By AARON COLE
MediaOne of Utah
In a surprise to no one, Infiniti has produced a sedan so achingly attractive that it should be wearing a crown, sash and gliding down a runway somewhere.
I could be tired or maybe the coffee in the office is spiked.
The luxury four-door sedan that showed up in the parking lot this week was so brilliant white I could only look at it through a box with a hole cut in the back. It is fitted with so many computers it should be calculating weather patterns. I’ll call it a birthday present.
Some say piloting a luxury sedan these days is akin to pirouetting through the ashes of Rome after it burned to the ground. But have you seen what this thing looks like? Never mind that, have you actually driven one of these things?
Because despite the good looks — the car has better shoulders than Charlize Theron and draped with nearly better looking curves (I said nearly) — Infiniti has made a sedan worth drooling over. Quite possibly too, the M series is worth every penny as well. More on that later.
At full bore, the M-series grunts like a symphony of sousaphones bellowing a throaty highway tone. Inside, the whisper-quiet cabin and the orchestral syncopation of dozens of Bose speakers vibrate serene sounds around the driver. Are you sure I deserve this?
I’ll concede I’ve been harsh on Infiniti in earlier generations. Way back, Infiniti was a thinly veiled Nissan with wood trim inside. Although the automaker took great lengths to distinguish itself from the blue-collar badge of its less-expensive sisters, every Infiniti felt like a Nissan in emperor’s clothes.
That’s not a bad thing. Nissans aren’t for sneezing at, but it seemed that way for the price they were asking for cars like a new G20 ten years ago. Infiniti’s were close, but ultimately no Cuban cigar.
Redesigned for 2011, the Infiniti M makes a strong case that the automaker has arrived — on its very own too.
Bigger in nearly every way, the M37 improves upon last year’s model with a bigger engine, bigger stature and more attention paid to the details. Engineers opened up last year’s V6 engine by boring the cylinders for a larger displacement, giving the new M37 a full 24 more horsepower Infiniti says can be felt immediately when tapping the pedal on the right. Fuel economy hasn’t been compromised either. The M series manages 17 mpg around town and 24 mpg on the highway. There are 3.0-liter engines that get about that same kind of mileage — BMW, I’m looking at you.
Infiniti kept the wheelbase of the new M series the same as last year but pushed the wheels closer to the corners by a half-inch here and a half-inch there. Engineers say they’ve created a longer, lower, wider sedan — or a low-slung street missile.
Needless to say, a car that is lower, slipperier and with a more powerful engine, goes like stink.
Same as years before, you can pick up the M series in four different flavors, with either a 3.7-liter V6 or a more powerful 5.6-liter V8 under the hood. All-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive are available with both options.
Our test model, an M37x fitted with all-wheel drive and the smaller engine — which would normally read: was poked, prodded and probed with every inch of my right foot in an effort to get the car to give up and finally go slow. I stood on the gas pedal at points. Not even a whisper of reluctance from the engine.
So what’s it cost to have something this good looking and this fun to drive? Ahem, $60,000.
I know, I know, I know. $60,000 is lot of money. But it’s not Sultan of Brunei cash either. And here’s the strange thing: it’s worth nearly every penny, largely because there’s nothing like it.
An Acura TL can be had for less money, but with less stuff like a smaller engine and less gear inside. A BMW 5-series can get you bigger and badder and faster, but it’ll cost you the sky if you let it. Our test model, with 330-horsepower, lane departure warning, all-wheel drive, navigation, suede, leather, climate-controlled seating and Zagat-rated restaurants built into the damn thing, for crying out loud, was $60,000.
Why is it nearly worth $60,000?
It’s my birthday and I was hoping they’d just give it to me for free. No dice.
Aaron Cole is a syndicated auto columnist and managing editor of MediaOne of Utah, and has driven hundreds of new cars — but only briefly. By most accounts he is wrong and has proudly been banned on Internet message boards. Send complaints, compliments or supplemental income to aaron.m.cole@gmail.com
