Infiniti G37S Coupé review
by David Finlay (5 November 2009)
The G37 is unusual in the Infiniti line-up in the sense that it's available in three body styles. There are saloon and convertible versions, but the coupé is reckoned to be the one that will attract most interest in the UK, so that's the one we've chosen to test.
Although all Infinitis currently in production have arrived in the UK at the same time (and are available, at the time of writing, only from the recently-opened dealership in Reading, though more outlets are due to open in the near future), the G37 is the oldest design, and if you drive several Infinitis on the same day it feels like it. The interior ambience isn't quite as impressive as it is in, say, the FX50S tested recently, and in particular the way that the instrument panel follows the steering wheel when you adjust the latter for height feels a bit low-rent in a car costing over £30,000.
That's a minor niggle, though. The greater impression is of a car which wants to look after its occupants. It's certainly well-equipped. All G37s come as standard with bi-xenon cornering headlights, self-healing paint, a pop-up bonnet (to minimise the damage to pedestrians if you are unfortunate enough to hit any), multi-adjustable front seats, front and rear parking sensors, Bluetooth connectivity, an auxiliary audio input, cruise control, automatic lights and wipers, an auto-dimming rear mirror and much else.
The mid-range GT adds leather upholstery, heated front seats, yet more adjustability of the front seats and a memory for the positions of the driver's seat, steering wheel and mirrors, while the G37S tested here also gets sports seats (yes, even more adjustable than before), 19" alloy wheels, a tyre pressure monitoring system, sportier suspension settings, uprated brakes, a viscous limited slip differential and four-wheel steering. You would have to be quite well-heeled to be able to describe this as a cheap car, but there's no doubt that you get a lot of equipment for the money.
That four-wheel steering system is impressive because there's very little sign that it's there. Cruder arrangements of this type are a pain in the neck, but the one in the Infiniti gets on with the job in a very subtle manner.
The same description applies to the chassis as a whole - the front end turns into a corner very purposefully, but without feeling too racy, while the rear follows it nicely, though if you apply more than a modicum of power early in the bend on a wet road the traction control system has to come into play quite early. Even with sports suspension, then, the G37 is clearly not a car that you can hustle too vigorously, though it is certainly fun to drive.
It's not quite as much fun as the closely-related Nissan 370Z, but despite the mechanical similarities it's not the same kind of car. Both use the same 3.7-litre six-cylinder engine, which was in fact being used by Infiniti before the 370Z went on sale, though the Nissan has been tuned to give an extra 10bhp at its peak.
Still, the G37's maximum of 316bhp is impressive, though you have to rev the engine nearly as far as it will go before finding that amount of power, and in a car like this you probably won't want to do that very often. If you do, you will be either delighted or disappointed to discover that it remains very quiet even under full load, unlike the 370Z which sounds like I imagine a hungry dragon would if you poked it with a sharp stick.
The low decibel level of the engine is part of the reason the G37 feels quite refined in general, but the impression is harmed by the surprising amount of road noise that has been allowed to penetrate the passenger compartment. This and the tiresome lack of rear visibility are the two things I most wish Infiniti will get round to sorting when the G37 is replaced, which it will be before the more modern EX and FX ranges.
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