Overview & Reviews

The Infiniti Q50 effectively replaces the Infiniti's popular G series entry-level luxury sport sedan. And just like the G, the Q50 offers an appealing combination of luxury, performance and value wrapped up in handsome styling.

Although the luxury sport sedan segment has historically been dominated by elite German nameplates, the Infiniti Q50 holds its own against these typically pricier models. It also comes with the latest high-tech features, and there's an available hybrid model as well.

Current Infiniti Q50 Specs
The Infiniti Q50 entry-level luxury sport sedan debuted for the 2014 model year. It's powered by either a 3.7-liter V6 with 328 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque or, in the case of the hybrid version, a 3.5-liter V6 and a 50-kilowatt electric motor, which provide a total output of 354 hp. All Q50s come with a seven-speed automatic transmission, and rear-wheel drive is standard. All-wheel drive is optional. The regular Q50 comes in base, Premium and Sport trim levels, while the Q50 Hybrid comes only in the upper two trims.

Standard feature highlights on the base trim include keyless ignition/entry, dual-zone automatic climate control and eight-way power front seats. Also included are an electronics interface with twin touchscreen displays, smartphone app integration, Bluetooth phone/audio connectivity, a rearview camera and a six-speaker sound system.

Premium trims also feature a sunroof, heated front seats, leather upholstery (on the hybrid only), a 14-speaker Bose sound system and a multimedia monitor/display, while the Sport adds a sport-tuned suspension, 19-inch alloy wheels with summer performance tires, leather seating (for non-hybrid Q50 sedans), a sport driver seat and paddle shifters. The hybrid also includes Infiniti's Direct Adaptive Steering (which offers four different steering responsiveness settings) and a power tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel. Option highlights include a navigation system, a 360-degree camera parking system, a 60/40 split-folding rear seat and various safety features such as blind-spot warning and front and rear collision warning.

On the move, the Q50 has been somewhat of a disappointment for us. While acceleration is strong, ultimate handling ability on non-Sport trims is hobbled by all-season tires that don't offer the grip we'd expect from this otherwise athletic sedan. Ride quality is similarly mixed. Although the Q50 ably damps out larger bumps and ruts, it gets fidgety on roads with minor imperfections.

Beyond these issues, however, the Infiniti Q50 stands strong thanks to its well-trimmed and comfortable cabin, roomy trunk, user-friendly high-tech features and the impressive fuel economy of the hybrid model. It's worth a good look if you're shopping for a sport-oriented entry-level luxury sedan.

Used Infiniti Q50 Models
The Infiniti Q50 was all-new for 2014. If you're looking at used cars, though, many of the Q50's qualities can be found in its predecessor, the Infiniti G sedan.

User Reviews:

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  Direct Adaptive Steering performs poorly - 2015 Infiniti Q50
  By PsyMed - June 23 - 2:45 am

  Edmunds full expert review has nothing good to say about the Direct Adaptive Steering option, and now I know why. My new, fully loaded Q50 Premium hash Direct Adaptive Steering and run-flat tires. After driving it over 1000 miles on mostly highways, Im deeply troubled by the rather abysmal performance, road handling, and maybe even the real-world safety of this steer-by-wire system. (As of this writing, I do not know the extent to which the rather miserable run-flat tires may be contributing to this poor performance, but I suspect it may be quite significant. I will have more to say about these tires shortly.) For those who may not be familiar with Infinitis Direct Adaptive Steering ("steer-by-wire"), there isnt a conventional mechanically coupled linkage between the steering wheel and the front end. Rather, the system relies on an electronic interface between the steering wheel and the front end. Thus, unlike conventional steering, there is no instantaneous telegraphing and biomechanical feedback of the sensations that a driver normally feels between ones hands on the steering wheel and the road, particularly lacking the natural progressive resistance that one would normally feel as the steering wheel is turned ever more to the left or to the right. The lack of this natural sensation between the drivers hands and the road would be totally unnerving and disorienting. So, Infiniti has attempted to simulate this sensation by driver selectable settings found within the Infiniti Drive Mode Selector app, found by scrolling through the apps on the touch pad. After tapping the DMS app, one first selects Steering, after which one has four steering modes between "Effort" and "Response" to choose from, including (1) Light/Casual, (2) Standard/Standard, (3) Standard/Quick, and (4) Heavy/Quick. Basically, the settings determine the degree of resistance one feels when turning the steering wheel. With DAS, the vehicle has an unnerving habit of wandering, floating, and swerving or yawing from side-to-side, requiring nearly constant steering corrections. Unlike conventional steering, when one is negotiating a curve on a highway with DAS, you cant simply turn the wheel in and hold it there as you progress through the curve. If you attempt to do so you will quickly find that a few seconds after you turn the wheel slightly, the vehicle will stop going in the direction of the turn and will begin to go straight, so you have to keep turning the wheel back in the direction of the curve. This in turn results in the vehicle wandering from side to side. But wait, theres more. With DAS, the vehicle tends to fall into and follow, for example, any uneven seams or other such things in the road surface. In addition, when one is passing, or being passed by trucks (and even other cars) the wind drafts will blow the car to the side and require diligence with the steering wheel because one must anticipate and compensate for this. I cringe to think how it might perform when driving on the freeway with strong gusting winds and slippery road conditions. On the bright side, my experience thus far has been that DAS performs decidedly better when driving around town as well as on country roads. Quite frankly, I am utterly baffled as to how this steer-by-wire system ever made it into production. What in the world were they thinking? It remains to be seen whether or not there will eventually be a Technical Service Bulletin about this glaring problem, and if so, whether or not a firmware update will even be possible in order to fix the problem. While driving on highways with the Driver Assist is on, the vehicle will wander/bounce back and forth within its lane if you let it, rather like a bobsled. In fact, unless youre very diligent about keeping the vehicle on track, the degree of wandering from side to side has me worried that I might get pulled over by the police for driving is if I am intoxicated! My experience thus far has been that the vehicle wanders the least in the Heavy/Quick setting. As previously mentioned, I remain very suspicious that the run-flat tires may be part of the problem, and I would be very curious to see how it performs when I eventually replace them with a set of Michelin Primacy tires. The Internet reveals that the majority of consumers dont like run-flats because they impart a rough ride; they cost a third more than conventional tires; and they wear very quickly. I find it to be absolutely infuriating that the automotive industry is increasingly cramming these tires down our throats. Indeed, I have read reports that BMW for example may void the warranty if these tires are replaced with conventionals. Fortunately, with the 2015 Q50, these tires can be replaced with conventional ones without voiding the warranty. In addition, the vehicle has a spare tire that can be replaced with a conventional one.

• 

  Great Car! Great Performance - 2015 Infiniti Q50
  By D March - June 12 - 4:34 am

  Great Car! Love the Styling and Performance. Do beleive though that a car in this class and price category should have memory seats standard. There cars that cost much less then this car and have these features. This is a premium car should include that as standard equipment as well as leather seats.

• 

  Great Car! Great Performance - 2015 Infiniti Q50
  By D March - June 12 - 4:34 am

  Great Car! Love the Styling and Performance. Do beleive though that a car in this class and price category should have memory seats standard. There cars that cost much less then this car and have these features. This is a premium car should include that as standard equipment as well as leather seats.

• 

  Infiniti Q50 the worst car of 2014 - 2014 Infiniti Q50
  By andrew714 - May 14 - 11:15 pm

  This car represents the the company as a whole. FAILURE. Not only did the stealership pull a bait and switch on me by changing the price of the car from sales to finance, but their customer service after the sales was just horrid. Go to the Q50 forum and you can read hundreds of owners who regret buying this car. Several members have successfully gotten Infiniti to buy back the car. DAS is a gimmick. It doesnt work in the real world. It feels artificial and has tons of bugs. The Intouch unit is laggy and prematurely released. Everyone who bought the Q50 were unwilling beta tester for the company. Avoid Infiniti and the Q50. This car sucks and so does the company.

• 

  Paint Issues - 2018 Infiniti Q50
  By Tom K - April 8 - 2:47 pm

  The bumper color on my new 2018, Liquid Platinum, Q50 is noticeably different then the rest of the vehicle. Make certain to look at the car in sunlight or at night under the lights before making your decision. This issue definitely is the reason for for my review. I have pictures if required

• 

  Vroooom!!! - 2015 Infiniti Q50
  By Schafe - February 18 - 11:44 pm

  Im 5 months in with this car and I love it. Its really fast and Ive Ive never had a car that handles the road quite like this, smooth as glass. I feel good in it, I look good in it and every other person on the road doesnt have one. My only regret is that I got a 2015 and didnt wait for the 2016 turbo. I can only imagine what 400 HP feels like in the S. Get the premium, this baby boomer loves his music and the Bose stereo system will blow you away.

• 

  Vroooom!!! - 2015 Infiniti Q50
  By Schafe - February 18 - 11:44 pm

  Im 5 months in with this car and I love it. Its really fast and Ive Ive never had a car that handles the road quite like this, smooth as glass. I feel good in it, I look good in it and every other person on the road doesnt have one. My only regret is that I got a 2015 and didnt wait for the 2016 turbo. I can only imagine what 400 HP feels like in the S. Get the premium, this baby boomer loves his music and the Bose stereo system will blow you away.

• 

  My first brand new car. - 2015 Infiniti Q50
  By koolbreez1 - February 12 - 9:18 pm

  SO Ive never had a car with less than 35k miles. I went to the infiniti dealer to see if i could get the beautiful car from their commercial.I was glad to pick out mine from a great inventory on the dealer computer.Ive had my 2015 q50 for a month now and I get many looks and complements from ppl of ALL ages daily.the speed,power, and technology are very impressive it took some getting use to(im in love).my previous car was a 06 lexus is250.

• 

  Loved my Gs, but the Q50 is a beaut! - 2015 Infiniti Q50
  By rogue36 - December 30 - 11:54 pm

  Ive owned 5 Infiniti G-Series vehicles over the past 12 years, starting with the original G35 in 2003. Needless to say, I love the car. Ive always preferred its styling, comfort, and value compared to other entry luxury sedans. I was hesitant to get a Q50 after reading the bad press it received, but the new styling really appealed to me and the technology in my 2012 G37 was feeling old (particularly the audio/navigation system). After several test drives of the Q50 and its competitors, I liked the Audi A4 the best, but only slightly more than the Q50 and the lease deal on the Q50 was so much better there was no way I could pass it up. Looking back, Im glad I didnt get an A4 -- its styling is so boring compared to the Q50. Overall I really like the Q50. The powertrain is excellent - smooth acceleration and quiet at highway speeds. The cabin is comfortable with nice feel to the materials, supportive seats, minimal wind and road noise, and good visibility. The Bose "studio on wheels" is thankfully just as good as it was in the G37. I didnt get the Technology Package (which I somewhat regret) so I cant comment on all the cool ADAS features. I like the car, but I do have two reservations: the steer-by-wire system, and the infotainment system. I wanted Around View Monitor to help with parking in my cluttered garage, and I really like entry/exit assist where the seats and steering wheel move out of the way to make getting in & out of the car easier, but to get these two features I had to take the "direct adaptive steering" system. Im not a professional driver, but even I can easily feel the difference between DAS and the hydraulic steering gears used on the G-series in the past, and I prefer the old steering feel. That said, it wasnt a deal breaker for me. I use this car for my daily commute on boring mostly-straight highways. After three months I can honestly say Ive gotten used to the DAS feel and it doesnt bother me anymore. In fact I appreciate the lightness of the steering while making low-speed maneuvers. I did however have one incident where I was taking a tightly curved on-ramp at excessive speed just for the fun of it (which I did all the time in my Gs) and in the middle of the maneuver I felt the car turn in slightly without me moving the steering wheel. It scared the heck out of me. I dont know if it was the DAS system making an adjustment, or something else happening, but it was very disconcerting. Bottom line: DAS makes me nervous and I would prefer not to have it. As for the infotainment system, it has a nice set of features but the execution is bad, not terrible, but bad. I have a lot of complaints about the system, but Ill limit myself to just mentioning two of them: 1) When listening to HD Radio the song title and artist name do not appear on any screen anywhere. Not on the radio screen, not on the navigation screen, and not on the instrument cluster screen. Its ridiculous. I eventually found that information buried two levels deep in the "controls" menu, where it makes no sense for it to be and is basically useless. When you listen to music from your phone or iPod the song title, artist name, and even album art are prominently displayed -- why wouldnt they do the same for HD Radio? Even more crazy, if you turn HD Radio off you do get the song title and artist name displayed - though in the old style scrolling text format. Its really frustrating and I hope Infiniti offers a software update to fix it. 2) I like to put my iPod or phone into random mode and just manually cycle through my songs. Weirdly, in the Q50 there is a span of time where you cant hit "next" to go to the next song -- the system says "retrieving album art" and wont respond no matter how many times you hit the button. That window of time seems to be from 1 - 3 seconds after a song starts playing, which can really be annoying when I hear a song I rather not listen to and want to quickly skip to the next one. I either have to hit "next" immediately or wait 3 seconds. Its a minor thing, but still, didnt anyone do user testing on the system? Anyway, it is a great car and I am happy with my purchase. I recommend it to anyone who appreciates a sporty rear-wheel drive (or rear-wheel biased AWD) sedan and wants something that looks more elegant and interesting than the boring German sedans.

• 

  Loved my Gs, but the Q50 is a beaut! - 2015 Infiniti Q50
  By rogue36 - December 30 - 11:54 pm

  Ive owned 5 Infiniti G-Series vehicles over the past 12 years, starting with the original G35 in 2003. Needless to say, I love the car. Ive always preferred its styling, comfort, and value compared to other entry luxury sedans. I was hesitant to get a Q50 after reading the bad press it received, but the new styling really appealed to me and the technology in my 2012 G37 was feeling old (particularly the audio/navigation system). After several test drives of the Q50 and its competitors, I liked the Audi A4 the best, but only slightly more than the Q50 and the lease deal on the Q50 was so much better there was no way I could pass it up. Looking back, Im glad I didnt get an A4 -- its styling is so boring compared to the Q50. Overall I really like the Q50. The powertrain is excellent - smooth acceleration and quiet at highway speeds. The cabin is comfortable with nice feel to the materials, supportive seats, minimal wind and road noise, and good visibility. The Bose "studio on wheels" is thankfully just as good as it was in the G37. I didnt get the Technology Package (which I somewhat regret) so I cant comment on all the cool ADAS features. I like the car, but I do have two reservations: the steer-by-wire system, and the infotainment system. I wanted Around View Monitor to help with parking in my cluttered garage, and I really like entry/exit assist where the seats and steering wheel move out of the way to make getting in & out of the car easier, but to get these two features I had to take the "direct adaptive steering" system. Im not a professional driver, but even I can easily feel the difference between DAS and the hydraulic steering gears used on the G-series in the past, and I prefer the old steering feel. That said, it wasnt a deal breaker for me. I use this car for my daily commute on boring mostly-straight highways. After three months I can honestly say Ive gotten used to the DAS feel and it doesnt bother me anymore. In fact I appreciate the lightness of the steering while making low-speed maneuvers. I did however have one incident where I was taking a tightly curved on-ramp at excessive speed just for the fun of it (which I did all the time in my Gs) and in the middle of the maneuver I felt the car turn in slightly without me moving the steering wheel. It scared the heck out of me. I dont know if it was the DAS system making an adjustment, or something else happening, but it was very disconcerting. Bottom line: DAS makes me nervous and I would prefer not to have it. As for the infotainment system, it has a nice set of features but the execution is bad, not terrible, but bad. I have a lot of complaints about the system, but Ill limit myself to just mentioning two of them: 1) When listening to HD Radio the song title and artist name do not appear on any screen anywhere. Not on the radio screen, not on the navigation screen, and not on the instrument cluster screen. Its ridiculous. I eventually found that information buried two levels deep in the "controls" menu, where it makes no sense for it to be and is basically useless. When you listen to music from your phone or iPod the song title, artist name, and even album art are prominently displayed -- why wouldnt they do the same for HD Radio? Even more crazy, if you turn HD Radio off you do get the song title and artist name displayed - though in the old style scrolling text format. Its really frustrating and I hope Infiniti offers a software update to fix it. 2) I like to put my iPod or phone into random mode and just manually cycle through my songs. Weirdly, in the Q50 there is a span of time where you cant hit "next" to go to the next song -- the system says "retrieving album art" and wont respond no matter how many times you hit the button. That window of time seems to be from 1 - 3 seconds after a song starts playing, which can really be annoying when I hear a song I rather not listen to and want to quickly skip to the next one. I either have to hit "next" immediately or wait 3 seconds. Its a minor thing, but still, didnt anyone do user testing on the system? Anyway, it is a great car and I am happy with my purchase. I recommend it to anyone who appreciates a sporty rear-wheel drive (or rear-wheel biased AWD) sedan and wants something that looks more elegant and interesting than the boring German sedans.