2006 Infiniti M35 Test Drive

In Pursuit Of Purposeful Technology

The M35 and M45 are solid contenders in the midsize luxury sedan segment, offering athleticism, refinement and style.

Infiniti's M35 and M45 are among the newest rivals to high-end German sport sedans that have traditionally dominated the now-crowded midsize luxury segment. And as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz continue to grapple with spotty reliability and confusing controls, cars like the two new Ms — which look and handle great and should prove reliable — threaten to upset the Teutonic chokehold on this segment.

For years, carmakers have unofficially targeted BMW's 5-Series as the paradigm for what luxurious but sporting sedans should be. And with the new M, Infiniti has in some ways come closest to matching the Bavarian road-brawler's strengths at a base price that undercuts the substantially less powerful 530i by $5,000. The previous Infiniti M was an entirely different car that didn't sell well in the United States.

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Of course, there is the intangible value of the BMW badge, with old-world clout and a century of tradition manufacturing superb — often legendary — motorcycles, race cars and automobiles. Infiniti, by contrast, is a relatively new invention, a Nissan sub-brand introduced in the U.S. in 1989 to compete with Lexus. At the time, a series of pretentious television commercials showing trees, rocks and water suggested some connection to centuries of Zen artfulness. But buying an Infiniti, rather than a heritage-heavy brand, requires the self-assurance of valuing innate worth over image.

The good news is that the new Infiniti M exudes innate worth. It comes with either a 3.5-liter V6 making 280 horsepower (M35) or a 335-hp V8 (M45). The M45 is the car for those who enjoy brute horsepower, but don't sell the smaller V6 short. It's a much-admired engine that has won several prestigious engineering awards.

The M35 is definitely a high-performance car. Its two fewer cylinders, 100 fewer pounds of weight and two miles-per-gallon better fuel economy should appeal to those who veer toward finesse.

Adding two cylinders, one liter of displacement and 55 horsepower costs $6,310, and negates the option of all-wheel drive available on the M35x. (Have the dealer delete the trunk-lid "M35" badge and your neighbors will never know the difference.)

Sticking the knife a little deeper into the Germans, Infiniti boasts that the M is filled with "purposeful technology." That would be opposed to purposeless, of course, which is how some disappointed Mercedes-Benz and BMW owners have come to view electronic fillips that turn radio tuning or air conditioner adjusting into a geek's game. (A Mercedes engineer recently admitted that the company had removed some 600 quirky electronic functions from one of its models, many of which buyers wouldn't miss because they didn't know they existed in the first place.)