If you want to drive the new Nissan Z-car, you’ll have to wait a bit longer since it’s not yet available.
But you can get a very similar car, right now, from the same company that makes both.
What It Is
The Infiniti Q60 is a two-door, four-seat luxury-sport coupe with four seats that’s very similar in looks and layout to the last-generation Nissan 370-Z, which Nissan stopped selling after the 2020 model year.
A new one is coming, just not yet.
In the meanwhile, there’s this Q, which is also a more practical car than the two-seater Z-car, with a roomier trunk in addition to room for two more people.
Like the old Z, it comes standard with a powerful V6. Unlike the old Z, it is available with a much more powerful V6.
And all-wheel-drive, too.
The last Z was rear-drive-only.
This Z–whoops, Q–is more expensive; $41,750 to start for the Pure trim, which is rear-drive and comes with a turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 and seven-speed automatic vs. $30,090 for the last (2020) 370-Z, which was also rear-drive and came with a standard six-speed manual transmission.
Adding the optional AWD bumps the Q’s price to $43,750.
A Red Sport with the optional and more powerful version of the 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 and AWD stickers for $58,200.
That’s not inexpensive.
But the Q is one of the very last new cars of this type you can still buy right now, and that can take you plus three more for a spin.
What’s New
The Q is old school; the current model dates back to 2017 and hasn’t changed much since then. But this is a good thing if you prefer a more analog experience. This car does not have a digital dashboard or a huge tablet-style flatscreen poking out of its dashboard.
And it does not come standard with the slew of “assistance” systems that have become standard equipment in most new cars.
They are, however, available for those who want them.
Imagine that!
What’s Good
- A more practical Z-car made by the same company that made the actual Z-car.
- Standard V6 vs. the becoming-usual turbo’d 2.0-four.
- More backseat legroom than you might have imagined (32.4 inches).
What’s Not So Good
- No option to shift for yourself.
- Backseat headroom is tight.
- Not much new to see here.
Under The Hood
The Q is one of the few new cars of any type that still comes standard with a V6 rather than a turbocharged four.
But its standard 3.0-liter V6 has a turbo, too.
The engine produces 300 horsepower and 295 ft.-lbs. of torque at 1,500 RPM–the latter figure courtesy of the turbo, which boosts low-end torque significantly (the larger, not-turbocharged 3.7-liter V6 in the last-generation Z-car only made 270 ft.-lbs. of torque, and not until 5,200 RPM) as well as increases horsepower.
It’s not as much horsepower as produced by the old Z’s larger 3.7-liter V6, which made 332.
350 in the NISMO version of the Z.
But then, more is available in the Q.
If the standard 300-horsepower V6 is not enough to get your motor running, you can upgrade to the 400-horsepower version of the 3.0-liter V6, which also makes 350 ft.-lbs. of torque (vs. 276 ft.-lbs. for the NISMO version of the Z’s 3.7-V6).
Interestingly, the soon-to-be-here 2023 Z-car will come standard with the same (or very similar) 3.0-twin-turbo that’s currently optional in the Q.
The Q also offers two ways to put it to the pavement. You can choose either rear-drive or all-wheel-drive, and with either engine.
The last iteration of the Z was rear-drive only.
One thing you have no choice about is what’s in between the engine and the drive wheels: All versions of the Q come with a seven-speed automatic. The Z came standard with a six-speed manual, with the option to select the seven-speed automatic.
The ’23 Z will also, apparently, still offer a manual, too.
Even so, there’s a lot of overlap between the layout and the numbers.
Equipped with the 300 horsepower version of the 3.0-V6, the Q gets to 60 in just over five seconds; with the 400 horsepower version in the Red Sport, the time to 60 winnows down to 4.5 seconds. These times bracket the times posted by the Z-car, which could get to 60 in 5.2 seconds with the standard 332 horsepower version of its 3.7-liter V6 and 5 flat in NISMO trim. The fuel economy also overlaps.
The Q rates 19 city, 28 highway with the 300 horsepower version of its V6 and rear-drive, essentially the same as the 19 city, 26 highway posted by the last-generation 370-Z.
On The Road
The Q is a more relaxed car than the Z, which is a function of its easier-going turbocharged engine, and automatic-only transmission. There is less need to spin the Q’s torque-rich (and torque-soon) engine to get a healthy dose of acceleration. More torque, which is what gives you the feeling of acceleration, is on tap immediately than is (well, was) available in the Z, no matter how much you revved it.
Of course, that was the point of the Z.
People who buy sports cars like spinning the engine and shifting gears, themselves. The Q is a luxury-sport coupe, which is a more genteel take on the same basic idea. It is a much easier car to drive every day than the Z if you have to drive in traffic. Shifting gears is fun when you have the road to yourself or when you are at the track, but not so much when you can’t get it out of second in between red lights.
In the Q, you don’t have to keep track of that. Or do that.
This makes it more comfortable to drive in traffic, which is the point.
Acceleration is easy and potent with less effort, both apparent and actually. The Z’s V6 you had to work to get similar satisfaction, which was satisfying, of course, if you were in the mood for that. Ripping off a shift at 6,000-plus from first to second; then again from second to third.
Lots of fun and lots of drama.
The Q has less personality, definitely. But it also has more flexibility, including its capacity. Those back seats aren’t the easiest to get into–it is never easy to get into or out of the back seats of a car with just two doors. And the headroom isn’t much (more about that below).
But there are seats back there.
In the Z, there aren’t, which means only one other person can come along for the fun. In the Q, you can take three–one beside you plus some kids in the back. It’s not a family car by any means. But it is a car that’s serviceable for picking up the kids (plural), which the Z-car wasn’t.
There’s also the matter of traction.
The Q offers more grip than the Z in the wet, and when it snows. It is not a great snow-day car; few sporty cars are, but it’s not the wrong car for a snow day, which the rear-drive-only Z-car always was.
There’s one more thing in the Q’s favor: it’s lower-profile than the Z (or cars like the Z). In white or silver or dark blue-black, it blends in with the pack in a way that cars like the Z can’t, no matter what color they’re painted.
Part of the fun of owning a car with 300-400 horsepower isn’t just being able to use it. It is being able to get away with it.
Finally, wonderfully, the Q has few of the “latest” in “driver assistance technologies,” chiefly because 2022 version is largely the same car as the 2017 and that was five years ago before the “latest driver assistance technologies” became all-but-unavoidable in new cars.
The only standard “assistance technology” is automated emergency braking, and that can be turned off. No standard Lane Keep Assist or Steering Assist. These are available if you wish to be “assisted” but can be skipped if you’re capable.
At The Curb
The current Q and the previous-gen Z look a lot alike, which is as you’d expect given they were designed by people working for the same company and share parts in common.
But the Q is actually a much larger car than the Z.
Its footprint encompasses 184.4 inches, bumper-to-bumper vs. 167.5 for the last-generation (2020) Z-car, a difference in overall length of almost 17 inches, which of course is why there are more inches (and seats) within the Q than the Z.
And not just in the back.
The Q’s trunk (8.7 cubic feet) is larger than the Z-car’s (6.9 cubic feet) and unlike the two-seater Z, you can use the Q’s other seats for things that don’t fit in the trunk.
People, of course, also fit back there. Legroom in this coupe is generous (32.4 inches), which is comparable to what you’d find in the back seats of many compact sedans and crossovers with four doors.
The difficulty, of course, is that this coupe only has four doors, which means either the driver or the front seat passenger must get out before anyone else can get in.
Or out.
The other issue for those in the back is headspace, of which there’s about three inches less than upfront (34.5 inches vs. 37.9), which means sitting hunched over if you’re much over about five feet five or so.
But you can sit back there.
Also, in this Q, there are analog instruments. No digitized displays. This is (again) a function of the ’22 Q being essentially the ’17 Q, which was designed before it became the thing to LCD everything.
The Q’s gauges aren’t configurable; you can’t toggle through various displays as you can with LCDs. But the Q’s gauges have a timeless chronograph look that will look less dated five years from now, when today’s LCD displays begin to look like five-year-old smartphones look today.
The Q’s displays are also, arguably, more to the point, less gimmicky and much more classy. Electronics are the one thing that’s getting cheaper each year.
And they look it.
The Rest
In addition to the stronger version of the 3.0-V6, Red Sport Q’s are endowed with an upgraded wheel/tire package, brakes, and an adaptive suspension that can be driver-tailored for a sportier or more luxurious feel. Secondary paddle shifters are also included, to allow finger-touch manual control over up and downshifts.
The Lux trim is more luxurious. It comes with a heated steering wheel and seats, a sunroof, and a 13-speaker Bose stereo upgrade.
Unfortunately, most of these desirable features cannot be ordered a la carte (they are bundled as part of a package) and are not available, at all, in the base Pure trim, which means having to spend just over $50k rather than just under $42k to get them.
However, this may be your last chance to get a Q with a standard V6 for just under $42k, and maybe period.
The word is that Infiniti intends to retire the Q after 2022 or 2023, at the latest.
The Bottom Line
Get your V6 and four seats while you still can.
Eric Peters lives in Virginia and enjoys driving cars and motorcycles. In the past, Eric worked as a car journalist for many prominent mainstream media outlets. Currently, he focuses his time writing auto history books, reviewing cars, and blogging about cars+ for his website EricPetersAutos.com.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
