On the road, the G37 is very quiet. If you like mechanical noises as a soundtrack to your drive, you might be disappointed in this Infiniti, as it mutes engine and road noise more than a 3 Series or A4 does. In normal driving, the exhaust note – you’ll recognize it from other Infiniti and Nissan products using Nissan’s VQ-series V6 engines – is a quiet burble. It’s only under hard acceleration that the engine’s noise intrudes into the cabin, but it sounds terrific when it does.
  2009 Infiniti G37x. Click image to enlarge |
Personally, I am of the opinion that no car needs more than six gear ratios in its transmission, but then again, I don’t work in marketing and so don’t really get the concept of “our car has more (insert number of somethings here) than the other guys’!” But, alas, Infiniti has gone with a seven-speed automatic in the G37 (a six-speed manual is available, too), and while it’s generally good, there were a couple of things I didn’t like about it.
First, shifts under gentle acceleration are too soft, and the result is an annoying surging sensation as it glides from one gear to the next as you pull away from a stop. (Accelerate quickly enough to keep up with fast-moving traffic, though, and this characteristic disappears.) My other beef is that fifth, sixth and seventh gears are so closely-spaced ratio-wise that there’s no point to having that many. Drop sixth out, rename seventh, and I think this car would have all the gears it needs.
On the other side of the ledger, the manual shift function is terrific. It responds willingly to driver input and performs rev-matched downshifts when the driver asks for a lower gear.
The G37’s handling and roadholding are fantastic. The car thinks nothing of being tossed into a corner at speed and responds with near-perfect balance and loads of satisfying grip. One thing I’d ask for is more lateral support from the front seats. You can get that, though, if you opt for either the G37x Sport or Sport M6 (manual transmission) trim packages. Those models get front seats with adjustable thigh supports (powered for the driver) and a driver’s side power adjustable torso supports.
