LOOKS
The exterior look of the Q70L is stunning, with Infiniti’s familiar raised sides on the hood and the tasteful, attractive grille out front.
If you’re looking for interior room, you’re in luck. Infiniti offers the choice of a longer wheelbase than traditional luxury sedans in this class. That means tons of room for both front and rear passengers to stretch out and enjoy the ride. Materials inside are high-end as usual with Infiniti vehicles; including Japanese Ash wood trim and some interesting touches like speakers on the headrest.
ENGINE, HORSEPOWER, DRIVE QUALITY
The Q70L offered plenty of power. Its 3.7-liter V6 gives you 330 hp and 270 lb.-ft. of torque, plus you have the option to upgrade to a 5.6-liter V8 and 420 horsepower. The vehicle features a 7-speed automatic transmission, with manual shift mode. My test vehicle was an AWD model, but the standard setup is rear-wheel drive.
The Achilles Heel of this vehicle is the overall difficulty associated with controlling and steering it, which is problematic. The amount of effort required to keep this vehicle going in the proper direction is more than I would have liked to see, making the driving experience a bit frustrating. You think you’re all set, and you’ll jerk to the right for some unknown reason. Translation: You have to keep your hands on the wheel and hold tight far more than you do in other vehicles, and that can get old fast.
Add in all the safety features meant to keep you in your lane, etc., which are also very touchy and overly responsive, and it’s an even more difficult thing to control the vehicle. These can be turned off easily, but that doesn’t solve the initial steering issue.
TECHNOLOGY, SAFETY
As I just indicated, there are a ton of safety/tech features (lane departure warning, etc.) offered on the Q70L that will make your ride much safer, but for some reason turning them all on makes the drive worse, as they are overly sensitive. You’ll have to determine what to enable and what to turn off, based on your safety needs and your ability to tolerate the effects of all the features. I love the sentiment of these features, but wish they weren’t so abrupt and intrusive on the driving experience.
Official fuel mileage numbers on the Q70L are 18 city/24 highway/20 combined.
PRICE, BOTTOM LINE
My test vehicle came in at $62,755; base price starts about $53,500 if you want all-wheel drive.
Based on my past experience in their vehicles, I’m a big backer of the Infiniti line, specifically the SUV offerings, but to this sedan I can only give a lukewarm response. Looks are charming and the power is more than adequate, but the rough steering and difficult ride experience will send many people off to the competition.
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Matt Myftiu can be found on Twitter @MattMyftiu.
