Infiniti M Hybrid (M35h) Review and Road Test – The Green Car Driver –

DRIVING THE INFINITI M HYBRID

The first thing you notice about the Infiniti M is how seamless the transition is between all-electric power, all-gasoline power, and hybrid power.  This is thanks to the aforementioned one-motor hybrid system and Infiniti’s engineers succeeded brilliantly here.

If you don’t press on the accelerator pedal too hard and stay under 62 mph (100 km/h), you can cruise on all-electric power – and you can travel a distance of 1.2 miles (1.93 km) at a time on electric power alone.  The car feels quick – not necessarily as quick as the V-8 M56, but zippy enough to have made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s fastest accelerating full hybrid.

The car has three modes, Eco, Snow, and Sport.  Eco detunes the throttle response (too much, in some cases); Snow reduces torque to the wheels to keep the car from losing traction when it’s slippery; and Sport keeps the engine speed above 3000 rpm for faster acceleration.  You can shift manually as well.

The only issue I had with the car were the brakes.  I found it was hard to brake smoothly with the pedal.   If I didn’t press hard, I felt the car wasn’t slowing down sufficiently but, if I did press with my usual pressure, I felt the car brake too suddenly.

INTERIOR

The cabin, as one would expect from Infiniti, is nicely appointed.  Seats provided excellent support and materials were soft and of very good quality.

Unlike what one finds in many hybrids, where batteries and motors take up a good part of passenger or luggage space, there is still some room left in the trunk for luggage or packages.    The batteries are behind the seat but you can still fit two golf bags or two large suitcases in the trunk.

The Bose sound system filled the cabin and was very balanced, with rich warm sound.  The car’s Bluetooth system supported my HTC Sensation mobile phone for old-fashioned phone conversations as well as for streaming audio.  An iPod connector is also included.

Navigation worked well but the interface felt dated.  Traffic and weather are supported.  Overall, there are still far too many buttons on the dash and the cockpit controller’s position on the center stack – not on the center armrest – makes it a distraction to use.

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