Lexus. It may be just a tad smaller in space, but it is in same range. Two people are quite comfortable in the back seat. Although, the center rear postion is not very comfy.
As for the complaint about East Coast service, I think that somebody should contact the Infiniti factory or zone representative. They seem so concerned about service that I cannot believe that they would let East Coast dealer's bad service destroy their reputation.
it is ironic that everytime I have considered another car, I have let the fine service that I get from Infiniti sway me back to Infiniti. They have always tried to do everthing possible to please me. Too bad that that is no the case everywhere, but Infiniti should know this at a much higher level!
If your sister is disgruntled with the service she is getting from the No. Va. dealer then she might want to try Coleman Infiniti in Bethesda, Md. It's only about 10-12 miles from Rosenthal, which I presume is the offending dealer. When I lived in the DC area I used Kline Infiniti, a No. Va. dealer that closed a couple years ago. They were excellent - quick appointments always, and they would ask if I wanted the car picked up at my office or whether I preferred a loaner car, even for an oil change.
There are surely problems between some Infiniti customers and their dealers. Even Lexus has them. However, these are infrequent. Infiniti and Lexus have been at or near the top of all the customer satisfaction surveys taken since they were introduced. The probability is very high that a customer will have a good experience at these dealers.
I guess, the issue is when there is only one dealer in a geography, they can pretty much behave how they want - just like any monopoly. Sure service ineptitude will not help expand the market base, but as long as sales and product can keep getting in new customers they manage to survive. But at the expense of damaging Infinit's reputation. cest la vie.
One would think that Infiniti would know about this bad dealer.
http://www.detnews.com/2001/autos/0107/26/a01-254941.htm
Nice car nonetheless.
Adding my two cents, I think Infiniti would do well to reaffirm its sporting inclinations by bringing in the skyline gt-r from japan albeit an infiniti'zed skyline (perhaps a more lux interior, adjustments in equipment levels, marginal aesthetics work to blend in with the rest of the line-up).
They could resurrect (perhaps) the M tag and also the skyline would have a major halo effect like the NSX to Acura and Lexus/Toyota doesn't have anything in its closet to directly compete. What do you think?
Also the skyline will go great with the new Q philosophy...
The new GTR (not current skyline GTR), which will be GTR only and not Skyline GTR, R35, has a darn good chance of coming to the US as an Infiniti. AWD, 400+hp...sounds beutiful.
Wait one to two years and if like past Q's, you'll beable to get a smokin' deal.
I see the 2002's are selling at about the sales clip of the 2000 model Q45.
New Road test on 2002 Q45 above.
Doesn't matter anyway, my wife would never let me spend that much money on a car. Oh well, a guy can dream.
http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/roadtests/roadtest/46967/article.html
It seems that they disliked just about everything about the Q, I saw very few positives mentioned. They also made a HUGE deal about the horsepower issue and the 0-60 times. The reviwers went as far as saying that other competitors like Lexus etc. have nothing to worry about. Geez!!. That's not what the guys at Road and Track said. They compared the Q to the the Lexus LS 430 head to head and liked the Q better.
Hey Edmunds guys!!..if you hate it that much, hand me the keys...I'll take it.
Speed
Thank you.
Pat
Host
Sedans Message Board
The active suspension model has superb handling, supposedly better than MB SL600 ($ 125,000 car) with a similar system. What the "a" gains in handling it loses in speed because of the weight gain, no pun intended. So it's up to you what you prefer, better handling or speed.
The active suspension is very reliable, but you have to recharge accumulators every 30-40,000 miles. If you get them new from the dealer it'll cost you up to $ 10,000. However there is a guy in Texas who can recharge the accumulateors for you for a few hundred dollars (he is just a Q lover and came up with this system). Go to Infiniti owners club and yahoo, his name is "texasoil".
It's really quite simple why the Q45 lost to the GS430. The GS430 is more sporty than the Q45. It's much more of a enthusiasts sedan.
The Q was impressive. Quieter than my Caddy, with more gadgets, and much better build quality. The voice activated radio/climate control worked well enough, but I don't think it was particularly practical.
The rear seat leg room was a little tighter than my Caddy's, and the trunk was really quite small compared to the Deville. I doubt you could get more than one body in there, where the Deville will hold two. It's definitely not a gangster car .
After reading the brewhaha concerning the Q's acceleration, I had to try it out for myself. Sure enough, this car is definitely slow off the line. At highway speeds, passing is effortless, but that is also true of my Caddy and an LS430 I test drove awhile back. It certainly doesn't "feel" like a car with 340 horses under the hood.
Infiniti could learn something from Cadillac's DTS engineers -- gear ratios make all the difference in the world. There's a big difference in acceleration between a standard Deville and a DTS, and it's all in the gear ratios (the engines put out the same horsepower in both models). Is Infiniti afraid people will twist the rear half-shafts?
The Infiniti dealer I went to here in Denver would not budge from the MSRP. They also added ~2000 worth of dealer junk. $900 for a clear hood protector? Give me a break.
I didn't think the lease numbers were particularly good for this car either. The residual was 52% for a 39 month lease -- a fair bit lower than the competition -- with a money factor of .00208.
It was a nice car -- I certainly preferred it over my Deville -- but I think if I were going to buy a new car in this price range, I would get a 7-Series BMW or an LS430. Right now, a 7-Series lease is actually cheaper than an Infiniti lease. Looking at the lease numbers, it seems that Infiniti has little confidence that the Q will retain its value over the years.
It's a real shame Infiniti didn't get everything right the first time with this car. Right now, I'd say the Q is a very nice car in a market loaded with very nice cars. The Q has a lot of potential, but right now there isn't much that makes it stand out.