leomio2.0

Spoiler:

Wow. The Z absolutely freight trains the Type-R from a roll.

I really wish Infiniti wasn't such a dumpster fire. Maybe then the Q50 would get a refresh which would be perfect competition for the Type-S. It looks like there's zero interest in offering much more aftermarket support to the Type-S platforms, which is disappointing. Nissan's 3.0TT is quite potent and already has decent support to make even more power.

F23A4

Au contraire, from PRL to Ktuner to Axion Industries to IMR I'm seeing more aftermarket support than I'd ever anticipated for the TLX Type S and the Integra Type S has plenty of accessible goodies from the FL5-R mod bin.

WTF.Acura

The Q50 looks very good in sensory and up form. The interior tech is just so far behind, but the material quality in the Q50 is superior compared the TLX. If only the QX60’s interior can make its way to the Q50.
I don’t know why the new MB 9-Spd isn’t already being used in Infiniti products. The Z, Titan, and Frontier has the new 9-spd but Infiniti is still using the 7 spd that Mercedes dropped a generation ago.

dmski

Say what? I was ready to buy Q50 Red Sport some years back but the test drive was such a disappointment... Car was fast but the steering was just awful and a freaking rattle box when I pushed it on my test drive. Interior was nothing to brag about and it's definitely not on par to TLX 2nd Gen.

WTF.Acura

I disagree, the materials used on the TLX door panel are subpar compared to the Q50. To get stitched material on the TLX you have get the A-spec and it’s only on the dash. For stitched material on the door you have to get the advance trim. The center consul of the Q50 is leather/leatherette and is stitched compared to the TLX hard plastic. I would still get a TLX over a Q50 because of the tech, but to me the Q50 has better materials compared to the TLX.

Just because one car you tested drive had a rattle doesn’t mean that all do. Their has complaints on this forum about rattles with the TLX and MDX doesn’t mean that all TLX and MDX are rattle boxes.
​​​​​​​

leomio2.0

Although that's decent as far as aftermarket support, the Type-S really needs a larger turbo to be putting out some good numbers. The turbo is just undersized, which is great for being zippy around town and having virtually no lag, but not for putting out power. I think there's room to open up the turbo without sacrificing much responsiveness, though I do think they'd also need to push the rev limiter up to 6500RPM to utilize the larger compressor. I'm far from an expert on this though. Something to get the car to low to mid 400wHP and I'd be at the Acura dealer the moment the MMC TLX-S drops.

By contrast, FBO + tune on the Q50RS will get you to about those numbers. KTuner got about 380wHP on their tuned Type-S ... but they also had the stock car making ~335wHP. So, more realistically, let's just say the Type-S puts down 300wHP. Downpipe + midpipe + intake ... probably max you're adding 30wHP with those mods. So, about 330-340wHP from everything that is available in the aftermarket now. Intercooler isn't adding any power, but helping with heat soak so those power numbers are repeatable and high ambient temps don't cause as much timing retard which would pull power. That's close to 100wHP less than what Q50RS's are putting down with similar mods. Not to mention the 200 extra pounds the TLX-S is carrying.

I honestly haven't ever test driven a Q50. From perusing the internet, it seems that most complaints from the owners come from the finicky transmission, interior build quality (though, from my personal experience, I'm not thrilled with Acura on this front either) with creaks and rattles galore during colder months and the almost non-existent steering feel. Acura really nailed steering feel across their line-up. From my RDX to my test drive in the TLX-S ... steering feel is perfect IMO. The Q50 is really really dated as far as tech goes, but I've said it before, I couldn't care less about tech on cars. I'll use ACP every so often and usually just play a podcast in my car and turn the infotainment screen off ... that's how little I care to use it.

The ELS system is completely lost on me, and why I'll never "splurge" on a higher end sound system in any car if I don't have to. Sunroof or panoramic sunroof? It's actually a "pro" to me if the car doesn't have one or only offers it as optional, whereas others might call this a "con".

Who knows. After the summer is over and the car market is (hopefully) back to its old self, word on the street is there were absurd bargains to be had on Q50RS. If I can get it at a deep discount and I don't absolutely hate it, I may strongly consider it ... assuming nothing else is happening on the TLX-S front. I don't like the M340i refresh, Mercedes has just gone off the deep end, Audi S5 SB is a maybe, but dealers around here are still asking for mark-up over sticker. Heck, even my YOLO car, the M3 ... saw one today in matte brown, and I don't know if it was the color or the 18" wheels, but it just looked so "blah" to me. I still quite like the Q50 after all this time, and the TLX-S is still a great looking car IMO, just needs more power.

Hexaform

Ah man, been awhile! Got some time in a whole bunch of cars that've piqued my interest, but I wish I had another chance to try me a TLX-S again to see how it goes on the street since I last tried it in a small handling course back in November. That said I remember it being a kinda tight fit, but I dunno if it's more to do with me, or not having had alotta time to adjust everything to make it just right. Since then I've test driven a Giulia, and a G70, the two others that really interest me. The former being a new favorite, the latter being cool, but ultimately something I didn't connect with. I'm back thinking between the Giulia and TLX-S, but without a test drive, which none of the so-cal dealers have been willing to give me, I'm kinda outta luck! :/
Either way, I remember liking the brief drive, just don't know whether I enjoyed it better than the Giulia given the drive in that one felt like a revelation to me even if it was in public roads.

Kense

As someone who had a Q50 Red Sport and moved on. The main problem with that car is the garbage transmission. It's slow shifting and lags, the engine is great but it's severely handicapped by that trans. I don't care about the Tech or any of that stuff really. I mean you can get Apple car play now so the tech issue really doesn't matter unless you just hate looking at that dated interior. The car is fairly quick once it's moving but it also has awful handling. It feels like a boat and floaty around corners and I had the adaptive suspension and no steer by wire on mine. Even in Sport + it felt like crap. Nissan is just lazy with the Infiniti brand and doesn't seem to care. The Q50 could actually be a great car if they put any sort of effort into it like they did when the original G35 came out and was destroying the Germans for a year or two. For some reason Japanese brands are very cautious and worried about competing with the German brands and always limit their cars unless it's the GTR but other than that they don't even try.

Tony Pac

The Teggy TYPE S is getting excellent reviews! Wow! Acura is on fire!

Next RDX TYPE S!

dmski

Thanks for confirming what I experienced when testing the Red Sport. Tbh, I find the Type S to be in the wrong gear on occasion as well...

F23A4

Good post. Definitely agree with the tranny assessment. When I had my 3.5 PAWS, my son had a Q50S 3.7 at the time. With all the grief that the ZF9 constantly got back then, the 7AT in that Q50 was pretty awful as well. So, it comes as no surprise that it wasnt improved upon for the Q50/Q60 RS.

...and although a little more blingy, the Q50 interior still came off as cheaper than that of the 1G TLX let alone the 2G TLX.

And the screen reflection at night annoyed the hell out of me:



...versus the 1G:

leomio2.0

Can you not turn the screens off at night? Heck, in my RDX, once I do anything I need to do, I'll shut the screen off 99% of the time unless I need it for Waze on a trip.

If you can get a Q50 Sensory AWD for ~50k OTD, it's hard to beat. I couldn't care less about the outdated tech. Interior doesn't look too much worse than the TLX, though I'll have to really sit in there and compare. Either way, looks better than the Integra's.

No need for the RS upon doing research. It's just an extra water pump, tune and differential gearing. Tune, intercooler, lower downpipes & air intakes brings the car to 430-450wHP. Maybe throw a catback exhaust in there since Nissan's exhaust come pre-installed with rust. All said and done, a car that could hold onto the coat tails of an M3 for less than what a TLX-S stickers for is hard to ignore.

How's the ride on those Q50's? I really need to go test drive one.

WTF.Acura

I test drove a Signature a few years ago with the 3.0t. The ride quality wasn’t horrible but don’t expect C-Class ride quality. If you have driven a pre-refresh W205 C300 the transmission feels the same because they are the same just slightly different programming. At one point, the Q50 even had the exact same powertrain from the C300 (2.0t and 7 spd). The interior is dated but overall quality is ok for the class. Exterior design is the only saving grace for the Q50. The car just looks beautiful.

These are two of the most recent Q50 reviews. Side note, I really like the brown interior in Q50 with the contrasting brown stitching.


https://youtu.be/JpmMo-eOCsY

leomio2.0

God I can't stand Redline Reviews.

I don't mind "dated" interiors or "small screens". Why does everyone bring that up like it's a bad thing? The materials still look good. Just because everyone nowadays with the attention span of a gerbil in the TikTok era and need something new and "refreshing". Yea, and then you wind up with it being a rattling shitbox like Acuras. BMW's new and trendy interiors are terrible. I want to see Mercedes interiors in 8yrs when half the digital dashboard doesn't work. I used to love Audi interiors, but they've gone super sterile and boring. And all this updated tech usually does nothing but make the car more cumbersome to use on a daily basis. "Dated" isn't always bad. I feel the same way when people knock Lexus about the same thing.

I wonder if Nissan/Infiniti will ever fit their new 9-speed into the Q50. I'm sure they wouldn't spend a dime on actually developing it to fit in there, but if the dimensions are similar enough that they can simply shoehorn it in there without changing anything else, I guess it's possible. It might rejuvenate sales a bit if they actually advertise it, as it seems like the biggest weakpoint of the car. But again, you have the grown man-children who will scoff at & deride the car simply because it's "dated" on the interior.

WTF.Acura

The 9-spd is already used in the Z so it wouldn’t cost any money to put it in the Q50 because the Z is basically now the Q60. The interior is decent, if the Q50 had the bigger MID that is in other Infiniti/ Nissan product and some accent lighting in the footwell and door handles. I would probably be driving one. The tiny MID reminds me of gen 5 TLX. Soyfan’s review has been very lack luster recently.

Tony Pac

Honestly, we can discuss in details Infiniti here, but the sad news is that Infiniti is dead! In Canada, they have 33 dealers and they are shutting down 11 of them. One f the main dealers in the island of Montreal was shut down 2 months ago. Even if we ignore the outdated interior, the brand doesn't offer anything exciting. Nissan's COO just resigned and he was trying to help the company revive. The CEO quit after 30 days....The future looks dark for Nissan and Infiniti! At least Nissan has a few reasonable, cheap and affordable cars that people buy. But paying $50-$60K for Infiniti?? Those days are gone Brand loyalty is down the toilet. There was a time people used to compare Infiniti to BMW, now even Kia makes better cars!

22TypeS

My thing about Inifiniti's was performance (actually lack thereof). My tagline for my V6 Accord was push Bimmers and embarrass Infinitis. There wasn't a 330 I couldn't annoy nor a Q50 that I could just run away from. I don't even bother with Q50s now that I have a Type S.

Tony Pac

The G37 was a great car in terms of performance but even that if you compare it to 4th Gen TL. The interior was not as great as TL SH-AWD. Lots of hard plastic! That said, still it was a great car. drove amazing and it was pretty reliable. Now Infiniti is just lost and it's sad to see a Japanese brand dying and Korean is taking over!

Kense

The Red Sport is faster than the Type S though.

22TypeS

True. Though I'd like to see what happens in the curves.

Kense

Probably not much difference since the TLX weights almost 400 pounds more and has less power. Something Honda does make that will destroy many cars on a track is the Civic Type R, the TLX is just way too heavy and underpowered.

leomio2.0

Hopefully putting the JATCO 9spd in the Q50 becomes a reality. It might rejuvenate some sales for Infiniti. You make a good point with it being in the Z ... realistically, it should just go right into the Q50. I suppose time will tell.

True. And the only reason you see people still buying new Infiniti's are because they're the "value" brand. Nobody (unless you're a poor sucker) pays sticker for Infinitis. Although I hear the new QX60 isn't half bad. Most people with Q50's were getting them for 10-15% off sticker.

Quite wrong you are. The Q50 non-RS is simply detuned, with one less water pump and slightly different rear differential gearing. The engine and turbos are the exact same. For someone like me, who would be tuning the car regardless, the Red Sport is pointless. Intakes, downpipes, intercooler and probably exhaust (aesthetics) ... all that with a tune. Even if you were foolish enough to pay sticker for a Q50 AWD Sensory, you're still coming out ahead of what a Type-S starts at, even without the Y-Spoke wheels. Those numbers are going to put you in the ballpark of 450wHP. Or about 80-100wHP above what a tuned, FBO TLX Type-S can currently make. All while being lighter.

If I were to go this route, I wouldn't even waste gas on toying with a TLX-S as it would be punching down. If they do put the 9spd in the Q50, with those mods, it would probably surprise some stock G80 M3 owners with how well it could hang around.

Reaching out to numerous places, there's currently no plans for an upgraded turbo in the J30 Type-S platform. The ITS will be the way to go if you want to make decent power. Upgraded turbo + FBO and they'll be making ~420-430wHP. Still, it's wrong wheel drive and anything below 3rd gear becomes pointless at those power levels, which gets old real fast. Disappointing because the TLX-S is a damn good looking car that drives really well. Oh well ... no perfect car out there, otherwise I'd have already bought it by now. Come on, Lexus ... make a damn ES500 F-Sport.

22TypeS

The TLX-S weighs only 100 pounds more, and SH-AWD could make a difference.

22TypeS

I don't tune my cars, I only think stock. Of course a tuned to near RS Q50 would make it interesting in the curves (SH-AWD), unless the tune is to the 420-430+ HP territory then you are talking Audi RS5, which I don't try there. A non-RS Q50 gives up 50 HP and is only 100 pound lighter, that's why I don't bother.
Car and Driver noted once they had a semi-joking/semi-serious comment that only sports and exotics could beat a V6 Accord, obviously a stretch, but I was surprised many times at what could not keep up. I always had ultrahigh performance all-season tires, nothing else extra. An ES500 F-Sport would be interesting but the IS500 is already here(yes with an even smaller back seat).

Kense

No

Q50 Red Sport RWD: 3,878 lbs
Acura TLX-Type S : 4221 lbs

22TypeS

Now I will take the Type S, SH-AWD any day on a curvy circuit.
However, Q50 Red Sport AWD: 3,998 lbs (Infiniti site) that's apples to apples, and the Q is likely the winner.
(BTW a Car and Driver review of a Q50 had about 4100 curb weight [not sure how they got that except maybe with driver])

leomio2.0

Yep, if that was the case, I'd probably either go TLX Type-S or, the older I get, the more the relaxing ethos of driving a Lexus calls to me ... an ES350 F-Sport Design.

Yes, but the ES is much larger inside and rides nicer. With that wonderful V8 that both sounds incredible and is dead reliable, it would be my perfect car ... enough power to just keep me happy, great soundtrack, comfortable for commuting as well as long road trips and, with the way I maintain and prefer to keep my cars, reliable for the next 15+ years.

The IS is simply too tight for me to really feel comfortable.

sombasol

I traded in a 2014 Q50S AWD 3.7 on my type S, and honestly if they had a new model i would have considered it but, you cant have the same model for 10 straight years with some upgrades and expect people to continue to buy it. They must have 100% loss of retention from previous customers, who is going to keep a car for 4,5,6-10 years and when its time to buy a new vehicle… get the same car? It’s not an option. If you have a full refresh every 5 years you can suck those customers who enjoyed the vehicle to the new model. It’s a strategy that reeks of giving up and waiting to die. Honda needs to be wary of this same thing with the Odyssey. 2023 was the 6th year of the current model run and it sounds like its getting a second MMC rather then a FMC for 2024. Its falling behind the competition and with no fmc in sight why would owners of say a 2018 stay with the same vehicle? In Canada they start at $50,000, you can save $10,000 and get a comprable kia carnival, or get a Toyota sienna for the same price with a hybrid drivetrain and AWD. Its an easy switch to make.

Tony Pac

At this moment, Infiniti is the only "Luxury/Premium" brand that offers crazy discounts. If anyone is buying an Infiniti today is the cost and nothing else.

Tony Pac

Agreed! There are two issues. One as you mentioned, outdated and old car....second the brand is downsizing and shutting down dealers. So, why would I buy a car that has a dark future. Plenty of other options.

leomio2.0

Exactly. If Nissan/Infiniti put the 9spd in the Q50, it might be too much for me to resist. All said, I still would need to test drive it to see if I instantly hate the thing, as that would obviously make it a non-starter.

Tony Pac

Yes, I still believe Infiniti makes some great cars and if they come up with a proper strategy and focus in NA market and build 3-4 nice cars. They will bounce back. With all honesty, Acura was struggling last decade. In 2018, the 3rd gen RDX was the turning point. Without being biased, Acura turned around things and now they are sitting in a great position. I am sure infiniti can do it as well....but only time will tells us as they are shutting down dealers.

Kense

I'll always take the RWD car for weight savings. My Red Sport was RWD, I don't need AWD in California. The RS also has an LSD so AWD is not necessary unless you just want to drag race all day.

Tony Pac

The 2023 Mercedes-AMG C43 Deserves Its AMG Badge

I always loved the C class but they ruined the elegance of the interior by dumping a tablet and calling it a day! Why??? The last Gen C class was so beautiful.
https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2...t-test-review/

WTF.Acura

Seems like Nissan is keeping all the goodies to its self. The standard Z already has the Q50 RS powertrain paired to a better transmission and now we are getting a Nismo version which would probably have more power.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a4...-nismo-teaser/

Kense

That Tablet is the least of their worries, that high strung 4 Cylinder engine of the 43 and 63 and all those electronics go out I'd hate to see the repair bills. Mercedes is definitely not a brand of car I'd want to own .

Kense

Their having serious quality issues with their paint right now and massive delays producing the Z because of it. They are having issues all around over there, I hope they get their act together fast.

WTF.Acura

I guess Infiniti is listening to @Tony Pac

https://www.autonews.com/dealers/inf...edesign-lounge

leomio2.0

This is akin to the "fancy" new McDonald's models going up everywhere. They look like a high-end Starbucks, but they're still selling the same swill as they always have. I mean, I'm sure it works for the simple-minded folks ... but when the product you're selling is still crap, it's not exactly going to do much.

I guess they're anticipating a lot of renewed interest when their EV models drops.

dmski

They're done. Just closed their dealership in my town. I don't care how good discounts they give. You are still buying a brand new 8 year old car. The resale value is just not there the minute you drive out of that dealership so you need to keep that car for a LONG time.