30-31_Life Begins 19/11/2013 15:53 Page 1
motoring
young pretender
Infiniti Q50 Hybrid
Unfortunately this screen is tilted back significantly enough
Infiniti have been building cars since 1989 but has only been
to be prone to glare, especially since it’s not angled towards
a separate company from its parent Nissan brand for a little
the driver in any way. If the sun is coming through the
more than a year now. Undeterred, the firm is going up against
passenger
some of the toughest opposition in the car market in the
When Captain Richard Phillips wasside window it can be pirates, he of the
ambushed by hard to see parts
navigation readout.
mighty shapes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes, who dominate
never expected Forrest Gump to turn lowerat his mounted As Tomthe console and topped
up screen, door. flush with Hanks
the European premium car market almost completely.
The
brings the captain’s incredible story smooth, glossy plastic cover, is effectively the touchwith a to life, he tells Susan Griffin
The Q50 is the spearhead with which Infiniti wants to give the
screen control panel via which the driver role.
big Germans a poking on their home turf. It’s sharply styledwhat could be an Oscar-winningcan adjust the
how he prepared for
myriad settings and personalisation options. It is rather
and certainly easy on the eye in either of the body styles. Sport
vulnerable to fingerprints, but it’s quick to respond to touch
trim looks surprisingly different from the front when you put it
and offers a clear, crisp app-style layout that anyone with a
next to a more relaxed Premium-spec car, but in isolation both
smartphone should feel right at home with.
look strikingly - refreshingly - different to what’s already out
there. It’s sized in between BMW’s 3 Series and 5 Series, so it
might just be a great catch-all compromise.
The interior design is good, too, with a large centre console
giving a snug, comfortable feel to a cabin that isn’t as open
and spacious-seeming as some thanks to a windscreen and Apillar sitting closer to the occupants than in rival cars. The
console itself is dominated by two vertically stacked large
screens; the top one recessed slightly into the surface and
tasked with displaying the navigation system readout and
visuals from the manoeuvring cameras (front and rear).
Cabin storage is a mixed bag, with short-ish door pockets
but a big central bin, which also houses two 12-volt power
outlets, two USB ports, a 3.5mm jack and even a ‘video in’
socket to pipe pictures to the top screen - but not while
you’re driving!
Speaking of driving, you can have the Q50 as a diesel, which
borrows Mercedes’s slightly clattery but potentially very
economical 2,143cc four-cylinder engine, or as a petrolelectric hybrid that uses the electric motor as a ‘supercharger’.
It works like a charm, too, giving the Q50S (the hybrid’s
...clever Direct Adaptive Steering, which in a world-first move
isn’t connected to the front wheels by any mechanical means.
30 Life Begins
www.lifebeginsmagazine.com