The Infiniti Q50 is neither new nor our favorite compact luxury sedan. It offers plenty of interior space and offers a powerful Red Sport model, but some of our gripes included the fact that it doesn’t handle as well as some of its rivals and lacked safety tech. For 2021, the Q50 continues to exist, and Infiniti is at least remedying the four-door’s safety feature shortcomings by adding a suit of new driver aids as standard equipment across the range.
Every 2021 Infiniti Q50 will come with blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, a 360-degree parking camera system, intelligent cruise control that locks onto and follows the car ahead, rear collision warning, and automatic high beams. None of those features will make the Q50 a better handling car, but having all that safety tech as standard might sway buyers whose priorities center around, well, safety.
But that’s not all. The 2021 Q50 also gains a new trim level Infiniti is calling “Sensory.” It joins the Pure, Luxe, and Red Sport models that carry over from last year. The new trim gets sporty front and rear fascias that mimic those on the Red Sport model, a 16-speaker Bose audio system, leather sports seats, black open pore wood trim, and a black headliner. Sensory, Luxe, and Pure Q50s are powered by 300-hp turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6.
Red Sport cars, with the 400-hp turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6, carry over mostly unchanged except for the addition of power folding and automatic dimming mirrors that tilt down when you go into reverse. All 2021 Q50s will come with the option of either rear- or all-wheel-drive. Pricing for the base Q50 Pure starts at $37,625, a $200 price increase from 2020. Luxe models now start at $42,725; a $2,850 jump; the new Sensory models are priced from $48,625; and Red Sport models see a $1,500 price hike, bringing the total to $56,775. If you want all-wheel drive, you can just tack $2,000 on to any of those prices.
