(EXPANDED FROM 3/29/2016)
Nissan Motor Company has had bursts of design brilliance. For example, the 2007-2013 Infiniti G-series sedans were downright elegant in their subtlety (Wikipedia, 2022a).
Alas, when it was time for an updated design, the catsup oracles apparently decided that more flashiness was needed. Thus, in late 2013 the G50 was introduced (Wikipedia, 2022b).
A promising face is ruined by quirky side styling
Compared to typical car design today the 2013 G50 looks relatively conservative. However, back then its quirky look even gave BMW a run for its money.
Things started out well enough in the car’s front end. A character line flows in river-like fashion from the belt line to an arc in the grille. The headlights have a purposeful, almost animalistic quality. I particularly like the grille, which uses an unusual but tasteful wave pattern.
Meanwhile, the rear of the Q50 is normal to the point of boring. Take away the Infiniti designation and you would be hard pressed to guess the brand. Perhaps to counteract the rear end’s anonymity, Infiniti designers decided to go to town on the side styling. Let’s take a closer look.
The arc of the rear window takes a strange jog. I get that if Infiniti didn’t do something, the Q50 rear-door frame would look too much like a BMW. Unfortunately, what they came up with is contrived and awkward. Kind of like what a 13-year-old doodler might draw.
The dominant character line in the back of the car wraps around the taillights and above the rear-wheel area before it shifts radically downward near the B-pillar and under a beltline-level ridge. That ridge performs no practical purpose and it’s rather ugly. Why such a deep crease? it’s almost truck-like in its brutality.
The overall impression is that of a car trying too hard to be noticed. Perhaps that’s a good summary of the Infiniti brand.
NOTES:
This story was originally posted on March 29, 2016 and expanded on Nov. 7, 2022.
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RE:SOURCES
- Wikipedia; 2022a. “Infiniti G-series (Q40/Q60).” Page last edited Oct. 20.
- ——; 2022b. “Infiniti Q50.” Page last edited Oct. 23.
Totally agree with your assessment, Steve. I was also a fan of the G35’s styling and for some time, the brand itself. In 1991 my first new car purchase targeted the G20 with 5-speed manual, which I had test-driven and determined to be a reliable Alfa. Seat-belt mice prevented the purchase and by 1995 when airbags arrived I had one lined up but a realization that the car was too small led me to a 3-yr old Audi 100 with manual transmission, which was wonderful once I got the design-flawed V6 head gasket replaced.
Historians may well look back at the last 20 years as the golden age of piston-powered sport sedans, the Maserati Ghibli perhaps leading the pack. Infiniti held much promise in these years and did see some successes but were ultimately defeated by poor product planning from the American team, and some poor design work such as the G50 that you reviewed.
The zigzag C-pillar was passable on the Q30 hatchback but not the sedans. But inside, the Q30 was a miserable place to be. I think it would have been a better car had it been a 3 rather than 5-door. Besides a more open cockpit up front, the busy pillars forward of the C-pillar would have been replaced with glass.
The Q70 lwb sedan sold OK by Infiniti’s standards but I wonder if the investment would have been better spent creating a lwb version of the QX70 sport crossover.
After the first-generation Infinitis arrived on our shores, I thought that Nissan had offered a more stylish range of sporty and luxury cars, especially when compared to the very bland Lexus models. My favorite was the Q45 that looked like Bender from “Futurama” ! But as the 1990s wore on, Infinitis for the most part, in my opinion were hit by an ugly stick, especially the truck-based S.U.V.s. I get that the basic Infiniti sedan / coupe profile was very clean, but the details sucked big time. Even their latest models, like the Lexi, leave me cold.
This seems like a classic case of “Time for a new model, we gotta change something!”.
The result, while different, is neither coherent nor particularly pleasant.
Nissan has long had problems with a progression of style, being at various times classically simple (eg. the 510), ornately overdone (eg 610), something like an alternative styling study to the previous model (810), and way behind the times (Skyline R31). Sometimes a model’s style jumps so far ahead they can’t seem to figure out where to go next. I get the impression that’s what’s happened here, with a good look at Lexus for that contorted grille shape – I can practically hear the sheetmetal shrieking in the press from here! And that diagonal crease line on the C-pillar looks positively Camryesque.