From Yokohama with Love
It's been over 20 years since Nissan decided to delve into the luxury market with their Infiniti brand, and within that 20 year span, what has the brand done? They're still selling re-branded Japanese-market Nissans, and they haven't even become a major name in any other country besides America (where they aren't really a big name in the first place). Nevertheless, the Infiniti logo has graced a few spectacular cars in its day, all cases of cars being amazing, but never grabbing grip due to even
more spectacular offerings from the Germans of their biggest nemesis, Lexus.
In the early 2000s, Infiniti wanted to remedy this, badly. So, they put all their efforts into making a small, luxury sedan with a competent base-price and sportier trim than their other offerings to attract a younger base. The younger base. That's all that luxury brands cared about in 2000. Infiniti's efforts became the Infiniti G35...a small, taut, RWD semi-luxury sedan that kept up with the best from Germany and America. It was a minor hit, long story short.
But,
minor is the key word here. In 2005, the top selling small luxury sedans were as follows: The BMW 3 Series, the Mercedes C-Class, and the Lexus IS. The Infiniti G35 fell a little below that. Infiniti updated the G35 in 2006 with an attractive new design and new features, and sales rose, but not quite enough for what they wanted. In fact, the G35 has mostly found itself loved more by the tuner crowd, hence why you can never see any stock Gs of any sort in my home state. Infiniti has since found more luck in the CUV crowd, and they still make a few decent little sedans, but you kinda have to wonder...did the G35 deserve to be shafted by the crowd?
The following conversation is as real as the events in
Fargo. It was held between me and my sponsor.
Sponsor: So, the new car should be dropped off in Ronda in about an hour, somewhere in the town square. It's a no-parking zone, so be there quickly.
Me: I'm already warming up the STI. Please tell me you've got something better than that godforsaken Trans-Cammer Mustang.
S: Oh, it's a Skyline.
M: Oh, a Skyline! Fantastic! A GT-R? What year model?
S: 2006.
M: So an R35, GT-R? Didn't they come out in '07?
S: You'll see...
Suffice it to say, I was not too thrilled with what lay before me.
The Review
I wanna make things clear here. Apart from a few models and a few generations of cars, I'm not really a huge fan of Nissan. Their recent cars have been lackluster and their drivers are :censored:s. The same applies to Infiniti, and in fact, the only Infiniti I've ever really
liked was the old Q45 and M45. I would much rather deal with a Lexus or a Cadillac any day, Infiniti has never thrilled me. But they do interest me, and I do admire their relentless pursuit of making good-looking RWD sedans. Maybe I'm a bit too harsh. But when faced with this G35 (or actually, Skyline Sedan 350GT as it's called in Japan), I find myself feeling a bit...middle of the road, honestly. There's no substance or drama to its design, it seems a bit...plain, a bit...safe, especially in comparison to its predecessor.
Inside, it's a bit of the same ordeal. It's a very unoffensive package, of course there is leather and fine materials, but a little splash of color apart from grey would have been nice. At least it is well-equipped for a car of its price range, but I do have to ask Infiniti, would a little wood trim to replace the sea of silver "aluminium-look" plastic hurt anyone?
However, under the hood of the G35 here is a real gem of an engine. Nissan's VQ-series 3.5L V6. Petrolheads like us know it as the fire-breathing V6 from the Nissan 350Z. In this guise, it sports around 311 horsepower, and 264 lb-ft of torque. You'd think that with such amounts of power, this car would surge down a straight away, and while you do feel a raw amount of power when you put the foot down, and the car makes a glorious noise as you do so, the super-impressive speed you expected never really comes. In fact, barrelling down the speedway, I felt quite calm and comfortable, almost a bit mundane. That's great for a luxury car with the caliber of the M45, but bad for a sports sedan, like this G35 wants to be.
But surely a lack of speed can be made-up with in the corners? Even the most small-engined BMW 3 Series can still wow any driver in the curves. And such thing can thankfully be applied to the G35. Nissan always does manage to wow me with their suspension work, and the G35 shows that. It's taut and easy to flick around. There is a tad bit of understeer coming from the car's weight, but it does not really overwhelm the car. In fact, I'd have to say that this thing was kinda fun in the corners. Not as fun as a 3 Series, but fun nonetheless.
But the issue really falls somewhere in that lack of power, that I can only say is the transmission's fault. You come out of the corner with your smiling face and then it vanishes as it struggles to push 100. Saddening. Nevertheless, I pushed the G35 to finish the lap. It was a bit crummy, so I tried a second one, much better.
Beater v. Sleeper Indy Track Times
1. Grand Touring Garage 1970 Ford Mustang Trans-Cammer – 1:44.398
2. Nissan Skyline Sedan 350GT Type SP ’06 – 2:00.477
To size-up that time, my 2000 Lexus GS300 managed to lap this track only one second quicker, so that's pretty decent for a luxury sedan.
The Verdict
When approached to drive this Infiniti, my heart thought it'd probably be yet another disappointment. And while it lacks some power and it does feel a bit plain, the suspension is just too good to hate. It's possible that I'm going soft, but I'm giving it a very, very light
sleeper award. And I think this thing should not have been such a meager sales-effort...there's definitely some substance here. I kinda wish I could drive one of their newer cars to see if its progressed, but we'll see...
As for the Midfield race, that is pretty strange seeing me stuck on the starting line. I ran the whole race although I got walloped coming out of the first turn, then had a great battle with Jack, as I remember it. Or maybe it was Rob. 
