Vehicle: 2007 Infiniti M35X, luxury with aluminum trim
Price as tested: CDN$60200

Performance: Underneath M’s hood, there are 2 engines available. The uplevel M45 is powered by a 4.5L DOHC 32-valver V8 with 325hp and 336 lb/ft of torque. Or the tried-and-true VQ35DE in our tester. This application of Nissan’s proven VQ35DE engine series is good for 275 horses and 268 lb/ft of torque. The acceleration and seat-of-the-pants feel are about average. With maximum torque arrives at 4800 rpm, there is always a feel of an acceleration lag between the throttle input and vehicle starts to pick up the speed. Its 275 hp is barely enough to move 4043 pounds of heavy metal. While this engine unit works beautifully in Nissan Z to Murano, it just doesn’t cut it in the much heavier Infiniti M. The saving grace for the whole powertrain is the smart shifting 5-speed manumatic. Without the energetic work ethics of this manumatic, the M35X would simply feel like a dog. This manumatic allows enthuisastic driver to rev pass through redline before upshifting. Although the rev matching isn’t as smart as Audi’s DSG, its logically enough to satisfied the target audience of this luxury sedan.

Handling: Consider the M is based on the lengthened G platform, its level of stiffness and rigidty are undoubtable. However, its dynamics is a mixbag consider Infiniti would love you to think its a sports sedan. Let’s begin with something positive. The steering provides decent feedback and precision. Its also surprisingly responsive and “Z like” crispness during left-to-right transitions. Nissan’s ATTESS-ETS has always been rated as one of the best rear-bias all-wheel drive system in the world. Suffice to say, it works as expected. As it provides a rear-wheel drive feel when pushing into a curve. When the system detects there is a wheelspin in any of the offending wheel, the AWD would kick-in to save all the nasty. Here comes the negative parts. A proper sports sedan needs a supple suspension that both handle and ride well. In M35X’s case, this suspension is soft and feels softly sprung during aggressive transition. Unfortunately, its feels rough riding when going through washboard pavement and expansion joints. The crispness of the steering tends to become numb when going aggressively. It feels like the whole vehicle has lost something when the going gets tough. When you are really going for it, its instrusive Vehicle Dynamic Control would kick-in abruptly when the back end starts to slide.

Brakes: With M35X’s standard 4-wheel discs, standard ABS with EBD and BD. M has a very complete braking package. It also delivers a short and sure-footness braking feel and distance judging by its over 4000 lb curb weight. The ABS doesn’t kick-in unnecessarily. Brake Assist also works extrmely well, which doesn’t feel like grabbing driver’s foot during assistance.

Interior: Its pretty well layout inside the M. That means a clear and analog instrumentation gauges. An excellent dual automatic climate control, a great set of comfortable leather seats and all the luxury items one expects from an Infiniti. However, the quality of the plastic materials still feel downmarket when you look at M’s over 60k price tag. It just fell short behind the competitions. The aluminum trim feels tacky. With the center console having a keyboard-derived design, it tends to feel grimmicky when Nissan can go with a much simpler design.

There are plenty of head and legroom for rear-seat passengers. The space is enough to seat 3 adults comfortably at the rear of M.

In terms of cargo space, its another mixbag. While the liftover height is acceptable, the lack of fold-down rear seats really have hammered the overall versatility.

Conclusion: With the previous Infiniti M being an unremarkable car, one would expect the new one would be significantly better. While M45 is a really good car, if somewhat overpriced. The M35, especially M35X, are nothing special. It just doesn’t stand out in one single area while there are many worth of criticisms. Except if you really “want” an Infiniti mid-size luxury sedan with AWD, there are plenty of better choices in the market. Namely Acura RL is much better alternative than M35X, its also one of the best choice in this segment.

OVERALL VERDICT FOR 2007 INFINITI M35X
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Performance: 2/5
Handling and ride/fun-to-drive: 2.25/5
Interior/ergonomics/user-friendliness: 2.25/5
Fit-and-finish/build quality: 2.5/5
Cargo/accessibility/layout: 2/5
Value-for-money: 2/5

Overall rating: 2.25/5