The Infiniti G35 saved Infiniti. Here's how.
Our story starts long before the Infiniti G35 was even a glimmer in the eye of a Nissan executive. In fact, it starts way back in the 1980s when Nissan was planning to open up a second, luxury-oriented division in North America. After someone decided a great name for such a division would be a misspelling of the mathematical concept "infinity," the company hired an ad agency called Hill Holiday to start poking at the American consumers about how fiendishly awesome this new division would be.
Since Hill Holiday didn't have any cars to show at the time, and was overstuffed with creative geniuses, it came up with an ad campaign that featured things like rocks and trees to impart the essence of the luxury brand that was yet to be. It worked — sort of. For years and years, Infiniti was the rocks and trees division and an also-ran in the luxury car business. It was the Infiniti G35 that changed all that.
The 2003 Infiniti G35 took the entry-level rung on the luxury ladder previously held down by the front-drive, four-cylinder G20 and set the ladder afire. Built atop Nissan's front-midengine rear-drive platform and blessed with the presence of the outstanding VQ35DE 3.5-liter V6, the Infiniti G35 sedan was a rocket ship cleverly disguised as a warp-capable spacecraft.
With its chiseled nose, short overhangs, antiseptically clean flanks and cleaver-chopped tail, the Infiniti G35 was finally an Infiniti that actually looked like a performance machine. But better than that, it drove spectacularly well. Rocks? Trees? Misspellings? All was forgiven. The Infiniti G35 was the car Infiniti was born to sell.
While the sedan came out in March 2002, by the fall of that year Infiniti was ready with a coupe version of the Infiniti G35 for the 2003 model year. Based on the same platform and powered by the same engine, the two-door G35 trumped the four-door by simply being even better-looking. The two-door Infiniti G35 was a sports car that happened to have a rear seat.
The Infiniti G35 was superseded by the G37 for 2007.
