NooDle
Ik ben niet alleen lekker met kaas!
So I got me a testcar again...But it's something very rare, especially here...
The logo is this, which reminds me of the "it's something" guy.
Turns out this is the logo for Infiniti, which is to Nissan what Lexus is to Toyota. That is to say, a very large, very expensive luxury version of the normal cars. Supposedly this thing should compete in the Audi A6/BMW 5/ Merc E class range, which is saying something from a lowly Nissan (they can't hide it)... Any of the 3 previous cars is absolutely fine (I'd take the 5er in a heartbeat), but if you just don't want any of the above, this may be a good alternative. Well, maybe, maybe not. It was my mission to find out.
(FYI of the 3 usual suspects I've only driven the Merc E class so I may not be the best person for this test). Also, excuse the pictures, as the car was absolutely filthy inside and out when I got it, and I couldn't be arsed to clean a car I don't own.
Onwards!
Exterior
Looks pretty bland to be quite frank. It's completely unknown here yet still has this "large generic Japanese car" thing going.
I like the front end though, it looks just mean and angry.
See this coming at you on the highway and you'll move out of the way (as people did).
I also like the curvy bonnet, but the rear dissapoints and just screams more "some Japanese car".
Only thing that saved it really were the twin exhausts on either side
It came with ridiculous 19" wheels as standard, but as usual they look pretty damn awesome in gunmetal grey.
Yeah, they ruin the ride a bit, but dayem...
For some reason it had huge side mirrors. Yes, it's a big and wide car, so I don't quite see the point in fitting extreme mirrors.
I did like the fact that they were painted some sort of shiny piano finish though
Interior
Ahh electric seats, leather, all the toys. So far so good. Reminded me a lot of the Qashqai I drove earlier, but that's less than half the cost of this. What does that money buy you?
Space, mostly, as both front and rear seats are gigantic and give you tons of room in all directions. My poor wife (she's only 150cm/5" tall) could not close the doors as she could not reach the handle...
Rear seat were near identical to the fronts, as you see 2 child seats were no issue, and because of the massive legroom, the kids weren't even able to kick or smudge the front seats. Big bonus points if you ask me. Small niggle though : the doors were massive, heavy, and lined with the softest leather in the world. But they didn't have any cubbyholes. Something my stupid C1 manages...
Practicality
A boot full of crap, or so you would think. Bootspace was actually quite small for this size of car. The biggest problem was the shape of the boot, it was an upside down T, which means you couldn't put stuff where you wanted. Why not a nice big rectangular boot, Nissan? Sure, it swallowed all of this stuff and more, but it could have been so much better with a slightly different shape.
Something I've never seen on a Euro car : a little handle to let yourself out if you've accidentally locked yourself in the boot. Who does this? As in, ever?
Gigantic cupholder, which is good. Glove box that's nearly full when all it holds is the manual = bad. Also the front doors had nearly no room to put stuff...
Other stuff : the car was huge, as discussed, so it had front and rear parking sensors, aswell as a camera. Took me a while to figure out that it takes a couple of seconds before the sensors actually engage... My dad in law parked it against his garage door before noticing the beep, because it was just too late... something our Picasso also manages, but again, that cost less than half the price 10 years ago...Ungood.
Satnav, stereo, toys
Same dials and switches than the ones on a Qashqai. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you can see they've raided the Nissan bins for stuff like this, and you'd rather not see this on a near 45k? car.
Twin touchscreens baby! Top one is satnav all the time, bottom one can be anything (stereo, HVAC controls, satnav,etc).
Silly as it may seem, but these systems don't seem interconnected, and more puzzlingly, have bespoke controls. The million satnav buttons only work on the top screen, the bottom one needs to be pushed with fingers. Even more strangely, the bottom screen was full of greasy fingers, while the top one wasn't? And I used the top one more? Weird stuff at first but once I got used to it, quite OK
On the other hand the system did have Intel Inside, but it was sloooooooooow. Took near 10 minutes to scan my 32GB USB drive, and then shat itself when I asked it to randomize. Smaller usb drives worked better and faster, but again my little C1 manages 32 GB and 4000 files just fine?
It also had apps which worked through your phone but I didn't really try any of those.
HVAC controls via the touchscreen was weird, but worked fine. First car I've ever known to not have physical buttons for this.
Audio system was a proper high end Bose one (with a massive speaker which was as wide as the dash) worked fine. You may mock my choice of music now. Twin USB drives (one called USB and one called iPod, but both worked with either) + SD card + BT Audio + Aux in were more than enough choices for me.
Everything is tucked neatly into the armrest, and with 2 USBs you can have one for music and one for charging your phone simultaneously.
Also a good spot for putting the connection, I massively prefer this to the glovebox or beneath the dash, as it's hidden away, but still easily reachable if you need it.
More Nissan stuff : the center screen between the dials is exactly the same. Still a nice feature, as you can have it display satnav instructions, the music you're listening to, etc etc.
Ride and comfort
One thing really stood out : it's whisper quiet. At almost any speed. Even the huge wheels and runflat tyres don't really make any noise, and unless you rev the shit out of it, neither does the engine. This one came with an excellent 7 speed auto box and 4 settings :
Spent the first day mostly in Sport mode, as it makes the steering heavier (without adding more feedback sadly), and lets you rev a bit harder and longer, aswell as giving you a quicker throttle response. You could customize it but I didn't really bother.
At first it was quite annoying that the car shifted when you didn't want it to, even in manual mode(it had wheel paddles). Then I figured out you get a little shift light to warn you. Redline was 4,5k though, and the light went on around 4k. As I'm used to shifting at 7k, I had some trouble adjusting, usually shifting right after the car had autoshifted, putting me 2 gears up and this killing the acceleration. Quite a steep learning curve but I did manage to get the hang of it in the end.
Standard mode is good for long distance cruising, as the shifts are softer and more seamless. You can still shift manually if you like, but there's no real point in standard mode. A plus was that you could go from manual to auto and back with the paddles on the wheel.
The ride was good, on the firmer side but nothing too bad. As it has 4wd I never actually could get it to misbehave (aside from a tiny tyre squeal when flooring it in 1st on a wet surface). Hard cornering was fine, as was completely nailing the throttle mid corner (which could and should unsettle the car)... all was fine. And that's part of the trouble, it was too good, so good that you needed to be doing ridiculous speed to have some fun with it. And you can't do that on a daily basis.
Engine & handling
Engine was a 2.2 diesel (yeah I know) unit, producing 170 hp (and what felt like 1000 nm of torque, the internet tells me it's more like 400).
0-100 kph in 8.7 seconds isn't world record beating, but more than capable. I particularly liked the fact it didn't really stop accelerating unless you were well above legal speeds. Overtaking on highways has not been this fun since I still had my Astra. Topspeed would be around 230 kph, I managed 208 before I thought it would be best to back off a bit. Speedo exaggerates massively though, it was over 220 when my GPS gave me 208. I thought that was just a thing Italian cars did?
Sadly the real engine was covered by a big piece of plastic so this is all I can show you.
A thirsty bastard though, on the roughly 800 kms I covered (mostly @ 120kph on motorways because speedcameras) I only managed 7,9l/100km. A BMW would be between 5,5 and 6 there...
Overall verdict :
Difficult to call this one. Interior is lovely, but the boot's stupid. It isn't really ugly, but far from the prettiest car in its class. The engine is quite good but drinks far too much. The satnav does wonderful things, but it's so slow and messes up my songs on my USB drive.
What stood out most in all of the things, was that while it does many things very good, it isn't a car where you can't wait to drive it. It's actually quite boring, at the same time as it's awesome. It felt very Japanese in the sense that it was made to be as good as they can be for X amount of money. They aimed at comfort (and succeeded), power and handling (and succeeded) but forgot to put in the thing that to me, defines a car : character. So, excellent car in all of the objective criteria (some niggles aside), but subjectively, I can't really recommend it over an Audi Merc or BMW. Sadly, I think Infiniti's nearly non existence here has its reasons...
8/10
The logo is this, which reminds me of the "it's something" guy.
Turns out this is the logo for Infiniti, which is to Nissan what Lexus is to Toyota. That is to say, a very large, very expensive luxury version of the normal cars. Supposedly this thing should compete in the Audi A6/BMW 5/ Merc E class range, which is saying something from a lowly Nissan (they can't hide it)... Any of the 3 previous cars is absolutely fine (I'd take the 5er in a heartbeat), but if you just don't want any of the above, this may be a good alternative. Well, maybe, maybe not. It was my mission to find out.
(FYI of the 3 usual suspects I've only driven the Merc E class so I may not be the best person for this test). Also, excuse the pictures, as the car was absolutely filthy inside and out when I got it, and I couldn't be arsed to clean a car I don't own.
Onwards!
Exterior
Looks pretty bland to be quite frank. It's completely unknown here yet still has this "large generic Japanese car" thing going.
I like the front end though, it looks just mean and angry.
See this coming at you on the highway and you'll move out of the way (as people did).
I also like the curvy bonnet, but the rear dissapoints and just screams more "some Japanese car".
Only thing that saved it really were the twin exhausts on either side
It came with ridiculous 19" wheels as standard, but as usual they look pretty damn awesome in gunmetal grey.
Yeah, they ruin the ride a bit, but dayem...
For some reason it had huge side mirrors. Yes, it's a big and wide car, so I don't quite see the point in fitting extreme mirrors.
I did like the fact that they were painted some sort of shiny piano finish though
Interior
Ahh electric seats, leather, all the toys. So far so good. Reminded me a lot of the Qashqai I drove earlier, but that's less than half the cost of this. What does that money buy you?
Space, mostly, as both front and rear seats are gigantic and give you tons of room in all directions. My poor wife (she's only 150cm/5" tall) could not close the doors as she could not reach the handle...
Rear seat were near identical to the fronts, as you see 2 child seats were no issue, and because of the massive legroom, the kids weren't even able to kick or smudge the front seats. Big bonus points if you ask me. Small niggle though : the doors were massive, heavy, and lined with the softest leather in the world. But they didn't have any cubbyholes. Something my stupid C1 manages...
Practicality
A boot full of crap, or so you would think. Bootspace was actually quite small for this size of car. The biggest problem was the shape of the boot, it was an upside down T, which means you couldn't put stuff where you wanted. Why not a nice big rectangular boot, Nissan? Sure, it swallowed all of this stuff and more, but it could have been so much better with a slightly different shape.
Something I've never seen on a Euro car : a little handle to let yourself out if you've accidentally locked yourself in the boot. Who does this? As in, ever?
Gigantic cupholder, which is good. Glove box that's nearly full when all it holds is the manual = bad. Also the front doors had nearly no room to put stuff...
Other stuff : the car was huge, as discussed, so it had front and rear parking sensors, aswell as a camera. Took me a while to figure out that it takes a couple of seconds before the sensors actually engage... My dad in law parked it against his garage door before noticing the beep, because it was just too late... something our Picasso also manages, but again, that cost less than half the price 10 years ago...Ungood.
Satnav, stereo, toys
Same dials and switches than the ones on a Qashqai. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you can see they've raided the Nissan bins for stuff like this, and you'd rather not see this on a near 45k? car.
Twin touchscreens baby! Top one is satnav all the time, bottom one can be anything (stereo, HVAC controls, satnav,etc).
Silly as it may seem, but these systems don't seem interconnected, and more puzzlingly, have bespoke controls. The million satnav buttons only work on the top screen, the bottom one needs to be pushed with fingers. Even more strangely, the bottom screen was full of greasy fingers, while the top one wasn't? And I used the top one more? Weird stuff at first but once I got used to it, quite OK
On the other hand the system did have Intel Inside, but it was sloooooooooow. Took near 10 minutes to scan my 32GB USB drive, and then shat itself when I asked it to randomize. Smaller usb drives worked better and faster, but again my little C1 manages 32 GB and 4000 files just fine?
It also had apps which worked through your phone but I didn't really try any of those.
HVAC controls via the touchscreen was weird, but worked fine. First car I've ever known to not have physical buttons for this.
Audio system was a proper high end Bose one (with a massive speaker which was as wide as the dash) worked fine. You may mock my choice of music now. Twin USB drives (one called USB and one called iPod, but both worked with either) + SD card + BT Audio + Aux in were more than enough choices for me.
Everything is tucked neatly into the armrest, and with 2 USBs you can have one for music and one for charging your phone simultaneously.
Also a good spot for putting the connection, I massively prefer this to the glovebox or beneath the dash, as it's hidden away, but still easily reachable if you need it.
More Nissan stuff : the center screen between the dials is exactly the same. Still a nice feature, as you can have it display satnav instructions, the music you're listening to, etc etc.
Ride and comfort
One thing really stood out : it's whisper quiet. At almost any speed. Even the huge wheels and runflat tyres don't really make any noise, and unless you rev the shit out of it, neither does the engine. This one came with an excellent 7 speed auto box and 4 settings :
Spent the first day mostly in Sport mode, as it makes the steering heavier (without adding more feedback sadly), and lets you rev a bit harder and longer, aswell as giving you a quicker throttle response. You could customize it but I didn't really bother.
At first it was quite annoying that the car shifted when you didn't want it to, even in manual mode(it had wheel paddles). Then I figured out you get a little shift light to warn you. Redline was 4,5k though, and the light went on around 4k. As I'm used to shifting at 7k, I had some trouble adjusting, usually shifting right after the car had autoshifted, putting me 2 gears up and this killing the acceleration. Quite a steep learning curve but I did manage to get the hang of it in the end.
Standard mode is good for long distance cruising, as the shifts are softer and more seamless. You can still shift manually if you like, but there's no real point in standard mode. A plus was that you could go from manual to auto and back with the paddles on the wheel.
The ride was good, on the firmer side but nothing too bad. As it has 4wd I never actually could get it to misbehave (aside from a tiny tyre squeal when flooring it in 1st on a wet surface). Hard cornering was fine, as was completely nailing the throttle mid corner (which could and should unsettle the car)... all was fine. And that's part of the trouble, it was too good, so good that you needed to be doing ridiculous speed to have some fun with it. And you can't do that on a daily basis.
Engine & handling
Engine was a 2.2 diesel (yeah I know) unit, producing 170 hp (and what felt like 1000 nm of torque, the internet tells me it's more like 400).
0-100 kph in 8.7 seconds isn't world record beating, but more than capable. I particularly liked the fact it didn't really stop accelerating unless you were well above legal speeds. Overtaking on highways has not been this fun since I still had my Astra. Topspeed would be around 230 kph, I managed 208 before I thought it would be best to back off a bit. Speedo exaggerates massively though, it was over 220 when my GPS gave me 208. I thought that was just a thing Italian cars did?
Sadly the real engine was covered by a big piece of plastic so this is all I can show you.
A thirsty bastard though, on the roughly 800 kms I covered (mostly @ 120kph on motorways because speedcameras) I only managed 7,9l/100km. A BMW would be between 5,5 and 6 there...
Overall verdict :
Difficult to call this one. Interior is lovely, but the boot's stupid. It isn't really ugly, but far from the prettiest car in its class. The engine is quite good but drinks far too much. The satnav does wonderful things, but it's so slow and messes up my songs on my USB drive.
What stood out most in all of the things, was that while it does many things very good, it isn't a car where you can't wait to drive it. It's actually quite boring, at the same time as it's awesome. It felt very Japanese in the sense that it was made to be as good as they can be for X amount of money. They aimed at comfort (and succeeded), power and handling (and succeeded) but forgot to put in the thing that to me, defines a car : character. So, excellent car in all of the objective criteria (some niggles aside), but subjectively, I can't really recommend it over an Audi Merc or BMW. Sadly, I think Infiniti's nearly non existence here has its reasons...
8/10
