Infiniti Q30 1.6t Premium Review (2016)

Infiniti Q30 1.6t Premium (pictured) in for review

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This week we’ve had the Infiniti Q30 1.6t Premium – Infiniti’s take on the Mercedes A-Class – in for review and test. Is the Infiniti Q30 a credible alternative?

Infiniti has been endeavouring to make an impact in the UK for some time, but despite a credible range of saloons and SUVs, they’ve never had anything in the ‘compact premium’ class to get any volume of buyers in to a brand that is still unfamiliar to many. Until now.

But now we have the Infiniti Q30 – a compact premium car built off the back of the Mercedes A-Class, thanks to Nissan’s wide-ranging partnership with Mercedes – to tempt buyers away from cars like the Volvo V40, BMW 1-Series, Mercedes A-Class and even the VW Golf.

That’s no easy task, but Infiniti are starting to make progress with the Q30 – a car that’s built in the UK – and are growing quickly in the UK and Europe as sales of the Q30 start to make an impact (and the higher-riding QX30, still to start arriving with customers, should help that grow further).

With Infiniti finally starting to make an impact, we thought it was time to see what the Q30 has to offer, so Infiniti sent us this – the Infiniti Q30 1.6t Premium with manual gearbox – for review and road test.

It’s a trim level just one step up from the entry-level SE, and with a 120bhp 1.6 litre petrol engine and costing £21,600 (before options), it’s a car that could offer a sensible alternative to other premium compacts and higher-end mainstream model.

Q30 Inside and Out

Rather than playing it safe with the Q30’s design, Infiniti has been rather daring, creating a car that has both an upright stance and coupe roofline, a ride height that’s greater than a normal hatch but not as high as a crossover, and a look that’s full of jarring angles and rounded surfaces, but somehow cohesive.

In fact, the Q30 is something of a ‘Marmite’ car, with some dissenting voices calling it everything from a ‘mess’ to ‘trying too hard to be different’, but the majority like what Infiniti has done with the Q30. And we applaud the ambition to stand out from the crowd with a design that’s defiantly not generic ‘premium hatch’ territory.

…the Q30 is something of a ‘Marmite’ car, with some dissenting voices calling it everything from a ‘mess’ to ‘trying too hard to be different’, but the majority like what Infiniti has done with the Q30

So the exterior – by a majority vote – is a success, but what about the Q30’s interior?

The interior of the Q30 is actually a nice place to be, and the view out is more commanding thanks to the higher than normal ride height for a car in this class, although the shallow glass area, thanks to the coupe roofline, means the view out of the back and sides is a bit restricted.

The seats – cloth in this Premium Q30 – are nicely accommodating, comfortable and easy enough to adjust, but although the (optional £500) glass roof makes the cabin lighter and airier, it does cut in to headroom front and back.

Taller drivers will need to have the blind on the roof back to get enough headroom, and although there’s decent leg room in the back, the coupe-like roof (and that optional glass roof) does mean there’s a lack of decent headroom. But then how many buy a compact hatch to fill the back seats with rugby forwards? Boot space is more than decent though.

Elsewhere the Q30 is competent and able, with an easy to use 7″ infotainment touchscreen (which also has a controller on the centre console) complete with Sat Nav and DAB on this car (thanks to a £1400 InTouch option), with the Sat Nav working well enough (although the screen’s resolution is shamed by the detailed driver information display between the dials) and the DAB sound decent (although it seemed prone to dropping out).

What is slightly disappointing is that Infiniti hasn’t been as bold with the interior as it has with the exterior design, and anyone who’s been in a Mercedes will find everything rather familiar, although the leather (well, very nice faux leather) dashboard looks, and feels, nicely premium.

Q30 Performance on the Road

With a degree of antipathy towards diesel-engined cars starting to develop, this 1.6 litre turbo petrol Q30 is a car we’d expect more buyers – particularly private buyers who do fewer miles – to consider as an option. And it’s a more than decent offering.

Performance won’t frighten the horses, but a sprint to 62mph in 9.4 seconds is perfectly credible, and the performance is delivered with little fuss, little noise and decent linearity, and there’s enough torque to not have to keep rowing the gearbox if you want to make decent progress.

The trouble is, Infiniti seem to have set the Q30 up with 80 per cent of the throttle action in the last 20 per cent of throttle travel, so at first encounter it seems about as quick as a sloth on a rest day

So for the first day we spent with the Q30 we were going everywhere with our right foot to the floor, which played havoc with the fuel consumption (the wrong side of 30mpg). One we’d got the hang of it we could get the Q30 to deliver decent progress without shoving the pedal to the metal all the time, and economy improved to the right side of 30mpg (we averaged 31mpg overall). But we’d like a better throttle response.

Perhaps Infiniti think such as setup would make the Q30 more economical, or maybe they thought such relaxed response would suit the Q30’s relaxed drive – which it does.

In fact, we found the Q30 one of the more relaxing and comfortable premium hatches, with body roll – although evident – nicely tamed, steering light, if not endowed with huge feel, and handling that’s tidy and predictable and with perfectly acceptable levels of grip. Oddly, although comfortable and accommodating most of the time, the Q30 can be caught out by some sections of dodgy tarmac.

What the Q30 doesn’t offer – at least not in this Premium spec – is any real pretensions of being overtly sporty, and it feels a much more comfort-oriented premium hatch than the German alternatives. Which isn’t a bad thing at all.

Q30 Verdict

Infiniti are pitching in to a massively competitive sector of the car market with the Q30, and it’s a tough call to differentiate the Q30 from the German premium offerings (and the Volvo V40 and Lexus CT 200). But the Q30 does manage to do that in many areas.

Overall, the Infiniti Q30 is a very credible first effort at attacking the premium hatch sector, and does demonstrate that Infiniti are starting to find their niche.

The design of the Q30 is refreshingly different (and, in our book, ‘Marmite’ is always better than generic), it offers a higher ride height without making a song and dance about crossover pretensions, the interior is a nice place to be, and the ride and handling are designed to offer comfort and peace rather than harshness and spine-jarring dynamics.

Yes, there are some areas that aren’t as appealing as they perhaps could be, and we’d like Infiniti to be a bit more creative with the Q30’s interior and dial-out the mushy throttle response.

We were also a bit disappointed with the Q30’s economy, although we’re pretty sure owners will get mid-30s once they’ve settled in to the car, and there’s still something appealing about a petrol engine’s relative serenity and linearity compared to an oil-burner.

But if you’re in the market for a premium hatch, you really should add the Q30 to your list of options, book up a test drive (remembering to give the throttle a man-sized shove) and see if it suits your needs.

If you like a car that doesn’t look like every other car in its sector, are more interested in a comfortable way to run the kids to school than attacking every back road with clenched teeth – and don’t need to transport 6′ 4″ teenagers in the back – there’s a lot to like about the Q30.

Overall, the Infiniti Q30 is a very credible first effort at attacking the premium hatch sector, and does demonstrate that Infiniti are starting to find their niche. It’s not perfect (what car is?) and it doesn’t have everything right enough to be a real challenger for the majority of buyers.

But it’s right enough to be a slightly left-field option.