looks like infiniti-mercedes affair may be over

[shadow191]

What is your source on that? The Q50 is still on the FM platform as is the Q60. Not sure how they would use the MB shared platform since that is designed for a small FWD car which is the QX30. And the weight distribution of the Q50 is pretty much the same as the G37. One is 56/44 and the old one is 54/46. So new one is heavier up front but not that far off.

The 2.0 turbo motor is from MB I believe so they share that. FWIW, MB makes a lot of cars that will absolutely blow the doors off anything Infiniti makes so I'm not sure how sharing a chassis with them is such a terrible thing. Infiniti used to make "sporty" cars. They still make "sporty" cars. They've never made a sports car.

 

[ryus]

Here are some sources that say Q50 uses the FM platform:

2014 Infiniti Q50 First Drive - Automobile Magazine

Review: 2016 Infiniti Q50 2.0t | Canadian Auto Review


Its true lots of reviews for the Q50 say the handling is not as sporty as th G37, however almost all those reviews from the steer-by-wire system. I want some reviews testing on the traditional mechanical steering to see how that handles. They also say the current Q50's use the 2nd generation of the steer-by-wire system that has greatly improved feedback compared to when it first debuted on the Q50 in 2013.

 

[DatMan]

What is your source on that? The Q50 is still on the FM platform as is the Q60.

Can't remember where I read it... I was VERY interested when the Q50 first came out so I read everything about it and remembered reading something about it being the first INFINITI to share a platform with MB (as part of their new alliance). It wouldn't be the MFA platform (is that the name?) cause like you said, that's designed for a smaller car... I don't remember ever reading what the platform was supposed to be but I assumed it was the same as the C models... I remember going for a test drive of the sport model and being fairly impressed. Then shortly after, I needed to do something with the FX, so they gave me a Q50 loaner, but it was a normal AWD model... Had that for a couple of days and was pretty disappointed... Not only in the steering (which I knew about but wasn't as obvious in the sport model) but at how much body roll it had around sweeping turns! The throttle by wire was pretty annoying too... The handling was just so off compared to the previous model G I couldn't believe it was build on the same platform! I guess I was misinformed with early reports and just never looked back (that's when RL stuff hit the fan and I took a LONG hiatus from anything to do with cars)...

 

[DatMan]

FWIW, MB makes a lot of cars that will absolutely blow the doors off anything Infiniti makes so I'm not sure how sharing a chassis with them is such a terrible thing.

MB doesn't really make "performance" cars... The SL drives like a car made for rich retired people... And even the AMG or BRABUS models are great, but designed like sledgehammers. Every time they put the performance line of MB, BMW, and AUDI against each other, that's ALWAYS the knock on the MB's. They usually get extremely high points for the engines, but lowest points on suspension and handling... When building an M3 on a 3 series chassis, the chassis is usually good enough there aren't that many HUGE changes that are needed, but when building an AMG on a C series, they're limited by the handling characteristics of the C chassis...

I've never driven anything over an SL, so I won't claim I know anything about a VISION SLR or anything but from my experience, MB makes nice LUXURY TOURING cars... If this were a perfect world and INFINITI HAD to make an alliance with another car company, I would have preferred that company to be BMW...