Take a second look at that smooth, stylish sedan that’s cruising past you. At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s some sophisticated European number – a BMW or an Audi, maybe. But then you get a closer look at the logo on the elegant grille between those angular headlights. What is that? Which marque produces a nice sedan like this and has an emblem that looks like a mountain peak jutting up from an oval?

What you’re looking at is the Infiniti M Sedan. And the arrival of this sleek silver beast (or possibly white or some shade of grey or black) into Australia means that the traditional European luxury vehicles – and other additions to the luxury car market such as Lexus – had better watch out, because here comes the competition.

So let’s start to take the Infiniti M Sedan to pieces – not literally, of course. It’s much too nice a car for that.

First of all, what does the Infiniti M Sedan look like? The short answer to that is to go and have a look at the picture. To go into more detail, the Infiniti M Sedan has those long, tailored lines we see these days on luxury sedans – just a bit too crisp to be called perfectly rounded and definitely too curvaceous to be called chunky or angular. It’s got something of the muscle car in the looks, but stops short of being full-on aggressive. Naturally, it’s got body-coloured exterior mirrors and front fog lights (a bit of a must for twilight running in a grey car), with a few tasteful touches of chrome in places like the door handles.

OK, now for the specs of the Infiniti M Sedan. In all three types of Infiniti M Sedan available at the moment, you’ve got a V6 engine, which can be a 3.7-litre petrol unit in the M37, a 3.0-litre diesel in the M30d and a hybrid 3.5 litre petrol–electric unit in the M35h. In all three, the powerplant is coupled to a 7-speed electronically controlled transmission. This auto transmission can be put into manual mode if you want it, but also goes one step further with a driver-adaptive learning algorithm. The Infiniti M Sedan has a smart transmission that learns the way you drive and adjusts the way it shifts gear – sweet! If you set this with the cruise control, driving’s a breeze. The Infiniti M Sedan is a rear-wheel drive.

In the Infiniti M Sedan M37, the petrol engine is capable of reaching maximum power (235 kW) at 7000 revs and maximum torque (360 Nm) at 5200 revs. The M30d’s power curve peaks at a lower 175 kW at 3750 revs but the torque peaks at a higher 550 Nm at 1750 revs. In the M35h, the power and torque depend on which engine is in use at the time. If petrol’s powering the hybrid Infiniti M Sedan, maximum power is 225 kW at 6800 revs and maximum torque is 350 Nm at 5000 revs. If the electric motor is in charge, then the maximum power is 50 kW at 1770–2000 rpm (electric motors are for slow round-the-town running, after all) and the torque peaks at 270 Nm at 1770 rpm. Electric and petrol power can work in tandem when needed for an absolute maximum power of 268 kW in the M35h. All three engines (if you count the hybrid engine as one unit) possible for the Infiniti M Sedan have DOHC, with a few slight differences between the three.

If the paragraph describing the engine specs in the Infiniti M Sedan has put you to sleep, you can stop skipping here. Which of the three Infiniti M Sedan variants goes the fastest? All of them can make it to the top speed of 250 km/h (it’s speed-limited, like most production cars today), but in the 0–100 km/h stakes, the hybrid variant is the winner at 5.5 seconds. Second place goes to the petrol unit (6.2 seconds) and third place (though not by much) goes to the diesel engine at 6.9 seconds.

If fuel economy is more your thing rather than power, speed and torque, the winner is, naturally, the hybrid version of the Infiniti M Sedan, with a combined fuel economy figure of 6.9 L/100 km and an urban fuel economy figure of 9.0 L/100 km. This compares with 10.2 (combined) and 14.9 (urban) for the petrol engine, and 7.5 (combined) and 10.3 (urban) for the diesel.

Now it’s time to look inside the Infiniti M Sedan. If you’ve ever fancied having a heated steering wheel, you’ll find one here, along with a number of other comfort features. The seats have to be included in the comfort features, with 10-way power adjustment and power lumbar support for driver and front passenger, and memory for the driver’s seat that’s linked in with the steering wheel column reach/rake and door mirror adjustments thanks to the clever I-key. The climate control keeps things simple with dual-zone climate control, but the trademarked Forest Air system of filtering and purifying keeps you breathing easily. Space and freedom are the name of the game inside the cabin.

On the electronic front inside the Infiniti M Sedan, the first thing you’ll notice is the high-resolution touch screen display in the centre, set neatly into the light wood trim. Actually, if it’s dark, the first thing you’ll notice is the sequential welcome lighting, but that’s only at night time, but anyway… The screen works in with things like the in-built 30GB navigation system, the rear-view camera and the front and rear parking sensors. Here, we’ll also have to mention the Bluetooth connectivity and audio streaming, as well as the audio system (6 speakers, USB input, iPod compatibility, MP3/WMA compatibility, radio – just what you’d expect to have in a modern luxury vehicle).

One of the bells and whistles inside the Infiniti M Sedan should really be included in the active safety features. This is the Infiniti Drive Mode selector, which allows you to select the right settings for normal, sport, eco and snow driving, the last of these being a bit of an active safety feature. More standard safety features in the Infiniti M Sedan are the active front headrests and the six strategically placed airbags. Throw in traction control, tyre pressure monitoring and Vehicle Dynamic Control for good measure. The M35h gets a few extra active safety features, such as forward collision warning, intelligent brake assist, lane departure warning and distance control assist, plus others.

You can pick up a range of optional extras for the Infiniti M Sedan, which include all the extra safety systems of the hybrid variant (forward collision warning, etc. – there are a lot of them!) at one end of the spectrum through to sports suspension, black lacquer interior trim instead of ash wood and 20-inch alloy tyres instead of the standard 18-inch ones.

Current model series include:

• Infiniti M Sedan M37
• Infiniti M Sedan M30d
• Infiniti M Sedan M35h

For any more information on the Infiniti M Sedan, or for that matter any other new car, contact one of our friendly consultants on 1300 303 181. If you’d like some fleet discount pricing (yes even for private buyers!), we can submit vehicle quotes requests out to our national network of Infiniti dealers and come back with pricing within 24 hours. Private Fleet – car buying made easy!

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