2024 Infiniti Q50 Review: Pressing On

The Infiniti Q50 first landed in the USA as a 2014 model, and though it's seen frequent updates, essentially, the same base car is now in its eleventh model year. It's so old that some compact premium sedan rivals have launched two successive new generations during that time. It feels outdated inside, too, where the same basic design is still used. Its ride and handling cannot match that of the competitors it aspires to compete against, with the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class leaving it in the dust. Even an up-and-coming premium challenger such as the Genesis G70 is a far more resolved car. Does the Q50 have anything going for it? It's still smartly styled, and it's the only one among said rivals that comes with six-cylinder power only - a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 with either 300 or 400 horsepower, so performance is a strong point. Is this enough to warrant a second look?

New for 2024

The 2024 Q50 range soldiers on for yet another year, and the car itself receives no changes, with the same features and specifications it had last year. However, Infiniti adds a standard Infiniti Premium Care plan covering three years/30,000 miles of routine maintenance, while the subscription to Infiniti InTouch Services Premium is extended from one to three years. These extra value-added services come at a small premium, increasing the base price of the 2024 Inifiniti Q50 by $400.

2024 Infiniti Q50 Price: Which One to Buy

If you're in the market for a new Infiniti Q50, the price of admission will be $43,050 this year for the Luxe. Opting for the Sensory will cost you $48,750, while the high-performance Red Sport 400 will set you back $56,900. These prices are MSRP and exclude the $1,150 destination fee, and apply to the trims in their default rear-wheel-drive configuration, but you can have any of them in all-wheel drive for an additional $2,000.

If you must have a Q50, go for the entry-level Luxe. At $43k, it's the only V6 among four-cylinder rivals and the 300 hp on offer is plenty for strong performance. It already comes with all the most important features, including leather upholstery, a power moonroof, a surround-view camera, and a premium audio system. It rides the softest on its smaller 18-inch wheels, too. It lacks the upper trims' navigation, but you can use your phone for that via smartphone mirroring, so it's no real loss.

Interior and Features

The dashboard hasn’t changed much since 2014 and noise levels are too high, but the seats are comfortable, and the interior space class average.

It's quite astonishing that Infiniti never bothered to redesign the cabin in 11 years. It's been updated and fitted with modern technology, but the basic dashboard design is instantly recognizable as coming from the 2014 Q50. Infiniti has added all the modern infotainment features, but functionality is split over two small screens, of which the resolution and brightness lag well behind what we've become used to from modern rivals. Inputs are confusing too until you learn the ropes, with the top screen being navigable via touch and a rotary controller, but the bottom one via touch only. Materials are of middling quality and the design is busy and cluttered. Interior space isn't very generous in the second row, though the seats are very comfortable, and noise levels aren't as well-contained as in its competitors. Rear-seat passengers have limited head and foot clearance when getting in, and the step down into the car will be odd for the modern generation reared on a diet of high-ground-clearance SUVs.

Space

The front portion of the cabin is spacious, but it feels a little confined in the second row, which offers head and legroom similar to the Genesis G70 but a little less than the 3 Series, especially in terms of headroom. Two medium-sized adults will fit, and the seats are very comfortable, but there isn't much room to spare - and a third passenger will be cramped.

Cargo

Trunk space is decidedly average too, and although the 13.5 cu-ft behind the rear seats bests the G70 by three cu-ft, it's well short of the 3 Series' 16.9 cu-ft. The rear bench splits and folds in a 60/40 ratio to expand the trunk volume, but the floor isn't completely flat. Infiniti does not provide a figure for the total cargo capacity.

Cabin storage isn't very generous. Although you get a glovebox, front and rear door pockets, and a storage bin in the center console, all these spaces are rather small, and the latter is rendered less usable by the presence of the power and USB ports located in it. There is a pair of front cupholders, while rear-seat passengers get front seatback pockets and two cupholders in their fold-down center armrest. There's no convenient place to put a large modern mobile phone, with the little lidded receptacle at the front of the center console of insufficient size for the job, so it will probably end up in the cupholders or a door pocket. It might be worth it to opt for the extra-cost trash bin.

Materials and Colors

The Luxe and Sensory both get leather upholstery and have access to three interior colors: Stone, Graphite, and Saddle Brown, but the trim elements in the Luxe are rendered in a textured aluminum finish, while the Sensory gets black open-pore wood trim instead. The Red Sport 400 gets front sports seats with black quilted leather and red stitching throughout the interior, including on the seats, dashboard, door panels, center console, and steering wheel, along with dark chrome interior accents, matte-black carbon trim, and steering-mounted paddle shifters. The steering wheel is leather-trimmed in all grades.

Features and Infotainment

Even the base Luxe is equipped to a decent standard, with push-button start, heated eight-way power front seats with memory, leather upholstery, an electrically adjustable and heated tilting/telescoping steering wheel trimmed in leather, and dual-zone climate control with rear-seat vents all being standard equipment. Among the higher trims, you'll find a few extra features, such as upgraded ambient interior lighting, sports seats, quilted leather upholstery, and climate control with an air purifier.

The convoluted infotainment system makes use of dual displays, the upper one being an eight-inch item that can be operated via touch or a center-console controller and a seven-inch lower display that can be operated by touch only. Infiniti has crammed a lot of modern features into the aged design so you do get wireless Apple CarPlay, wired Android Auto, a Wi-Fi hotspot to which you can connect up to seven devices, Bluetooth audio streaming, two USB ports, SiriusXM, Infiniti InTouch services, voice recognition, and a 16-speaker Bose audio system. In the Red Sport 400, you also get SiriusXM Travel Link and Traffic, along with navigation.

Performance

Performance is a strong suit, with at least 300 hp on tap courtesy of a refined six-cylinder engine in all trims, which makes the Q50 unique in its class.

Whereas the base derivatives of rivals make use of four-cylinder units, the engine in every Infiniti Q50 is a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6. It develops 300 hp and 295 lb-ft in the Luxe and Sensory and 400 hp/350 lb-ft in the Red Sport 400. It's connected to a seven-speed automatic transmission with standard RWD, though an all-wheel drivetrain is a $2,000 option on all trims. With at least 300 hp on tap, performance is strong. The base powertrain gives the Infiniti Q50 a 0-60 sprint of around 5.4 seconds or a seriously quick 4.5 seconds in the case of the 400-hp flagship. Infiniti doesn't provide a top speed for the regular Q50, but it's likely to be limited to 130 mph on trims with all-season tires. The Red Sport 400 is limited to around 150 mph, though it could go quite a bit faster if unrestricted.

The Q50 has much to offer in the performance department, with a powerful and refined V6 punting it toward the horizon with pleasing vigor, and the seven-speed automatic mostly receding into the background and getting on with the job; there are shift paddles to row up and down the ratios in the Red Sport 400. The brakes are powerful and responsive as well. Things start to fall apart a bit once the first corner comes up, and the dated Q50 doesn't have the cornering prowess of more modern rivals. The steering is light but not very quick, and it doesn't provide much feel. The optional steer-by-wire Direct Adaptive Steering still divides opinions; it feels artificial and not worth the outlay. The ride is only just acceptable on the base 18-inch wheels and it remains too busy and choppy for a luxury car, made worse by the higher trims' bigger wheels. The engine might be refined, but wind and road noise levels are higher than you'd expect from a luxury car.

Fuel Efficiency

The best gas mileage is produced by the base 300-hp RWD powertrain in the Luxe and Sensory, which returns 20/29/23 mpg on the EPA's city/highway/combined cycles, dropping to 20/26/22 mpg with AWD. The Infiniti Q50's mpg figures are worse in 400-hp Red Sport 400 format, but not by much, with the RWD returning 19/27/22 mpg and the AWD 19/26/22 mpg. This compares rather poorly with the RWD BMW M340i's 26 mpg combined.

All trims have the same generous 20-gallon fuel capacity, which makes for a range of between 440 and 460 miles on a tank.

Safety

There aren’t any comprehensive crash scores, but the entire, comprehensive driver-assistance suite is standard on all trims.

The NHTSA's safety review of the Infiniti Q50 is incomplete, with only a rollover test performed on the car, for which it received a full five-star rating. The IIHS has only performed the original versions of its moderate overlap front and side crashes, for which the car was given Good ratings, but its headlights were rated Marginal.

Every Q50 gets a comprehensive driver-assistance suite to avoid accidents, and the standard features include front-collision alert with automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, automatic collision notification, hill-start assist, blind-spot monitoring with active intervention, lane-departure warning with haptic steering feedback, a surround-view camera, rain-sensing wipers, and automatic LED headlights with auto high beams. The Red Sport 400 gains navigation with lane guidance.

US NHTSA Crash Test Result

Reliability

JD Power does not have recent Infiniti Q50 reliability data, but the last time the car was evaluated was in 2022, when it received a very good score of 83 out of 100 for the agency's Quality & Reliability criteria. This is underscored by very favorable recall stats - the last time the Q50 was recalled for anything at all was the 2021 model for a non-displaying backup camera, a deforming steering knuckle and axle housing, and a faulty engine ECU that could cause a stall.

Confidence is further boosted by the generous warranty of the 2024 Infiniti Q50. The limited warranty covers the car for four years/60,000 miles, the powertrain warranty is valid for six years/70,000 miles, and complimentary Infiniti Premium Care maintenance is included from this year for three years/30,000 miles.

Warranty

Design

The styling of the Q50 has aged remarkably well and it still looks modern, with good proportions and attention to detail. It hugs the road, with muscular haunches hinting at which wheels are driven. All trims come with all-LED exterior lighting, including foglights, in addition to a power tilting/sliding glass moonroof, rain-sensing wipers, and automatic headlights. Regular Q50s have dual chromed exhaust tips, but the top trim gets special Red Sport 400 exhausts. The window trim, grille, and rear trunk finishers are blacked out on the top two trims.

The Black Opal Edition is a package available on the Red Sport 400, which adds black front and rear emblems, a carbon-fiber rear spoiler, and a few other details, while the Carbon Fiber package adds the spoiler too, while also finishing the side mirrors in carbon fiber. Wheels are 18-inch alloys on the Luxe, but 19s are optional on the base trim and standard on the others, with the ones on the Red Sport 400 being staggered items that are wider in the rear than in the front.

Verdict: Is The 2024 Infiniti Q50 A Good Car?

The Infiniti does have its selling points, and the main ones include attractive styling, a comfortable interior, and that punchy, sonorous twin-turbo V6 found in all trims. But other than that, it's now very evident that the Q50 is an old car with a dated interior, convoluted infotainment system, unresolved ride, and high noise levels. It has reached its sell-by date and ranks well down the pecking order of compact premium sedans. All indications are that it will soon be discontinued.