Barb Cromb, in her own words, has spent much of her life driving "complete junk." No more, thankfully.
"In those days I had no money but lots of time. Now it's the opposite. I have no time and a little bit of money," says the 40-something bank executive who works in corporate development out of one of Toronto's big downtown towers.
Her hours there are long, often seeing her arrive at the office early and leave for home in Etobicoke quite late. The last thing she wants to worry about is getting stuck in her car when the snow flies.
So with the lease on her fancy BMW 330Ci coupe about to expire, Cromb has set her sights on an all-wheel-drive (AWD) Infiniti G35x sedan. Her rear-drive Bimmer, even with good winter tires, just doesn't cut it in really bad weather.
"There are about five days a year when I detest my car and those five days [of snow] are a complete disaster. The BMW just is not good in the snow," she laughs, adding that the other 360 days of the year she loves driving her German luxury coupe.
Then there is the value issue. The G35x lists for $42,800 (a $2,900 premium on the base G35), while an AWD BMW 330xi sedan starts at $50,300. Yes, this banker has done the arithmetic; the $7,500 difference makes a difference. Add in the extras she would want with the Bimmer and "it's about a $10,000 walk, or so, up to a comparable BMW."
Then there's the fact that "the G35x corners like it's on rails and has guts to burn."
Cromb, of course, is exactly the kind of customer Infiniti and BMW want to call their own. Smart professionals pressed for time are bread-and-butter buyers for these upscale brands. Cromb says she is leaving behind her BMW with some regrets -- "I like to drive and always wanted a BMW and now I've had the ego boost" -- but the AWD Infiniti has hit the sweet spot for her.
And that is something new for Infiniti. For much of its 15-year existence, Nissan's luxury channel has struggled to find its place in the world. Sales have almost always fallen short of expectations and the brand in general lacked identity.
With the G35 (coupe and sedan) and now the new G35x, Infiniti has a premium-class contender. For starters, the 280-horsepower V-6 is simply brilliant.
Smooth and responsive, with plentiful power, the 3.5-litre VQ V-6 was this month yet again named to the annual Ward's 10 Best Engines list. So that's 11 straight years of being honoured by Ward's Communications.
The addition of a very good all-wheel-drive variant of the normally rear-drive G35 is an important next step. Infiniti, desperate to become a noteworthy player in the luxury segment, can now argue it has a hot performance sedan capable of tackling the elements.
It's not an empty boast. I have driven the five-passenger G35x on a race track near Belleville, Ont., and along the early-morning and somewhat-icy roads of Prince Edward County, Ont., as well as up a slick side-of-mountain stretch to Mount Seymour's ski hill in British Columbia and along twisty roads in the foothills outside Phoenix, Ariz.
From wet to dry, from overcast to sunny and everything in between, the G35x truly is an all-weather hot-shoe of a car.
The trick lies in a sophisticated AWD system that allows the G35 to behave very much like a rear-drive touring car.
The system is capable of sending up to 100 per cent of the power to the rear wheels when roads are dry and offer plenty of traction. The bias, then, is toward the rear wheels -- the startup split is 75 per cent of power to the rear, 25 per cent to the front. That way it retains its "driver's car" personality.
If the system detects a need for power to be distributed front and rear in a different way, it acts all on its own, with absolutely no input from the driver. It is all automatic and invisible.
That is, if conditions allow, power begins to shift toward the rear, as much as 100 per cent of it. If the roads are slick, or if you need some help in cornering, up to 50 per cent of the power can go to the front wheels.
There is an exception to all this. If you are facing snow, hit the button on the console to put the car in "Snow" mode. Doing so locks power in a fixed 50:50 split, front and rear. In addition, you will start off in a higher gear, to keep that VQ from overpowering the available traction. The whole idea is to limit wheel spin as much as possible.
For Cromb, this user-friendly feature "is a huge deal. I don't want to get stuck."
