BEYOND Infiniti
A thoroughly high-class exterior? Absolutely. But a decent interior worthy of its hefty price tag? Sadly, that’s completely...
I COULDN’T GET THE LADY INTENT ON WARNING ME OF EVERY SPEED CAMERA TO SHUT UP
Today I will be mostly on my travels again, this time going to Venice with That Car Show. Good title, don’t you think? For a car show. That’s what I would have retitled
Top Gear had Zippy, Bungle and George announced some irretrievable divine right over the original name. Either that or C armageddon, which I’ve always fancied.
As we count down to our first show, in (not James) May, the seemingly inexhaustible stream of ‘insider’ stories keeps on coming, my most recent favourite being about how ‘unprofessional’ I have been behaving ‘on set’.
We don’t actually have a set yet for me to misbehave on. Not only has it not been built, but we have only just signed off the final design. Once it is built, however, I promise I’ll try not to let the ‘insider’ down. In fact I am channelling my inner creative rage at this very moment.
And the real stars of the show also just keep on coming. Here comes another right now.
‘What a natty-looking motor car, very smart indeed, front back and sides,’ I thought when I first clapped eyes upon this week’s
More test car. ‘It’s what the worldbeating Nissan Qashqai should look more like.’ Which is ironic, seeing as this is Nissan’s very own latest attempt at a bit of high-class automotive totty – Infiniti being its luxury brand offshoot.
Whereas the Qashqai –and even more so, the Nissan Juke – look like they’ve been stung by a Box jellyfish, the Q30 is just about perfect. Save for perhaps one kink too many in the middle of the ‘signature’ C pillar. They say ‘it forges a dynamic crescent shape that emphasises movement even when stationary’. I say it looks like it’s melting, suggests weakness and will date the car sooner rather than later. Only my humble opinion, of course.
When it comes to the interior layout, not such good news, I’m afraid. I felt pretty hemmed in from the get-go. For the first time in a long time I could sense what little hair I have left brushing against the roof lining. In truth, everything seemed a bit too close for comfort – particularly the rear passengers: this is not a luxury family mile-muncher. Even the central control panel suffered from overcrowding, the dials and switches becoming more cluttered and confused the further down the console your eyes wandered.
Driving the car was pleasant, I suppose. That said, pleasant may not be enough for over 35 grand – a price at which you could be understandably forgiven for wanting a bit more.
Although the Q30 did feel quite quick and assured, actually a lot quicker than the 0-60mph in 8.2 seconds official stat hints at. But at no point did it feel as sporty or exciting as her honeycomb grille, big fat racy wheels and, again, that price tag might suggest. Very unlike the Golf GTis and Golf Rs of this world – several thousand pounds cheaper –which trounce the Q30 when it comes to power.
Other issues: I couldn’t get the lady who seemed intent on warning me of every speed camera between here and the high court to either shut up completely or at least speak up so I could hear what she was banging on about. After a lot of unsuccessful cursing and knob-fiddling I resorted to trying to get the voice-activated system to help me with my gagging order. This was, of course, a com-
DON’T MISS PHILIP NOLAN’S BRILLIANT MOTORING COLUMN IN THE IRISH DAILY
MAIL ON SATURDAYS
plete waste of time as all I succeeded in doing was getting the screen to repeatedly ask if I wanted to exit voice control at every available opportunity.
Permanent full beam also evaded me, which I couldn’t fathom at all. Although the gracefully arcing cornering headlights following even the slightest caress of the steering wheel left or right more than made up for it. By far the smoothest set-up I’ve come across, and along with the overall look of the car, by far my favourite feature.
Another anomaly was Infiniti’s claimed fuel economy for the Q30, which it is stating to be 47.1mpg urban and 57.6mpg combined urban. I couldn’t get better than 26.4mpg – that’s a whole 53% off the pace. Yet more additional cost to pile on top of the original you-know-what. I promise I won’t mention the price again.
But here’s a suggestion to knock a few quid off: how about ditching the middle rear seat belt? There’s no middle rear seat to speak of anyway, so what’s the point? Or how about, what’s the point of this car generally?
When Mercedes, which supplied the Q30 with the platform from its own A Class, appears to help out a would-be class rival, it either (a) has lost the plot (which it hasn’t), (b) is about to go skint (which it isn’t), or (c) feels so unintimidated by whatever the buyer is going to do with it, it’s happy to bank the cash and not bat an eyelid – bingo!
I know the Japanese are the masters of long-term strategy, but one wonders where they’re going with this whole concept. Unless infinity itself is the plan. In which case, what do I know?