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Saturday, August 2, 2003
What do we mean when we say "market?" 
Road noise
| | Shoot, it's already August. Summer's almost over. (Or if you're Down Under, Winter.) Wherever you are, get out and have fun before it's too late. It's the damn weekend, after all. |
| | Here it's a travel day. We're driving up to Linux World Expo in San Francisco in my wife's new old car. It's a well-maintained '95 Infiniti Q45 with 77k miles, to replace her well-maintained '92 Q45a with 210k miles. |
| | Her old one died of its suffix. The "a" stood for Active Suspension, which Steve Parker explains here, in a review where he pans the 1997 model, the first Q45 where the "a" isn't an option. |
| | The Active Suspension was a brilliant innovation. Developed for Formula One racecars, it suspends the car on four electronically controlled "actuators" instead of the usual springs and shock absorbers. When you turn hard, the body doesn't lean; and when you hit the brakes, the nose doesn'ts dive. Bumps leave no memory in the springs, because the system soaks bumps up and forgets they happened. |
| | It was a magnificent design, a true innovatoin, and a big selling point that failed to sell because it also added $5000 to the sticker price of the car, and most drivers failed to notice the difference in ordinary conditions. (One review of a basic Q in 1990 noted that the car could "outmaneuver a Miata." So it wasn't like handling was a problem without the fancy suspension. |
| | When we bought the '92 new, we managed to get an "a" for the price of the base model. This seemed like a bargain at the time, even though we knew the fluid-driven active suspension system sapped a bit of engine energy (as does, say, air conditioning) and lowered gas mileage a bit. (The mother would get to 60mph in 6.7 seconds and had a governor that held top speed to "just" 150mph.) |
| | Then we discovered, when the actuators wore out at 110k miles, that they each cost more than $1200. Just for parts. Finally, at 210k miles, something went wrong with the fluid drive for the suspension system, which is deeply involved with the engine, at about the same time as the actuators surely needed replacing again. Things went so wrong, in fact, that the Active Suspension system killed the engine completely: it siezed up. So we sold the car to a guy who loves old Infinitis for about the price of one actuator. A shame because we loved that car. |
| | The 1990-1993 Q45 was an amazing machine, designed originally by Nissan's new Infiniti division as a "Japanese BMW." And indeed it was. But it was also cursed by the worst marketing ever devoted to a $billion new car division launch. TV ads featured video of water running over rocks or something — and nothing about the car. As a result, Toyota's new luxury division, Lexus, kicked Infiniti's ass. |
| | So, starting in '94, Infiniti started to "Lex up" the Q45. They softened the suspension and gave it slower steering, to emulate Lexus' driving-your-living-room feel. They also "de-contented" some of its parts, to save money. "De-contenting" was an automotive industry trend back in those days. We can see it in a few little things, such as the loss of AM stereo in the Infiniti's car radio, which really sucks. The older Infinitis had one of the best-sounding AM stereo systems on the road (and yes, some AM stations still broadcast in stereo). The newer stereo also looks like an aftermarket add-in, probably because it's the same one that went in the cheaper '95 Nissan Maxima. |
| | Still, the car was a bargain, since Infinitis hold their resale value about as well as a used lollypop. My wife picked this one up pretty cheap, considering. Lex'd up or not, it's still a very fine car. |
Viva La Fiesta!
| | Every Summer Santa Barbara takes off a few days for Fiesta, or Old Spanish Days. It goes most of the week, with lots of festivities, including public performances, parties, parades and fairs in parks with lots of food, drink and music. Here's this year's photo gallery. |
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