Infiniti Q70 2016 review

Value and ride quality give Infiniti the cred to claw sales from the German rivals. Then there's the cracking V6.

Is a fresh look, new safety kit and enhanced value enough to finally sway buyers toward Infiniti's Q70?

If you're in the market for a large luxury sedan, an established European brand is the easy route to take. Infiniti provides a Japanese solution with its Q70 sedan though it has failed to register more than a blip in sales since its arrival in 2012 wearing the M moniker.

Having adopted the Q70 name in 2013 as Infiniti revised its badging, the four-door carries the brand's hopes for chipping away at competitors.

The 2016 Q70 gets updated front and rear styling, tweaked suspension and access to extra safety equipment, with no increase in price. There are a reshaped mesh grille, redesigned front and rear bumpers, new LED head and tail-lights and restyled boot lid.

As before, the range kicks off with the 3.7-litre petrol V6 GT for $68,900 and steps up to the Sports Premium trim level for $78,900. The hybrid GT Premium still tops the range at $82,900. All Q70s come with a seven-speed automatic transmission. The diesel engine has been dropped.

Infiniti's prices continue to undercut almost all of its direct rivals: the Lexus GS from $75,000, Audi's A6 beginning at $79,900, Mercedes-Benz's E-Class $80,400 entry point and BMW's $82,300 5 Series. Hyundai's flagship Genesis is a worthy Q70 competitor but its $60,000 entry fee trumps the lot.

Conceding the ride of the previous Q70 was a tad too firm, Infiniti has fettled a softer ride.

The standard features on the base GT remain pretty much unchanged since the model's inception. This list was impressive for the time but some manufacturers have since caught up. This update brings a new 10-speaker Bose audio in addition to an eight-inch touchscreen, satnav, reversing camera, parking sensors and proximity key.

The Sports Premium and hybrid-only GT Premium spec add safety equipment. Lane departure alert guides you back into the lane and there are blind spot detection with auto braking and forward collision alert.

Autonomous emergency braking scans two cars ahead while rear cross traffic alert will also brake if it senses an obstacle. A 360-degree camera with moving object detection and adaptive headlights have been added.

On the road

Conceding the ride of the previous Q70 was a tad too firm, Infiniti has fettled a softer ride — which is apparent within minutes of taking the wheel of the Sports Premium. Respect to the engineers for delivering a comfortable ride in a car that rolls on massive 20-inch wheels with low-profile tyres, often a recipe for jarring harshness.

Handling is still impressive. Sport suspension holds the sedan firm in the corners, bolstering confidence to push it a bit harder, though a picky driver might fault it for being unsettled over rough country roads tackled on the launch.

The Sports Premium's four-wheel steering feels overly quick but it's easy to get used to.

The star of the Sports Premium is its screaming 3.7-litre V6 — a little out of place in a limousine like this — which works so well with the seven-speed auto, rev-matching on downshifts to keep the power constantly on tap.

As a rear passenger for part of the way, I'm reminded me that Q70s really are limousines with more than ample legroom

It's thirsty, downing 10.2L/100km on test.

The GT shares the glorious V6 but has a different overall feel thanks to 18-inch wheels, narrower tyres and standard suspension. The ride is softer and the steering less sharp but that's not a bad thing — if anything it feels more settled than the Sports Premium.

Even in base GT spec, the interior is refined and luxurious, if unchanged from 2012. The cabin's flowing lines sweep across the dash and down into the doors.

The hybrid GT Premium impressed three-and-a-bit years ago with its brutal acceleration, smashing the 0-100km/h sprint in 5.3 secs. It continues to impress, as much as the steering fails to, feeling a little lumpy and resistant to quick changes in direction.

As a rear passenger for part of the way, I'm reminded me that Q70s really are limousines with more than ample legroom and raised seating position for broad views ahead.

The ride again is smooth and comfortable, the cabin quiet even on coarse-chip country highways.