CarBrandLogos archive · Infiniti · 1990
Began as a rebadged Primera, ended as the sports sedan that carried the brand.
Discover the storyPhoto: Alexander-93 · CC BY-SA 4.0
The story
Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Infiniti G Line, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.
01
The first car to wear the G badge, the 1990 G20, was a Nissan Primera with leather seats and a higher price. It was well built and pleasant to drive, but it was a front-wheel-drive compact with a modest four-cylinder engine being sold as a luxury car, and American buyers were not persuaded. It disappeared in 1996, returned in 1998, and remained a marginal product.
1st-Infiniti-G20 · IFCAR · Public domain
02
Everything changed with the G35 in 2002. Nissan's front-midship platform, shared with the 350Z and developed under Carlos Ghosn's revival programme, gave it rear-wheel drive, near-equal weight distribution and the VQ35 V6, and the resulting sedan drove well enough to be compared favourably with the BMW 3 Series at a lower price. It became Infiniti's best-selling car and the model that gave the brand a coherent identity for the first time.
1994G20 · MackOSU at English Wikipedia · Public domain
03
The coupé versions were sold in Japan as the Nissan Skyline, which is where the platform came from, and all-wheel drive was added for northern markets. Renaming took effect in 2013, splitting the line into the Q50 sedan and Q60 coupé, though the underlying car continued largely unchanged.
1st-Infiniti-G35-Sedan · IFCAR · Public domain
At a glance
Produced
1990–1996Technical specification
Badge at launch
This is the marque emblem that accompanied the G Line's era. The full identity timeline is documented in the brand archive.
Explore the logo history →From the journal
Contemporaries from the 1990s
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