Sandman

Last week I drove the Infiniti M35. Just a few words about my "M" experience:

On the positive side, the material selection is the best yet I have seen from Infiniti. The G35 sells well in Atlanta. It goes like hell and is fun to drive, but I don’t find it to be comfortable and I think that the material selection is extremely weak (no offense intended toward any G35 Fans). The M35/45 is a serious leap beyond the G35 in this regard. Like the GS the M looks better to me in person than in pictures. I do like the exterior styling of the M. The seating is quite comfortable and the car feels very roomy (roomier than the GS). The ride quality is good (not as smooth and quiet as the GS, but very good) – the handling is good. The acceleration is better than the GS by the numbers but didn’t feel any faster to me.(In contrast the G35 goes off like a scolded dog!) When manually downshifting, the transmission boosts the revs to match the speed of the car for the new gear. This is really cool. Also, in automatic mode if you stomp on the accelerator and run it up near red line and then let off of the throttle some, the transmission holds the current gear for about 5 seconds before upshifting. So if you have to pause while accelerating and then want to jam it again you don’t go bouncing up and down through the gears. This is really nice and makes the car handle more like a manual. I didn’t experience the problem that Fallsgrove did. The transmission engine combination is nice in its own right but in my opinion not really as sophisticated as the GS.

On the critical side, I don’t care much for some of the interior styling choices that Infiniti made. The ATM or Piano inspired center-stack is a bit avant-garde. It isn’t “hateful” but I think in 5 years it will be “oh so 5 years ago”. Overall, Infiniti’s interior styling choices just don’t match my tastes. The orange “Corona” around the gauge cluster doesn’t look bad but it doesn’t look tasteful to me. The headliner material is fairly high quality with an interesting weave, but looks like it will easily collect a lot of dirt being that it is an off-white color and has a lot of texture. There are a lot of things in the interior that still look very inexpensive to me, and I care more about this than just raw performance. The Lane Departure Warning system worked well … sometimes. It was kind of neat but I found that I could trick it about 50% of the time. (It did show me that I ride closer to the line than I realized!)

To put it in perspective, while there are a lot of things about the M that I don’t like, if the GS were not available the Infiniti M would probably be my next choice.

flipside909

I concur with your asessement.

UDel

I was a little dissapointed with the new m35-45 exterior after seeing the actual production model in pictures and in person. After the interesting early concept and the tanish gold show car that was supposed to be almost identical to the final model there was something lost in the production model. The show car even though very similiar to the production model had a very sporty elegant look especially with the front end treatment and had many people excited about this new car just based on the exterior. The production exterior looks more like a Nissan than a 40-50 thousand dollar Infiniti. Some people have mistaken it for an Altima. The RL exterior meanwhile looks a little better in person especially in silver. Luckily the M45s nice interior has stayed pretty much the same except the show car had white accents in the steering wheel and other places. It seems the changes to the front airdam, lights, and the grill seems to have thinner crome bars have taken some the beauty from the show car. The interior was nice but I wished they offered some different colored wood options. The new GS surprised me with both the interior and exterior. I like everything except the rear end treatment.

Sandman

I don't know if I have seen the early concept you mention. Do you have a link or a picture to compare to the production model? I like the side view (profile) of the car. I don't really like the chrome grill treatment - nor am I real into the tail light design.

What did you think of the centerstack? Regarding the wood accents, I have to admit that they looked like laminate stickers over plastic. I know that it is real wood, but the finish is very matte and something about it doesn't scream "quality" - not very visually appealing to me.

Did you have a chance to drive the car?

Gojirra99

Here is a link that shows the car from CGI concept to actual concept car to M35/45:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...initi+M35%2F45

saabfan

Yeah, the M concept definitely had a sleeker look than the production model. I think the concept was wider and a little lower to the ground.

The interior on the production model is really first rate in terms of materials and build-quality, in my opinion. It has a lot of visual appeal, too.

TwiBlueG35

I have not driven any of the new mid-luxury sports sedans. But from the look perspective, I prefer Infiniti M more than Lexus GS, since GS has a ridiculously thick C-pillar. BMW 5-series is still my favorite among this class of cars, then the new M, then E-class, followed by Acura RL and Lexus GS, finally the new Audi A6 and Cadillac STS.

Fallsgrove

Ok, I went back to Infiniti and drove both the M35x and the M45. No dramatic change on the M35x, but now that I've had more time with it, I've found that it has a significant delay after putting my foot down on the pedal. Maybe a second or two. This delay is not there in my current Lexus 2000 GS300 which accelerates very smoothly and quickly. These cars have power but its an unrefined power that never seems to be there unless your pedal is almost all the way down. Mind you the M45 can move, but in everday traffic, onramps etc... it just doesn't do it.

In addition, the car sounds as if a speaker was hooked up to the engine and pointed into the cabin. The car is very "throaty", Loud, again who is their target audience?

The car should have stayed in development for another year to get it more refined. The only things I think are better are the voice command system, and I liked the lane change warning system. Oh, and the integrated sat radio antenna.

jyg es3

m45 I drove was a rocket ship. no delay just launch , very very fast . faster than the new gs430 I drove. likke the muscle cars of the 60's

LexFather

So did you time the acceleration? Just curious how you know one is faster.

Fallsgrove

The engines are no doubt very capable, but refined they are not. Maybe the muscle car analogy is correct. I found the engine sound very annoying and the gear shifting very noticable and rough.

Ok, when you put the M45 pedal to the floor on the open highway, the car moves very fast once it gets into gear but I personally did not find either the M35x or M45 to be enjoyable and if you don't enjoy it, why spend this kind of $$....

saabfan

Didn't one magazine put the GS430 at 5.7 and the M45 at 5.3 for 0-60?

I know that's not definitive, but we have seen that both the 35 and 45 can haul.

LexFather

No magazine has tested the car yet. Every review has used the Lexus estimated times. I am sure all the April mags will have tests of the GS, so look out for them.

And I have to double check but one mag got a 5.6 run and not sure what the other one did off the top of my head.
We'll see, the M45 does look to be faster than the GS 430 with the specs we have.

Erick G

Is speed all that matters now a days?

Rockville

Not really Erick as the Bimmer and the Benz control the market share. The enthusiast bent of this forum and the magazines do not match the actual buyers of these cars. Most of them value safety and reliability and prestige. They are mostly 40 to 60 year olds. Let's not forget that Women make about 60% of the buy decisions in the car market. I had a woman who waited patiently for the GS to come in and had chosen AWD and Crystal White/ Cashmere. When she saw the car in person she changed her mind and bought an ES330. Why? She thought the GS was too masculine and didn't like the back end. Let me tell you something... If a woman doesn't like the back end of the car she won't buy it if you give it to her. Maybe we should all be going to the gym more for buns of steel......