The Infiniti Q45 Was Supposed to Kill the BMW 7 Series

Key Takeaways

The Infiniti Q45 launched in 1989 with a 278-horsepower V8 that genuinely outperformed the BMW 735i on paper.
Infiniti's debut ad campaign never showed the car — just nature imagery — while Lexus ran circles around them with a glass of water on the hood of the LS 400.
The Lexus LS 400 outsold the Q45 nearly three-to-one in their first shared year, splitting the Japanese luxury story before Infiniti found its footing.
A 1993 redesign softened the Q45's aggressive character into something critics described as anonymous, undermining the very qualities that made it special.
Today the Q45's VH45DE engine is a cult favorite among enthusiasts and drift builders, giving the car a second life its original marketing never could.

In 1989, Nissan made a move that should have rattled boardrooms in Munich. The company launched Infiniti — a brand built from scratch — and put a 278-horsepower flagship sedan at its center. The Q45 had the engineering to back up its ambitions: a silky twin-cam V8, fully independent suspension, and a price tag that undercut the BMW 7 Series. On paper, it had everything. Off paper, something went wrong. What followed is one of the more fascinating case studies in automotive history — a genuinely great car that got beaten by a marketing campaign, a better-timed rival, and a series of decisions that slowly eroded everything that made it worth buying.

Japan's Bold Challenge to German Luxury

Nissan's $38,000 gamble was bigger than anyone realized at the time.

By the late 1980s, Japanese automakers had conquered the mainstream market and set their sights on something more ambitious: European luxury. Toyota and Nissan both announced plans for standalone luxury brands, and in 1989, Infiniti arrived with the Q45 as its opening statement. The price — around $38,000 — put it squarely in BMW 7 Series and Mercedes S-Class territory, which was exactly the point. The Q45 wasn't positioned as a near-luxury compromise. Nissan wanted buyers to see it as a genuine alternative to German prestige, not a cheaper substitute. The car's name even carried a deliberate signal: 'Q' for the Japanese concept of seeking perfection, and '45' for the 4.5-liter engine underneath the hood. That kind of intentional branding suggested a company that had thought deeply about what it was doing. What Nissan perhaps underestimated was how much the luxury car market ran on identity rather than specifications. German brands had spent decades building an emotional case for themselves. The Q45 arrived with a 278-horsepower DOHC V8 capable of reaching 60 mph in 7.2 seconds — numbers that should have turned heads. But turning heads and changing minds are two different things.

What Made the Q45 Genuinely Impressive

The engineering credentials were real — this wasn't a dressed-up family sedan.

Strip away the marketing story and the Q45 holds up as a serious piece of engineering. The 4.5-liter VH45DE V8 produced 278 horsepower at a time when the BMW 735i was making around 208. The Q45 also offered an optional four-wheel steering system — a feature that even some European competitors hadn't figured out yet — along with a fully independent multi-link suspension tuned for driver feedback rather than just comfort. Quarter-mile times of 15.4 seconds placed the Q45 in genuine performance sedan territory, not just luxury-car territory. Car and Driver praised the driving dynamics at launch, and the interior, while minimalist by European standards, had a purposeful quality to it. Jun Shimizu, former Vice President of Nissan Design, explained the thinking behind some of those choices: the cabin was deliberately sized around the driver rather than maximizing rear-seat dimensions, a decision that reflected the car's sporting intent. Angus MacKenzie, writing for Motor Trend, put it plainly: "The Q45 was equally as sophisticated and well-built as the Lexus LS 400 that was launched the same year, and it was also more entertaining to drive." That's a remarkable statement — and one that almost nobody heard at the time.

“The Q45 was equally as sophisticated and well-built as the Lexus LS 400 that was launched the same year, and it was also more entertaining to drive.”

— Angus MacKenzie, Writer, Motor Trend

The Marketing Campaign That Confused Everyone

Rocks and tree branches don't sell luxury sedans — Infiniti learned the hard way.

The Q45's launch ads are still taught in business schools as a cautionary tale. Infiniti's agency went with a zen-inspired campaign built entirely around nature imagery — rock gardens, bare tree branches, flowing water. No car. Not even a glimpse of one. The idea was to evoke a feeling, a philosophy, a way of experiencing the world. American car buyers, who had gone to the dealership to look at a car, were left genuinely puzzled. Meanwhile, Lexus ran one of the most effective automotive ads ever produced: the LS 400 gliding down a road with a full glass of water balanced on the hood, not a drop spilling. It communicated refinement, engineering precision, and reliability in about thirty seconds without a single word of philosophy. The contrast was brutal. The Infiniti campaign became a punchline almost immediately, with late-night hosts and ad critics picking it apart. Showroom traffic suffered. Dealers who had signed on expecting a premium product found themselves explaining to customers what the car actually looked like. Infiniti corrected course eventually, but the first impression had already been made — and in a brand-new luxury segment with no existing reputation to fall back on, that first impression was everything.

Lexus Arrived and Changed Everything

Two Japanese luxury brands launched the same year — only one won the story.

Timing is everything in business, and Infiniti's timing was genuinely unlucky. The Lexus LS 400 arrived in showrooms the same year as the Q45, and the two cars were immediately compared as a pair. That comparison became the story — not 'Japanese luxury vs. German luxury,' but 'which Japanese luxury brand is better.' Infiniti lost that framing battle badly. The LS 400 outsold the Q45 nearly three-to-one in their first year. Part of that came down to Toyota's existing reputation for reliability, which gave the Lexus brand instant credibility that Infiniti had to build from scratch. Part of it was the marketing contrast described above. And part of it was simply that the LS 400 was a different kind of car — quieter, smoother, more focused on enveloping comfort than driver engagement. The LS 400's impact was so strong that it forced Mercedes-Benz into expensive last-minute engineering changes to the W140 S-Class. BMW felt the pressure too. Infiniti, having helped shake up the European establishment, found itself watching from the sidelines as Lexus collected the credit.

BMW's Brand Mystique Proved Unbreakable

A spec sheet can beat a BMW on paper but not in a buyer's imagination.

There's a reason the phrase 'Ultimate Driving Machine' still resonates decades after BMW coined it. By 1989, BMW had spent years building an identity that went beyond horsepower figures and suspension geometry. Owning a 7 Series said something about who you were — or at least who you wanted people to think you were. That kind of aspirational weight doesn't show up in a comparison test, and it can't be countered with a better 0-60 time. Luxury buyers in that era weren't just evaluating cars — they were evaluating what the car communicated to neighbors, colleagues, and valet attendants. BMW's hood ornament carried decades of European prestige behind it. Infiniti's badge was brand new, which meant it carried nothing yet. Automotive historians have pointed out that this is precisely why spec-sheet attacks on established luxury brands so rarely succeed: the purchase decision happens at an emotional level that engineering alone can't reach. Jeff Jablansky noted that the Q45 was conceived at a moment when luxury and high performance were still seen as separate ambitions — which meant Nissan's engineers were building toward a different target than BMW's buyers were shopping for.

“The Q45 was conceived at a time when luxury and high-performance were distinct entities. It didn't have to be sporty to be premium, allowing Nissan engineers to develop and refine the Q45 as the ultimate indulgent luxury on four wheels.”

— Jeff Jablansky, Automotive Journalist, Hagerty Media

Nissan's Own Decisions Hurt the Q45

The 1993 redesign turned a sharp statement into something forgettable.

If the marketing campaign was the first wound, the 1993 redesign was the one that never healed. Facing sluggish sales and pressure to broaden the Q45's appeal, Infiniti softened the car's aggressive character in almost every direction. The clean, bold front end — which had no traditional grille, a deliberate design choice — got a conventional grille grafted on. The suspension was retuned toward mushier comfort. The Active Full-Digital suspension system, one of the Q45's genuine technological differentiators, was quietly dropped. One automotive writer described the result as Infiniti 'injecting a dose of lard into the car's responses in a somewhat pathetic attempt to ape the qualities that had made the LS 400 a success.' That's harsh, but the underlying point stands: by chasing Lexus's formula after the fact, Infiniti gave up the one thing the Q45 had that Lexus didn't — a sharper, more driver-focused personality. Nissan compounded the problem by shifting brand investment toward higher-volume models. The I30 sedan and other mainstream-adjacent Infiniti products got marketing attention that might have gone toward building the Q45 into a genuine performance flagship. The car that was supposed to be Infiniti's identity statement slowly became an afterthought within its own brand.

The Q45's Quiet Legacy Among Enthusiasts

The car the market ignored, the tuner community eventually found.

Here's the twist that the original story never got to tell: the Q45 is genuinely beloved now. Not in a 'consolation prize' way — in a real, earned way among people who know what they're looking at. The VH45DE engine, the same twin-cam V8 that powered the original Q45, became a favorite among drift builders and performance tuners for its strength, its smooth power delivery, and its relative affordability in the used market. Clean examples of the first-generation car have found their way into collections alongside far more famous names. Restorers and enthusiasts have spent years making the case that the Q45 deserved a better run than it got. The Q45's luxury may feel routine by today's standards, but the underlying engineering still holds up as something genuinely special. What the Q45 ultimately represents is a road not taken. Nissan had the engineering talent, the financial backing, and a product good enough to compete. What it lacked was patience, consistent vision, and a marketing team willing to show Americans the car they'd actually built. The enthusiasts who found the Q45 on the other side of its commercial disappointment got something rare: a great car at a fraction of what it should have cost.

What Buyers Check Before Taking On a Q45

Find First-Gen Examples

If the Q45 is on your radar as a collector car, the 1990-1992 models before the 1993 restyling are the ones worth hunting. They carry the original bold design, the full suspension options, and the cleaner engineering story. Values on clean first-generation cars have been climbing steadily as the enthusiast community grows.:

Verify the Suspension Setup

The Active Full-Digital suspension was a genuine innovation — and was dropped after 1993. When evaluating any Q45, confirm which suspension setup the car has and whether it's been properly maintained. Replacement parts for the active system can be difficult to source, so factor that into any purchase decision.:

Check the VH45DE's Service History

The engine that made the Q45 a tuner favorite is also one that rewards proper maintenance and punishes neglect. Timing belt service history is the first thing experienced Q45 buyers ask about. A car with documented service records is worth a meaningful premium over one without them.:

Use Hagerty for Valuation

The Q45 occupies an unusual spot in the market — too recent to be a traditional classic, too distinctive to be treated like a generic used car. Hagerty's valuation tools track collector-market pricing for exactly this kind of vehicle, giving you a more accurate picture than standard used-car guides.:

The Infiniti Q45 story is one of those automotive 'what ifs' that gets more interesting with distance. The car itself was never the problem — the engineering was sound, the performance was real, and the driving experience was something the competition had to work to match. What failed was everything around it: the campaign that hid the car, the redesign that softened its edge, and the corporate decisions that redirected attention elsewhere. For anyone willing to look past the commercial disappointment, the Q45 remains exactly what Nissan's engineers intended it to be — a driver's car wearing a luxury suit, built at a moment when that combination was rarer than it should have been.