New Infiniti vs. Lexus designs
07-12-17 | 03:11 PM
#16
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 91,715
Likes: 89
From: Virginia/D.C. suburbs
Odd, I preferred the IS/RC interior over its similarly-priced competitors. The plastic, compared to what I am used to, feels pretty substantial - as far as plastic goes. 
When you tap on it, it doesn't sound hollow like in mainstream cars.
I was a little disappointed with the upper portion of the door not being more squishy though, for better elbow comfort, I concede that. The BMW did a better job in that aspect, but I prefer the Lexus seats by a long shot. Though, I am kind of skinny.
When you tap on it, it doesn't sound hollow like in mainstream cars.I was a little disappointed with the upper portion of the door not being more squishy though, for better elbow comfort, I concede that. The BMW did a better job in that aspect, but I prefer the Lexus seats by a long shot. Though, I am kind of skinny.
As far as the IS/RC interiors in general, I don't see them as similar. There are significant differences in them, even in the quality of the plastics....but I respect your view.
07-12-17 | 04:12 PM
#17
Lexus Test Driver
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 1,476
Likes: 60
From: California
Infiniti sells 800+ Q60 per month vs. lexus RC 400+ per month. Frankly, I was shocked when I saw the sale figures. Maybe next year after Lexus switching to a 10.3" inches screen and updating the dated infotainment system, RC might have better chance. Personally, infiniti isn't my dish. But I notice that they are becoming sexier.
For those who love RC, they will always accept RC no matter what. Although, for a large amount of people who are not into RC, if you ask them why, usually they would say : 1, lack performance due to the obesity- too heavy 2, dated infotainment system, tiny screen.
For those who love RC, they will always accept RC no matter what. Although, for a large amount of people who are not into RC, if you ask them why, usually they would say : 1, lack performance due to the obesity- too heavy 2, dated infotainment system, tiny screen.
I would pick the Q60 over the RC (non-F) any day.
07-15-17 | 06:44 AM
#19
Pole Position
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 2,924
Likes: 174
From: Los Angeles, CA
07-15-17 | 10:34 AM
#20
Rookie
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 50
Likes: 2
From: San Diego
The Q60 is nice on the outside but is pretty unoriginal - the rear looks stolen from one of the new Mercedes models. It's cheap, inoffensive, and has decent power (which the RC unfortunately does not). Nissan builds nice motors for all these cars but they should stop letting the Sentra team design the Infiniti interiors...
07-15-17 | 11:50 PM
#21
Instructor
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 780
Likes: 120
From: MA
I agree with the" exteriors are decent, interior is meh" theme here. I just looked at a Q60 2017 video, and when the camera panned across the dashboard, other than the carbon fiber trim, it basically shouted "HEY THIS IS A HYUNDAI SONATA BASE MODEL WITH BETTER STUFF ATTACHED TO IT!" That kind of schloque is fine on a base model Sonata, not on a car that costs like 50K or high 40s new. This is weird to me because I don't ever remember the interiors being that bad.
This weird obsession with Turbos is also troubling, although I'd be more apt to trust a Nissan or Toyota turbo'ed motor over anything else in terms of reliability. Lexus at least so far is still offering a bunch of NA motors. If I was going to make a WAG this is pretty intentional because its not like Toyota doesn't know how to do a turbo- I think it's because there's this memetic sort of thing going on where Lexus is afraid to divorce itself completely from NA motors because they know their market segment seeks highest reliability in class- and they know that some of these buyers may even intentionally avoid stuff like turbos and CVT transmissions whenever they can. Toyota is hedging with the turbos- eg, they're putting them in the lineup for skinflints and people that don't care about the motor they have, but still leaving the option of the real motors for those of us who care.
Then again my POV is different from many- I think of cars in a 7+ year ownership cycle" kind of way- I'm definitely not part of the "buy/lease a car, throw it away 4 years later" crowd. "Long term ownership experience" is a huge factor for me. Mentally this keeps getting reinforced too when I drive and see almost no G35s floating around and even G37x's are starting to become scarce- when on the other hand it's not very difficult to see a fair number of 8+ year old Lexus cars still on the road. I've also talked to at least two G37 owners who were like "meh" when their leases ran out and they jumped ship to some other brand. On the other hand I have a bunch of family members with Lexus cars. Not a single one of them has "divorced the brand" per se. This speaks volumes to me. Yeah it's all anecdotal, but it gets stuck in my mind.
The only thing I can really bash the crap out of Lexus on is that damned grille and this obsession with changing the front ends of the cars. It's not enough to make me not consider one, not hardly- but I honestly think that even if they stuck with something simplistic like the current gen ES's front end or the ISF's front end, people wouldn't care as long as the other stuff is getting updated. Changing the front ends just screams "Hey we're trying to win over people who aren't going to buy our cars anyways!" They can forget about trying to woo most of the BMW/Audi/MB/RR/Maintanence nightmare crowd, most of the people buying those cars could have the car burst into flames spontaneously and the first thing they'd do is run out and buy another one because they're obsessed with brand image. (Admittedly, in some cases, if you're fixated on how
the car LOOKS, above everything else, some of those cars can't be touched. )
As far as the constant whining about infotainment goes, yeah the Lexus systems are lacking, but, seriously? Some of the stuff is clumsy but it's not thing you can't work around easily, and IMHO it's not a serious inhibitor to enjoying the car. A lot of people like to have stupid gadgets and be able to talk to the car and all that BS, but as long as I can stream BT audio to the thing, it sounds decent, and I can use the BT speakerphone, after that everything is gravy. I do wish they would just use a bleeping touch screen though (like what the old GSes had!) the stupid joystick thing is an annoying step backwards in that regard. I mean I see what they were trying to do, but it wastes space on the console.
Speaking of infotainment though, one of those people that dumped the G37 dumped it in part, because the whole electronics suite would just die on her. It was a lease so she just got it fixed under warranty before dumping it, but her entire radio/stack infotainment system basically would just **** itself- I think they replaced the whole system a total of 3 times!!! It didn't cost her anything to fix, but it annoyed her because she couldn't easily get it fixed so she would just go for 2 weeks without a radio every time it happened!
-Mike
This weird obsession with Turbos is also troubling, although I'd be more apt to trust a Nissan or Toyota turbo'ed motor over anything else in terms of reliability. Lexus at least so far is still offering a bunch of NA motors. If I was going to make a WAG this is pretty intentional because its not like Toyota doesn't know how to do a turbo- I think it's because there's this memetic sort of thing going on where Lexus is afraid to divorce itself completely from NA motors because they know their market segment seeks highest reliability in class- and they know that some of these buyers may even intentionally avoid stuff like turbos and CVT transmissions whenever they can. Toyota is hedging with the turbos- eg, they're putting them in the lineup for skinflints and people that don't care about the motor they have, but still leaving the option of the real motors for those of us who care.
Then again my POV is different from many- I think of cars in a 7+ year ownership cycle" kind of way- I'm definitely not part of the "buy/lease a car, throw it away 4 years later" crowd. "Long term ownership experience" is a huge factor for me. Mentally this keeps getting reinforced too when I drive and see almost no G35s floating around and even G37x's are starting to become scarce- when on the other hand it's not very difficult to see a fair number of 8+ year old Lexus cars still on the road. I've also talked to at least two G37 owners who were like "meh" when their leases ran out and they jumped ship to some other brand. On the other hand I have a bunch of family members with Lexus cars. Not a single one of them has "divorced the brand" per se. This speaks volumes to me. Yeah it's all anecdotal, but it gets stuck in my mind.
The only thing I can really bash the crap out of Lexus on is that damned grille and this obsession with changing the front ends of the cars. It's not enough to make me not consider one, not hardly- but I honestly think that even if they stuck with something simplistic like the current gen ES's front end or the ISF's front end, people wouldn't care as long as the other stuff is getting updated. Changing the front ends just screams "Hey we're trying to win over people who aren't going to buy our cars anyways!" They can forget about trying to woo most of the BMW/Audi/MB/RR/Maintanence nightmare crowd, most of the people buying those cars could have the car burst into flames spontaneously and the first thing they'd do is run out and buy another one because they're obsessed with brand image. (Admittedly, in some cases, if you're fixated on how
the car LOOKS, above everything else, some of those cars can't be touched. )
As far as the constant whining about infotainment goes, yeah the Lexus systems are lacking, but, seriously? Some of the stuff is clumsy but it's not thing you can't work around easily, and IMHO it's not a serious inhibitor to enjoying the car. A lot of people like to have stupid gadgets and be able to talk to the car and all that BS, but as long as I can stream BT audio to the thing, it sounds decent, and I can use the BT speakerphone, after that everything is gravy. I do wish they would just use a bleeping touch screen though (like what the old GSes had!) the stupid joystick thing is an annoying step backwards in that regard. I mean I see what they were trying to do, but it wastes space on the console.
Speaking of infotainment though, one of those people that dumped the G37 dumped it in part, because the whole electronics suite would just die on her. It was a lease so she just got it fixed under warranty before dumping it, but her entire radio/stack infotainment system basically would just **** itself- I think they replaced the whole system a total of 3 times!!! It didn't cost her anything to fix, but it annoyed her because she couldn't easily get it fixed so she would just go for 2 weeks without a radio every time it happened!
-Mike
Last edited by drgrant; 07-15-17 at 11:56 PM.
07-16-17 | 12:59 AM
#22
Lexus Test Driver
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 1,397
Likes: 50
From: CN
The current ES and IS front ends are incredibly busy. I think Lexus designs look good but they're polarizing and they might not age well.
As for infotainment systems, I wish Lexus offered a full nav system and a simpler one that links to a smartphone. I'd go for the latter, with the smartphone acting as the system controller and the car system being used only for audio. It's a heck of a lot cheaper and easier to upgrade a phone than a car nav unit.
As for infotainment systems, I wish Lexus offered a full nav system and a simpler one that links to a smartphone. I'd go for the latter, with the smartphone acting as the system controller and the car system being used only for audio. It's a heck of a lot cheaper and easier to upgrade a phone than a car nav unit.
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