Where oh where did this company go wrong. Little over ten years ago they were killing it as the Japanese BMW, with the G sedan and coupe, the M and the FX. All they had to do was stay on that path and keep evolving.
I have had 7 INFINITI cars over the last 14 years and I was fiercely loyal to the brand until now.
INFINITI made some really great cars for their time. The G35 and G37 were great cars when they were $35,000 and $40,000 respectively. Now a well equipped Q50 AWD tops $62,000.
The original JX35 was a really great car for the time. The Navigation was pretty decent for that year and the performance of the car was definitely acceptable. However, that car was $52,000 with zero discount when we bought ours the week it was released.
Price. Price is the issue. They renamed their cars so that the model number would line up with the price range of the vehicle. Q50 was supposed to be a $50k car. QX60 was supposed to be a $60k SUV. QX80 was supposed to be an $80k SUV.
Now other companies have come out with equivalent cars for $40k(Stinger) and $48k(
Telluride).
They also let their cars enter the rental car fleets and that destroyed resell value. My 2016 Q50 is about $5000 underwater after 36 months with no hope getting above water for at least another year or more. Also that was with a $9200 discount off MSRP to start.
The only way to get an Infiniti car is to lease it. Buying it will ruin you unless you plan to keep it until the wheels literally fall off.
Infiniti never corrected the ship when there were signs that things weren’t working out quite right.
It is a shame but that is reality. The are less expensive and better options than every single vehicle INFINITI offers right now.