paying Premiun for the name(infiniti/nissan)

[2008wrx]

My family got a 2017 QX60 rental car! So this is my second experience with Infiniti product, my 1st experience with them was 2006 M45! Is Nissan doing a right thing that they dress up a Pathfinder and sell for a lot more? Or they are indeed different from each other?
Say Lexus, i dont see any dress up Toyota and sell as Lexus! Even there is no dress up Honda and called as Acura.
Why should people choose QX60 over Pathfinder? But looks like QX60 is the only "dressed up" Pathfinder left in their product lines.
Anyone owners here can share their Pathfinder vs QX60 riding and built quality? Happy Holidays

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted by 2008wrx
Say Lexus, i dont see any dress up Toyota and sell as Lexus! Even there is no dress up Honda and called as Acura.
There is plenty of sharing between these other brands you mentioned as well. For example, Toyota Avalon and Lexus ES are built on the same platform. Same with Honda Pilot and Acura MDX, or Chevy Suburban and Cadillac Escalade.

 

[thooks]

Did you miss the article about Payless shoes opening a high priced boutique with the shoes?

 

[Cujet]

In years past, the higher end cars like Pontiac and Cadillac used unique engines that had little in common with a Chevy. They tuned their engines for a specific group. As time went on, GM felt Chevy engines became good enough for Cadillac. (I disagree)

Fast forward to the Honda Accord. At one point, Honda sold an Accord that was exceptionally close mechanically to an Acura TL. The interior of the Acura was different, and the Acura had brake rotors that were 1/3 of an inch larger. Had steering with 2.8 turns lock to lock instead of the Accord's 2.56 turns. Otherwise they had the same exact soul and you'd be hard pressed to tell a TL apart from a V6 Accord when sitting behind the wheel at night.

Today, even those differences seem to vanish. As much as the manufacturers will claim differences, the models are rather similar. Choose the one you want, based on the features you need.

 

[2008wrx]

Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by 2008wrx
Say Lexus, i dont see any dress up Toyota and sell as Lexus! Even there is no dress up Honda and called as Acura.
There is plenty of sharing between these other brands you mentioned as well. For example, Toyota Avalon and Lexus ES are built on the same platform. Same with Honda Pilot and Acura MDX, or Chevy Suburban and Cadillac Escalade.


No i am not talking about platform, Mazda and Volvo shared the same platform before. there is not much similarites (mdx/pilot) (avalon/es)? But the QX60/Pathfinder are pretty much identical except rear quarter glass.

 

[jeepman3071]

All the CUVs look the same with different badges anyway.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Just read a story that Nissan is the largest car manufacturer in the USA. Maybe buy from the the company that provides American jobs rather than the ones that are closing plants. Just say'in.

 

[ZebRuaj]

Originally Posted by 2008wrx
Even there is no dress up Honda and called as Acura.



Not really adding any info to your thread, but the Acura ILX is a dressed up 9th gen Civic

 

[RooflessVW]

Originally Posted by Snagglefoot
Just read a story that Nissan is the largest car manufacturer in the USA. Maybe buy from the the company that provides American jobs rather than the ones that are closing plants. Just say'in.

That thought process is what led to what we saw in '08. Loyalty for loyalty's sake leads to crappy products.

Nissan doesn't make anything worth buying anymore - they don't even make anything deserving the name "Nissan."

And how they sucker people into paying what they do for Infiniti, I'll never know. I don't really have a whole lot nice to say about the Q50 I rented.

 

[Bud]

What is boils down to is that people buy what they like.

 

[grampi]

What gets me are the names that are considered top tier like Rover, or Harley that are actually inferior products...

 

[brages]

The luxury brand version usually has additional luxury features, and at least will not have base-level options.

 

[bbhero]

Hate to say it but loyalty for loyalty's sake happened way earlier than 08... And it became obvious in the 1970s into the 80s that US manufacturers were putting put downright junk... This opened the door for Japanese manufacturers to come in and actually make higher quality vehicles. In the mid 80s serious defects per 1000 vehicles were 31 with US manufacturers... Japanese were only 9 out of a 1000... Plus in terms of longevity the cars from Japan held up far better than the US offerings.

Now it is hard to know who makes a consistently really good vehicle. It appears to be very application specific to what vehicle actually is a really good vehicle. No broad judgements can be made nowadays.

Honda's have made some terrible transmissions, Toyota has motors burning oil like Saddam did in Iraq after the first GW... Subaru has had issues with CVT transmissions.. Nissan has well has had issues with the JATCO CVTs after 2013... And no changing fluid a bunch would not help those problems.. LSPI and massive fuel dilution has affected many different motors in US and Japanese vehicles... Timing chain wear has caused issues for some has well...

So, finding a really strong vehicle is not too easy unless a lot of reading and research is done. And always never ever buy a first year model of any car or truck.. or a first year "remake" of an existing model... Let the bugs get figured out before buying one of those.. aka like year 2-3...

 

[SeaJay]

I wouldn't pay extra for the nameplate plus a few extras that in the scheme of things would not mean much to me at all.

 

[edwardh1]

my one 1999 Nissan/infinity has several ergonomic design quirks that make you wonder if the designers ever drove the car.
Toyotas are better.

 

[Sayjac]

Originally Posted by rooflessVW
….Nissan doesn't make anything worth buying anymore - they don't even make anything deserving the name "Nissan."
... I don't really have a whole lot nice to say about the Q50 I rented.

IME and IMO, basically agree with this. My experience of losing a well maintained, relatively low mileage and perfectly good Altima 2.5L engine and vehicle to the then Nissan pre-cat fatal flaw, and bogus/deceptive recalls for the issue, forms the basis for the IME.

As for the new Q50, I've been interested in it as compared to the Nissan Rogue. Motor Trend imo has basically trashed it in reviews for it's combination of new engine design/type and CVT.

At this point the only Infiniti I 'might' consider is the QX30 and that only because it's very largely a Mercedes GLA 250 in Infiniti trim. That said, very doubtful.

If they aren't making anything deserving of the name "Nissan", then they certainly aren't making anything worthy of the name Datsun either.

 

[emg]

Originally Posted by ZebRuaj
Not really adding any info to your thread, but the Acura ILX is a dressed up 9th gen Civic


Yeah, when we bought our Civic we considered the Acura version because it came with some features the Civic didn't. But not enough to justify an extra few thousand dollars on the price.

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by edwardh1
my one 1999 Nissan/infinity has several ergonomic design quirks that make you wonder if the designers ever drove the car.
Toyotas are better.

Infiniti lost the luxury fight to Lexus in the early 1990s - it was mostly marketing but the Q45 was too complicated and didn't have the luxury "feel". They almost had it right with the G35. It wasn't trying to be a Nissan with wood and leather but it was good at what is was - a performance sedan that was a viable competitor to BMW. Also, Nissan was in their dark days of the 1990s then.

As much as Carlos Ghosn was a ruthless cost cutter and now a crooked businessman, he did steer the ship at Nissan in the right direction. But I think Nissan has lost direction - Infiniti is still a me-too and they're going for volume instead of having something special about them. The 370Z is horribly out of date, the new Infiniti naming strategy is questionable, the Maxima is really an overgrown Altima and the Frontier is in need of a major update.

 

[aquariuscsm]

This is with almost all mainstream car companies.

Lincolns are just fancy Fords
Lexuses (or Lexi if going Latin) are just fancy Toyotas
Infinitys are fancy Nissans
Acuras are fancy Hondas
Mercedes are fancy Daimler Chrysler products
Jaguars are or were fancy Fords
Audi and Porsche are fancy Volkswagens

And I'm sure there are more.

 

[zorobabel]

I've heard stories about how the fancy versions have more soundproofing plus the gizmos. I've never ripped the door, carpet of an ES300 or I30 to see if it's actually true.