Curbside Outtake: 2003 Infiniti M45 – Easy To Mistake For An American Four Door Hardtop

The Infiniti M45 was a curious thing, looking so much like an American four door hardtop, which of course hadn’t existed since the 1978 Chrysler New Yorker we looked at the other day. One might think that Americans would be eager to snap something like this, a big, beefy V8 sedan, but that was not the case. At all.

 

The problem was (at least in part) that it looked a decade or more old when it arrived, especially compared to the Chrysler 300. Now that was very reflective of the times.

The M45 was heavily based on the Nissan Gloria, but had the Q45’s big 340 hp V8 under the hood, and its rear suspension was also upgraded. I wondered if Nissan had made it more deliberately retro, whether it might have done a wee bit better.