Test drive: Infiniti FX30d GT

The latest version of Nissan's luxury brand certainly turns heads with its quirky looks but it's a pricey way of showing off, writes Richard Cree

The sales game often involves hyperbole and carmakers in particular have a reputation for overselling. The same goes for their employees. So I didn't take much notice when the man delivering the Infiniti FX30d warned me to be prepared for a lot of attention. "You can't go anywhere in this without people stopping you to ask you about the car," he said. I mumbled agreement, while thinking he was a bit touched.

After all, this is hardly a Bugatti Veyron and I live in a part of north London where people are too cool to look interested in, let alone speak to, strangers. I was wrong. I seemed to spend the entire time I had the Infiniti explaining it to strangers.

On my first outing—a crawl up the Holloway Road—I was amazed by the number of turned heads. I started to get paranoid. In the Waitrose car park a man approached me with purpose, and I feared the worst. I prepared to defend myself (although I'm not sure what good a mixed bag of wild rocket and chard would have been). He too, it turned out, was interested in the car and wanted to know what it was and the price (more of that later).

The reason for the interest is twofold. First, Infiniti is relatively new to the UK. There are only four showrooms here—central London, Reading, Glasgow and Birmingham—so sales are low and the cars are rare. Second, Infiniti appears to have adopted a policy of no compromise in design.

The company is Japanese—it's basically Nissan trying to achieve what Toyota has with Lexus—but there is a Marmite quality to the aesthetics. You either love or hate that ultra- long conk, but it's hard to ignore. The Infiniti's quirky looks seem to be a key positioning point for the brand. Germany's big three have a stranglehold on this end of the market and Infiniti's way to break that seems to be to establish a reputation as the exotic choice. They want to appeal to nonconformists.

The quirkiness continues inside the car, where there is none of the cool, Teutonic minimalism of its German rivals. There are too many apparently important buttons all over the place. But the technology behind the buttons is good. You get several of those "oh, that's clever" moments, not least the parking cameras that offer an overhead view. It all helps towards creating a good in-car experience.

The same can be said for the drive, which is comfortable and enjoyable. Handling is spot on, with surprising agility for a big car. Infiniti says the FX30d is a fusion of sports car and SUV. And the 3.0-litre, V6 diesel version I tested was responsive enough, with a performance that almost lived up to those hyperbolic sporty claims. It takes over eight seconds to get from a standing start to 60mph and will reach 132mph. The seven-speed, automatic gearbox is good, if a bit noisy in lower gears. All in, this is an enjoyable car to own and drive.

Because it will be a few years before the firm takes off in the UK, it will continue to stand out. But be prepared to disappoint strangers, because the most common question I was asked was the price. And the reaction to "just over £50,000", was a disappointed "oh". It comes with a healthy bunch of standard equipment but it's up against the Porsche Cayenne, Mercedes M-Class, Audi Q7 and BMW X5—not to mention the Lexus RH450. All told, it's an expensive way of showing off your quirky side.