This might be a comparison between two brand new luxury sedans with long fancy names and powerful engines, but it feels very familiar. To me, this is just like the comparison customers used to make between the C 350 and the G35 sedan.
The marketing teams have pushed up those numbers, and the engineers have added a lot more power, but these car brands are still set apart in the same way. Mercedes has the superior build quality in the interior department while Infiniti offers more content in a bigger car for less money.
Just like with the G35 and G37, the engine is the big redeeming feature of the Q50 Red Sport 400. The model doesn't handle like a true sports sedan, and it doesn't look like one either, but at least the soundtrack is good.
After that, it's all a question of how you define luxury and how much of it you expect to get as standard. Nearly everything on the Mercedes looks miles better, and that's because it costs more.
Somebody needs to teach Infiniti designers a thing or two about interiors, because the Q50 has several different styles of buttons and two center screens that don't match - one is glossy, and the other one is flat, plus the resolution is different.
Safety is undoubtedly a big part of what makes a luxury car today. And it's in this department that the Q50 shines. But we doubt that many people are looking for the best emergency braking system in combination with a twin-turbo V6 making 400 horsepower. That's like dating a homicidal stripper who just loves to rescue kittens.
Like Auto Guide puts it, the Q50 is a car that doesn't know what it wants to do from a company also struggling with its identity. You can't decide you want to make a semi-autonomous, super-fast, extra-spacious luxury machine. That's Tesla's job.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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