When our Infiniti M45 arrived from Japan at the Port of Los Angeles, we decided not to put it on the back of a truck for the trip to Michigan. Instead, creative director Richard Eccleston and his wife, Liz, took the long way home to Ann Arbor and baptized the Infiniti as a member of our Four Seasons fleet by following as much of old Route 66 as was possible. After six days on the road, they were happy that we had foregone the M45 Sport. Its nineteen-inch wheels, sport suspension, and rear-wheel steering were tempting, but fears of rattled bones and sore behinds swayed us toward the standard M45, with its eighteen-inch wheels and more forgiving suspension setup. It's not like we were stingy with options, though, as our M45 is brimming with goodies such as the technology package, which includes Bose surround-sound DVD audio, navigation, and a lane-departure warning system. The last will take some getting used to--thank goodness you can turn it off--but we're anxious to see whether it proves useful. The M45 arrives just as our Audi A6 is bowing out, but we still have a Lexus GS430 in the fleet. Will the M45 stack up? Stay tuned.
766 miles "This is a very good interior, with nice plastics and panel fits. I really like the flight-deck look of the navigation and climate controls," says Eccleston. "The wood is splendid--no Victorian drawing room rubbish here. It's all very modern curves; it reminds me of an Eames chair."
3400 miles Web producer Stuart Fowle spends a weekend with the M45 and loses himself to the music: "The fourteen-speaker Bose surround-sound stereo is amazing. I thought I was losing my mind when back-up singers echoed 'Hey, Nineteen' from the trunk when I was playing a Steely Dan audio DVD."