Infiniti’s 420-hp sedan is the opposite of efficient
The Infiniti M37 sedan starts at $ 48,700, but our 2013 M56 sedan starts at a base price of $ 63,700. What do you get for the extra $ 12,500? About 1.9 extra liters of displacement that’s about a Honda Civic’s worth of engine size and power. That’s an impressive little source of bragging rights there, but does it really make this flagship sedan better than its more modest sibling?
420 horsepower V-8 The 5.6-liter V-8 engine that spins its crank under the M56’s hood outputs 420 peak horsepower and 417 pound-feet of torque. The engine is mated to a seven-speed automatic transmission, the only gearbox available on the M56, which sends power to the rear axle. Users have the option of upgrading to an all-wheel-drive system, but our vehicle was not so equipped. The transmission features a manual shift mode that is activated by moving the shifter to the left and rocking the lever back for rev-matched downshifts and up for upshifts.
On the center console, drivers will find the Drive Mode Selector knob, with which you can select one of four different driving modes. Sport puts the gearbox into its most aggressive mode, holding each gear longer for peak power and blip-downshifting when braking in preparation for a corner. Eco slightly detunes the output and throttle map and short-shifts each gear for smooth, economical driving. The Eco mode also activates an optional feature called the Eco Pedal, which we’ll return to momentarily. Normal is, of course, the baseline perf… [Read more]
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