2010 Infiniti G37 Convertible Sport Car Review

A topless tech hottie. The 2010 Infiniti G37 Convertible Sport Car Review

Brian Cooley: It's testament to what modern convertibles are at their best. Retractable hard tops that look as good up as down. The fact that this one is on Infinity's home run G car doesn't hurt. Let's drive the 2011 G 37 Sport Convertible and check the tech. Now our retractable is loaded up with basically the only option you care about in this car and it's the NAV package, it brings all kinds of goodies here that really are what makes it seeing that style, starting off with that display. Now you will get a 7 inch color LCD no matter what on this car, but it won't have navigation unless you option that up. The resolution is pretty good. Notice that have got the 3D building rendering, but compared to what companies like Audi are doing these days, it's kind of a post apocalyptic vision on few buildings left in the rest of humanity has been decimated by some kind of bomb that was selective. Street names are pretty well rendered, I like the graphics, don't love them but they are good enough. I have only just felt that Infinity and Nissan kind of a use sort of a childish color palette which to me is jarring against what's kind of an otherwise mature and well done cabin, just my take. Live traffic of course, you have also got XM NAV Weather on this guy as part of you Telematix. Underway you also have lane guidance which I like on cars that do that when you are getting right to a point where you have got to take a lane, merge, turn, it zooms way in and gives you a detail when you are in an unfamiliar area, that's really helpful. Now with part of this NAV Rig being hard drive based you get 9.3 GB of hard drive storage to put your media on. So let's get to the audio now. There is your music box and that's why they call their hard drive space. Now other options on here include Bluetooth streaming, that's part of the upgraded NAV package you have standard Bluetooth Hands free on this car, but when you get the NAV you get the streaming audio as well. Here is my iPod Menu which goes into my USB port here in the center console or I can stick thumb drive in there. Notice no standard analog Aux Jack on this guy, no mini jack anywhere in the car and the last thing you get with this upgraded head unit is DVD front playback ability when you are in park, you wouldn't have this with the standard 7 inch LCD without NAV. Now in terms of the output, this car, a convertible sport has a standard Bose audio system. It has 13 speakers around the cab that's not too uncommon, but these here on the head rest are. I haven't seen any quite like this, so elaborately arranged around your ears and they do that to combat all that ambient noise when the top is down. This of course is call a convertible, but it's actually a full metal retractable with quite the elaborate little deal back there about to cover to me up. Retractable cars tend to have a lot of moving parts these days. Anyway this one is definitely at the top of the whirligig stack. Takes a relatively, leisurely 30 seconds for all this to take place, but when it's done, it's relatively one of the better looking retractable cars out there, when it's done, eventually, today, I hope. But here is the issue, once you get through the relatively satisfying little mechanical ballet it does and realize that it's a nice looking affair when it's up, there is a problem when it's down. Come on back here I will show you what that is. If you are going anywhere with this car overnight make sure you think ahead and send your stuff ahead, because you can't carry it. This is the trunk, when the top is down it's a damn joke, that's it right there, big enough for a thermos, that's about it, in fact barely big enough for an iPad, you have to think about how it goes in there. You can't do it in wise, it doesn't fit, it's got to go sideways and even then it's tight. This is stupid. In vibrant red our R37 is almost a cliché. The G's lines made the transition to drop top well, largely thanks to Infinity rather heavily restyling the car from mid point back when it did the open version, as opposed to just doing a bunch of cutting above the belt line. Under hood is Infinity's go to motor their V6, this one if the 3-7 liter size. 325 horse power, 267 foot pounds of torque, but evenly more importantly the torque curve is flatter than on the 3.5 engine. Thanks to the use of their VVEL, Variable Valve Timing and Life Duration technology plus its Desmodromic like on a Ducati, allowing for a red line near 8 grand. MPG figures for this 4100 pound car are 1624, just fine. Since our car is a sport that means 6 speed manual only, as well as a sport tuned suspension and 19 inch wheel. Now the size was being possessed of a little bit of Newport meet silliness which just goes with the territory when you are a sporting convertible, this car is a wonderful driver. Power comes on right on from one of the great engines success stories of the last 15 or 20 years on the Auto industry. The transmission is nice because it's nice and firm without being a pain in the ass to shift. Same goes for the clutch, linear, dropper sort of weighing and push back on the spring and plate engagement is just what you expect, no drama there. And this Bose Audio system is really up to the task. Even though I am not really getting anything out of these speakers in the head rest I am not sure what that's all about, may be I have got any setting wrong somewhere but it doesn't really matter. This car is able to easily fill the sort of indefinite space that is the cabin of a retractable retracted. Okay G37 Sport Convertible, manual transmission only, 478 delivered. Not a cheap car but the retractable has a lot of cost of that. Now on top of that you have got to add 1850 for the NAV Package which gets you to the hard drive NAV, 9 GB media space, Bluetooth streaming, DVD playback, traffic weather and some other necessities, it is a fairly well price package. The other cost is a lot about 16000 for a Smart 42 as your luggage tender that goes ahead with your bags.