Remember the Infiniti M30? Didn't think so, here's the recap: way back in the day, it was decided that Infiniti couldn't be launched with just one model, so product planners took a boxy, dynamically substandard mid-80s Japan-market Nissan (called the Leopard), rebadged it, and shipped it on over as a quick fix. Effort equals results. Mostly significant for its insignificance, the half-hearted M30 played the role of slow-selling placeholder until the J30 arrived.
Circa 2003, Infiniti again saw a gap in its lineup. So again, they slapped an M(45) badge on a bland, deeply unsexy home-market Nissan without changing a thing. What they got was a car with a two-year lifespan, setting a record low for the brand.
After all these years, we're finally getting an Infiniti M that had some, you know, effort put into it. This new one still shares most of its parts with other Nissans, but those parts are now modern, developed to world standards, and tuned more to American tastes. Infiniti is finally ready to give the letter M some meaning.
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