Infiniti Q50...

[kieranblenk]

Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone on here has had any experience of the Q50? Reason being the local Infiniti centre is selling them off with a £12000 deposit contribution on PCP, taking them down to the price of a mid range Golf which for a 3 series exec sized car with a 2.2 diesel and auto box seems good value. Looking online the deal appears to be at all Infiniti dealers. Obviously there's not many about but I think it's quite a smart looking car.

I understand it's a Nissan in a posh frock using some Merc running gear, but are they actually any good?

[ST270]

kieranblenk said:

Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone on here has had any experience of the Q50? Reason being the local Infiniti centre is selling them off with a £12000 deposit contribution on PCP, taking them down to the price of a mid range Golf which for a 3 series exec sized car with a 2.2 diesel and auto box seems good value. Looking online the deal appears to be at all Infiniti dealers. Obviously there's not many about but I think it's quite a smart looking car.

I understand it's a Nissan in a posh frock using some Merc running gear, but are they actually any good?

Good looking cars IMO - engine is a Merc unit 170 bhp. Lots of standard kit and good driving dynamics - however these cars have an option of steer by wire which can feel a bit remote if it is specified. Interiors are good, & well made and they are generally a rare sight on the roads. If you test drive one try a run out in the hybrid model too it is genuinely very rapid!

[SteBrown91]

They are perfectly good cars - the infotainment is a bit of a mess from what I’ve seen (apparently under the skin it’s an ancient version of Android) but there is nothing wrong with them. But because they aren’t German the residuals are shocking - a friend purchased a base model one at just over 12 months old for about 16k.

Pcp is the route to go if a good deal as it’s pretty much a given the car will be worth less than the final balloon so you will have the chance to hand back and walk away

[Camelot1971]

I had a look at these recently - it was ok but the engine was noisy and rough (even for a diesel) and the infotainment system wasn't great. You can get a 3 year old hybrid with the V6 and all the toys for well under £20k, which I think would be a better buy overall.

I looked at a used Volvo S90 as well but in the end went for a Mondeo Vignale. Pretty much every option ticked for just under £27k new (£5k off) and 1.2% APR over 36 months with a 10k final payment. Mondeo interior is much nicer in my view and it's a LOT quieter, which was important for me as I do a lot of motorway miles (it has active noise cancelling and laminated glass all round).

[ajguk]

I had one of these for 2 years on a lease deal.

The good

• Handsome car, especially when it's clean. Mine was black, I still used to turn around and look at it after 2 years.
• Comfortable, particularly coming from my Mazda3 MPS that had the world's hardest suspension.
• Fast enough. That 2.2 diesel has plenty of torque and enough grunt. Ran out of puff as all diesels do but it never felt slow.
• No engine issues in the 2 years I had it.
• Cheap lease deal for me. £242/month, 8k miles/year. Bargainish.
• Steering fine but mine wasn't electric.

The bad

• Entertainment system needed replacing as it kept rebooting. Under warranty, but didn't fix it. I didn't bother taking it back as they only gave me Q30s as courtesy cars and they were poor.
• Not particularly frugal mpg. I probably averaged 34mpg, granted a lot of short journeys but even on a run it was only low 40s.
• Having two screens was confusing. They did the same thing and different things. Slightly pointless.
• Bluetooth would randomly not connect my phone, although I suspect it wasn't the cars fault (Motorola handset....).
• Manual foot brake. Good luck getting anyone at the car wash (or anyone not in the know) to move the car once it's parked.
• Rear view camera had a fondness for staying on once you disengaged reverse, rendering satnav unusable.

The ugly

• The auto gearbox was a truly hateful thing. It really was atrocious - it would take (no exaggeration) a second or so to wake up at a roundabout which gave me several close calls. It wasn't consistent either as sometimes it would go off like a scolded cat.

I would have another short term but only a manual, or maybe one of the hybrids. If they could sort out the gearboxes I'd be far keener. As it stands I've gone back to a petrol manual shed for the timebeing such was my experience!