2010 Infiniti G37

Infiniti vehicles are all about luxury. It is not the car you will let your kids in with their muddy soccer shoes, or the car you will let them eat rice cakes and drink giant slurpees in. That being said, luxury cars are no longer just toys for boys. Moms can have their fun as well – and are gaining an increasing presence in the luxury car marketplace. 
 
So, looking at the G37 for what it is, a luxury vehicle, it fell a bit short in our assessment. Yes, it had so many great features and perks that you come to expect from a high end vehicle, but there were some aspects where a bit more attention to detail would have made this a really great car.
 


Model Tested: 2010 G37 Sedan


Key Competitors: BMW 3-Series sedan, Acura TL, Audi A4 sedan


Price: starting at $38,690


UrbanMoms Rating: 2 of 4


UrbanMom Tester’s Topline: This car is so easy on the eyes; it’s hard not to love it at first site. It’s sporty, sexy, and has so much power under the hood. You have to keep reminding yourself it’s a sedan because it feels so much more fun than that to drive. 
This car is great to take out on the town as a status vehicle, and will certainly turn a few heads in the process. It is not however, ideal as a traditional sedan for families on the go.


Urban Kid’s Tester Topline: What kid doesn’t love riding around in a sporty car with a sunroof and XM Satellite radio? However, for a sedan, the backseat was a bit short on legroom, making it a hard sell for families looking to use this as their primary vehicle to get around in. Clearly, not the car’s primary target audience.


Exterior Features and Style: The G37 gets a lot of looks. Guys & girls alike were checking out the sporty, sleek sedan wherever we drove it. The flashy exterior was a real plus.

 


Interior Comfort and Style: The leather and wood interior looks snazzy and we had high hopes as we settled in for our test drive. However, despite Infiniti boasting about the G37’s “Sport front seats with …driver’s power torso and thigh support’, they were extremely uncomfortable. Even with a slim to medium build the seat was constricting. I felt like I was being squeezed into a seat built for a toddler. I had a number of my friends, purposely of various sizes, sit in the car and give me their feedback, and everyone remarked on the odd seating and the way it pressed into the sides of their thighs. It’s hard to imagine how this passed quality checks especially on a high end line of vehicles like Infiniti.
 
Otherwise, the sightlines are great, and the roomy interior makes you feel like you’re in a cockpit with a clear view in all directions.





Storage: The trunk space is adequate for a sporty vehicle, although a bit smaller than you might expect from a sedan. Rather than a rectangular space, its angles make it a bit awkward for hockey gear and the like. That being said, with the rear seats down, the expanded storage makes full use of the rear end of the car.



Drive: With 328 horsepower, this car leaps to life. Its power is evident from the minute you start it up. The only two disappointments were the turning radius, which seemed to be a bit too wide for a small car – this was evident in parking lots and the like. Also, knowing how to drive a manual vehicle, I was excited to try Infiniti’s version of semi-manual driving (i.e. the car takes care of the clutch, you simply change gears). It was a bit jerkier than I would have hoped, and thus I found myself missing the ability to ease the clutch on my own.



Bells and Whistles: The G37 was not lacking for bells and whistles. From the intelligent cruise control, which adapts itself to stay a set distance from slower moving cars, and then automatically reaccelerates when you switch to an open lane; to the space age GPS/weather/entertainment console; to the ‘sonar’ assisted reverse system; it is a gadget lover’s dream.
The bluetooth in-car system was also simple to use and seamlessly communicated with my cellphone, making hands-free phone calls a breeze.