Tag: q50

Official: Infiniti G37 to live through MY 2015, sell alongside Q50

Filed under: Sedan, Performance, Infiniti, Luxury

2010 Infiniti G37 Sedan - front three-quarter view

Infiniti has officially confirmed news we broke last month about its G37 sedan – that it will live on in showrooms alongside its erstwhile replacement, the 2014 Infiniti Q50, a model that goes on sale this week. And it’s sticking around for quite a while – it will be sold through the 2015 model year.

In order for the G37 and Q50 to not rub shoulders, Infiniti is rolling out an amended G lineup, complete with lowered pricing. The G37 will stick around in Journey and all-wheel drive trims, both powered by the same 3.7-liter VQ-Series V6 engine, and only two option groups will be available, Premium and Navigation. The 2014 G37 Journey will start at $32,550, while the G37 Sedan AWD will run $34,150 (both are subject to a $905 destination fee).

The 2013 G37 had been priced from $38,255 delivered as of earlier this week, so the price drop is significant, likely bringing the base MSRP more in line with where transaction prices had been on the aging model. The new pricing, which takes effect August 6, should also allow the G37 gain consideration amongst shoppers of smaller-engined rivals like the BMW 320i while the Q50 waits on a turbocharged four-cylinder and diesel engine from Daimler. For comparison’s sake, the larger, more tech-rich Q50 will start at $37,605 delivered.

Why leave the G37 hanging around with its successor? According to Ben Poore, Infiniti of America’s vice president:

“The introduction of the Q50 with its distinctive design, engaging performance, world’s first technologies and unmatched levels of connectivity and personalization, enables us to pursue a two-pronged strategy. It creates room to strategically offer the repositioned G37 at the lower end of the near luxury segment in addition to the higher-positioned Q50. The two vehicles aim at different market segments and allow us to serve different customer needs.”

Confusingly, the G37 will apparently keep its nameplate in the face of Infiniti’s new Q-based nomenclature, a system that has already changed the G37 Coupe and Convertible models to the name Q60. For more, check out the official press release by scrolling below.

*Note: 2010 Infiniti G37 Sedan shown

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Infiniti G37 to live through MY 2015, sell alongside Q50 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First Drive: 2014 Infiniti Q50

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Performance, Infiniti, First Drives, Luxury

Avoiding An Identity Crisis… For Now

2014 Infiniti Q50

Infiniti is a brand that has been quietly undergoing major upheaval – and not just with the numbers and letters on its trunklids. Back in December, Nissan’s premium brand rankled fans and pundits by announcing it would redo its alphanumeric nomenclature, yet that decision was but a PR speedbump – there are bigger fish to fry. After all, this is a marque that was on the chopping block just a couple of years ago, and now it has a major opportunity to succeed thanks to new investment, new independence (Infiniti is now responsible for its own design, engineering, marketing, quality and human resources), a new global headquarters in Hong Kong, and new marching orders from new leadership that calls for a revitalized and expanded portfolio.

Yet if you think that the Q-based naming convention is the first sign of the brand’s new direction, you might have missed Infiniti’s biggest signal flare: the 2013 JX crossover. Fine premium three-row crossover that it may be, it’s still the first Infiniti in ages that operates without a scintilla of driving entertainment at the core of its genetic makeup. (The last – and perhaps only – previous example was also Pathfinder-based, the 1997 QX4). To be fair, three-row CUVs have a laundry list of priorities before driving enjoyment figures in, but the message the JX (henceforth known as the QX60) sends is clear: Infiniti is going after more segments and more customers. Plans are afoot to expand the company’s product line by a whopping 60 percent over the next five years, and in short, that means Infiniti is no longer content to be the unsung Japanese BMW – it needs vehicles that satisfy a wider swath of consumers. Despite all this, Infiniti officials we spoke with were keen to assert that driving pleasure remains very much core to their mission, and to that of this 2014 Q50 in particular.

And surely the Q50 is something different and altogether more palatable to enthusiasts, right? After all, it replaces the bedrock G37 sport sedan at the heart of the lineup (well, sort of), and the latter was always regarded as a good handler and a dynamic drive, even if its overall refinement left something to be desired as it aged. Yet some of the Q50’s new technology, in particular drive-by-wire steering (a world’s first production application) and a new degree of autonomous capability, had us curious to see if the most important part of the experience is still down to the soft-headed bit belted in front of the steering wheel. We spent a day driving both standard and hybrid Q50s in New England and a few more on our metro Detroit home turf to find out if there’s still a healthy percentage of “sport” in this sedan.

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2014 Infiniti Q50 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Confirmed: Infiniti G37 to live on in showrooms alongside 2014 Q50

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Performance, Etc., Infiniti, Luxury

2014 Infiniti Q50 - front three-quarter view live on show stand

Infiniti is preparing to roll out its hotly anticipated 2014 Q50, a car that not only ushers in a new alphanumeric naming strategy, it ostensibly replaces the G37 as the brand’s bread-and-butter sport sedan. That will happen, but not in the short-term, as the G37 will continue to be manufactured and sold alongside the Q50, at least for the rest of this year.

Infiniti spokesman Kyle Bazemore has confirmed to Autoblog that a decision is pending on how long to extend the G37 sedan’s production run. “We’re taking Q50 up a little bit, and that allows us to keep the G Sedan in the lineup… It [Q50] certainly started as a replacement, but it ended up being much more than that.” Confusingly, Infiniti has already announced that the Q50 is to start at $37,605 (including $905 destination charge), yet the 2013 G37 is more expensive, starting at $38,255 delivered according to Infiniti’s consumer website. Thus, a price drop on the G37 is likely coming in short order.

So why hold on to the older model? With the Q50 launching exclusively with V6 and Hybrid models (a turbo four and diesel are said to be in the cards down the road), Infiniti evidently feels it is risking leaving lower-end sales on the table. “There’s a lot of movement with the [BMW] 320i and such, and this allows us a two-tier strategy to compete,” says Bazemore. Keeping the G37 on tap at a lower price for fleet sale duty may also serve to protect the Q50 as it establishes itself on the market.

For the moment, Infiniti is still determining whether to continue G37 sedan production beyond the 2013 model year, and some of that may depend on the arrival time of its new entry-level front-wheel drive model, expected to be dubbed Q30. A decision is likely to be made over the next few weeks. Adding to the confusion, the existing G37 Coupe and Convertible will be immediately rebranded as the 2014 Q60 Coupe and Convertible, even though they won’t be based on the new Q50.

Infiniti G37 to live on in showrooms alongside 2014 Q50 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 19 Jul 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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