Buried underneath an avalanche of Nismo Z visuals is an announcement Infiniti is very proud of. Is it finally new product? Perhaps a replacement for the decade-old Q50 is finally here? No, that would be too uplifting. Instead, Infiniti wants everyone to know that it has a new smell.
So what is this new smell? Something we’ve never smelled before? Did Infiniti figure out how to synthesize the scent of a bionic cheetah or something? Not quite. According to Infiniti, “The scent evokes a forest, with hints of hinoki wood (Japanese cypress), sugi (Japanese cedar), and yuzu (Japanese citrus).” It all sounds like men’s aftershave, but that’s not even the strangest part.
Over the past decade, we’ve seen automakers experiment with very expensive sanctioned versions of those tree-shaped air fresheners often found in the junkyard. Mercedes has a fragrance dispenser in the S-Class, BMW has one in the 7 Series, and even Genesis is in on the trend. Infiniti? Not a chance. This new smell isn’t even for cars, which makes you wonder why Infiniti bothered.
Apparently, this scent will be used at brand events and in showrooms, which is shocking, because I bet anyone who doesn’t work for Infiniti could name a single Infiniti event. Apparently, the brand does things, although even Infiniti seems to have forgotten that. The brand’s events page on its press site hasn’t been updated since 2019, when we nonchalantly blasted particles into each others’ faces, blissfully unaware of any potential danger.
Mind you, the new scent isn’t the only thing Infiniti’s touting — it now has a slimmer print logo, a more 3D logo for future vehicles, and has composed soothing tunes for commercials and for dealers to use as hold music. It even plans on redesigning showrooms to look more Japanese. That’s all well and good, but I have a strong feeling that most people don’t buy cars due to showroom architecture.
From this position, Infiniti seems at risk of evaporating into the ether if serious model investment isn’t made. Sure, the new QX60 is a solid choice, but nothing else the brand makes is hugely competitive. The Q50 is ancient, the QX50 is a bit pedestrian, the QX80 is old, and the QX55 is unfortunate. That doesn’t mean that some of these cars aren’t good, but they just don’t have the edge to go toe-to-toe with segment leaders.
It’s a shame because the brand was on an absolute flier in the 2000s, kicking the E46 3-Series in the nads, rubbing elbows with the Porsche Cayenne, and producing some sensational machines. The original Infiniti G35 was so good that I bought one, and I’ve always wonder how many of Garfield’s family members were slaughtered to create the FX45’s astonishingly orange optional interior. Time will tell if the next generation of cars will live up to the golden years, but at least we’ll have a scent to remember the brand by.
(Photo credits: Infiniti)
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Strangely enough, one of my lasting memories of the QX80 we had as a rental earlier this year is that the interior smelled really nice!
I’m announcing my new smell as well. It’s called Old Man With Coffee Breath.
I always thought the smell of old German cars was nice. Turns out that’s the smell of horse hair.
Infiniti: “The finest luxury vehicle interior crafted by Pullman Finger.”
You’re onto something – the best car smell is the one that most effectively neutralizes years of farts.
Blah blah blah a bit of secret intro fine but paragraphs that die and arent funny no.
oh no it’s the forest in Japan where people commit suicide.
designs nearing death
fresh out of ideas except
scents of a forest
Nicely done.
Glad Infiniti is focused on the core stuff.
I guess the executives need something to do. Doesn’t seem like they’ve been working on the cars very much.
How much money do you think Infiniti spent on deciding their event booths should smell like cleaning chemicals?
Out here in the PNW all Infiniti’s just smell like meth as they are the official cars of every Jesse Pinkman wannabe.
Here in the DC area they smell like weed, but yeah….pretty much
In the Toronto area it’s strawberry vape, Axe and hacked up/disconnected emissions controls, with a slight hint of tire rub.
“I have a strong feeling that most people don’t buy cars due to showroom architecture.”
This is quite obviously true, but these updates—structural and otherwise—would make a ton of sense if they came in the context of as few as three new—really new—models. If Infiniti introduced something like A. Some form of halo EV*, B. A new flagship**, and C. A new, highly competitive but totally boring luxury crossover***, then that would be enough to create some buzz and awareness, and then those very sleek dealerships would I believe pull in some shoppers who wouldn’t mind checking out something new in a gorgeous space.
That said, updating dealerships takes years, so it’s possible Infiniti is playing a bit of a long game, and is hoping to have things in place for, say, 2026 (I’d say 2025, but that’s just 18 months away; unless the dealership designs are already in the pipeline, they just won’t have many ready to go by then).
NB I say this in part as an architect who actually did a full-on dealership overhaul for Ford about 10 years ago.
*not necessarily something extreme like the Lryiq or Celestiq, but also not just an Ariya with leather seats or whatever. I know it’s unclear whether Nissan could possibly achieve this
**does it have to be a QX80 or Q50? Not inherently, but probably. Toyota definitely stole a march on them with in the luxury giant SUV space
***I guess this is the QX60, I dunno. But that car alone won’t create buzz, no matter how good it is, because it’s a completely flooded segment. You could test drive 4 or 5 absolutely excellent comparable vehicles before you even see the QX sitting in its new dealership building
Actually, the new scent is solely for the purpose of masking the unmistakeable odor of a dying automotive franchise.
I want the smell of new car, but actual new product lol its a shame what happened to Infiniti so far… are they the ones with worst sales from the “luxury” market? even Polestar sold more vehicles with just one model
Infiniti has always reminded me a little bit of a Japanese version of Lincoln. Over the years, they’ve both had a few compelling products, but their parent companies seem to have no clue what to do with the brands.
Since they’ve been just letting their old products die on the vine for so long, I suspect that Nissan is eventually just going to turn Infiniti into a whole line of boring-ass “luxury” electric crossovers. Why bother updating your existing products when they’ll all just get replaced anyhow. This is assuming of course that they survive as a brand for long enough for that to happen.
Infiniti should face the music and do a pivot and focus on mobilty scents and fragrances. My prediction is that they will discontinue their hardware development and focus on their new concept called ScentWare. ScentWare is a unique flagrance platform, with OTA updates, which they will offer to other manufactures, fully customizable to create an unique brand experience.
Their first release: Old Car Smell.
I don’t see how this is newsworthy. My cars develop new smells all the time.
So, Infiniti is basically going with the pre-Great Recession Hollister business model of just soaking their stores in cologne? Will they also turn out all the lights and play pop punk at ear splitting volume?
We all know that Peak Car Smell happened in the 90s with German cars that smelled like crayons.
The QX60 honestly looks like it could wear a Chevy badge.
Is it just me, or did everyone else have to click on the links to see what all the various Q and QX models mentioned in the article actually look like?
If you were to mention QX50, QX55 or QX whatever to me (admittedly unlikely), I would have zero mental pictures of what any of those models are or what any of them look like.
I didn’t bother to click the links, but I’m with you in spirit. I assume all of the ones with X in them are crossovers, but given the insanity of alphanumeric naming these days I wouldn’t even put money on that.
The new 3D badge is cool. But, yeah, Infiniti needs new product yesterday.
It does look cool, but allow me to direct you to the morning dump and the part about car repairs becoming about 20% more expensive. Designs like this only add more money in repairs later.
So.. fresh cedar chips in the cage even though the hamster is dead.
COTD
You won the internet for the day
Brilliant.
We got hosed Tommy, we got hosed.
I feel like this is right on brand for Infiniti. Don’t forget, the Q45s initial launch marketing didn’t feature the car in any way. Selling people something other than the car, in order to sell them the car, is just going back to their original roots.
I should add: It didn’t work the first time either…
I’m sorry but that dealership design looks very 80’s to me…..but maybe that’s what they’re going for – a look from before they existed? I understand this is not a mandated dealership look, just one they hope the dealers will implement, but only about 10% of their 204 dealers has expressed any interest in doing this until they update the entire lineup and give them something they can actually sell.
I agree with the others who say “it’s the products, stupid!”
This sounds like an idea the boss’ nephew came up with during his summer internship.
After they refiled through his grade school math workbook doodles for their latest styling direction.
How about new products? There isn’t a single thing in their lineup that’s a competitive buy new. Once someone else takes the unbelievable depreciation hit some of the Red Sport stuff becomes appealing as a secondhand buy in the 30s, but new? You’d be absolutely insane to do anything but lease an Infiniti at a fat discount.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the brand is dead in the next 2-3 years and this seems very much like lipstick on a pig. I think Genesis is sliding into the role of “other” luxury brand that Infiniti occupied in the mid 2000s/early 2010s. It’s a bit of a shame actually, there was a brief period when Infiniti had some groundbreaking products but today? They’re destined for hard lives and an expedited journey to hooptification.
I figured it would be more important to let us know they actually still make cars. Haven’t heard a thing about Infinity in years.
But how about Infiniti?
They’re long Ghosn.