Feature: 2004 Infiniti M45

What is it about this Infiniti? It just doesn't get any respect? It appears to be a conservatively handsome car in the way of an E-class Mercedes. Okay, it's a plump version of the E-class. But still, why don't we see lots more of these on the road? I'm not sure, but it probably has to do with Infiniti advertising. Originally they told us this was a hot rod Inifiniti, but then the advertising disappeared. Is it a hot rod? Or is it just another refrigerator? The answer lies somewhere in the middle.

With 340 horsepower available at the beckon of your right foot, it does go into the performance car category. First, let's have a look at the car and see what sort of appeal it does have.

Walking around the car, you are immediately impressed by... nothing. It really is anonymous! The corporate Infiniti grille in front is the same as the other Infinitis and is nothing special. Getting into the car, you're immediately impressed by... nothing again! Yes, it's nice, but it certainly isn't an Audi. There really aren't any cheap materials anywhere obvious, but all that plastic on the dashboard doesn't look really expensive either. The leather on the seats is nice as are the optional heated and air conditioned seats. Looking at the interior, it is obvious that Infiniti stressed luxury over sport. The seats, in particular, show this. So at this point, I'd have to say that there is nothing really great about this car, but also that it isn't at all bad either. I feel it fading into that vast area of anonymity. So let's start the car up and go for a drive.

You don't get an key with the M45, you get a stubby plug that goes into a receptacle that looks like an ignition lock. Like a key, it's turned to start the car. This one had the optional navigation system which has a large screen high on the dashboard. There are lots of buttons to control the system, but the climate controls are separate and when touched, take over the screen as an indicator. The system can be controlled by a button on the steering wheel that enables the voice control system that worked just fine for me. You don't need the buttons, just talk to it in simple commands and it responds with an echo of what it thinks you said. It seemed to be lots better than iDrive or the array of buttons.

Drive it away and it is impressive because it doesn't have the really sudden throttle response that seems to be so common now from Honda to Audi. The steering is nicely weighted and does give you some feel of what the front wheels are doing. Press the throttle down further and that 340 horsepower wakes up and the car takes off very nicely. It really is nice to find a car with a throttle that really is proportional instead of all the action taking place in the top ¼ inch of travel and nothing much else below that.

Start driving briskly and it tells you that there are 4830 pounds of car there that really doesn't want to change direction. It does go where you point it with little roll, but the all-weather tires with the avoirdupois tells you that it wants to go in a straight line more than corners. This isn't all bad because the ride over rough roads is very well controlled and very little of it gets into the passenger compartment via noise or harshness.

The competition, the BMW 545i and Mercedes E500 both weigh about 1000 pounds less than the Infiniti. That's a lot. Neither has the 340 horsepower of the Inifiniti. The BMW has "just" 325 horsepower, and the Mercedes less at 302 horsepower. I would suspect that with 1000 pounds less, the BMW would easily out-accelerate the M45. The Infiniti is a bigger car, though, at 197.2 inches long versus the BMW at 190.6 and the Merc at 189.7. You would think that would be good news for the people inside, but alas, isn't. The front legroom is comparable at 42.1 inches for the M45, 41.5 for the 545i, and 41.9 for the E500, but the rear passengers suffer in the Infiniti with only 32.5 inches of legroom versus 36 for the BMW and 35.6 for the Mercedes. With all that said, it appears that the Infiniti really isn't as good a deal as the German competition, but there is one last gotcha and that is price. The BMW 545i starts at $55,000 plus and the Mercedes E500 at $56,000 plus. The Infiniti, fully equipped with the equipment I talked about is just $48,000. So with over $10,000 to play with, the Infiniti looks very attractive to me.

So why aren't there more of them on the road? I suspect that the primary reason is that nobody knows about them, plus the BMW and Mercedes both have more status appeal. The question is if they have $10,000 plus worth of status appeal.

Also there is a new M45 coming to us next year. Hopefully Nissan will find a way to get rid of 1000 pounds and add some rear seat room which would make it really competitive. Don't hold your breath on that, however, because the new car will be built on the same platform that the GS and FX are built on, which is rather porky to allow the "SUV" effect of the FX.

In the end, the M45 is a car that deserves more than it shows in the market.