Bowing at the 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show, the 2016 Infiniti Q30 “active compact” aims to attract a new generation of buyers now flocking to GLAs and XT5s.
The first vehicle to leave Infiniti’s newly upgraded facility in Sunderland, United Kingdom, the Q30 also marks the first time the premium brand is playing in the compact crossover space. The main goal behind the Q30 is to attract Gen X and Millennial buyers who believe a car “is an expression of ‘self’ rather than ‘status,'” desire vehicles which defy traditional categorization, and offer a “made-for-me” approach to luxury.
To do this, the Q30 reinterprets Infiniti’s design language into its own, blending fluid lines with a rakish, elevated, coupe-esque profile. Going further, potential buyers can go from the base model to either Premium or Sport trims, which offer such items as: LED fog lamps; “shapely bespoke bumper”; body-color heated door mirror; 19-inch alloys; and raised or lowered stance, depending on trim chosen.
Power for the Q30 comes from a range of diesel and gasoline engines, with only the 2.0-liter 16-valve I4 coming to North America. Output is 208 horsepower and 250 lb-ft of torque, which is mated to either a six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.
The 2016 Infiniti Q30 is expected to hit select markets later this year. Price of admission has not been stated as of this writing.
Photo credit: Infiniti
Let me say how much I enjoy all these news entry articles and headlines today. They’re free of unnecessary snark, subjective conclusions, and rapid-fire opinions.
Normally, this would have been titled “Frankfurt 2015 You Guys: 2016 Infiniti Q30 Ready For The Floor, And It’s Fail”
So thank you.
Seconded.
Mo! Moar snark! Like “Infiniti Q30 Squozed From Tube, Dried Off And Ready!”
You want to reserve the snark for the B&B, I guess?
Snark is all well and good. Like church and state, I prefer my news and editorials separate
Time to be completely honest, so gather ’round:
The big outlets have news covered. The Autoblogs of the world will beat us at that game every time. It’s just the nature of the beast. We have two people who work on TTAC every day. They have ten or more. We’re vastly outnumbered.
I totally understand what you’re saying, but here’s the truth. When you do nothing but straight news, nobody cares. When you add some personality, and sometimes some opinion, people are more likely to be drawn in — both because they like and hate it. When it’s straight all the time, the group of people that are completely indifferent is huge. Indifferent people won’t read the pieces in the first place.
What you’re saying makes sense, and the addition of op-ed to every single article would be fine -if- it’s well done with integrity, and had evidence to support it.
But writing the headlines in clickbait-style with lots of “you guys” and “probably” just makes everything look very unprofessional. And I can’t imagine those words draw in more readers than a professionally written article on the same subject, whether it includes opinion or not.
The worst violator to date was the article about the Gripz concept being the replacement for the Z. There was no evidence to support the conclusion, and the quoted text was very misleading while also being fully inaccurate.
@CoreyDL
See, this is the constructive criticism I take under advisement. However, whenever I see backhanded compliments (like above) or just all-out attacks on my writers, I ignore everything that’s said.
Ok!
What you guys often add to the news is commentary on where trends are going, why a brand chose to make its new car the type of car that it is, your opinion of how the car will do… that’s useful stuff that takes knowledge and experience to say. Anyone can do snark, so it doesn’t play to your strengths.
Well put. Throughout the highs and lows of this site, one fact remains clear: A reader can always ask for a refund and move on.
@Mark
What Mr. Sonofawat said below.
@CoreyDL
What I said above.
Mark: I’m sorry that came off as a dig. TTAC is far and away my favorite car site. I come here because I trust the opinions of the testers and because I know the think pieces will actually what the writers think. I did not mean my comment to be part of the peanut gallery, though I can see how the vagueness of the metaphor could suggest otherwise
To clarify my analogy: I am active religiously and politically. I feel blessed that I live somewhere that allows both as seperate institutions, while also allowing my religion to directly influence my politics. I similarly don’t expect writers to remove themselves from their work. How could I trust someone to dedicate themselves to cars yet not form any opinions? I know much less about cars than the TTAC staff, and by no narrow margin. The truth is not always the midpoint between the two extremes, no matter how convenient that would be, so I am thankful for your ability to cut through the PR bs to get your readers closer to the truth. I also appreciate the TTAC columns for the freedom they provide writers. I see both honestly reported news and honestly expressed opinions as better seperate, even if the separation is simply an appendix with the relevant numbers and details. This a piece isn’t a robotic regurgitation of the news, and it isn’t prosthelitizing an opinion as singularly true. I liked it
I hope this makes some sort of sense, and that I haven’t been a too much a thorn in your side
@sonawhat
It didn’t come off as a dig. You were merely vocalizing your preference. I can understand that completely. And you know what? Maybe we do need to separate news and editorial a little bit more. It’s all about finding a balance.
For instance, if we take all the facts out of a press release and simply report them, nobody is going to read that. Doing that is a pretty extreme move to the “news” side, I admit. But, adding some color engages people. TTAC wasn’t built on boring.
Looks like the line between hatchbacks and crossovers is fading. This would look good lowered a bit!
Is is a crossover? If so, then why not QX30? Are they marketing as a hot hatch or a crossover? Oh wait, article says it an “active compact”. Perhaps they need a new letter combination to differentiate cars (Q), crossovers/suvs (QX) and active compacts (QAC30?, pronouced “quack-thirty”).
This is a good point which I had not considered previously. This does not have an X in the name, so on the website it will go with the sedans category, not the SUV/Crossover category. That is, unless the bastardize their own system and put it down there.
Thus, using current naming jargon and knowledge, this is a HATCH and not a CROSSOVER.
“shapely bespoke bumper”
What manner of marketing twaddle is this? A bespoke bumper? Can I get it in my family tartan?
I think that was referring to an altered bumper per trim level. Usually S trims from Infiniti get their own bumper style not shared by other trims.
” aims to attract a new generation of buyers now flocking to GLAs and XT5s.”
There’s that whole issue of student loans that needs to be dealt with of course…
which is why the “New generation” is not so new.
Whoever slaps down good money for one of these deserves every vision-obstructed, polymer-inhaling, head-cracking, shoulder-hunched moment they spend in it.
Unfortunately the poor schmucks forced to ride in back probably don’t deserve those but will suffer most.
-FWD-based
-Not V6
-Mercedes engine
-Platform sharing with GLA
Are all these things true?
I was thinking the same thing, I don’t know of any Nissan inline-4 that produces those HP numbers. Unless Nissan brought back the SR20!
I’ve written this at least a half-dozen times, but nobody seems to read it.
Mercedes and Nissan/Renault have an Alliance. Nissan/Infiniti has a standalone factory in Decherd TN that makes the Mercedes 2.0t for the C Class made in Alabama.
THIS Q30 IS THE Mercedes GLA IN DRAG, with that same 2.0t engine and transmission.
See, people talk about the TTAC articles and whether they are too opinionated. Me, I expect the writers to know basic things which are indeed available elsewhere on the Web and in print journalism. Otherwise, they’re not expert and the writing is faux.
THIS Q30 is a restyled GLA. Period.
Smarty-pants retired engineer…
they haven’t made an Alliance since ’87.
Granted, ’87 seems like 10 minutes ago to me, too.
Well, with better reliability and more content for the money. Probably.
Foremost… Hi Cameron! Are ya back??
Secondly, is there any chance better than a snowball’s in hell that the 6MT will make it to the US? This would check off all the boxes of my ultimate dream car, which is a Japanese manual V6 luxury hatchback.
I’ve actually been stoked about this car since the concept. If it comes to pass configured the way I want it, it’s a real high possibility of me buying it new.
Only for a brief while; was called up from the bullpen this morning. I’ll be back for news whenever I’m needed; Aaron is still your King Felix and Iwakuma.
There are buyers flocking to the XT5?
“…blending fluid lines with a rakish, elevated, coupe-esque profile…”
Translation:
BUTT UGLY
“the Q30 also marks the first time the premium brand is playing in the compact crossover space.” Not sure this is accurate. The EX35 comes to mind.
Infiniti is a very troubled brand. It leads the list of
“10 Cars Most Likely to Be Dumped”
Increasingly it seems people who buy Infiniti eschew Infiniti. Ask the man/woman who owns one.
“Just 23.4% of Infiniti owners were likely to purchase another Infiniti as their next car, worse than any other brand. This also represents a significant decline in loyalty — less than a year ago, close to 38% of the brand’s owners were considering buying another car of the same make.
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2015/09/09/10-cars-most-likely-to-be-dumped/#ixzz3ljrY46AZ
I agree. I briefly had 2006 G35, which was 4th year of that model i believe. It still had the “ping” coming from engine under moderate load in hot weather, and throttle response was miserable. I loved the sound and handling, but the twitchy throttle combined with worry over “ping” had me dump that car after a year.
We are on our second. First was an FX 35. Currently wife has QX 60. No complaints at all and would buy another Infiniti. I can say the same about the two Audi A4’s I had.
My Honda on the other hand had far more issues believe it or not.
I’m on Infiniti #2 as well. The options for mid-large AWD sedan which isn’t German are limited.
My first one was a 97 I30. That one had a nicer engine in it than my current one does.
“Hello Infiniti, Mazda wants to know why you couldn’t copy their Kodo styling properly.”
it does look very Mazda, but that’s not a bad thing. I hope they don’t go Mercedes Benz bonkers on the pricing of the Q30. The EX37/Qwhatever is outrageously priced for its size. Not a bad car, other than the very tight back seat, but looks like it should cost about $15,000 less than it does. (edit: just priced out 2016 QX50, and it is about $10k lower than I remember last time pricing out its predecessor. Makes me think the Q30 might be quite reasonably priced.)
“first time the premium brand is playing in the compact crossover space”?? What was the EX35 then? If anything, Infiniti was ahead of the curve in this space.
I wonder (knowing the crowd round here) if Infiniti had billed this as a “New 5-door hatch with AWD!” if most people would be singing a different tune.
The AWD option to the Mazda 3!
A luxury alternative to the Impreza hatch!
It’s brown!
Etc.
Not to mention that the next article, the Alex Dykes GLA review, is also a preview!
It seems like we’ve been getting glimpses of this for ages, so it hardly seems exciting at this point, but I like it. People complain that carmakers don’t sell hatches in the US, then Infiniti does so, and people on here deride it as ugly. Not everything can be as simple/functional as a Golf. This looks sporty, unique, and expensive- I think it’ll do well.
The reason people deride ugly over styled cars is because they are ugly over styled cars.
Pure gold, that Alliance reference.
“The main goal behind the Q30 is to attract Gen X and Millennial buyers who believe a car “is an expression of ‘self’ rather than ‘status,’” desire vehicles which defy traditional categorization, and offer a “made-for-me” approach to luxury.”
…which means middele-aged females realtors and ‘the olds’ are going to be the ones actually PURCHASING these.
I know, manage or peer/peer work with many X’s and M’s; none of them is as dipsh*t and self-deluded as that quote suggests. At least, the ones we’ve kept aren’t and the ones we haven’t aren’t likely to stick anywhere else, either. So they’re probably not new car buyers.