BMW and Audi Slap Down Infiniti G37 Convertible

I was a fan in principle of the Infiniti G convertible roughly five years before there was one, so I’m a bit disappointed to see it get creamed in Car and Driver’s review of luxury drop-tops.  Disaffection with heft and flex contributed to a third-place finish behind the BMW 328i and Audi A5:

The Nissan 370Z roadster—same basic bones—came across as reasonably solid in another Short Take. But in our Arizona touring, the G37’s logbook was peppered with reports of chassis tremors and shakes.

Ponderous curb weight is a related issue. The body-shell engineers obviously had to compensate for the loss of the roof structure, and the mechanism associated with the three-piece folding hardtop is heavy. But even so, 4162 pounds—heaviest in this group—is bewildering. The G37 coupe in our 2008 Lightning Lap track stampede weighed 3723 pounds. More to the point, the 370Z roadster scaled in at 3495. The 370Z had a softtop, and the G37 is a more luxurious ride, with more goodies, but that’s still a vast disparity.

A shame, really. I still think the G has the best exterior in the bunch, though I'll grant you the styling on BMW’s E93 3 Series is a big improvement over that of the earlier E46 of which I was not a big fan.