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Infiniti M35h - the Fun Hybrid

The Infiniti M35h Hybrid offers luxury, size and power with rather outstanding mileage, 27mpg city and 32mpg highway. Very impressive from a powertrain rated at 360hp and 457ft.lbs of torque in a 4129lb car. Wrap your head around that for a minute. A gas-only sedan of similar size and power would have a hard time getting 25mpg highway. A note about the horsepower and torque figures: The combined horsepower (302 gas, 67 electric) adds up to 369 but only has a net rating of 360. A fair estimate on the total torque may be around 460ft.lbs.

The dash layout, with nice curving shapes was rather confusing and busy. Even after spending a lot of time in a G37 Coupe, the related controls in the M35h are not as intuitive. After that, it’s like driving any other large, luxurious sedan. The corporate V-6, closely related to the previous generation 3.5 liter vs. the current 3.7s in the Nissan/Infiniti line-up seems smooth and quiet. With all the refinement and automatic transmission, the notorious NHV (noise, vibration, harshness) is completely hidden.

The powertrain is quite innovative. It has a dry clutch between the engine and the 67lb electric motor and a wet clutch between the electric motor and 7-speed automatic transmission. This means the torque converter is eliminated. There is no slop felt when driving this car. There are many more features to cover but these were the immediate impressions and highlights. What was really fun was punching the throttle while rolling and getting rubber, rather surprising tire spin in such a heavy and refined car. You can actually have fun in this "green machine." Now how many hybrid cars can you say that about in this current day and age?

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