The five-year-old Q50 gets a mild design refresh inside and out to bring it up to date
Fifth-year refresh After five years without a significant redesign, the 2018 Infiniti Q50 sedan gets a mild refresh inside and out to bring it up to date. Slightly bigger than a compact, though not quite as large as a mid-sized sedan the Q50 is a car with sporty intentions and you can choose from four different engines, with a range that almost doubles the potential horsepower available. ▲
Tough competition The Q50 competes with the Lexus IS, BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Audi A4. That’s a tough field to take on. How does it stack up now? We drove the top-of-the-line Red Sport edition through the countryside around Nashville to find out. ▲
Five trims There are now five different, renamed trim levels: 2.0L Luxe, 3.0L Luxe, 3.0L Sport and 3.0L Red Sport. There’s also a 3.5L hybrid model. ▲
Small changes The changes for 2018 are fairly subtle. The front and back bumpers are redesigned to look a little sleeker and more aggressive, and 18-inch wheels are now standard, with 19-inch wheels standard on the Sport and Red Sport. The front grille is a little wider and taller, and LED lighting is standard. ▲
Cabin redesign Inside the sedan, the instrument gauges are redesigned and there are new combinations of leather and stitching. Infiniti calls the layout “driver-centric, passenger-minded,” to stress that it’s as accommodating for passengers as it is for the person behind the steering wheel. ▲
New wheel That steering wheel is redesigned as a three-spoke wheel that’s similar to the Q60’s, and the transmission shifter knob in the centre console also has a different look and feel. ▲
Phone software missing Unfortunately, there’s no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto to hook up to your cell phone and keep it out of temptation, though the Q50 is fully connected otherwise to your phone. ▲
Room in the back In the back seat, there’s enough headroom and legroom for two full-size adults; a third can sit in the middle, but it’ll be a bit of a squeeze. If you need more space, the solution is simple: buy a larger car. ▲
Practical trunk The trunk space is reasonable if not generous, with 382 litres of cargo room. The rear seats fold flat in a 60/40 split, and there’s a pull-through for skis or hockey sticks. Hey – this is sold in Canada, don’t forget! ▲
Plenty of heat Heated seats are standard in the front for all Canadian editions, and so is a heated steering wheel. ▲
Keeping it legal We drove on some lovely roads, but there wasn’t the opportunity to really stretch the Q50’s legs and evaluate the car’s handling – police in Tennessee are quick to enforce the state’s speed limits, even pretend police. ▲
Power in numbers Infiniti made a point of showing how the 3.0L engine compares with the competition from Lexus, BMW and Audi. Driving was far too relaxed in the Nashville area to appreciate the comparison, but the numbers speak for themselves. ▲
Easygoing engine The Red Sport has the most powerful engine of them all, but it was easy to drive and it wasn’t aggressive unless you wanted it to be. ▲
7-speed transmission All Q50s have the same 7-speed automatic transmission. Its shifter paddles, standard on the Red Sport, are now mounted directly to the steering wheel, not on the steering column as before. ▲
Six drive modes There are six different drive modes selectable with a switch on the centre console, which is at least one more mode than most other cars. The Q50 can be adjusted between Standard, Sport, Eco, Snow, and Individual, with Sport-Plus available on the Sport and Red Sport. Each mode varies the throttle response, transmission shift points, dynamic suspension, steering firmness, and active trace control, which uses individual brakes to improve control through corners. ▲
Cool new tips The Red Sport has new, drilled muffler tips. They don’t actually do anything different, but they do look pretty cool. ▲
Only AWD in Canada In Canada, the Q50 is only sold with all-wheel drive. In the U.S., it’s a $2,000 option and the car we drove here at Nashville was RWD. The day was dry, though, and the road surfaces were hot, so traction was never an issue and the RWD was indiscernible. ▲
Driving aids The Q50 is very much a driver’s car, but it’s also loaded with the very latest driver’s assistance technology. Most of the features are optional extras, but our Red Sport came fitted with most everything available. ▲
Driver assistance The driver’s assistance features are now both intuitive and virtually seamless. Press the button on the steering wheel and the car will monitor its entire surroundings with a combination of sonar and visual camera sensors. ▲
Smart sensors On the highway, the Q50 used its grille sensors and camera to know when we were approaching a car in front and would push back gently on the throttle pedal to suggest leaving greater room. This was without setting the active cruise control. ▲
Safety first If the car in front were suddenly to slow down, the Q50 would also slow down to maintain a safe distance, even when the cruise control was not set. It would bring the sedan’s speed all the way down to a halt if necessary. ▲
Eco pedal In Eco mode, the Q50 has a “haptic” throttle pedal, which offers resistance against your foot before the pedal can be pushed down too far. It’s teaching the driver to go lightly on the throttle, to save gas, but it can easily overridden. ▲
Fuel consumption Official fuel consumption for the Red Sport is rated at 12.5 L/100 km in the city and 9.3 on the highway, with a combined consumption of 11.1. The Luxe and Sport, with the less powerful 3.0L V-6 engine, have slightly better consumption of about 0.3 L/100 km on all three ratings. Our own real-world consumption was 11.8 L/100 km. ▲
Big-selling sports models The 208 hp 2.0L inline-four is less thirsty, and the 3.5L hybrid even more frugal, but they sell only a small proportion of all Q50s – perhaps 10% for the 2.0L and less than 3% for the hybrid. The 3.0L V-6 accounts for about half of all Q50 sales, and the Red Sport makes up the difference. ▲
Satisfying drive Inside, the Q50 is as comfortable and spacious as its premium competition, and it doesn’t disappoint during a drive. It’s too bad we didn’t get a chance to drive the 300 hp Luxe or Sport editions, but on paper, they should hold up very well. ▲
Getting pricey The American price for our loaded up Red Sport tester was $59,920 U.S., which is considerably more than its base price of $51,000 U.S. This is about a $2,000 increase over last year’s basic price. ▲
No Canadian pricing yet No Canadian pricing has yet been announced, before the Q50 arrives in August, but the 2.0L basic model will probably be priced similarly to the $39,900 tab for the 2017 edition. The mid- and top-range models that are more popular will probably carry an increase of about $2,000 over their current highest price of $45,900 and $52,600. ▲
Subtle changes There haven’t been many changes to the Q50 this time around, with only subtle revisions to the cabin and the outside design. The most significant changes are in the packaging of the trim levels and in keeping the sensor technology up to date, as well as tweaks to the car’s driving ability. ▲
Keeping competitive Together, however, the refreshing of the Infiniti Q50 keeps it competitive with the Lexus IS and the sporty German compacts. In the end, they’re all very similar and it really comes down to which style and layout appeal the most. ▲
Keyword: FIRST DRIVE: Refreshed 2018 Infiniti Q50 sport sedan