Today I stumbled across an article from C/D talking about Infiniti teasing for the 3rd time the new QX55 SUV. If you don't know what the 55 means welcome to the club. This is essentially a coupe-suv version of the QX50, it was supposed to be released last year but no one knows why its become so delayed, but I assume it has to do with the whole Nissan-Ghosn controversy.
Anyways, this got me to thinking, "Why the hell does Infiniti still exist?" Seriously, why? They have zero, and I mean zero interesting products in their line up. I won't speak much about the 90's but rather start with their golden era: the 2000's. Back in the 2000's with the G, M and FX, they were an underdog brand, someone to root for success. Their cars drove beautifully, and put Infiniti on the market. Unlike most Lexus or Acura cars that shared their platforms with their conventional brand's FWD econoboxes, Infiniti had used the FM platform from their 350Z to create RWD Sport Luxury Sedans, and two Crossovers. I use to refer to Infiniti as the Japanese BMW. They weren't as stylish or luxurious as the BMW or Benz competition, but they were excellent driver's cars with nice interior finishes that weren't available at the lower end Nissan level, and above all else boasted Japanese quality and reliability (well, except for maybe the first gen automatics...). In the 2000's I was recommending Infiniti to everyone, a stark contrast from today.
The excellent compact G sedan and coupe are now the Q50 and Q60. They look excellent, but inside use decade old software, include an incredibly bad steer-by-wire system (the worst in the industry) which removes all feel and is incredibly hard to place on the road, and excellent handling is gone, along with the decent reliability. It wasn't only until recently that Apple Carplay was even offered among very little meaningless updates.
The M, the mid-sized 5/E competitor soldiered on for 10 years without any interesting updates. It was discontinued last year with no successor in sight. The FX, arguably one of the first sporty "coupe-like" styled SUV's suffered the same fate as the M.
The EX, which was essentially a G hatchback on stilts, is now a beautiful SUV, but my god what have they done to the platform. It went from RWD, Naturally-Aspirated and great handling to being based off the rental Rogue! Even worse they paired it to the infamously unreliable and infuriating Jatco CVT. The interior design improved but again they used the Q50's old software while even the most basic of Nissan's received better tech, and paired it with the steer-by-wire system. And the Variable-Compression engine, a unique engineered engine, fails at its one goal, MPG, which a basic X3 or GLC can easily beat.
Other forgettable vehicles in the lineup include the recently discontinued QX30, aka the MB GLA in better sheetmetal but still arguably a s**t car, the QX 60 midsized SUV, which is a decade old Pathfinder that also shares old tech, unreliable transmissions and generic interior that couldn't bother to be different from its Nissan sibling, and lastly the QX80, also a decade old, although at least RWD and truck based, but horribly dated full-size SUV.
And then we have the naming convention. Alpha-numeric names are already forgettable as it is, but the G, M and FX were at least memorable after they established themselves in the market. So once they finally established themselves you know what they did? They changed everything, and moved to Q for sedans and QX for SUV's. This is pretty much as bad as Cadillac's naming scheme, not to mention throws out many nameplates people resonate or remember for new ones they couldn't possibly care for.
It seems all Infiniti has left for its lineup is fleet sales and low lease payments, but again they can't even increase their sales in a SUV obsessed market, which just shows the market simply doesn't care for Infiniti, hell, they can't even spell the name correctly.
And even worse is the concepts. Infiniti has surprisingly brought many concept cars to stage within the last decade, two of which were actually very exciting vehicles, ones to bring hope for those who lost it, and possibly a return of the handling magic that Infiniti's use to include. All of these have yet to actually become a production vehicle, and likely never will. The Eau Rogue, an M3 fighting sports sedan with 500+ hp and a powertrain from the GTR premiered, even had press drives with C/D simply stating "build it, please," never reached production. The Q60 Black S, a sports coupes that would take on the M4 with 500+ hp and F1 tech, never reached production. There was even an electric car concept, that literally failed to make it on stage. Seriously the car wouldn't start and could not drive on stage. If there was ever an embarrassing moment that sums up Nissan/Infiniti as a whole, this would be it. On Infiniti's website there are three concept cars which are simply just the QX 50 and QX 80 which makes we wonder if they even bothered updating the website after all these years, and then there are four others also which will likely cease to exist.
So, what does the future hold for Nissan and Infiniti? Honestly things look pretty bleak. Before Corona they were struggling and this will just make things even worse. They have pulled Infiniti out of Europe, and Nissan is now structuring Infiniti as a "Nissan-Plus" brand and cutting off workers, and 10% of the company lineup. Search Infiniti in automotive news and its hard to find a positive article, the first seven searches on Jalopnik brought me these articles, all of which do not put a good light on Nissan, and the articles were all written within a year.
At this point, Nissan should just put Infiniti out of their misery.
Infiniti Is Getting Absolutely Creamed
Yep, Infiniti Got Creamed
Nissan's Restructuring Throws Infiniti Under The Bus
It's Infiniti's 30th Anniversary So Let's Remember When It Had A Vision
Infiniti Doesn't Want To Talk About Profitability
Infiniti Quits Europe
Nissan Thinks It Has A Plan
Curious to hear your thoughts on Infiniti/Nissan as a brand, as well as if you had any experience with the failing brands.
Some reminders of the good ol' days of Infinti.
Edit: Mods fix typo in the poll.