This review originally appeared in the June
2014 edition of the Northern &
Central California Cruisin’ News published out
of Folsom, California – mg
Don’t get me wrong, I like
Infiniti’s passenger car lineup. Like it
a lot. It’s just that I had been in and
out so many sporty, peppy, luxo Infiniti cars over the years that I was
feeling, well, jaded.
Shame on me. The Q60 designation might be new to some of
you, but let me assure you, you’ll never forget it if you spend a little time
in it.
Right off the bat, it looks good.
It’s aerodynamically smooth from nose to tail, and Infiniti’s double-arch grille
sure hits the right style spot. Big
fenders on the backside are accentuated by an impressive display of LED
taillights. The car looks super-sporty
just sitting there. My ride’s “Venetian
Ruby” paint job surely added to the eye-candy factor.
Driving it, the heart rate goes up
in a hurry. The 3.7-liter V-6 is rated
at 330 horsepower, and my Q60 was matched to a seven-speed automatic
transmission. Here’s a marriage made in
heaven.
I was putting the Q60 through its
paces on level ground early on, and it quickly became apparent to me that the
gear-to-power-to-suspension equation was so well matched that I could put the
car anywhere I wanted in a snap … without even coming close to cutting off a
trailing car.
Significantly impressed, I started
whipping the coupe through heavy traffic at a fairly aggressive pace. As I headed up into the Sierra
Nevada foothills, I tried to get the back end of the car to loosen
up a little bit. Not a chance. It was rock-solid.
Five miles up the mountain road, I
was just showing off. The Q60 whipped
through high-speed turns with single-minded stability, and it instantly
responded in short passing zones, blazing past stragglers three at a time with just
a short blip on the accelerator. Yeah,
the $40,000-and-change starting price is worth it when you’re having this much
fun.
Alas, my ride was incredibly juiced
up with a Premium Package (rear sonar and a power/tinted glass moonroof were
part of that deal), a Sport Package (19-inch aluminum alloy wheels and a
sport-tuned suspension), a Technology Package (intelligent cruise control might
not be loved by all), a Navigation Package (with Zagat Survey restaurant guide,
for crying out loud) and an Interior Accents Package (high gloss maple touches
did look nice).
All this helped bring the bottom
line to $50,405. So, there, you’ve been
warned.
Worth noting: Gas mileage was
actually pretty good for a hot V-6, coming in at 19 miles per gallon in the
city and 27 mpg on the highway.
For me, the bottom line with this
Q60 was that it was a great “Fantasy Week” car, which is a short way of saying
I enjoyed every minute motoring around in a machine that is beyond the reality
of my household budget. The Q60 might
not be as instantly recognizable as, say, a Corvette or a horsepower-laden
Mustang or a Camaro, but it offers comparable levels of exhilaration and fun that
you get in those sporty rides.
Ho-hum? Not even a little bit.
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