Short Take Road Test
Use moderation in all things, the old saying goes. That applies to car-buying habits, Infiniti's M-series being a case in point. While this M35 was in our possession recently, most of the comments we heard from acquaintances ran along the lines of, "The V-8 model must be pretty cool, eh?"
No, power loonies, this one is plenty cool enough with a V-6. If you're looking for a large four-door sports-luxury vehicle, the M35 is as much as you need. The 3.5-liter V-6 pushes the car around with relative ease, never feeling overmatched, and its acceleration proves entirely adequate, consuming the quarter-mile in 14.8 seconds at 96 mph and getting to 60 mph from standstill in 6.1 seconds.
Plus, the M35 is a little lighter than the M45, and that takes a bit of weight off the nose (53 percent versus the V-8's 54), which might affect the handling a smidgen. Certainly, if you buy the Sport model with its revised suspension and 19-inch wheels and tires, you're probably interested in handling as much as anything. So it would be nice if we could tell you that the M35 offered better roadholding, but our nearly molten skidpad in the desert offered up only 0.83 g of grip with the M35 (versus an M45's 0.85).
Nonetheless, the M35 is a great car with which to assault canyon roads. Those big 19-inch Bridgestones telegraph their grip on the pavement with considerable clarity, and the sport-tuned chassis maintains a fairly flat stance. Sport Ms have the company's active-toe-control system operating at the rear axle. This helps turn-in response and effectively damps the tail happiness we've seen in G35s, which share similar suspension technologies.
We sensed something going on back at the rear axle, but it's possible we may simply be confused by the occasional inner-rear wheelspin in bends during sporty driving. None of this detracts from an enjoyable experience. The M35 Sport is a handy weapon in the twisties, and it plays along with good levels of communication.
Yet the car will commute and tour with a surprising degree of civility, offering a pretty compliant and quiet ride on most roads. The high-performance tires pick up some roar on rough textures, and cornering hard on uneven surfaces produces occasional steering-kickback shock, but the M35 is mostly calm in normal use.
Like other cars in this exalted class, the Infiniti Ms offer a comprehensive list of standard and optional equipment. The 2007 M35 Sport starts at $44,900; our tester had a navigation system and intelligent cruise control - the latter with decently short following distances to prevent an endless series of jump-ins - as part of the pricey $5450 Advanced Technology package. That package also offers Sirius satellite radio and a remarkable 14-speaker Bose surround-sound stereo, which has the band virtually playing in the car with you. So the M35 has all the sybaritic charms you could wish for, even if it is two cylinders down on its big brother.
Our argument for moderation is further supported by Infiniti's own pricing policies. See, there's $6300 separating the M45 Sport from the M35 Sport, and that will buy about 2000 gallons of gas. Although our fuel-consumption records suggest the V-8 isn't much worse than the V-6 in that department, that's a deal even drivers with immoderate appetites ought to appreciate.
