Car: Infiniti EX range
Prices: £35,200-£36,500 – on the road
Insurance Group: 19
Emissions: 265g/km
Performance: 0-60mph 6.4s / Max Speed 149mph
Fuel Consumption: (combined) 25mpg
Safety: Six airbags, ABS, stability control
Dimensions: length/width/heightmm 4640/1800/1600
TO INFINITI AND BEYOND?
Our Rating: 7.9 / 10
A new brand to these shores, Inifiniti is the luxury arm of Nissan and the EX is an all-wheel drive crossover vehicle that will act as its beach head. Jonathan Crouch reports
Infiniti’s EX37 brings a welcome touch of luxury and exclusivity to the top end of the compact SUV category. If quality, performance and value take precedence over running costs and familiar prestige badgework, then it could be interesting alternative to this sector’s more familiar names.
Sales of compact 4x4s may not be quite as strong as they once were but there are still plenty of products jostling for your attention at the pricey premium end of the sector. Of course, cars like Audi’s Q5 and Volvo’s XC60 have about as much in common with mud-plugging SUVs as snow in summer but they seem to be what the market wants. If you’re searching in this sector, here’s another, less familiar name to add to your shopping list, Infiniti’s EX37.
Infiniti is Nissan’s luxury brand, a new name to Europeans but a familiar one in the US where it fulfils the same kind of role that Lexus performs for Toyota. The EX37 will be one of the brand’s best selling models on these shores but that’s still a relative term, with sales likely to be in the hundreds rather than the thousands, thanks to a tiny dealer network and the fitment of a large 3.7-litre V6 petrol engine. Infiniti calls it a ‘Crossover’, a reference to the fact that, despite the fitment of all-wheel drive and that high SUV-style stance, this car is even less 4x4-like than some of its rivals. Picture something between a small prestigious estate car and a small prestigious SUV and you’ll probably get the idea.
On paper, this sounds like a tempting prospect. Take the 3.7-litre V6 engine found in the wonderful Nissan 370Z sportscar and give it nearly another 100bhp – 316bhp in total. Then stick it in a sleekly-styled SUV. You’re certainly going to shock a few people at the traffic lights, with sixty from rest just 6.4s away en route to a maximum speed of around 150mph. The engine makes a lovely noise when you want it to – under hard acceleration – yet is beautifully refined at other times. The ride quality’s good too.
Of course, with a kerb weight of nearly 1900kgs, this is never going to handle like a sportscar, but it never feels tall and tippy in the way a lot of these vehicles can and all the control weights are well judged, the steering feeling precise, very well-oiled and expensive. Not surprisingly though, the EX feels most at home on a motorway cruise where you appreciate its exemplary refinement and the V6 engine’s wide powerband. The standard 7-speed automatic gearbox perfectly suits its relaxed demeanour, always ready with the right ratio available, although if you do want to take control yourself, you can move the selector over into a push ‘n pull channel.
It’s hard to pigeonhole the look of this Infiniti. Just when you think you have, you view it from another angle and change your mind. Yes, it’s unmistakably an Audi Q5 or Volvo XC60-like prestigious compact SUV – except that unlike those kinds of cars, there’s a lovely coupe-like sweep to the rear haunches which compromises luggage space but improves the looks of the car no end. In the same way that a BMW X6 provides a sportier, swoopier option to a boxier X5 in the large luxury 4x4 class above, the EX37 offers the same kind of alternative to squarer rivals in the sector below. Or does it? Check out the unfashionable amount of fresh air sitting between tyre top and wheel arch. Doesn’t that leave this car carrying hints of jacked-up estates like the Volvo XC70 or the Audi allroad? Perhaps. Perhaps not. We really can’t make up our minds.
Maybe that’s a good thing. After all, to want to buy any Infiniti model, and especially this one, you’re going to need to be someone prepared to try something a little different. Inside, there’s no argument. The cabin is up-market and attractive, with standard leather trim and what seems like every automotive gadget known to man. Even the things that other plush brands skimp on like the plastics in areas like the bottom parts of the doors and the seats are of exemplary quality. You