“What’s that, who makes it, where is it made, how much is it?” If anyone else askes me these questions, I promise I will scream. It happened nearly everywhere, outside home, parked in town, at the supermarket or at a school meeting. I was first to arrive at the school meeting and parked the Q50 in the school car park, and every other person who came into the meeting asked the same question, all seventeen of them, after nine it got a bid tedious, after fourteen, it was getting ridiculous…it was like a one man mission to increase brand awareness.

The Q50 is powered by a 2.2 litre CDi diesel engine, built for Infiniti by Mercedes Benz. It produces 170 ps, and accelerates from 0-62mph in 8.5 seconds. This four cylinder unit is not as quiet and refined as other British and German premium four door saloons. At low speeds and on initial start-up, it is fairly noisy. But at motorway speeds, it seems to quieten down and becomes more acceptable.

Infiniti, for those who don’t know (and it appears most of Huddersfield don’t know), is the premium arm of Nissan, a similar set up to Lexus and Toyota or Audi and Skoda. They are built in Japan to a high standard, but for some unknown reason, as you open the driver’s door, there is a VIN label stuck on the B-Pillar that says Nissan on it. Now there is nothing wrong with Nissan, the cars they build or their name, but if you spend a lot of money on an executive car, you would not expect to see Nissan labelling on it. We believe that Infiniti are looking into this, at a high level, and this may well be changed on future cars.

The interior is on the whole very well finished off, with some high quality features. It looks expensive and premium, with some really nice materials being used throughout the interior. But it is let down in a few of places with some cheaper looking and harder plastics. But these are out of immediate eyesight and are lower down in the car, where they aren’t as visible.

The Q50 measures 4,790 mm in length, compared to a BMW 5 Series at 4,907 mm, Mercedes Benz E Class at 4,879 mm and the Audi A6 at 4,915 mm. These German premium cars are where Infiniti are pitching themselves and are hoping to steal some sales from these well-known brands, which all have a huge following and are the sector benchmark.

The Q50 has an impressive fuel consumption figure, with the official combined being 64.2mpg. During the time we had the car; it was difficult drive it in a way as to get less than 50mpg, on average it achieved 52.5mpg while we had it. This is a bit off the quoted numbers, but not a bad result for this size of car. It also has a relatively low CO2 figures at 114g/km, making it a good choice for the company car driver.

One feature in the cabin that we particularly liked was the twin-screen: the top half is the satellite navigation and media display, and below it are the touch screen controls, which are so easy to use, and so intuitive, a well thought out system, simple and effective.

Interior space is not huge, but adequate for four adults. With three on the rear seat it gets a bit tight for leg, shoulder and headroom. But the best place to sit, like most cars in this sector, is in the front, the seats are so comfortable and supportive. The quality of the leather used on the upholstery is quite exquisite, and makes the interior look very special, especially the embroidery on the front seat back. It is a nice place to sit for a long journey.

The boot is a strange shape and can hardly be described as regular, square or oblong, it does not lend itself to normal sized or shaped pieces of luggage, and you do have to juggle items a bit to get them to fit in.

Another point to mention is the turning circle, it wasn’t great, and where you would expect to turn around in one go, it often was not possible and you end up doing a three-point turn. Even pulling out of a car park space, was a bit difficult and you had to be careful during this manoeuvre.

The Infiniti is a great car to drive, a bit noisy at low speeds and on start-up, although it is less noticeable at higher speeds. The interior is a strong point, as are the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. But Infiniti really do have an uphill-battle with their brand, and trying to increase awareness of it, which in our experience, as mentioned at the start, is virtually nil. The vast majority of people have never heard of Infiniti and if they have they are not sure where it sits in the market. If you had just spent a large amount of money on a new car, the last thing you want to do is start explaining what it is to friends or family, you want to be proud of your purchase, not having to justify it.

Prices for the Q50 start at £27,950.00, and go up to £37,030.00, the car we had on test costs £33,110.00 OTR.

Martin Ward, Manufacturer Relationship Manager