2019 Infiniti Q50 - Stinger Rival ?

[Revvdmedia]

In the Canadian neck of the woods, the Q50/60 is less of a deal. The Base Q is 300HP I believe, and the Red Sport is 400. The base model would be less quick than the Stinger, but I've typically seen the Red Sport being faster than the Stinger. As for styling, I would always go for a coupe when possible, but the Q60 coupe tacks a hefty price increase over the sedan. I believe the Q60 Red Sport, which would have been my pick if any, was knocking on the door of 70K, whereas the Stinger fully optioned was ~50K. No contest for me.

 

[Travis Wills]

I currently have a 2016 Q50S Silver Sport on a 39 month lease. I have pretty much been an Infiniti fanboy since my fist G35 in 2005. I have had 7 Infiniti vehicles since then.

That being said I just cannot justify getting another Q50 or Q60. They are adding Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to their entire 2020 lineup this fall. However, pretty much nothing else will be changed.

The resale value of the Infiniti cars is abysmal. The residual on my Q50 lease is a terrible 47% and still my car will be about $5k-$6k underwater when I hand the keys back to them in December.

I got $10k off sticker and zero percent money factor so the payment is not terrible. However, it just doesn’t make sense to get a car that depreciates to this extreme.

Overall I have really enjoyed my car and the Infiniti dealership. The car is fast enough for my needs and it is said to be underrated for HP. Silver Sports have been said to have closer to 350 HP when dyno’d instead of the rated 300 HP.

The infotainment doesn’t bother me except for the lack of Apple CarPlay. A Nissan Sentra has CarPlay but the $80k QX80 doesn’t have it yet.

Honestly, I don’t think the Q50 is a bad car it is just simply an outdated car with unreasonable depreciation.

I am looking to get into either a Stinger GT2 or a Genesis G70 at Christmas. I would probably be able to get $20k off of a loaded 2019 AWD Q50 Red Sport by then but even that wouldn’t be worth it. It takes about 4-5 years to get above water in a fully loaded AWD Red Sport. That makes it a hard pass for me.

 

[soulvengeace]

I currently have a 2016 Q50S Silver Sport on a 39 month lease. I have pretty much been an Infiniti fanboy since my fist G35 in 2005. I have had 7 Infiniti vehicles since then.

That being said I just cannot justify getting another Q50 or Q60. They are adding Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to their entire 2020 lineup this fall. However, pretty much nothing else will be changed.

The resale value of the Infiniti cars is abysmal. The residual on my Q50 lease is a terrible 47% and still my car will be about $5k-$6k underwater when I hand the keys back to them in December.

I got $10k off sticker and zero percent money factor so the payment is not terrible. However, it just doesn’t make sense to get a car that depreciates to this extreme.

Overall I have really enjoyed my car and the Infiniti dealership. The car is fast enough for my needs and it is said to be underrated for HP. Silver Sports have been said to have closer to 350 HP when dyno’d instead of the rated 300 HP.

The infotainment doesn’t bother me except for the lack of Apple CarPlay. A Nissan Sentra has CarPlay but the $80k QX80 doesn’t have it yet.

Honestly, I don’t think the Q50 is a bad car it is just simply an outdated car with unreasonable depreciation.

I am looking to get into either a Stinger GT2 or a Genesis G70 at Christmas. I would probably be able to get $20k off of a loaded 2019 AWD Q50 Red Sport by then but even that wouldn’t be worth it. It takes about 4-5 years to get above water in a fully loaded AWD Red Sport. That makes it a hard pass for me.

I too had a 2005 Infiniti G35. Mine was a coupe, I absolutely adored that car. For the time, it was quite a looker. Only thing I regret not having was the six speed.

 

[pufi]

the car was on my list, pretty high too. I got the exact same brochure page in german last summer. In the end the car was easy 20K more than the stinger, so it was no option for me.

I had the Q60S before my Stinger - even if the Infinity costs much more...the Stinger is way better - believe me

 

[vishal]

Practicality for what? 2 kids in car seats during the week, and running 11s on the weekend? Easier than with a Stinger. IIRC, the Q50 JB4 is getting CARB certified before the Stinger.. (matters to me, anyway).

It's all about priorities - it has more cargo capacity than a Golf, for example. AMS built up a Q50 to 800+ hp and ran 10s in the 1/4 - it will be a long, LONG time and pretty cold day in Heck before a Stinger runs 10s, IMHO.

No spare tire or spare tire comparment. It was an optional feature until 2015 or 2016 and was then scrapped. That was a dealbreaker for me with the Q50's. The 2020's are supposed to have android auto and apple car play for those who were waiting for that.

 

[turboAWD]

Just to be clear: I'm not saying the Q50 is clearly the better choice for every person. In fact, I chose a Stinger, mainly due to more comfortable seats and newer radio, etc (although I've had the volume-cuts-out problem recently). However, I can't fault anyone for picking the Q50 for various reasons such as modding - if you want to mod, there are several ECU tuners, better aftermarket, etc..

 

[NS_Stinger]

I too had a 2005 Infiniti G35. Mine was a coupe, I absolutely adored that car. For the time, it was quite a looker. Only thing I regret not having was the six speed.

When I was in my teens and early 20's the G35 was my dream car, I would roll my windows down everytime one was near because I loved the exhaust note so much. I actually think the design still looks great, a friend of mine just picked up a nice example of a 6spd for a weekend toy.

 

[Doel]

So an acquaintance of mine who's been in the tuning scene since the 90s, been on the cover of several tuner mags over the years, daily drives a Q50 RS400. Him and his wife got to take a look at my Stinger yesterday (GT1). They were very impressed with the looks, said the interior was so much better than their Q50. Even complimented the materials used which a lot of people have criticized. I started it up, said the stock exhaust sounded better than their Q50. The icing on the cake though was when I brought them to the back and popped the hatch, they were shocked and ecstatic. His wife said to him "why didn't we get one of these instead?!?"

We've complained about Kia dealerships on here quite a bit, but his experience with the only Infiniti dealer in town is absolutely horrid. His MAF sensors went out, when he brought in it for warranty they denied it because he had put on new (factory) air filters. AC belt was whining, denied that too. His turbos are burning oil now, at (conveniently) 36k miles. Just goes to show, customer service at those "luxury" dealers isn't always all that it's cracked up to be.

 

[Kamauxx]

Just goes to show, customer service at those "luxury" dealers isn't always all that it's cracked up to be.

Is Infiniti considered a "luxury brand"? I always thought of them as an upscale Nissan "near luxury" brand.

When I think of luxury brands Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche, Range Rover, (mostly) Lexus, (maybe) Jag come to mind. Infiniti, Acura, Genesis, Alpha, and Lincoln miss the mark.

 

[westcoastGT]

Is Infiniti considered a "luxury brand"? I always thought of them as an upscale Nissan "near luxury" brand.

When I think of luxury brands Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche, Range Rover, (mostly) Lexus, (maybe) Jag come to mind. Infiniti, Acura, Genesis, Alpha, and Lincoln miss the mark.

Infinity is a wannabe , like Acura .......................I think Genesis and Lincoln have the potential to break thru and I wonder if Alpha will be alive in 5 years ...............IMHO of course

 

[Kamauxx]

Infinity is a wannabe , like Acura .......................I think Genesis and Lincoln have the potential to break thru and I wonder if Alpha will be alive in 5 years ...............IMHO of course

I think the problem (at least for my mindset of whatever a "luxury" vehicle actually is) with Lincoln and Genesis is that they're selling their vehicles out of Ford and Hyundai dealerships. Part of being a luxury car brand is having dealerships give customers an experience they won't get from non-luxury brands. Ford and Hyundai dealerships are "meh" at best and rusty old tin shacks at worst.

 

[westcoastGT]

I think the problem (at least for my mindset of whatever a "luxury" vehicle actually is) with Lincoln and Genesis is that they're selling their vehicles out of Ford and Hyundai dealerships. Part of being a luxury car brand is having dealerships give customers an experience they won't get from non-luxury brands. Ford and Hyundai dealerships are "meh" at best and rusty old tin shacks at worst.

...........as I said the have the potential to breakthru , the actual product far exceeds the dealership experience , gee sounds like Kia !!

 

[Doel]

Is Infiniti considered a "luxury brand"? I always thought of them as an upscale Nissan "near luxury" brand.

When I think of luxury brands Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche, Range Rover, (mostly) Lexus, (maybe) Jag come to mind. Infiniti, Acura, Genesis, Alpha, and Lincoln miss the mark.

matter of opinion I guess but they are always referred to as a luxury brand in car publications, as far as I recall. I would agree that it's definitely a step down from the Germans and Lexus.

 

[nhcowboy28]

I suspect a lot of people don't post about their good experiences as that's what they expect and hopefully receive. I found the Stinger a very positive car purchasing experience. Once I'd made it clear where I needed to be on price after keeping a couple other dealers in the running, they met my price target (all-in, no flim-flam with extra fees, etc.) and we had an agreement within a few days. I made it clear, once, that I didn't want any dealer add-on warranties, protection packages, wheel and tire insurance, etc. and they respected that - no additional pressure.

Car was well prepped and detailed on pickup, filled with fuel, and the salesman was about two hours into his detailed explanation/demo of every conceivable car feature and menu option when I called it off due to my ride/accomplice nodding off in the parking lot waiting for me to emerge.

I was too late to have them save the window sticker when doing the PDI/detailing, so they contacted KIA for me and had a brand new window sticker generated for that VIN and shipped to the dealer to pick up. Although a couple of early service concerns were initially rebuffed by KIA Canada, the dealer kept after them and made sure they were addressed to my satisfaction. Communication has been excellent, and service visits have been prompt, courteous, with quality work performed and the car protected and returned in as-new condition.

It helps that the dealership is new, with a clean, large modern service shop, a separate enclosed drive-through service check-in bay, a spacious waiting lounge, etc. But the people are a huge part of it, and everyone from the salesman through to the service manager have been personable and professional to deal with - and of course treated in kind.

A very good dealership experience overall.

That’s good to hear. My dealership had been pretty good. But some competency issues with the certified tech. Just dumb things. Spring install. He forgot to cut bumpstops per Eibach and had to do it at a later date. Post drop alignment... he didn’t have steering wheel centered perfect. Now off by a noticeable margin. Will fix at next oil change.
Oil level slightly high.

Nice people. And the sales experience for the most part was pleasant.

 

[Travis Wills]

FYI, Infiniti dealers have been explicitly told that 2020 Infiniti vehicles will have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. However, the 2020 Infiniti QX60 was announced last week without Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. That is INFINITI’s “bread and butter” vehicle and it won’t even have those features for the 2020 mode year.

It is entirely possible that Infiniti fails to add Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to any of its 2020 vehicles. If so it will not be good at all for them since their sales have been lackluster this year at best and concerning at worst.

 

[Manaz]

Is Infiniti considered a "luxury brand"? I always thought of them as an upscale Nissan "near luxury" brand.

When I think of luxury brands Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche, Range Rover, (mostly) Lexus, (maybe) Jag come to mind. Infiniti, Acura, Genesis, Alpha, and Lincoln miss the mark.

Drive a base-model BMW, Mercedes or Audi and tell me they're a luxury brand.

I'm not sure what the typical ownership experience is like in the US with those brands, but here in Australia their post-sales support (warranty) and servicing costs are considered some of the worst in the business (along with Jeep Chrysler Dodge).

And let's not get into the way the Volkswagen group made a decision that their profitability was more important than the health and safety of the public with DieselGate...

 

[turboAWD]

Manaz - one thing to keep in mind is that the base model BMW/MB/Audi models we get here are usually near top-end trim in Europe, and we don't even get the very base models like A1. For example, the current A3 has, at a quick count, 7 petrol engines available in Europe - 1.0, 1.2, 1.4 (2x), 1.5, 1.8 and 2.0, and 3 diesels - 1.6TDI, and 2 different 2.0TDIs. I believe we only ever got the 1.8T and 2.0T petrol engines here (with or without Quattro, some auto, some CVT, IIRC). Which is one reason why Audi has an "upscale" image here. I have no idea what models were available in Australia, but I'm guessing there were more variants than ours..

 

[Manaz]

I believe we have a similar range of engines, we don't tend to get the small ones here either (Australia is near-enough to geographically the same size as the US, with only 25m people living here, moving at speed for long distances is quite common for us). I don't equate engines with luxury, that's more of a performance thing.

The issue is that the base models (a base Merc C200 or base BMW 3-series for example, with the 1.5L 135kW petrol engine and 2L 140kW diesel engines respectively) are over $65k (so more than a Stinger GT for example), and are pretty basic inside - basic leather, basic entertainment, basic instrumentation, etc. All stuff that's available on sub $40k cars in Australia these days - and generally at reliability and servicing cost levels that are far better than what the luxury marques are offering.

Some of the safety features that traditionally came from luxury marques such as ABS, stability control, full lap-sash seatbelts, autonomous emergency braking/brake assist, cross-traffic alerts, blind-spot alerting) are available on much cheaper cars these days - partly due to trickle-down, because the Australian road safety organisations have made them either mandatory or required in order to score the higher safety rating scores (ANCAP, related strongly to Euro NCAP, I'm sure the US has a version as well) - this is one (but not the only) reason that cars like the Ford Mustang got only a 3-star ANCAP rating.

So really, other than perceived brand cache, the luxury marques really just aren't that luxury for the majority of people - sure, a top of the line 7-series BMW or S-series Merc may well be luxurious - but holy hell do you pay for those (and you still don't get better reliability than a $40k Mazda, Subaru, Toyota, Kia or Hyundai delivers - and you certainly don't get the level of support from those brands as you get from Mazda/Subaru/Toyota/Kia/Hyundai when something does go wrong).

 

[soulvengeace]

Let's be honest, all of these are just really near luxury brands. If you really want to talk luxury, you're looking at Bentleys, Rolls Royce, or maybe Porsche.

I believe we have a similar range of engines, we don't tend to get the small ones here either (Australia is near-enough to geographically the same size as the US, with only 25m people living here, moving at speed for long distances is quite common for us). I don't equate engines with luxury, that's more of a performance thing.

The issue is that the base models (a base Merc C200 or base BMW 3-series for example, with the 1.5L 135kW petrol engine and 2L 140kW diesel engines respectively) are over $65k (so more than a Stinger GT for example), and are pretty basic inside - basic leather, basic entertainment, basic instrumentation, etc. All stuff that's available on sub $40k cars in Australia these days - and generally at reliability and servicing cost levels that are far better than what the luxury marques are offering.

Some of the safety features that traditionally came from luxury marques such as ABS, stability control, full lap-sash seatbelts, autonomous emergency braking/brake assist, cross-traffic alerts, blind-spot alerting) are available on much cheaper cars these days - partly due to trickle-down, because the Australian road safety organisations have made them either mandatory or required in order to score the higher safety rating scores (ANCAP, related strongly to Euro NCAP, I'm sure the US has a version as well) - this is one (but not the only) reason that cars like the Ford Mustang got only a 3-star ANCAP rating.

So really, other than perceived brand cache, the luxury marques really just aren't that luxury for the majority of people - sure, a top of the line 7-series BMW or S-series Merc may well be luxurious - but holy hell do you pay for those (and you still don't get better reliability than a $40k Mazda, Subaru, Toyota, Kia or Hyundai delivers - and you certainly don't get the level of support from those brands as you get from Mazda/Subaru/Toyota/Kia/Hyundai when something does go wrong).

I'm seriously amazed by what you can get from most mainstream car brands now.